I’ve been trying to reduce the amount of time on Twitter and I’ve found the following steps have helped kick my habit of mindlessly loading and scrolling. It’s also a platform that like most social networks brings the worst to the top and as someone trying to be a bit more positive it’s having a negative effect on my wellbeing.
Remove the app
Now this depends on if you use the official app or not in some respect. I use Tweetbot so I don’t see ads or moments and the filtering tools are much more powerful. I literally cannot use the service if I’m forced to use the official app. I removed the app to a folder on the second page so I had to go looking for it. The next step I took was to remove the app completely and just check in via the Twitter site in Safari a couple of times a week. If you try this you’ll be amazed at how little you actually find yourself using it.
Cull your follows
If you want to continue using it as you are but want to see less then follow less people. What I did over time was anything I saw shared I didn’t like I stopped following that person. I went from over 700 to now around 100.
Embrace RSS
I found I was using Twitter to catch up on the latest news as it happened. What I discovered when I switched to reading news via an RSS app was I didn’t need to know everything. Checking into my RSS app a couple of times a day is enough and as a result I stopped following quite a few accounts. Unless it’s your job to report on the news it’s perfectly acceptable not knowing everything going on.
Screen time
I feel this is a last resort but use the screen time features in iOS to remind you to take a break. Limit yourself to 30 mins a day and see how that feels. This didn’t work for me but it’s an option built into iOS that is worth checking out.
Ease out of it
I wouldn’t recommend going cold turkey but it’s what I did a few weeks before Star Wars came out and it was pretty difficult to stop the habit outright. Some people respond well to this method but you should know yourself well enough to know if this is what you need personally. I’ve weaned myself off it slowly using the above and with only a few checks a week feel I’m on the right path (for me).
