How much time do you spend looking at your phone each day? I underestimated my own screen time.
So I installed Moment, an app that measured how long I looked at the screen and how often I picked up my phone.
The result was an eye-opener. On some days, I spent almost five hours on my phone—about a third of my waking hours when I slept nine hours. More than 100 pickups a day was normal for me. It had become a habit I wanted to break.
Most of that time went to social media. I read a few articles on this topic and came up with my own way to cut back.
Unfollow and mute
The major networks offered ways to clear my feeds without removing contacts. On LinkedIn, many people promote their businesses. I unfollowed my connections without disconnecting from them, leaving my timeline empty.
That gave me less reason to check the app. If I want to know what someone is doing, I can still visit their profile.
I did something similar on Facebook: I unfollowed friends without unfriending them. With an empty feed, I stopped opening the site out of habit. I can still look up people I care about.
On
Instagram I muted the accounts I followed. Their posts no longer filled my feed, so I spent less time checking stories. The one network where I continued to find useful ideas was Twitter. I discovered new things there, but it too was becoming a habit: I was spending more than three hours a day scrolling.
I unfollowed everyone for a while and searched for interesting accounts deliberately once a day instead. Having no endless timeline felt like a relief.