1. Facebook scrolling is a symptom of procrastination
Facebook
capitalizes on your tendency to procrastinate by incorporating a news feed with
an infinite scroll. No matter how far down you go, there will always be more
memes and status updates to keep you distracted from whatever you should be
doing. Thus, it might be helpful to change your perception of Facebook. Instead
of looking at it like a place to be social or kill time, frame Facebook as the
enemy of your productivity and purpose. Doesn’t sound as tempting now, huh
2. Facebook over-sharing is a symptom of
loneliness or indecision.
Facebook
resembles a boring reality TV show that is on full display during every hour of
the day. Do you really need to tell everybody what you ate for lunch? I doubt
it. You don’t share such trivial details to add value to people’s lives. You’re
doing it, because you’re lonely and desperate for approval. Seeking opinions
from your friends could be a sign of indecision or low self-confidence. If you
get a bad suggestion, then you can conveniently blame somebody else, thus protecting
your ego.
3. Facebook creeping is a symptom of misplaced
affection or unhealthy self-comparisons.
Facebook
makes it easy to be a creeper. There are two primary causes of creeping and
neither of them are pretty. If you’re creeping the profile of your ex, then
you’re probably living in the past. Seek professional help if you are
struggling to let go. If you’re browsing the profile of a crush, then you’d be
better off actively pursuing them. Send them a thoughtful message to get a
conversation started. If that goes well, ask them out on a date. Creeping could
also be a form of self-inflicted misery. It’s already hard to resist the human
urge to compare ourselves to other people. Facebook makes this convenient to
do.
4. Obsessive checking of Facebook notifications
is a symptom of impatience or people-pleasing.
Facebook
takes advantage of your desire for instant gratification. Your brain receives a dopamine hit
every time you see that red notification light up. Dopamine is a
chemical in your brain that causes you to seek pleasure from things like food,
sex, and drugs. Pleasure sounds nice in theory, but dopamine is responsible for
self-destructive behavior. Thus, becoming a slave to your notifications can
destroy your self-control in a hurry. If that wasn’t bad enough, the human
desire to be liked and accepted is at play, too. Every time you get a “Like”,
your brain decides that means somebody likes you. Keep this up and you’ll turn
into an addict desperate for another “hit.”
5. Obsessive refreshing of your Facebook feed
is a symptom of a fear of missing out (a.k.a. FOMO).
Facebook
wrecks your focus by preying on your fear of missing out. You check your feed
during a date, because you don’t want to miss any interesting updates. You
check your messages while you drive, because a friend might have something
exciting to share. Never mind that you might turn off your date or wreck your car
and die. The possibilities are endless, so it’s totally worth it. That was
sarcasm if you didn’t notice. I’m being dramatic to demonstrate how reckless
these behaviors are.
If
you’re ready to break your addiction to Facebook, follow these five steps.
1. Admit you have an addiction.
You
can’t fix a problem if you deny it exists. Don’t beat yourself up, but do try
and be honest enough to admit you’re a Facebook addict. If it makes you feel
any better, I’m a recovering addict myself. There is no reason to be ashamed.
Telling a trusted friend might help you stay accountable, especially if they
share your goal.
2. Be mindful of the triggers that provoke the
habit.
Every
psychological trigger I discussed here won’t necessarily be relevant to you.
That’s okay. Focus on the ones that are. If you’re not sure, here’s a
reflection exercise that might be helpful. It will reveal why you’re having
such a hard time breaking the habit. Record the following details in a diary or
journal until you identify some common trends:
·
What did I do? (scrolling, over-sharing, creeping, notification
checking, or feed refreshing)
·
When did I do it? (down-time at work, as soon as you woke up,
right before bed, on a date, etc.)
·
What happened right before? (if a stressful or upsetting event
occurred, that could be significant)
·
How did this make me feel? (use a descriptive adjective to
describe your mood before and after the incident)
3. Consciously acknowledge the habit for what
it is.
This
step will break Facebook’s hold on you as long as you can be consistent. Every
time you feel the urge to update your status or check your feed, recognize that
impulse for what it is (a habitual behavior — NOT a conscious decision). This
is especially powerful when you complete step #2, because you’ll be able to
make a mental note of the specific psychological trigger at play.
4. Practice self-compassion during the
process, no matter how frustrated you might get.
Facebook
is an epic time-suck, but that doesn’t mean you should criticize yourself every
time you log-on to your feed. Psychologists consider procrastination a misplaced coping
mechanism. Beating
yourself up will make you feel bad about yourself, which will ironically cause
you to be even more tempted. Self-loathing can only lead to failure. You might
end up deciding it’s hopeless, because you are “too lazy.” If you want to
break your addiction for good, then you need to be self-compassionate.
5. Replace the habit with a positive
alternative that you can track or measure in some way.
It’s a
lot easier to eliminate a bad habit when you decide on a good habit that you
would like to replace it with. I applied this idea by choosing to pick up a
book every time I was tempted to check my feed. The result blew my mind. I read
over a hundred pages in the first day! Trust me when I say those “few minutes
of down-time” can add up to an obscene amount of waste. Having a specific
metric to track is important. If you want to stay encouraged, you need to have
compelling evidence that your time would be better spent elsewhere.
This is going to sound ridiculous given the
subject of the article, but…
Would
you please pass this along to your friends on Facebook? I don’t mean to
demonize the website entirely. It’s a great place to stay in touch with the
people we care about. Even so, it’s time to break our addictions so we can achieve
our purpose and enjoy the company of the people right in front of us.
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