Top Solutions to Social Media Problems You Can Actually Use

By Pete Dunlap on July 4, 2018 - Fact checked by Dumb Little Man

by Pete Dunlap July 4, 2018

You check it all the time. You hop on the thumb treadmill the first moment a slight twinge of boredom sets in. Your social media knows a lot about you- the stories you’ll like or share, the friends you don’t want to hear from but won’t unfollow, how hard your last breakup was.

Social media companies know a lot about you and have a vested interest in keeping your eyes focused on their feeds. Their bottom lines depend on being able to get ads in front of your face.

In case you are fed up, there is a better way for you to move on from them. If you are ready to make a change, follow these four solutions to social media problems.

Use a free tool to figure out the scale of the problem

RescueTime and Moment provide data about which apps and sites you use the most. These tools sit in the background collecting data while you use your devices. Then, they’ll show you detailed reports on where your online time is actually going. Be warned, it might not be pretty.

Start changing your phone

Once you have a handle on where you waste your time, try a few tricks to clean up your phone.

If you use an Android phone, a new app called Siempo offers a replacement home screen and will even scramble distracting apps so you have a little longer to reconsider as you search for one. A tools-only home screen goes a long way in keeping yourself focused on your tasks.

Start changing your browser

If you are a Chrome user, there is an ecosystem of extensions that can improve your experience online.

First, try Ublock Origin to remove advertisements from your browser. You can also use Mercury Reader to isolate a particular article you are reading in a distraction-free window.

If you are distracted by links when you read, try holding down Ctrl (Windows) or Cmd (Mac) as you click the link. This forces the link to open in a new tab without shifting your browser’s focus to that tab. You can read the new content after you’re done with your existing task.

Start changing yourself

Mindfulness experts tell us that the state of distraction is nothing new. In fact, it might be our most common state of mind.

To be more focused, a daily mindfulness practice that offers flexible techniques for achieving a calmness can definitely help. If you are just getting started, try Stop, Breathe & Think, which offers meditations as short as two minutes. If you are interested in a larger group of meditations on a variety of topics, check out Insight Timer, the most popular meditation app in the world.

If you follow these four steps, you won’t immediately start making six figures or meet the spouse of your dreams. What will happen is that you’ll gradually find yourself to be more flexible in difficult situations. You’ll have more options and your emotions won’t have quite the hold over you like they once did. If you feel frazzled and stressed, take a moment to try these solutions to social media problems.