Heavy phone users often find themselves missing out on the joys of life — having long conversations, watching movies (without distraction), reading a book or even spending quality time with the better half. They know social media will eventually make them angry, highly opinionated, anxious and stressed out. Yet, like slot machines, we keep dropping in pennies in the form of wasted time.
B.J. Fogg, behaviour scientist at Stanford University, tweeted a few months before the pandemic took over: “A movement to be ‘post-digital’ will emerge in 2020. We will start to realise that being chained to your mobile phone is a low-status behaviour, similar to smoking.” And he rolled out a tool to reduce screen time.
But ask yourself a question: “What’s the problem?” We are. We don’t take enough responsibility to stave off social media addiction. Let’s dare to keep the phone on silent whenever possible, so that we have fewer reasons to pick up the phone. Don’t take out the laptop until work calls. And stay away from social media as much as you can.
Stay away from SM? Here’s how you can do it.
People keep losing faith in Facebook for various reasons — data breaches, unwanted chatter, family members snooping in, exes keep stalking and colleagues at office become privy to a personal space.
Before you break up with the social media app, consider what’s at stake. Deactivating Facebook meaning breaking access to certain apps and websites on which you may have used the FB account to sign up. This can be a problem if you have Pinterest or Spotify attached to the account. Before deactivating, change the log in settings on the various apps that could be using FB as log in.
If you are still sure about deleting Facebook, download all the personal information — photos, messages, friend list and so on — from the site. It’s easy to do this; simply go through the settings menu. For those who are very active on the platform, the download size of the file could be large.
There are two ways to get Facebook out of your life — permanently delete your account or take a break. When you temporarily deactivate the account, people won’t be able to see or go to your Facebook profile but your photos, posts and videos won’t be deleted. At the same time, you can still use Facebook Messenger and you will continue to appear to friends on Facebook in places where they can message you. More importantly, you can still use Facebook login for your other apps, such as Spotify, Pinterest or Games.
For those who want FB out of their lives completely, remember, pages that only you control will also be deleted. If you don’t want your page to be deleted, you can give someone else full control of your page. You’ll then be able to delete your account without deleting the page.
So you have deleted Facebook, right? But you are still in the Facebook world if you are using Instagram. Even a couple of years ago, many youngsters were moving from Facebook to Instagram because it’s pictures they were aiming at sharing, besides it allowed a disconnect from older family members, who are more clued into Facebook. Not anymore. Now, Instagram is using video a lot more, especially in terms of Reels, to keep users hooked. The content can be mind-numbing as one Reel gives way to another with a catchy background music. Instagram is becoming a bit like TikTok. Do you want that?
Deleting your Instagram account is easier because most use Facebook log in for other apps. Not Instagram. So, you really don’t have to worry about app access if you delete the account. Before hitting the kill button, download a copy of your data. Instagram will email a link to download the file and the process doesn’t take a lot of time.
When going all the way, that is, deleting the account, you can sign up again with the same username or add that username to another account as long as it hasn’t been taken by a new person on Instagram. Keep in mind that if your account is removed for violating community guidelines, you may not be able to sign up again with the same username.
Then there are posts that you have recently deleted — for whatever reason — and now want them back. Instagram has now made it easier to recover deleted posts. The “recently deleted” feature in the app allows you to review content you’ve deleted, including photos, videos, reels, IGTV videos, and stories, and restore them. This can be found under Settings > Account > Recently Deleted.
Twitter is not a happy zone to be in if you can’t handle trolls. For years, many users have complained about getting abused on Twitter for voicing opinions; the mentality seems to be like ‘If you are not me, you are against me.’ Making matters worse are derogatory comments from accounts that don’t reveal user identity and have, in many cases, no followers.
In case you are looking for a way out of Twitter because of trolls, first ask yourself if it involves a fixed set of users who are abusing you. If that be the case, then you can use the “block” button so you don’t see abusive tweets. Second, when you tweet, you can restrict the list of people who can reply. This is a very helpful feature and is used by many authors and political analysts. There is also an option to report abusive tweets to Twitter and action is swift. People — however important — who keep putting out fake news or abusive tweets are usually taken to task by Twitter. Look at what happened to former US President Donald Trump. For years he kept abusing his freedom of speech on the platform until he was cut off, first temporarily and then permanently, to prevent him from posting statements that might provoke more violence after a mob stormed the US Capitol on January 6.
Not satisfied and want to do away with doomscrolling altogether? There are two options — deactivating and then deleting your account permanently. Deactivation lasts 30 days. If you do not access your account within the 30-day deactivation period, your account is deleted and your username will no longer be associated with your account. Deactivating your Twitter account means your username (or “handle”) and public profile will not be viewable on twitter.com, Twitter for iOS or Android.
The hardest part about digital detox is doing away with WhatsApp. Housing complex groups, school groups, reunion groups, gossip groups and office groups… in India, people are fixated with WhatsApp because it is an easy way to communicate; not necessarily the most effective way. At the same time, it is so easy to spread fake news through WhatsApp groups.
You have to choose whether you need WhatsApp. Once children are in a certain class, it’s no point being a part of school parents groups because helicopter parenting doesn’t work. Personally, I know quite a few people who have ditched WhatsApp and their office colleagues reach out via call or other messaging platforms whenever required.
If you are worried about privacy, head for Signal and Telegram that have most of the features you like on WhatsApp and, more importantly, they appear less unsettling. Once you get over the fact that WhatsApp has become a way of life in India, tap on the three vertical dots and then Settings > Account > Delete my account.
Remember: You can’t regain access to your account. It may take up to 90 days from the beginning of the deletion process to delete your WhatsApp information. Copies of your information may also remain after the 90 days in the backup storage that the company uses to recover in the event of a disaster, software error, or other data loss event. Your information isn’t available to you on WhatsApp during this time. Copies of some materials such as log records may remain in the WhatsApp database but are disassociated from personal identifiers.
If you can be daring enough to delete WhatsApp, we think you can tackle anything that comes at you! Yes, it’s a big move.
