Have you spent too many hours on your social feed feeling anxious, combative or simply unproductive? Just as the limitation of exposure to social media has been recommended for the mental health of children, many adults can also benefit.
Even if you are not ready for complete digital detoxification (in which you seriously reduce the use of the smartphone or even take offline week), small adjustments to your daily routine can help you devote time to other activities. And if you have decided it’s time to go on, see what you can take with you before closing your accounts. Here is a quick guide.
Set limits
Social media platforms offer good reasons to stay around, how to connect distant family members or provide space for the online community to groups of people. If you want to continue using them, but in moderation, the phone settings can help you.
First of all, try to check any notifications from the social apps. On an iPhone or iPad that performs iOS, open the settings icon, tap the notifications and scroll down into the list of apps to silence the selected apps. In the Settings menu of a phone that runs Android 15, tap notifications and therefore the notifications of the app to reach the checks.
Apple and Google also include controls for rationing on the apps. In the iOS 18 settings, select School Time, select the activity of the app and the website and enable it (if it is not already on), then touch the limits of the app. In the Digital Wellness settings of Android 15, it touches the circular graph in the upper part of the screen and then select the apps from the following list to set the restrictions.
Remove the temptation
It is easy to do some time with quick peeks in your social media feeds. If to limit the notifications or the setting of the timers to use is not enough, take a step further: delete the app from the phone.
The elimination of the app does not delete your social account. However, it forces you to control your feeds on a different device, such as a laptop or tablet that remains at home.
To delete an app from an iPhone or iPad, press and hold down its domestic screen icon, select Remove the app and then delete the app.
The uninstallation of the apps on an Android phone can vary with the hardware and software version, but in Android 13 and subsequently, open Google Play Store, touch the profile icon in the upper right corner, choose Manage and devices and touched managed. On some phones, you can also drag an app icon at the top of the screen and release it on the uninstalling option.
Break
Most social media platforms allow you to take a temporary break of deactivate Your account. The deactivation substantially hides your profile from the view until you access to reactivate it. The steps vary according to the platform, but the process is generally launched in the account settings area. Check the support section of the platform for specific instructions.
If you decide to deactivate, check the policy of the social media company. Some platforms, such as X and Snapchat, provide a 30 -day deactivation period before the account is automatically eliminated forever.
Other platforms, including Facebook, Bluesky, YouTube and Tiktok, do not put a time limit on your return. The deactivation of an Instagram account also puts your thread account (if you have one) on the ice.
Stop forever
Unlike deactivation, the elimination of your account is a permanent departure from the platform. The Delete option is usually located in the same area as the deactivation control settings.
If you decide to eliminate, all the contents you have published on the platform will disappear, but many sites will allow you to download an archive of your photos and other posts before leaving. Search for an option “Download your information” or “Download your data” in the settings of your account.
Depending on how many content you have published, they may need a few days after requiring your data to receive the link to download your archive. Some sites, like Tiktok, only provide connections to your videos instead of the actual files themselves, which require extra effort to obtain them.
Once the data download has been completed and you have checked the files, follow the driving of the platform to permanently delete your account. Before departure, some people publish their contact information to connect elsewhere and continue the conversation.