Once again I appear to be without 3 things that are actually . . . cohesive. I do have three things on my mind, however, and I’m ready to share them with you.
- The first is that I have started using an app called Moment. It tracks the time I spend on my phone and which apps I use the most. Now, plenty of things I do on my phone are useful and valuable. I check my calendar, I listen to podcasts, I use a habit app to track things I want to do daily. I use my phone to meditate and track my expenses and my time at work. I use the camera and 1SE and Spotify and Sonos and more. I also use it for Instagram and Facebook. A lot. And, while I don’t use my phone as much as the average person (at least according to studies I’ve read), I am using it for about 2 hours every day (sometimes more) and that amounts to 15% of my waking hours.
- In light of that, I have taken a tiny step back from Facebook. I’m still sharing my Instagram posts and blog posts and the stuff I’ve read on Good Reads but I’m trying to limit the time I spend looking at the news feed. I honestly believe Facebook is a great tool – it helped me immensely with my campaign last spring – and it can be lots of fun. But sometimes, oh sometimes it’s just . . . annoying and overwhelming. People complaining. People pontificating. People being unkind. Despite that, I still find myself scrolling mindlessly through the news feed. I think I read something somewhere about how it’s designed to make us do that and it can be really hard to put it down. So, I’ve taken a couple of proactive steps to reduce the time I waste on Facebook. I’ve moved the app from the main screen on my iPhone to the second screen. (out of sight, out of mind) and I’ve also eliminated it from the tabs I have open in Google. These are baby steps but they are making a difference, I think.
- I’m hoping that the time I have freed up will result in more knitting projects! Next week I’ll be sharing my (finally!) finished True Colors! I also knit a hat (as a palate cleanser) and now I’m moving on to Thea Colman’s Appleseed Mitts.
If you wrote a post for today I hope you’ll include a link! Thanks for joining in on Three Things Thursday.
Good for you, Carole! I agree — Facebook can be a Really Useful Tool. But. It’s also a major, major time suck. I broke my Facebook “addiction” last November, and I have never (not even for one second) regretted it. While my phone is something I can’t even imagine doing without, I’m working hard to try to cut down on mindless scrolling (which is so . . . tempting). XO
I am on Twitter & IG. One thing that helps me is periodically reviewing who I follow. It makes me think about where negativity or things I don’t truly care about come from. I’ve noticed I spend less time there due to less content.
Those sound like good changes, Carole! I use my phone for lots of things … but not news (and no FB – thankfully that’s a habit I never started).
Baby steps are good – I think it is also about being aware and mindful
About a year ago, I found I was more irritated by fb than getting anything positive out of it, so I deleted it from my phone and haven’t missed it at all. I still can’t bring myself to delete my account, and look at it about once/week on my laptop and I still use messenger to communicate with my kids, but I don’t miss the politics and other crap one bit. Recently, I’ve put a rubber band around my phone so I don’t just scroll mindlessly through pretty pictures on ig, but I’m getting better. It sounds like you’re using your phone in ways that work for you and not being used by your phone.
I have all but killed my FB addiction, but I was shocked to see my “screen time” numbers in the new iOS. Instagram captures a chunk of time, followed closely by Twitter. Those “couple of minutes” here and there add up quickly to a big time suck!
Good for you! I find FB to be pretty boring – or annoying – these days, so I don’t go there much at all. Folks always whining or, as you say, pontificating. Don’t need that. And, I don’t look at it on my phone. I also don’t look at instagram on my phone. Finally, no Twitter for moi. Guess I’m not doing too badly – lol.
Good for you! I wish I had the strength to stay away from FB. I get angry or shocked with people’s posts, swear I’m going to block people …. and then find myself checking those people’s posts 10 extra times in a day just to see what their current drama situation is. It’s like a live soap opera. Or a bad car wreck. I don’t want to see the gore, but I just can’t look away.
Good for you! I wholeheartedly agree with everything you said about FB; it can be great, but it can also be a HUGE timesuck! I don’t have good self control, and as a single person with nobody watching except the dog, I used to spend an inordinate amount of time just mindlessly scrolling thru the news feed. After a little bit of unwanted drama in my family that played itself out ONLINE (Ugh! I am a “no-drama mama”) I just deleted my account this past summer. And while it seemed a little scary at first, it was actually one of the most enjoyable, stress-free summers I’ve had in a very long time.
I usually only check FB in the morning and then at night. I never post on it unless it’s to comment on a closed group I’m in. I only joined to see pictures that a relative who lives out of State posted after she lost her house in a flood. Now, I am trying to leave groups that I joined or unfollow them so that if I want to check something I can. Annoying political posting has me unfollowing people. In the past month, they’ve started a closed work group which I joined but I can just scroll through them so far so we’ll see how that one goes.
Instagram is my time waster but I do like it so I guess I will just try to only check it a few times a day.
All this sounds like positive changes, Carole. I have avoided getting sucked into a lot of social media, but I still manage to waste time!
There must have been something in the last Apple update as I got a report on my screen time and it was less than 2 hours a week. I was so pleased! I check FB on my laptop only, because it isn’t as easy to mindlessly scroll. I don’t find FB very useful (I’m not running for office) and I’m tired of it for all the reasons you mention. I don’t like being on-line as much as I did and I don’t have to be because I’m not forced to sit in front of a computer for hours a day. You use a phone as it’s intended, for a purpose, for useful and helpful information and apps. That’s very positive!
lol (palate cleanser). With promo on STARZ I caught up on Season 3 Outlander…2hrs 53 mins avg a day for that week.