‘POSTING WAS THE LAST THING I
THOUGHT OF AT NIGHT AND THE FIRST
THING I THOUGHT OF IN THE MORNING’
Try to work out what’s feeding your
obsession. Are you lonely, bored,
jealous of someone’s amazing holiday
or career success? Be honest about
your reasons for checking social
media sites and fi nd substitutes for
that behaviour, such as phoning
a friend or going for a walk. Set an intention any time you use
a social media platform. For example,
if you use Instagram for meal ideas,
fi nd what you’re looking for, then log
off. If you want to see what a friend
has posted on Facebook, do so, then
log off. It’s about avoiding falling
down the rabbit hole. Use a timer or app to help you
regulate your usage or log you
off when your time is up. Structure your work day
accordingly. If social media is part of
your job, create healthy boundaries
by using it only at set times. Again,
it’s all about avoiding that
mindless scrolling. Initiate a month-long digital detox.
Think of it as a Marie Kondo-ing
decluttering period, during which
you take a break from all optional
technology. When it’s over,
reintroduce only the platforms you
really want, and do so on your terms.Action against
addiction
She immediately deleted all her personal
accounts and says she doesn’t miss them.
“For the rst week or so, it was horrible.
I had the kind of racing heart you have
when you give up coffee or sugar, and had
to forcibly stop myself from picking up my
phone every few minutes. But eventually it
got easier.”
What made it harder was that she still
had to log on to social media for work. “But
I can manage that now, because I know I’ll
never have personal accounts again. I’m a
lot happier and healthier, and my kids are
overjoyed they’ve got their mother back.”
Although some friends couldn’t
understand Larissa’s decision, most have
been supportive. “Of course, I now miss
out on things like birthday or other
announcements on social media,” she says.
“I’ve also been out with friends and had all
of them talking about something on
Instagram that I had no idea about. But
humanity spent thousands of years without
social media and did okay, so to think it’s
essential is ridiculous. If social media isn’t
working for you, as it wasn’t for me, get off
it. Your world won’t come to an end – and it
might even be better.”
BAD HABITS
Two years ago, Anna Dean went on
a week-long silent retreat that, of course,
meant no phones. The 41-year-old was
shocked at how often she automatically
tried to check her phone. “I was so used
to doing it that my hand went to my
pocket every few minutes,” says the
co-founder of Wellington creative agency
Double Denim.
It was a hard habit to break, given Anna
had been doing it since she rst discovered
social media 12 years ago. “A PR manager
I was working with at the time thought
social media was going to be a fad, but
I wanted to understand what it was all
about, so I was an early adopter,” she says.
She rst witnessed its potential power
while working as a publicist on the 2012
New Zealand lm Two Little Boys. “We were
on location in Invercargill and I started
a Facebook page to give a behind-the-
scenes look at the shoot, which people really
engaged with. Back then, social media was
about creative storytelling and organically
growing followers, whereas today a lot of
that has been hijacked by advertisers.”
Anna admits she quickly fell into the
addiction trap, not only personally but also
on behalf of her clients. “At one stage, I was
managing 25 social media accounts across
various platforms. Posting and updating
them was the last thing I thought of at
night and the rst thing I thought of in the
morning. It was all-consuming.”WHO’S USING WHO?
Last year, Anna was diagnosed with
repetitive strain injury (RSI) in both
hands, a condition attributed to scrolling
through her phone while lying in bed. It
forced her to drastically cut down her
phone usage, but by then she’d already
become disenchanted with social media.
“I call it a slow build of boredom” she says.
“I’m nding a lot of early adopters
are a bit over social media and
starting to realise how much of life
is passing us by while we’ve got
our noses stuck in our phones.”
She also believes users have
been put off by the arrival of more
insidious forms of advertising and online
trolls. “Plus, after the Cambridge Analytica
scandal last year [when it was discovered
that Facebook had harvested millions of
user pro les and used them without
consent for political advertising], I think
people have become more wary about how
much personal information they share.”Now happily managing only four work-
related social media accounts (and a
personal Instagram account she rarely
posts to), Anna says breaking her addiction
has freed her up to do other things, and
says it’s been a relief to put down her phone
and use her time more productively.
If used correctly, she says, social media
can be a force for good, particularly when
it comes to creating communities and
providing a noticeboard-type service for
work and networking opportunities. “The
key is to work out its actual value for you
and be clear about how and why you’re
using it, so it doesn’t end up using you.”
*
* Name has been changed.SEPTEMBER 2019 / NEXT 31
TALKING POINT