We’ve all been there—grabbing our phone first thing in the morning, thinking we’ll just check one thing, and before we know it, we’ve lost half an hour scrolling through social media. I recently found myself in this exact trap, all thanks to a simple morning ritual that took a turn for the worse.
It all started with Wordle—a fun and simple game where you have to guess a five-letter word in six tries. Every morning, I would wake up, play Wordle, and then start my day. It felt like a harmless, even enjoyable, habit. But slowly, that five-minute game turned into checking Twitter notifications, then scrolling through Instagram, then TikTok. Before I knew it, my efficient morning routine had morphed into a time-sucking spiral of social media consumption.
I’m not alone in this. Studies show that people spend an average of two hours per day on social media. That’s two hours we could be using for something more fulfilling—reading, practicing a hobby, or even just experiencing boredom the old-fashioned way. Interestingly, since the introduction of smartphones, even chewing gum sales have plummeted because people now look at their phones instead of impulse-buying gum while waiting in checkout lines.
The Social Media Trap
Social media is designed to be a frictionless experience. Companies optimize their platforms to keep us engaged for as long as possible, making it incredibly easy to slip into endless scrolling. We often reach for our phones out of habit, not out of a deliberate intention to use them.
To combat this, technology itself offers solutions—apps that block social media, browser extensions that limit time spent on websites, and even built-in tools like iPhone’s Focus Mode. But these solutions often feel extreme or unnecessary for those who don’t want to completely cut social media from their lives.
The Surprisingly Simple Fix: Logging Out
The best solution I’ve found is absurdly simple: log out. That’s it.
Use social media when you intend to, then log out. If you need to check messages or scroll during a break, log back in. By making logging in a conscious effort rather than a mindless habit, you introduce a tiny bit of friction—just enough to disrupt the automatic impulse to check your feed.
Yes, there are more extreme solutions—deleting apps altogether, throwing your phone across the room, or quitting social media entirely à la Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism. But for those of us who aren’t ready for such drastic measures, logging out is a small but effective step toward reclaiming our time.
The Power of Friction
This method works because unconscious habits thrive in an environment of zero friction. Social media apps are designed to be opened in seconds with no effort. But adding a small inconvenience—like logging back in—forces a moment of deliberation. Do I really need to check Twitter right now? More often than not, the answer is no.
This concept aligns with the principle from Atomic Habits by James Clear: sometimes success isn’t about making good habits easier but making bad habits harder. By making mindless scrolling even slightly more difficult, we naturally do it less.
My Personal Experiment
At first, I resisted logging out. I made excuses—what if I missed an important message? Wouldn’t it be annoying to log in and out constantly? But once I finally did it, the results were immediate.
One day after logging out, I found myself standing in line at a coffee shop, instinctively reaching for my phone to check Twitter. Instead, I was met with a login screen. And just like that, I realized I didn’t actually care to check Twitter—I was just looking for a quick dopamine hit. That was a turning point. Over the next few days, my impulse to check my phone in idle moments significantly decreased.
Challenge Yourself
If you find yourself mindlessly scrolling through social media, I challenge you to try this simple method. Open up Twitter, TikTok, Instagram—whatever app consumes your time—and log out. See how it changes your behavior. You’re not giving up social media, just making it a conscious choice rather than an automatic habit.
Small changes can lead to big results. Sometimes, all it takes to regain control of our time is a tiny bit of friction.
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