I took a week off of facebook two weeks ago. No interaction with facebook, at all, except one messenger session with a design contractor who is doing our UI overhaul. I haven't been so productive in years. And, it mostly broke my facebook addiction...I check it once a day now, often just on my phone while standing in line at the grocery or during some other downtime. I'm able to ignore it most of the time (notifications have been turned off for years, because I hate anything dinging at me and interrupting my thought process; I leave the ringer on my phone off for the same reason, I can check my voicemail in Google Voice a couple times a day to deal with important stuff).
I'm considering doing the same "fast and then reduced consumption" for my other social media habits: reddit, HN, twitter. When I traveled full-time, in the past, I would often find myself with little or no Internet connectivity for a week at a time, and that imposed periodic social media fasting, and it was sufficient to keep the addictions in check. After living in a fixed house, with very fast Internet, for a little over a year, the urge to check my phone/tablet first thing in the morning and last thing at night has become notable and annoying.
In short: He's right, and I notice my own inability to do things of substance has been significantly impaired by the time and attention I give to social media, and it's only reasonable to abstain in the interest of spending more time doing the things I truly value. It can be hard to make that choice, however...one more shot of dopamine (or whatever chemicals the constant affirmation of social media provides) seems harmless.
I hear ya. I started out 2016 by deactivating my Facebook account, culling my Twitter following to 12 and my Feedly subscriptions to 10. I also added Disqus to my hosts file to make news sites less enraging.
I've taken other measures in the past. Someone else in this thread mentioned unfollowing everyone on Facebook, that helped quite a bit. But there's a lot to be said for declaring social media bankruptcy and being freed from that involuntary compulsion to open up a new Chrome tab and waste time.
> Someone else in this thread mentioned unfollowing everyone on Facebook, that helped quite a bit. But there's a lot to be said for declaring social media bankruptcy and being freed from that involuntary compulsion to open up a new Chrome tab and waste time.
I did this recently (unfollowing (almost) everyone on my FB friend list), and it has resulted in me spending less than 10 minutes a week on the site. I didn't do it so I would use FB less, I did it because my feed was full of nothing but hatred and negativity, and to see that from friends and family is extremely depressing. If I didn't use FB to promote a couple of projects I'm running, I'd drop it altogether and rely on my wife to keep me updated on family and mutual friends who choose to only have contact with the outside world via the FB window.
I also unfollowed nearly everyone for similar reasons. The unintended side-effect is that it's much less interesting now and as a result I spend less time on Facebook. Success!
I've taken to logging out of facebook on all of my devices. When I really want to check something then I log in, check the thing, and then log out immediately. Oh and I don't know what my password is, it's saved in my password manager so that adds an extra step.
I've also set up facebook notifications to send me emails for calendar invites and private messages because I'd feel like a jerk for missing things that are actually important.
All of this has worked incredibly well. I definitely spend less than 20 minutes on facebook per week.
I'm considering doing the same "fast and then reduced consumption" for my other social media habits: reddit, HN, twitter. When I traveled full-time, in the past, I would often find myself with little or no Internet connectivity for a week at a time, and that imposed periodic social media fasting, and it was sufficient to keep the addictions in check. After living in a fixed house, with very fast Internet, for a little over a year, the urge to check my phone/tablet first thing in the morning and last thing at night has become notable and annoying.
In short: He's right, and I notice my own inability to do things of substance has been significantly impaired by the time and attention I give to social media, and it's only reasonable to abstain in the interest of spending more time doing the things I truly value. It can be hard to make that choice, however...one more shot of dopamine (or whatever chemicals the constant affirmation of social media provides) seems harmless.
(I note the irony of this being an HN comment.)