Coping With Social Media Addiction (Android, Firefox, and Chrome)

This is a safe space, you are okay.  "It's not your fault.  You are in control, although, I am currently controlling what you are thinking because you are reading what I've written.  I am and what you see are what are controlling you at this very moment." - Austin Irvine

It's the system man!  The MAN is putting his thumb on us and holding us in place.

If you're reading this, then the thought that social media takes a lot of time has likely crossed your mind.  Likely, you know that large and small corporations have teams that specifically try addicting our emotions to content.  Then, the content never ceases or... it links to content on websites that also have interminable content.  The stream of information keeps flowing, then... At the bottom of this website, it links back to a Social Media website.  The loop continues, and we keep seeing the content we want to see.  When will it stop!  Well, there are a few supplements we can take to try to reduce the amount of social media we consume.

The Supplements. 
     Instead of feeding you a lot of useful facts, I'll review each platform and tell you my favorite ways of staying focused and to reduce the social media avalanche.  I'll start with a couple that apply to all platforms.

• Uninstall, Disable, Delete Accounts - If it really isn't adding any benefit to your life, get out of it, remove it from your life.  Something to keep in mind is other people.  It is healthy to have a social life, so don't completely disconnect, but have more in-person or video chat get-togethers.  Humans are social creatures that read body language much better than new-age tech trends.  Our evolution is built for high fives, hugs, and hangovers.   Truly having a tiny bit of social life online can be mentally beneficial, I just don't believe in extremes.
• Unplug electronics, leave them at home
• If you have some willpower, check social media and/or email at the end of the day.  You could even have an auto-reply on your email that those trying to contact you that you only check email at night or to give you a call instead.  (It is up to personal preferences at this point)

ANDROID

•  AppBlocker - This app can block certain apps during times of the day that you assign.  This app is very clean on the UI side, although you can only block 5 apps with the free version.  I'd say it is probably worth the purchase.  Personally, the free version works fine.
• NCleaner - This app compiles all unneeded notifications into one notification.  At the end of the day, it takes one click to delete all of your notifications with a little adjustment of preferences.
• There are a few parental control apps that also work phenomenally well.

FIREFOX EXTENSIONS

• LeechBlock - Powerful extension that allows the user to create groups of websites to block during certain times of the day, add time limits to viewing sites, and even block the user from changing the settings while websites are being blocked. (savage, but useful if you want to get work done)
• Focus - (For StackOverflow Users) - This will block the extra links to useless stack overflow posts that are shown on the right side of the screen.  To me these links are very distracting.
• Stylish - Changes CSS code for a variety of websites to make them look different and even to make some sites easier to focus on.  For example, there is a style called 'Distraction-Free Facebook' that takes out the newsfeed and a few other distracting features.
• Stay Productive - Takes away the feeds on Twitter, Linkedin, and/or Facebook.  It isn't that modifiable, but does the job.
• Stay Focused and Be Present - Grow trees on a pomodoro-like timer - gamifies focusing if that is your thing - This app will remind you to avoid websites/forums or your tree will stop growing.

GOOGLE CHROME EXTENSIONS(Needs more work)

• StayFocused - Restricts the amount of time spent on time-wasting websites.  If you want to focus on something, the preferences for StayFocused are fairly modifiable and helpful.  And eventually if you use an allotted amount of time on bad websites, it block you from going to them and modifying the settings.
• Crackbook - Block certain sites during different times of the day.
• Social Fixer - Hide all the trash on Facebook, modify your feed, and change virtually every aspect of what's fed to you on Facebook.
• uBlock
• this piece of software is open source, so it is reliable and not going to let ad companies pay it off like adblock.
• uBlock is very customizable and can be used to block certain sites or lists of unwanted websites
• Similar to adblock you can choose certain elements of sites to block which is always useful for productivity 
• You can choose filter lists to block site groups here: https://filterlists.com/ - word to the wise: Add one list at a time because some of these lists block a lot of normal websites.
• Distraction Free YouTube - This is one of my all-time favorites
• Take away the comment section, auto-play, any videos off to the side of the video at hand
• Really makes youtube a productive environment depending on what you want.

Feel free to comment with any useful plugins, software, or advice you have with coping with social media addiction.

Thanks,

Austin