HOW TO KILLYOURSOCIALS
A blueprint for reclaiming your attention and your intention.
Social media isn’t just a habit—it’s an engineered addiction. As of 2024, the average user worldwide spends 143 minutes per day on social media*—enough to shape your mindset, mood, and mental clarity. It's time to take back your time, your creativity, and your community from algorithmic manipulation. This guide isn’t about total disconnection. It’s about intentional use, digital autonomy, and rebuilding real-life presence.
*Based on data from Statista, 2024
Step 1: Acknowledge the Grip
👁️🗨️ Take inventory of your screen time (Settings → Screen Time or Digital Wellbeing)
👁️🗨️ Note your most-used apps and when you turn to them (boredom? loneliness? distraction?)
👁️🗨️ Identify what you gain vs. what you lose (energy, focus, mental clarity, sleep?)
Step 2: Start Small
Limit social media to intentional use for 30 days. Choose your level:
Digital Diet: Keep your accounts but uninstall the apps. Only access from desktop 1x/day if necessary.
Ghost Mode: Use a scheduling tool for posts, disable all notifications, and stop engaging with feeds.
Cold Turkey: Delete the apps and go offline completely. Let people know how to reach you directly.
👁️🗨️ Set a time limit (ex: 10 minutes/day per app)
👁️🗨️ Use tools like Freedom or One Sec to block access
👁️🗨️ Tell a friend to stay accountable
👁️🗨️ You're doing it right if you aren't posting about the steps you're taking
Step 3: Redesign Your Digital Life
The goal isn’t zero tech. It’s tech on your terms.
👁️🗨️ Consider making the switch to decentralized forms of social media, like Bluesky
👁️🗨️ Curate your feeds—unfollow anyone who doesn’t inspire or inform
👁️🗨️ Set digital "open hours" when you allow yourself to check in
👁️🗨️ Build a Close Friends list for sharing moments with just your closest people
👁️🗨️ Use your platform to share meaningfully, not compulsively
Step 4: Replace the Scroll
Research from Yale Medicine shows that teens who use social media for over 3 hours/day have double the risk of experiencing negative mental health outcomes, including anxiety and depression. Find a healthier form of dopamine. Swap endless feeds for meaningful microlearning. Try:
👁️🗨️ Reading one longform article per day from a platform such as Longreads, Autostraddle, or Blavity
👁️🗨️ Listening to a podcast or audiobook while walking—limit it to 30 mins
👁️🗨️ Practicing 15 min of a new skill: language, design, music theory, or journaling are great places to start
👁️🗨️ Using mindfulness apps like Voda, Let's Meditate, or Exhale instead of your timeline
YOUR ATTENTION IS A PROTEST
Social platforms are built around variable reward systems—the same mechanism as slot machines—designed to hijack your attention and keep you scrolling. Every minute you reclaim is a stand against the systems that monetize distraction and distort connection. You don’t have to disappear. You just have to disengage with intention.
Start today. Share your journey. Or better yet—don’t.