\n<\/p>\n
The world is bad sometimes, but it feels even worse if you can\u2019t stop staring into the all-consuming abyss that is the 6-inch screen of a smartphone, following you through space and time. It taunts you with its compact, light build that\u2019s small enough to slip into your pocket and take anywhere, and its siren call is so strong that for some reason, we cannot sleep without our phone on our nightstands.<\/p>\n
As we weather the horrors around us<\/a>, it may occur to you that you would feel calmer and more attentive and balanced if you did not pick up your phone dozens of times a day to doomscroll. It\u2019s messing with our brains<\/a> to intersperse our day with glimpses into the most extreme, engagement-baiting TikToks, only to flip over to X or Bluesky and see crushing news headlines.<\/p>\n Like any bad habit, doomscrolling is hard to kick. But it\u2019s not hopeless. So how do you stop doomscrolling? We have some ideas about how you can set yourself up for success.<\/p>\n First of all, you aren\u2019t the problem. The problem is that our lives have become deeply intertwined with tech companies that are looking to capture as much of our time as possible. If I use my Apple Watch to track a workout, I end up seeing text messages crop up while I\u2019m trying to catch my breath after running up a steep hill. If I go on Spotify to listen to a specific album, I open the app and immediately see recommendations for podcasts and audiobooks that I\u2019m not typically interested in. Or if I download Snapchat solely for a group chat where my friends send pictures of their pets, then each pet picture comes with some advertisement, extraneous push notification, or AR marketing filter that I didn\u2019t sign up for. It\u2019s no wonder that our phones make us feel crazy.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t believe that Mark Zuckerberg is sitting in his lair \u2014 probably within his \u201cmetaverse\u201d \u2014 dreaming up ways to personally make my life worse. But it is the inherent nature of consumer tech companies that our attention is what keeps them afloat, and the more we pay attention to them, the happier their investors are, and the stock prices rise, and so on. Even with the knowledge of how these companies operate, it\u2019s still difficult to break our bad habits. I will still open my Instagram account to see what my friend sent me, only to regain my consciousness 10 minutes later after I\u2019ve watched dozens of Reels.<\/p>\n For the first several years after Apple introduced the Screen Time feature on iPhones, I chose deliberately not to turn it on \u2014 I was afraid of what I might learn about myself. But that fear in itself told me that I have a problem. Knowledge is power, and if we know which apps are sucking up most of our time, then we can curb how much time we spend on them.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how to set screen time limits for specific apps on iOS:<\/p>\n Apple\u2019s built-in Screen Time tools are effective, but they\u2019re a bit easy to circumvent; if you\u2019re watching a great TikTok and suddenly get a pop-up that your time is up, you can just tap a button to give yourself another 15 minutes\u00a0\u2026 and then do the same thing after another 15 minutes go by.<\/p>\n Some people opt to use third-party apps to motivate them to reduce their screen time, which can address potential pitfalls of Apple\u2019s existing functionality.<\/p>\n Here are some apps that are designed to limit your screen time:<\/p>\n We rounded up some physical devices<\/a> that can help you stop looking at screens too much, as well.<\/p>\n So, you\u2019ve opened TikTok and your screen time limits have denied you access, but now you don\u2019t know what to do. Maybe you\u2019re standing in line at the coffee shop and need a distraction. And sure, in an ideal world, we could simply be bored without spontaneously combusting, but this isn\u2019t an ideal world.<\/p>\n Here are some other things you can do on your phone that do not involve social media:<\/p>\nUnderstand that this isn\u2019t your fault<\/h2>\n
Set up screen time limits, and take them seriously<\/h2>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n