It seems like there is no person left on Earth who wouldn’t spend some time connected to some type of social media. It can be Facebook, YouTube, Instagram etc.

These platforms provide endless content that is easy to watch, but difficult to stop watching. Though it seems like these services are for free, we know they are definitely not. In return for free shorts, reels etc. you pay with an access to your personal information and an easy compilation of your behavioral patterns that allow companies to manipulate you. But what is more problematic is that you trade your own time for a chance to waste it on, mostly, useless content.

Why is it a problem you may ask? Well, since we don’t live forever, spending time using social media puts you in a kind of digital prison, which is difficult to escape as more and more time spent there. It is known that social media is addictive and that is why its effects are dangerous.

A good analogy can be an analogy with junk or, as it’s now called, ultra-processed foods. It is known that such food is, relatively, cheap, devoid of healthy content and very addictive. People whose diet is full of such food are prone to a following progression: being overweight, then obese, then type 2 diabetic.

The same is applicable to social media content. It’s cheap. It’s, mostly, devoid of healthy content and it’s very addictive. Well, what can we do in this case? Using the same analogy, it is known that the main component that is harmful in ultra-processed food are refined carbohydrates, especially, when they combined with refined seed oils. Refined carbohydrates are harmful, because they raise insulin hormone, that in turns promotes fat storage and hence weight gain. Solutions to this problems are intermittent fasting, which allows insulin hormone to become low and hence utilize stored fat for energy. And ketogenic diets, that achieve weight loss with a similar effect on insulin hormone.

Well, how is this applicable to social media? It seems reasonable that intermittent fasting or complete fasting from social media can be an effective approach to reclaim your time and start focusing your efforts somewhere else. Somewhere, where your time and effort may be helpful to you and other people in your life. We are talking about focusing your time on things you’d like to achieve or change. Things that require concentrated effort for long periods of time. Such an effort isn’t possible with destructive social media interference.

So, there you have it. One possible way forward is to delete some or all of your social media apps from your phone. Start intermittent fasting from social media for 16 or more hours a day, just like is done in 16:8 intermittent fasting, where you fast for 16 hours, and eat only within 8 hour eating window. Practice complete abstinence from social media for a number of days. What is known as prolonged fasting in a fasting world. Search for other ways to break the addiction, for you have only limited time on this Earth.