How to Have a Better Experience on Facebook

Are you addicted to FB? Wish you used it less than you do? Feeling less happy, or less connected to your actual life? Finding that likes are way more important to you than you wish they were? Notice yourself tempted to scroll even though you are hanging out with a friend or loved one?

Here are some steps that you may find useful to reduce the negative aspects of FB:

Step 1: Turn off notifications on your phone.

Seriously. This ideally means both vibrations/pings and the badge that shows you how many new alerts you have. For instance, on iPhone, go to settings, then the name of the app, then “notifications”.

Step 2: Limit it to one device

Ask yourself where you find FB more distracting and time-wasting, on mobile or desktop.

If mobile, consider simply deleting the app from your phone. You can still keep the Messenger app if you want. Or, if you’re absolutely unwilling to delete it, move it to the last page of the home screen and put it in a folder.

If the desktop platform is the bigger problem, download an extension for your browser (e.g., StayFocused for Chrome or WasteNoTime for Safari/Chrome or LeechḄlock for Firefox) and use them to fully block FB. That way, if you forget that you decided not to use it on the desktop anymore, and you subconsciously try to access FB, you’ll get an immediate reminder. Once this step is done, you’ll only have one device to worry about. If you’re not willing to delete or fully block FB on even one device, though, don’t worry, you can still do the other steps down below.

Step 3: Make it less addictive

Mobile: one way to make FB slightly less additive on mobile is to always use the browser version (rather than the native app) on your phone. To set this up, just navigate to FB in your phone’s web browser, then choose “add to home screen”, so that the website (rather than the app) appears on your phone. Then you can delete the app itself (or if you really need it for some reason, put it inside a folder on the last home screen page).

From now on, use the browser version rather than the native one. The main reason to do this is that the browser version is just a bit clunkier, slower, less elegant, and less addictive. The engineers have less ability to optimize it to hijack your mind. The other advantage is that mobile apps for ḅlocking aḍs will work in the web version but not the app version (if you’re someone who prefers to use a ḅlocking app, such as Ad Block Plus or Block Bear).

Another mobile option is Space (by dopamine), which I haven’t tried, but it is supposed to create a substantial delay whenever you open it, during which you can think about your decision and just breath. This has the added benefit of creating a bigger gap between choosing to use FB and the additive reward you get from seeing all the shiny things that your brain likes. Joanna Bresee also has a neat trick she discusses in one of her blog posts, which is to start using an older, slower phone, which makes everything on your phone less addictive.

Desktop: consider using Friction (on chrome) which makes your experience significantly less addictive and which blocks your newsfeed by default. Purity also has some options that can reduce addictiveness, such as not showing you when a friend is in the process of commenting (but hasn’t commented yet).

Step 4: Limit time

First of all, you may want to make some rules for yourself about when you use it. For instance, you could have a rules that you don’t use it on certain days or within certain timeframes. If you have trouble self-enforcing such rules, you can try tools like StayFocused for Chrome or WasteNoTime for Safari/Chrome or LeechBlock for Firefox, which let you limit your total time spent on whichever sites you choose to a pre-specified number of daily minutes, as well as limit such usage to be within certain hours.

Another awesome approach would be to only allow FB use on certain days, such as Tuesdays and Saturdays. If you think it is actually making your life worse, consider quitting it all together. You can deactivate your account and see how it feels, and always reactivate it later if you choose.

Step 5: Curate

Hide posts that fit a pattern of content that you find distracting or annoying (which will begin to train the algorithm not to give you content like that in the future), and really try to avoid liking or interacting with stuff that your reflecting mind doesn’t approve of you seeing in the future. For instance, your reflective mind probably does approve of you seeing your friend’s major life events being announced but probably doesn’t approve of you watching stupid addictive videos.

Use a tool like Purity or Social Fixer to explicitly remove certain kinds of content (including by keyword – for instance, you could filter outposts that include the names of famous individuals who you are incredibly sick of hearing about but always tempted to click on) and to otherwise adjust your experience.

For people whose content you want to be sure to see, go to their profile and mouse over where it says “Following” (on desktop). Change it to “See First”, and you’ll start seeing their content at the top of your newsfeed (instead of just whenever the algorithm feels like showing it to you).

Hovering your mouse over “Following” is also where you can find the option to unfollow a person’s posts if you’d prefer not to see their stuff anymore (you’ll still remain their friend, you just won’t see their posts in your newsfeed).

FB doesn’t make it particularly easy, but with a little effort, you can make it less addictive and start to morph the platform more into what you want it to be.

If you’re interested in the problem of FB addictiveness and app addictiveness in general, check out the work of Tristan Harris  (e.g., his site timewellspent.io).