I’m an experimentalist. And I often end up being the guinea pig for new ideas I try out. I love to learn, and it’s amazing to watch my hypotheses come true. I laugh and move on when I am proven wrong, and generally enjoy the process.

I started this at a young age. Once, I decided to try the cute trick of seeing if the child lock worked on the front door while we were driving.  Let’s just say that I got a good talking to after that ordeal.

Many of my ideas are much more helpful to my general life.

Recently I’ve been observing the effects of social media. The attention-grabbing capacity of applications like Facebook is astounding! I love dissecting how the

Social media is all about time consumption. The longer you spend on an app, the more ads can be directed your way. This translates to more money for the company behind the app.

Maybe this objective is a direct attempt to divert the attention of culture from other more important issues in the world. Or maybe it’s simply the desire to make money that drives this technology to its peak. Regardless, the probability that social media will consume inordinate amounts of your time is extremely high.

Intentionality is the sword that combats the pull of social media.

Here are my ideas for remaining intentional in the world of attention-seeking applications:

• Ask, “Why am I on [insert social media application here]? If you can’t pinpoint a reason, then consider deleting the app. After you’ve honed in on an objective, always keep that as your focal point. Every time you find yourself reaching for your phone or opening said app, ask yourself if it advances your purpose or hinders it.

For example, many of my social media goals are centered around inspiring people to grow. This rules out the allowance of scrolling mindlessly through Instagram, because it does not in any way inspire others or challenge their mindsets. Instead, I spend my time writing encouraging comments and replying to stories.

• Take a break every now and then. Fasting social media is so freeing. Often it creates an unhealthy stress on your brain that you don’t even recognize until you delete the apps for awhile.

If you get bored when you are on your social media break, then it’s a sure sign that it had more control over your mind than you realized.

Another way to cut off from the addiction machine is to have certain times during the day where your phone and computer are shut down so you can focus on the world around you. Take an hour to read, take a walk, or spend some one-on-one time with a person you love. Do anything that resets your mind from the

• Turn your phone on greyscale. Colors are addictive. If you are having a hard time tearing yourself from an app, see if you don’t get bored of it in black and white.

On iPhones this is easy. Simply go to Settings> General> Accessibility> Accessibility Shortcut. Enable Color Filters. Now, with a triple-click of your home button, you can turn your whole phone to black and white mode. This is awesome if you want to focus on writing an article without losing your focus and moving to other apps.

It’s like double-hacking your own brain. It gravitates to bold, bright colors and tends to shun dull tones. In theory, if your surroundings are more colorful than your phone, you will put it down quicker and focus on what’s around you.

• Turn your notifications off. As a start, take charge of your inbox and unsubscribe from the emails that you mandatorily receive when you sign up for any social media service.

Go a step farther. Turn off notifications for any app that takes your time unnecessarily. Personally, I only have notifications for my calendar, in addition to phone calls and messages.

Constant notifications are leeches of your focus, whether you can distance yourself from them or not. Make your life more organized and less stressful by taking the time to turn them off!

• Set specific times for social media and stick to them. Give yourself several 15-minute segments throughout the day to comment or write happy birthday posts. Always stick to your goal in those times, or you will lose focus and fall into the scroll mindset.

You can only get so much done in 15 minutes. If you learn to maximize the short amounts of time you have, you’ll get a lot more done than if you try to fill a longer segment of time.

Are you the owner of your social media or vice versa? Be intentional!

 

Photo by William Iven on Unsplash