These 7 hacks will help you beat Facebook addiction

9 years ago

Image courtesy: promisesaustin.com

The first thing you do on waking up in the morning is logging in to your laptop to check the status of your previous night’s post on Facebook. You are keen on the number of likes and comments on your latest profile. Or more likely inquisitive about your ex-girlfriend’s FB posts that you end up visiting that page half a dozen times in a day. Facebook addiction is real and here are a few tips to beat them:

1) Turn off all email notifications:

One of the most irritating aspects of Facebook is your Inbox filled with Facebook pokes, birthday reminders, and reader’s comments and each time anyone tags you. You can avoid this nuisance by turning off email notifications. Go to the settings page and click on notifications in the left column. The second item on this page is email. Select the option and just click unsubscribe at the bottom of email.

2) Get a time-limiter plug-in:

If you are a Google Chrome user there is an extension called Stayfocusd: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stayfocusd/laankejkbhbdhmipfmgcngdelahlfoji. It allows you to set daily time limits on certain websites. And once you hit the time-limit, the page closes as much as is needed for self-discipline and time management.

3) Use private Facebook groups:

There are a couple of ways to limit access of your “wallposts” only to your closest friends and relations instead of flashing them in public. You can either form separate groups or you could edit the “who should access” icon before the post button.

4) Use your discretion while wishing back:

It is not expected of you to gush on birthday wishes of every contact in your friends list. Only spend time on greetings of those who really matter to you in real life .

5) Be prudent when it comes to data-sharing:

There are several applications that require you to agree to part with your personal data, be extremely wary of them for they not only besiege you with emails but also spam your contacts list. So each time you visit an application that offers you amusement on “what you were in your last life” or “what is the best profession based on your sun sign” on the condition of data share, just know it is not worth the data share.

6) Have control on the number of friends:

There are no prizes for gathering a lot of friends and a social networking site is no popularity contest. It is advisable to have friends and relations in real life for starters and then based on interactions.

7) Use hide post icon:

If you find your Facebook page full of posts from strangers, do yourself a favour by clicking on that post and selecting hide all posts from that user

8) Don’t join any group that is of little value to you:

We live in an age where everyone is trying to sell something and there are requests on joining a book promotion page or latest contest of their company or any such trivial thing which means nothing to you. Just ignore such promotions or else your account would be swamped with messages on each “like” or “new post”.