When our kids were little, I got them reading tablets. In addition to the traditional paper books, they had their digital books onto which we downloaded and conveniently traveled with loads of books that required almost no space. They also shared an iPad that had a ton of educational games.
Our daughter was practically an expert in the digestive system by the time she was six years old. Both kids enjoyed the thrill of getting the answers right on math problems, and the chemistry videos were their favorites. Our son was in the fourth grade when he asked for a real video game. You probably guessed that we never watched TV or had cable. Remember those days? Yes, our kids grew up with heavily restricted traditional screen time.
Fast-forward to 2025. Now, I am the one who needs restricted screen time. When I think of the periods in my life when I was most productive, we had dial-up internet, there was no texting, no Instagram, no Facebook, LinkedIn didn’t exist or it was in its infancy. We were still mailing CDs back and forth to Netflix and Blockbuster was in hospice.
Whether it’s doom scrolling, intentional procrastination, the quick post that turns into an hour of watching stupid clips, we all waste so much time on social media these days.
Recently, I toyed with the idea of getting off social media altogether, but there are so many reasons to stay on. I need to keep tabs on my kids, send encouraging notes to their friends, peek into all their high school and college life shenanigans, post about work, vent, celebrate, commiserate, and see what my own friends and colleagues are up to. My selfies? There would be no need for selfies if I can’t post them. These sound like all great, valid reasons, right?
What I am now trying is deleting my social media apps and reinstating them only when I need to post. I can spend 30 minutes scrolling, but after that, we are done. I am also giving myself social media fasting challenges. Now, I need a good reward and a punishment system to associate with good and bad behavior. Let’s hope the Caribbean system still works for me as an adult.
How do the rest of you who use social media keep yourselves from wasting so much time on it?
