Digital Wellbeing: Maintaining Balance with Reduced Network Usage

If you’re getting concerned about how much time you are spending on Facebook, you’re not alone. Social media has a bad name for being a “time-waster”, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

There are ways to take control of how much time you are spending online with a few simple and easy-to-use tools. In fact, Facebook has its own time restriction tool to help you get your time back. Let’s take a look at this and other ways to limit your time on Facebook.

1. Use Facebook’s Time-Limiting Tools

Facebook, much likeInstagram, wants you to take a break from social media , if you need to. With so many wayssocial media can take a toll on our closest relationships , it’s important to be wise about what we see and do on our social channels. There are ways to personalize your Facebook feed.

By choosing the types of notifications you would like to receive, and by going through your privacy settings to ensure you’re not seeing posts that are annoying, or inappropriate, you can optimize your Facebook feed.

Better yet, you can limit the amount of time you spend using it. All you need to do is go to your profile picture on the right-hand side, scroll down till you get toSettings and Privacy . A menu will open which will show youYour Time on Facebook .

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In this section you will see a graph showing the number of minutes you spend a day using the app, as well as the days of the week. If you click onManage Your Time , aDaily Time Reminder will open up and Facebook will let you know when the amount of time you’ve set is up.

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2. Optimize Your Notification Settings

In the same section ofManage Your Time , you can click onManage Your Notifications. Options will open up for you to choose which notifications you want to receive. You’ll be able to choose comments, tags, reminders, updates from friends, friend requests, as well as events and other promotions you wish (or don’t wish) to be notified of.

When you’re finished making your selection, your feed will be optimized to your preferences, and you’ll receive fewer distractions. This will hopefully lead to you spending less time on the app.

3. Use Apps to Limit Your Social Media Use

If you are still having trouble staying off Facebook, there is software available, such as apps and plugins that control how much time you are spending on social media. You just have to find the one that works for you and install it on your devices.

If Nothing Works, Deactivate or Delete Facebook

If you are still having trouble staying off Facebook, the best thing to do is to deactivate it or delete it. This will give you time to get used to being without the app so that you won’t get tempted to use it.

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