The average person spends around 2.5 hours per day on social media.

2.5 hours per day = 912.5 hours per year.

That’s more than one month per year, just on social media.

In case you are not a social media manager, a digital marketing specialist, or a content creator, this is too much.

And it probably has the characteristics of a typical addiction.

What is social media addiction?

Although there is not yet an official medical diagnosis, social media addiction shares common characteristics with other forms of behavioral addictions, like substance addiction.

Behavioral addiction is an intense desire to repeat actions that generate pleasure or perceivably improve well-being and can reduce personal distress (rewards) without awareness of the adverse consequences caused by them.

In the same way, social media addiction is characterized by excessive concern about social media, which is expressed by a constant need to use them, devoting so much time and effort that it eventually harms other areas of one’s life.

In the context of social media, the “reward” is the brief dopamine rush we get from likes, comments, endless news feeds, and chats with other users. This reinforces the behavior, making it increasingly difficult to resist.

Signs you are addicted to social media

It’s easy to fall into unhealthy patterns with social media.

Here are some typical signs that your usage might be crossing over into addiction territory:

• Checking social media first thing in the morning and last thing before bedtime: If you reach for your phone the moment you wake up and check social media as the last thing before bed, this indicates a deeply ingrained habit.
• “Phantom vibrations”: If you often feel like your phone buzzed with a notification even though it didn’t, it’s a sign of your brain constantly anticipating social interaction.
• Fear of Missing Out (FOMO): Strong anxiety or a nagging feeling that you’re missing out on something exciting online can drive obsessive social media checking.
• Doom scroll: Getting lost in endless feeds and being unable to stop scrolling even when the content makes you feel bored or anxious points towards addictive behavior.
• Comparison trap: Constantly comparing your life to the carefully curated images others present online and feeling inadequate is a common sign of unhealthy social media use.
• Mid-task distraction: Struggle to stay focused on work, conversations, or hobbies due to repeated urges to check social media.
• Emotional distraction: Turning to social media exclusively to relieve boredom, loneliness, or escape difficult feelings instead of developing healthier coping mechanisms.
• Neglecting responsibilities: If social media use begins to interfere with sleep, relationships, work, or school performance, it’s a strong red flag.

Note: Experiencing one of these signs doesn’t automatically mean you have a full-fledged addiction. However, it’s a wake-up call to honestly assess your relationship with social media.

The only 3 tactics you need to kill your social media addiction

If you recognize yourself in what is described above, there’s nothing to be ashamed of.

But you need to do something about it.

I have been there myself, and I have tried possibly all the tactics out there on how to stop social media addiction.

Understand this before reading further: If you are committed to changing a bad habit, half-measures simply won’t cut it.

Those quick peeks at Instagram between tasks and the “just one more” scroll through TikTok or Twitter (X) destroy your concentration, fragment your attention, and ultimately feed into a cycle of anxiety, distraction, and decreased productivity.

Drastic action is needed.

My purpose here is not to give you 10 ways that could possibly help, but only the ones that were effective for me.

So, below, I provide you with the only 3 tactics that have worked for me, and I firmly believe that -combined- can kill your social media addiction:

1. Delete all social media from your phone

This might feel extreme, but hear me out. Think of your phone as the gateway, always just a tap away. Those app icons and tempting notification dots are designed to lure you in.

Removing social media from your phone breaks the easiest point of access.

This is the first step: Admit you are an addict and delete them.

Remember: At first, you might experience some initial withdrawal symptoms – boredom, restlessness, even a sense of FOMO. That’s completely normal.

And since I have an idea of the questions that you might have, I’ll answer them here before we continue.

• “What if I want to upload something on social media?”: Whenever you feel like uploading something, you will download the app on your phone, complete the upload, and delete the app again. But guess what? A few days or weeks after you have deleted social media from your phone, you won’t feel the same need to be active as before.
• “Why do I have to lose time downloading an app every time I want to upload something?”: Downloading an app wastes 30 seconds of your time. Constantly having that app on your phone wastes hours. Pick your winner.

The purpose of any bad habit is to make it difficult. You could still reach those sites through your browser anyway, but that extra step – manually typing in the website – creates friction.

However, since you are an addict, you can obviously work around that and eventually start checking social media from your browser instead. So, let’s move on to the second tactic.

2. Install a website blocker on your laptop

Just deleting social media from your phone will not suffice.

That’s because, eventually, you’ll start checking them from your browser, and instead of wasting time on your mobile, you’ll start wasting time on your browser.

So here comes the solution: Install a website blocker on your laptop or desktop.

There are many apps or extensions you can use for that. I personally use StayFocusd (no affiliation), which has a powerful feature called “The Nuclear Option” that basically works like this:

• You add the websites you want to restrain yourself from to a Blocked list.
• You choose how much time you want to block them for (I personally use 3 hours and advise you not to pick a shorter period too).
• After you activate it, there is no way to access those websites from that browser until the time you chose has passed.

In this way, your laptop or desktop will be used mainly for work and nothing else.

But talking of work, let’s move on to the last thing you need to do to kill your social media addiction.

3. Keep your phone away and stay offline while working

After you have completed the first two steps, there is only one more thing that needs to be done to make sure your efforts don’t go to waste:

You need to keep, by any means, your phone away from you and treat it like a regular old-school telephone instead of a mobile phone.

That means you need to decide where in the house or office you are going to put it so that every time you want to check it, you stand up, go to that place, check it, and then leave it back in its place.

That place shouldn’t be within reach. Ideally, it should be in another room or in a drawer in the same room as you.

Also, during work or while you are focused on something, your Wi-Fi and mobile data need to be turned off. Don’t worry; if there is an emergency, your friends, family, colleagues, or clients can reach you anytime by phone.

Try that, and you’ll be amazed at how much more you can accomplish when you are free from digital distractions. Your thinking will become clearer, your problem-solving more efficient, and your creative thinking will be resurrected.

Conclusion: Embrace the challenge

Breaking your social media addiction won’t be a walk in the park. That’s because your brain is currently trained to look for novelty.

So, after implementing the tactics above, there will be times when you will feel tempted, bored, or even a little isolated. Recognize that this is your brain adjusting and rewiring.

Start with a one-week challenge.

No social media on your phone, a website blocker on your laptop, and your phone away and offline (especially during focused work).

Then, pay attention to your productivity, mood, and overall well-being. You might be surprised at how quickly you see positive changes.

Social media is a tool you control, not the other way around.