4 Tips to Decrease Doomscrolling and Social Media Use
Did you know that your phone can act as a substitute for booze when you need a dopamine hit? EEK.
Opening up a news or social media app lights up the reward center of the brain because our brains are information junkies. But just as with alcohol, excessive phone scrolling, and especially doomscrolling, can throw off the brain’s homeostasis and desensitize us so that we need to do more of it to get the desired “reward” effect.
When I stopped drinking, sugar and phone scrolling became my easiest escape routes when I experienced discomfort. I am still working on limiting these behaviors and moving through discomfort instead of dodging it. (Yes, coaches have to put in the work too!)
Here are my four tips to decrease doomscrolling and social media use (plus instructions on how to do each of these things on an iPhone):
Set time limits for apps. (Settings ➡️ Screen Time ➡️ App Limits)
Set your phone to grayscale. (Settings ➡️ Accessibility ➡️ Accessibility Shortcut ➡️ Color Filters - This will allow you to triple click the side button to toggle between grayscale and color.)
Move tempting or triggering apps to the back page of your phone. (Press and hold app ➡️ Edit Home Screen ➡️ Move app)
Curate your news apps and social media feeds to cut out anxiety-producing content and unfollow or mute accounts that trigger imposter syndrome or comparisonitis.
Which of these tips have you tried? Which are you doing to try? Let me know how it goes!
