1) Make yourself a very specific list of why you are quitting and re-read it all the time, adding to it whenever new reasons pop up. Similarly: it helped me to identify what I call the "price of admission" for making a change — aka the things I am knowingly giving up in order to have the thing I want more. With Instagram the price of admission to a more peaceful life, greater privacy, and a reclamation of my own attention (the three things I wanted most) was losing touch with some folks and not being the first to see a news update or pop culture thing. To me that was a worthwhile price to pay, and reminding myself that there is indeed a cost (and that I had decided to pay it) was much easier than telling myself it "should" be "easy" to quit because Instagram is "bad".
2) Be super tender & kind to yourself. Changing an ingrained habit or behavior can be really hard! The addictive nature of these apps is fucking real, and engineered on purpose by very smart, very rich, very powerful people. There's nothing "wrong" with you if quitting feels difficult.
3) Intentionally learn about the most evil aspects of these companies to help strengthen your resolve (Cory Doctorow's Enshittification is my A+ rec here).
4) Surround yourself with stories of other people who are making this same choice, especially if you don't have anyone in your offline line that can relate (Amelia Hruby's podcast, Off The Grid, is my rec here, as well as her new book, Your Attention is Sacred Except on Social Media).
5) Create a menu of easy things to do instead of scroll social media (which you insightfully touched on already in the second part of your question!) I often turn to podcast listening for this, or honestly even just scrolling through my podcast player app to see if there's anything new I want to download. Same for browsing the book app that my local library uses and putting books on hold. It satisfies that momentary urge to scroll and see new things, but in a way that doesn't hook me.
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Yesterday! Hell yes, congrats! My advice is:
1) Make yourself a very specific list of why you are quitting and re-read it all the time, adding to it whenever new reasons pop up. Similarly: it helped me to identify what I call the "price of admission" for making a change — aka the things I am knowingly giving up in order to have the thing I want more. With Instagram the price of admission to a more peaceful life, greater privacy, and a reclamation of my own attention (the three things I wanted most) was losing touch with some folks and not being the first to see a news update or pop culture thing. To me that was a worthwhile price to pay, and reminding myself that there is indeed a cost (and that I had decided to pay it) was much easier than telling myself it "should" be "easy" to quit because Instagram is "bad". 2) Be super tender & kind to yourself. Changing an ingrained habit or behavior can be really hard! The addictive nature of these apps is fucking real, and engineered on purpose by very smart, very rich, very powerful people. There's nothing "wrong" with you if quitting feels difficult.
3) Intentionally learn about the most evil aspects of these companies to help strengthen your resolve (Cory Doctorow's Enshittification is my A+ rec here). 4) Surround yourself with stories of other people who are making this same choice, especially if you don't have anyone in your offline line that can relate (Amelia Hruby's podcast, Off The Grid, is my rec here, as well as her new book, Your Attention is Sacred Except on Social Media). 5) Create a menu of easy things to do instead of scroll social media (which you insightfully touched on already in the second part of your question!) I often turn to podcast listening for this, or honestly even just scrolling through my podcast player app to see if there's anything new I want to download. Same for browsing the book app that my local library uses and putting books on hold. It satisfies that momentary urge to scroll and see new things, but in a way that doesn't hook me.