How to stop doom scrolling your favourite social media sites or apps on your phone? This little rectangular box is exerting much more control on you than you would like it to. How do you show it its rightful place?

I don’t know. But I can tell you what I am going to try and why.

I am going to try to reduce my social media consumption in the coming months. But I want to do it in a way which is sustainable. Or at least in a way which is easier to implement when I fall back into my bad habits.

Social media consumption is a habit. I need to replace it with another one. But the activity to replace the doom scrolling habit is harder to decide upon than you think. Here are some of the activities which are candidates to replace my screen time -

• Reading

This one is easy to suggest but much harder to implement. Doom scrolling on social media sites need almost zero mental effort. Can’t replace it that easily with a high mental effort activity like reading.

But i can try replacing a very small chunk of the social media time with reading and see if it builds up gradually. Will start with 5 minute reading bouts and see if it’s adding something to my life. If I end up mindlessly reading for 5 minutes, i will give this one up.

• Writing

Not everyone likes writing. But it can be relaxing sometimes. It does have the same mental effort barrier as reading though.

• Playing a sport

This is my favourite option because i love sports. When i am playing, i forget the world. And it’s a relatively low mental effort activity for me. It has dopamine release built in. It’s fun. It’s good for the health.

What’s the catch then?

It takes a big chunk of the day for me. E.g. if i play badminton, i have to go to a badminton court and the whole process takes up around 2 hours of my waking hours.

And it’s injury prone. Once injured, i am miserable for the next six months.

I might start with 30 mins of Table tennis within my apartment complex.

• Playing video games

I feel like it’s a really great option. Downside - it can get addictive and replace other things in your daily schedule too :). Definitely a “will try it”.

• Watching semi educational youtube videos

Nope. Watching youtube videos without intention is worse than doom scrolling on reddit or twitter. I explain my reasoning in detail here - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mksoni_watching-educative-youtube-videos-without-activity-7229327677516627968-E5rP

• Watching TV

Ok in the short term but in the long term it feels similar to social media addiction. I tend to binge watch TV series and i watch it like a zombie after the 1st or 2nd season.

One option suggested by my wife is to watch something out of my comfort zone. A genre i have not watched or don’t like watching.

• Learning to play a musical instrument

This one is worse than reading and writing on mental effort part. Not a viable alternative to a mindless activity. Nope.

• Walking

I already walk around an hour. So it’s already doing its part. One small change i am going to make to this habit though - walk without listening to podcasts.

• Yoga class

I can’t join a class. For anything. Not my style.

• Meditation

High mental effort. I have heard from others that it gets easier with time. I have to keep an open mind about meditation and consider it as a viable alternative in the future.

I am not going to try any of those apps which warn you when you have surpassed certain limits on certain apps an sites. I am not going to try any tricks with willpower. I am not convinced that either of them work well. They seem to work in the short term through sheer brute force but the habits don’t last long term.

Do you also struggle with social media addiction? Do you want to free yourselves from the shackles of the tiny box and the devious algorithms? How do you plan to do it? If you are already good at not getting sucked into hours of doom scrolling, how do you do it? Help us with your secret recipes and gain some internet blessings.