How many of us check Facebook as often as humanly possible during the day whether we’re at work, home or at a restaurant with friends? Or do you constantly update Twitter with every little thought in your head, even if it makes no sense or has little value? If you’re addicted to Facebook or Twitter, maybe even both, you can beat the addiction with these seven tricks for getting away from social media and back into the real world.

1: Find Out How Much Time You Are Wasting

One of the quickest ways to combat social media addiction is to come to the realization of how much time you actually waste on Facebook and Twitter. Sometimes this wakeup call is enough to knock some sense into you and how you prioritize your time during the day. Track how often you log in to Facebook and Twitter, along with what you do each time for a week. Read over what you’ve done all week, see how much time you’ve wasted and make changes accordingly to beat the addiction.

You can use these browsers extensions to monitor time as well and see how you spend it on the Web:

  • Chrome: Time Tracker
  • Firefox: Mind the Time

2: Get Away From Your Computer or Smart Phone

Picking up a new habit, hobby or sport is another easy way to get away from social media. If you find you spend too much time on Facebook and Twitter wishing you were doing something else, go and do it, and stop talking about it. Finding a new hobby is not only good for your health and your overall well-being, it’s all a great way to fill the void left by Facebook and Twitter.

3: Change Your Password and/or E-mail Address

If you’ll want to get back into social media once you have your Facebook and Twitter addiction under control, you may just want to block access to the sites. Changing your email address and password, or better yet getting a friend to do it and hold onto that information for you, is the quickest way to retain your accounts and access them once you have beaten the compulsion to tweet, like and update under control. Just make sure it’s a trusted friend.

4: Block Facebook and Twitter

Did you know you can manually block Facebook and Twitter through your modem or router? You can set up access restrictions to block social networks entirely or during specific hours of the day. Every modem and router use different steps, but for the most part, you’ll be able to find the exact steps to limit web site access on the modem or router manufacturer’s web site.

5: Deactivate Accounts

Facebook and Twitter allow users to deactivate accounts, which saves everything on them but makes it harder to log back in to use them. You often have to jump through hoops to reactive accounts; this may be enough to curtail the compulsion to tweet and update.

Deactivate Facebook account or a Twitter account with these links.

6: Delete Your Accounts

Twitter and Facebook allow users to take deactivating their accounts one-step further by deleting them entirely. This will eliminate everything you’ve ever done on either social network, along with being able to login or reactive the account. You cannot recover your account once you take this step nor can you retrieve any posts or history you had with the site. Essentially, you’d be starting over on Facebook and Twitter, and this can be a powerful ally to not only stop your social media addiction but ensure you stay away entirely.

Delete a Facebook account or deactivate a Twitter account and 30 days later it will be deleted.

7: Cold Turkey

Quitting social media addiction cold turkey can be frustrating, unbearable and impossible for some, but not all. It requires changing your mind, habits and finding other ways to enjoy your time online or even get you out in the real world. For some, quitting Facebook and Twitter cold turkey may be the only way they get over the addiction, because in a way, they’re doing so without any gimmicks, tools or help from anyone else. That feeling alone can be a motivating factor in getting away from social media and changing your habits online to be more healthy and productive.

Conclusion

Facebook, Twitter and other forms of social media can be beat. When you control social media, and it doesn’t control you, that’s when you know it’s safe to update your status or tweet. Until then, stay strong – you can beat that Facebook or Twitter addition.

Melissa Popp has been a freelance writer for over a decade. While she primarily has focused on writing about technology, she’s also written about everything from custom mailboxes to health care to just about anything in between.

Melissa is the Content Strategist for Trailerbroker.com, the nation’s leading marketplace for trailers for sale, the Social Media Manager for the best roofing Denver company as well as a Writer here at MakeTechEasier.

She’s a proud support of the Denver SEO community and a big fan of online radio.

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