Austin Kleon just wrote about his efforts to limit social media usage on his devices, and there’s some worthwhile tips in there. I tried out the iOS screen time feature, but it tended to have the opposite effect on me. The little reminder that pops up is too easy to dismiss. It’s too easy to just add another fifteen minutes, and pretty soon you’ve defeated the purpose of the whole system.
It’s like saying you’ll have “just one more cookie” when there are still dozens more in the box. It’s pretty hard to stop yourself.
I much prefer the way Android does it, where the app time limits are more binding. The app literally becomes inaccessible once the time limit has been reached. Sure, you can still go into the app settings and disable the limit, but it’s much more of a hassle.
If you’re already a light user of social media and just want to keep yourself in check, perhaps Apple’s approach is sufficient. But I think it doesn’t have nearly enough friction to be very effective for the most of us.
Beyond built in app limits, I’ve been having most of my success with heavy use of do not disturb, airplane mode, and simply leaving my phone behind when non-essential.