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How do I avoid social media addiction while using social media professionally?
Basically, what the title says.
I have to work with social media quite extensively due to the nature of my job. But this has caused me to also be on social media when work *doesn’t require it of me*. Yesterday evening, I opened up Instagram to check the company DMs and proceeded to spend 2 hours scrolling stories and now I feel lousy cause I went to bed too late. Unfortunately, this seems to happen more and more lately.
The problem is, I can’t not work with social media. It’s in the job description. So how do I avoid this addictive behavior?
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1 Reply
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Be logged out of work accounts on personal devices.
That and self control. The best medicine for staying offline is doing something else instead, like walking, being outside, reading, working out. Live your life!
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This happened to me about 10 years ago. I took the job far too seriously. I wasn’t expected to, nor was I getting paid to, but I would routinely monitor work social media accounts at evenings and weekends. In the end, I took a break from my personal accounts (managed a year) and ever since I only casually use social media. Most of my friends don’t even post content anymore, so I’m not missing out on anything.
The difference between then and now is that WhatsApp groups is where all my social interactions take place. It used to be FB/Tw, but not anymore.
My advice: find somewhere else or something else to do. Or schedule breaks e.g. you don’t check social media all weekends, or after 7pm etc.
And whatever you do, don’t let your job take over your life. It will seriously depress you. -
Things that help me are setting screen time and deleting the app. Takes longer to sign in on the web and apps and make it easy to mindlessly open it.
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I allot specific time frames to manage it, and stick to a strict schedule
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2 phones, one with all the business accounts I manage, the other with my personal stuff.
Disable notifications, and set them on silent mode.
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I find the more you work in social media, the less time you want to spend on it in your own time.
Reddit’s different of course!
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Separation from each other, work on work equipment personal on personal without shortcuts
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I have no idea. If you manage it, I’d love to know!
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I’m in the same position. What’s worse is that I have to find and discover new creators so I need to be just browsing for at least an hour a day. A lot of what people suggest isn’t practical if it’s part of your job.
What I do is set an hour reminder through the iPhone so I at least know how long I’ve been on different apps.
I have a hard shut off at 9 PM.
I try to get out of town once a month and turn off social media for that weekend.
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Use website blockers or Apps
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Does Reddit actually count as social media? Cause than I would count myself as an addict. If not, I wouldn’t. I’ve timed it, I use Reddit multiple hours, and I’m on fb and insta only a maximum of combined 30 mins.
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I don’t log in for clients as much as I used to, so I don’t do this anymore, but I’d ask your company for a work phone. For a few reasons! You deserve the ability to step away from work, but it’s also a liability / leaves a lot of margin for error to toggle between accounts! Even a phone that’s not on a plan but simply connects to Wi-Fi could be a solution. Or a tablet, even.
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