How often do we update our Instagram or Facebook feed? Why, while watching the news from the lives of friends and strangers, we do not even notice where the next hour of our life disappears? What are the reasons for this dependence on social networks, and most importantly – how to learn to spend less time on it?

How do I stop mindless internet browsing? To stop mindless internet browsing, try to do the following:

• Unsubscribe from all newsletters and advertisements that you do not read. Take a few seconds and find the “unsubscribe” button at the end of each newsletter. The less time you spend looking through junk mail, the more you will have.
• Make a plan for your online experience. Don’t go online just to wander aimlessly around sites looking for something interesting. Make a list of the things you need to do online as if you were going to a grocery store.
• Use a timer. Buy an inexpensive timer and place it on the table. Try setting it to one hour and be amazed at how quickly it flies on the net.
• Schedule your daily activities. Even if you don’t want to limit time online, add other must-have activities to your daily routine so that you can spend time on them instead of the network.
• Remove all quick social networking apps from your phone. Or think about changing your tariff plan. This drastic measure can help if you do not need to go online from your phone, but you constantly check your mail or sit on social networks at lunch and cannot get rid of these habits.
• Set “offline day”. Not necessarily a day off, but usually the best option since you are not busy with work and your whole family is at home.
• Find a new hobby. Try learning to knit, scrapbooking, or some other similar hobby. You can start cycling, yoga, martial arts, foreign languages, or cooking. Thus, you can expand your horizons, always be busy with something and forget about the computer for a while.
• Get offline every night. When you’ve finished your daily internet activity, log out of all profiles and turn off the network. In the morning, you will be less tempted to run to the computer and you can calmly do other things.
• Close unnecessary tabs. Do not keep social media tabs open while you work. Instead, log out of profiles and focus on your current assignments. Keeping constantly updated sites open will distract you, slow you down, and spend more time on the web.
• Dedicate more time to your family! This is perhaps the most important piece of advice. Many people spend so much time on the Internet that they do not notice how their children are growing up. Absurd? Of course! Children need real, not virtual, parents. By the way, recently a study was carried out in the West, according to which, in recent years, the number of broken marriages has been rapidly growing precisely because of the Internet.

How Do I Stop Wasting Time on the Internet?

Also, if you want to stop wasting time on the Internet, you need to try:

• Decide what you need a smartphone for. Many people set themselves the goal of spending less time on their smartphone but do not specify exactly how they want to do it. They suddenly stop using their smartphone, and then they are surprised that nothing happened.Therefore, before taking any action, ask yourself: what do you need a smartphone for? What makes you happy and what frustrates you? What habits would you like to change?
•  Find out how much time you spend on the phone. Install an app that will track your activity. You might be upset when you find out how much time is wasted, but it’s a great way to motivate yourself and track your progress. What is a healthy screen time per day? Healthy screen time per day depends on the age of the patient. For children, restrictions are stricter: at preschool age – no more than 10-15 minutes without a break, from 7 to 10 years old – 30-40 minutes. In adults, without a break – one hour. Spend more time outdoors
• Determine how you want to spend your free time. You will soon have more free time: for example, when you are riding the elevator or standing in line. Take a deep breath and just relax. Remember what it feels like to be lost in your own thoughts.Think about what you would like to do in your free evening and create an appropriate atmosphere at home. If you want to read more, place the book on the coffee table so it can be seen as you collapse on the couch after a day’s work. If you want to make music, take the instrument out of the case and put it where it will always be at hand.
•  Use apps to protect yourself from apps. It sounds paradoxical, but it’s actually an extremely effective way. Apps like Freedom, OFFTIME or Flipd will let you block access to other apps and websites. Include them at work or while studying. Some apps allow you to create a schedule: you can block access to social networks a couple of hours before bed. It is an incredibly useful tool to change your habits.
• Create a self-test reminder. We often pick up the phone automatically. To prevent this from happening, create an obstacle that makes you stop and decide if you need a phone at the moment. Put an elastic band or elastic band on your phone. An inconvenient case will work too.
•  Remove social media apps. These apps are designed to make us spend as much time as possible on them. What for? Because it is beneficial. Every minute we spend on social media is another opportunity to show us ads.This does not mean that you need to stop using social media. But if your goal is to spend as little time on your smartphone as possible, consider using social media only on your computer.
•  Set up a text answering machine. Many people get nervous when they do not respond to a message from an interlocutor for a long time, so they constantly keep their smartphone ready. In this case, you can set up a text answering machine. IOS 11 introduces a Do Not Disturb While Driving feature that you can customize for any situation. Android users can use a third-party application such as “SMS Auto Answer Calls & SMS”.
• Take small but rewarding actions. Charge your phone away from your bed. Turn off all notifications except for calls, messages and calendar events. Leave only useful apps on your home screen. Buy a watch. Don’t use your phone as an alarm clock, remove it from the table while eating, and ask others to do the same.
•  Remember the true purpose. One of the reasons that all of our attempts to spend less time on smartphones are failing is because we treat it as an act of self-deprivation. Instead, try to think in a more positive way: the less time we spend with the phone, the more our life will be like the one we dream of.

How much time on the Internet is too much? When researchers surveyed 120,000 15-year-old adolescents about their health (mainly assessed mental health, including social skills) and compared the results with the time they spent on various gadgets, it turned out that modern electronic devices in fact do more good than harm. For a computer, the optimal time was 257 minutes a day, for smartphones – about 120 minutes, for video games – 100.

Scientists say gadgets can enhance creativity, improve communication skills, and generally aid development.