How to Fix Social Media Addiction

 L. Jay Mitchell is the founder of Greenbrier Academy, a licensed non-acute treatment center and an accredited academic/therapeutic boarding school for young women ages 14-18, located in Pence Springs, West Virginia. A member of All Kinds of Therapy, L. Jay Mitchell is also interested in anxiety, depression, reactive detachment disorder, and social media addiction.

Social media platforms have become a core aspect of many people’s daily lives, either for leisure, business, or both. However, this mass adoption has led to compulsive and excessive use of social media that negatively impacts other aspects of users’ lives. Researchers have categorized this phenomenon as social media addiction, with some experts estimating that at least 10 percent of people in the United States have it.

An effective technique for combating social media addiction is a social media cleanse in which users set a length of time to stay away from social media. A 2019 study discovered that students who abstained from social media for days felt a sense of serenity. Similarly, users can reduce their exposure to social media by limiting their use of their personal computers.

According to one study, 45 percent of people would rather use social media at night than sleep. As a result, their sleep patterns are disturbed. A technique people can employ to reduce this is placing their phones out of reach at night. Getting out of bed to use their phones may bring introspection while acting as a deterrent.