This is my set up for my 2 weeks (minimum) of no smart phone or social media I've got a HMD 105 cheap bare basics burner phone, cheap MP3 player, mums old digital camera (last used in 2013) and my 2DS. I have a scrap book on order too for doodles and scrapbooking. My rules I've set myself is I can use my omputer at home for WhatsApp and emails and my TV can do whatever like netflix and stuff but this is my set up any additions or advice would be appreciated. I'm aiming for 2 weeks minimum possibly longer if I enjoy it alot.

Take care troops I'll update in 2 weeks after tomorrow 🫡

Any ideas?

Male 33y0.

one month ago I posted in here, saying that I uninstalled Instagram and Tiktok from my phone. The following days, it was like a regeneration process, I expanded on this. I eventually decided to get to bed at 22.00 everyday ( excepting friday and saturday ), I decided to re-start taking my vitamins every morning. I began drinking more water. I started reading again every night ( it's been three books since then and right now I am diving into the fourth ). And as my final action, I uninstalled Reddit. It was the last app I was checking often so I decided to delete it, and I feel good about that. The only app in my phone ( aside from whatsapp, maps etc ) is Chess, and when I have some time I play Chess on the internet. I think it is far better than doom scrolling.
The thing is, I didn't feel bad before quitting all of that. I don't feel spectacular now. I think it has more to do with the understanding and the knowledge that creating good habits that gives us health and happiness starts whenever you want. You can uninstall Reddit ( example ) right now, literally nobody is expecting you to not do it. They have their "fomo" daily streak, well, who cares. You can apply this to any mobile app, game etc. And when you do one single of them, you enter in a snowball state and suddenly you want to take another step.
I hope y'all achieve your goals!

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I have been working on reducing my screentime for years since I’ve struggled with screen addiction for almost as long as I can remember. My current screentime is roughly 4-5 hours, what tips are there to reduce it even more? I have deleted all social media, but I need Snapchat to communicate, and of course I get stuck on the reels there. But you guys got any tips overall? Thanks 🙏

Hello everyone!

24F here, I’ve been scrolling on this subreddit for a while and I love seeing posts from so many like minded people, in our current society, I feel like an anomaly so it’s nice to know I’m not alone.

December 2025 I made the decision to delete my instagram and all my other social medias (recently joined reddit to read through like minded discussions of quitting social media) and I can honestly say it was the best decision I have ever made in my life.

I feel as though I can finally breathe, I no longer care to be seen, validated or even worry about what people think of me. I was only on instagram for 2 years but it was the biggest waste of time and the worst decision I’d ever made.

My account had 2.8k followers but my reels always went viral and got tons of views, then the addiction started. I got so sucked in that when I deleted my account, I felt as though I’d lost everything when in reality, I didn’t lose anything. Instagram makes you wholeheartedly believe that followers, likes, comments and views are important, that without them you’re less than those with high amounts of those things. It’s all a lie, dare I say it’s the best weapon humans have built against themselves. Look at t how much society has degraded overall since the inception of social media.

The straw that broke the camel’s back for me was when I logged in one day as usual, my heart started beating so fast almost out of my chest. This would happen every single time I opened instagram and it went on for days, it was like my body was experiencing anxiety and just overall dark energy from the platform so I deleted it.

I’ve never felt this free, this peaceful and quiet. My life is by no means perfect but I’m so glad I left it all behind, I’m happy!

As it’s coming up to a year since quitting, I wanted to share an excerpt from one of my recent journal entries, in the hopes that it may help someone. (Excuse the messy handwritting, sometimes when I’m on a roll the pen just flows)

eye strain, fatigue, dryness and blurry vision is something i've not seen people consider as a drawback of excessively looking at the screens

it literally works as a slow poison for eyes, gradually worsening eyesight over time

have the screens also left an impact on your eyesight?

Hi,

So I’ve been practicing minimalism for quite some years now and currently 90-95% of my possessions fits in two 20kg suitcases.

I’ve been slowly decluttering my digital spaces as well, but it’s still nowhere near I’d like it to be.

To be honest, I feel overwhelmed by how cluttered it still is and often I feel like I’d like to just delete everything - photos, old emails and conversations, files other than absolutely necessary, etc.

Eventually, I’d like to switch to a dumb-smart phone, meaning one of these modern dumb phones with e-ink screen.

I feel like it’s time to bring the same kind of discipline and freedom I cultivate with my physical possessions to the digital sphere.

I own an iPhone, MacBook and a Kindle.

So, what would be your advice? How to go about it?

Yes i do it because i’m in a very lonely phase of my life but i don’t know how to cure myself anymore

I feel like I'm living in pure stimulation. Screens surrounding me in every direction.

So many new technologies coming out every single day

TikTok, Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram—they all look and feel the same.

Communication has all become online, completely missing any sense of a human touch.

Algorithms recommending the exact same stuff and the same tired jokes repeated a million times everyday.

My studies and work depend heavily online presence. Studies usually require normal google usage- searching stuff,watching lectures, using chat bots to help me understand something.

My work on the other hand require a steady online presence-i tutor online and my sessions are all prepared and given via the internet.

I don't know. It just feels like a loop. Like a nightmare- when I say no human connections, I mean it. I have few friends that I talk to but not that often. Most of them are long distance so I call them online.

What can I do?

Recently, while i was a call with a friend, i received a message from a person that used to follow me get mad about being unfollowed. They called me insulting names and it baffled me. I tried to visit their account profile but it was locked and unfamiliar, so i thought it was okay to unfollow them. It's just absurd to me that people would get mad about being unfollowed. Some of my friends helped me report the account and i just had a wake up call to this experience that i should just stay clear out of instagram in general. It's not just because of the experience alone, i have been on and off of this platform because i still wanted to connect with my friends. But to be honest, it's better that people will intentionally reach out than finding life updates about you from a screen (stories, posts, highlights). So, i deleted my accounts yesterday (October 17), and i dont feel like going back.

What do you do when you catch yourself doomscrolling, using social media, watching something unintentionally out of boredom or because you avoid some inner voice?

Hi everybody ,

I havent been using Facebook, X or Instagram in quiet a long time now and dont miss it at all.The only thing that I miss are TV/Movie/Book News. It is also why i re-download tiktok every few weeks and everytime i reopen the App there is some big news i missed (e.g Casting announcements, a new book being released etc.).Im not talking about celeb gossip or anaything, just important media news.

I have not been able to find a good app to Substitute those news . Does anybody have recommendations ? I get all my other news through various apps and their push notifications .

Im trying to lower my screentime an stop using social media at all.

Thanks in Advance for any recommendations :)

I use Chrome and downloaded an extension that blocks out the initial page of recommended videos and the sidebar videos as well many many years ago. It malfunctioned, I guess it's because I had the old version, anyways it was so overwhelming trying to watch a video while there are a bunch of other unrelated videos and random games (?) being recommended to me on the sidebar!

Thankfully after removing and reinstalling the add-on, it works perfectly again. Never going back to the "normal" version of Youtube again, it's absolutely horrible!

Social media did NOT make me feel more connected with others, rather it caused me to just compare my aesthetic to others constantly. I had been thinking of deleting my accounts for a while, my friend suggested just deactivating them to not have to full send it.

I am looking for suggestions honestly, I am having trouble of what to fill my time with. Like am I just needing to detox a bit more, but I just feel the desire to scroll a lot. I have been off of social media for about a year and lately life has become stressful with a new job.

What are some things people have done to replace their phone time?
How do others stay connected to friends in more meaningful ways than just on their phones?

Hello! I designed my life —work, study, hobbies— around my desk. The center of it its a BenQ 27 inch monitor conected to a Macbook Air m1 in clamshell mode. Around that, I tried to listen music on CDs (on a separate equipment), read physical o ebooks —on kindle— or maybe write my ideas on a notebook. So, sometimes I need to search things online, o things related to my job, so I need to be with my computer turn on the most of the time. I need ideas for a website to call "homescreen" just to put in the background while I perfom other things. II've tried putting NYT in the background, also a screensaver (macos default ones) or even Wikipedia homepage, but didn't work.

Ps: some of you probably just said "turn the monitor off". I tried, but I would like to have it on because something interesting could surge.

Thanks!

I want to use snapchat instagram and youtube without the short form content and i need it to be hard locked so i have no chance of using it for a detox. Whats a setup for ios that works?

How do I found mentor . My life getting stuck . Who helped me to get out from this situation.

youtube and reddit are two apps that are still used by people even after quitting other social media apps

what's your take on youtube? is it same as other social media platforms?

I just realised today that I am addicted to my phone. I don’t know how to explain it but it’s like my main addiction is to my phone and then it is to my laptop but only when I am either watching slop or using AI to work on a personal project which is usually a distraction in itself. So much so that I see my deadline coming and still don’t move a muscle. I lie to everybody around me about the progress I am making on my tasks/work but I’m lying through the teeth. It’s not intentional, it’s just in that moment im procrastinating (because I label the task “easy”) or too stressed about the deadline (because now it’s too close for me to complete the task I labelled “easy”). This is now causing me a lot of stress and I know that the simple solution is to start working put down my phone or my laptop and lock-in but I’m just not able to do this.

I currently live far away from family, so I have nobody to rely on to help me through this. This has basically wasted two years of my life. Started very casually but today was the first day I realised that I’m actually an addict like a proper proper addict. I used to think that this was all fake. I’ve tried using apps like one sec and Safari in place of apps, but it never helps eventually I end up disabling or deleting the chokepoint and go back to my old ways. I even tried waking up early that didn’t stick. I once read half of count of Monte Cristo in a day just to test myself but then went back to scrolling that very night.

My day starts with doom scrolling or another distracting activity that feels like it’s productive but it’s actually not. It’s just me procrastinating from my task and it ends the same way there are days when I don’t even get out of my bed and I’m just on my phone. This has also killed my sleep routine. I’m usually awake till 4 or 5 am and wake up after 10 am and the first thing I do after waking up is look for that cheap dopamine kick.

This addiction has hurt me multiple times and now it’s just a recurring pattern. I see it coming and I still am unable to change the outcome. So much so that it has killed my ambition my dreams my goals. I don’t even know what I want to be. I desperately need help. If somebody’s been through this and overcome it, please tell me how.

What tracker do you use for sport? (If you use one)

Hey guys, I’ve been debating deleting instagram because it’s so fucking bad for me I know all the downsides and I was planning on deleting it soon, but I still want to be able to post something with music for my friends to see. I don’t know if that’s part of the problem of social media but it would be cool to be able to post something online for my friends to see, even if it’s not instagram. Also I know instagram has a web mode but it doesn’t allow me to post with music and that’s a must for me. I guess I’m asking a few things, is there a way to use instagram to post with music from the web only? Is it okay to make posts or is that FOMO? Is there an alternative to instagram posts that my friends could use?

Edit: By posts, I don't mean stories or notes, I mean like I post pictures of me and my friends to my friends but i like the music in the background of the post, its just a slideshow of me and my friends with music over it so that's why i was wondering if it there was an alternative