Are you addicted to a device?
One sure sign is if you take it to the bathroom with you. If you can’t take a moment for bodily functions without your phone/device, then you’re a rabid stockbroker or addicted to your device.

Taking Control:
The first step to fighting social media addiction is to decide “you’re in control”. Your time is important, time can never be redeemed. Once a moment is spent, it’s gone forever. It can be remembered fondly, but it can never be repeated or changed.

Explain to family and friends, that you don’t always respond right away. You may be busy, or just don’t feel like texting or posting to social media at times. If they don’t want to understand that, it is on them. The excuse of, “How will you know it’s not an emergency” is not a valid excuse. A phone call is placed faster, if not as fast as a text, or social posting. Teach others, that the phone portion still works on the devices, and sometimes that is your preferred way of communicating.

Help Yourself break the habit:
I decided, that I would not be a slave to a device. “I” control my time. I started by leaving my phone in the other room for short periods. When I returned to the room after whatever I’d been doing, I would check it for a missed call or other communication. Many understood, some stopped texting me as much. Maybe their ego was Injured by the removal of instant gratification. Or maybe they simply understood. You’ll be amazed at how long you can go after a while, without checking for texts and social media updates. It’s like breaking any other habit. Baby Steps.

Turn off Auto notifications:
This gives you control. No more interruptions during dinner, theater, or conversations with others. Decide you are going to live without listening for a notification from social media and check it when “you” want. This is you controlling your time and life. At night, my phone is set to only allow notifications or phone calls from family. All of them know by now that it is set that way, and I don’t do midnight texting or calls unless it’s an emergency.

Stop watching me:
If you don’t know it yet. Social media is the biggest privacy leech invented. It knows what you discuss, read, search for, and produces ads based on these things. It also partners with other ad producers and social platforms to do the same. I have deleted my Twitter account. I mean, what does it actually do for me. Other than make me feel important once in a while when something gets retweeted.

I wish you luck, if breaking the habit is something you want, or need to do. It will give you less stress, more time, and improve your personal interaction with others. So, forget that phone for a moment, then make it two moments, then three. Suddenly, you’ll be looking for where you left it the last time, or you’ll place it on a table for easy access, just like our old landlines that didn’t rule our lives.

Do you have any ideas to help? Think you can do it, or do you want or need to do it. Maybe it’s too important to some. That is a decision we all have to make as individuals. Me? I feel in control, liberated.

Comments always welcome.