Removing toxic social media from your life?

[An Anonymous Inquiry]

How do you get off and stay off of social media? I'm beginning to think I'm highly addicted to social media sites. I've deleted all but one, Facebook. I've tried quitting abruptly, but it only lasted 4 days and I was surprisingly having withdraw symptoms. ((I'm surely addicted))

I've tried spending less and less time on there, but it's only made me want to check it even more often. I don't want to delete my account completely, not yet. As, that would be the easiest solution, my main reason for staying on there is for old friends I never see and out of state family I rarely talk to or see. I have 60+ friends, no followers, and the only time my statuses are liked is when it's about my loving fiancé. Those same friends who we run across while in public I notice will give my fiancé more attention than me. (Not flirting, but will straight up ignore me, some friends huh?) It's like I'm nonexistent on social media. I'm beginning to think there is no point to it other than inspirational pages. It just makes me feel worse about myself on so many levels that I want to conquer the addiction before ultimately deleting it. I only use Facebook anymore than checking my email a couple times a month.

Ultimately, I have a feeling I will delete my Facebook, but for NOW I want to find a way to get over this social media addiction first so I will be more likely to stay off it more easily.

Help?

[Sean]

this site may hellp http://www.xtube.com

[Mark]

I made a commitment to check facebook one day a week.
once a week is fine and lets you keep posted on friends and family out of state or who you don't see often.

Your self-esteem being hurt by your lack of 'likes' or 'followers' is much more important here than your addiction to SM. you seem to want to leave because of your lack of popularity on facebook.
you need to work out why you aren't connecting to people or they are not receiving you warmly. either you can change things you are doing, or else you should look for different friends who appreciate and value YOU more.

good luck.

[J]

Ask yourself this: What is it that social media does FOR me? Make a list. Then ask what problems it brings. Make that list. If you write down the honest answers within you and see it in black and white, you may be surprised. It is a great way to stay connected to faraway friends and family. Use it for THAT, instead of having to be in the loop of every silly detail of everyone else's lives. I use it for long distance communication, photo sharing, and messaging. I find all the daily posts, checking in, timeline, and a lot of other things absolutely useless to me. I sometimes feel it is intrusive for people to be able to go through my photos, read some things, or a post put up that I have to delete because it is possibly offensive to someone. I changed my settings to alleviate some things. I post like once a month, if that. Mostly msg people, or comment on a special occasion or like a nice pic. But that is rare. It is a big waste of time, and frankly, a huge way to spy or gossip about what is going on with this person or that. What ever did we do without all that? We picked up the phone, wrote a letter, or went to lunch with a person. So, decide what it means to you, how useful it is, and use it only to the extent it is positive and useful. Personally, I do not care if people post or like my stuff. It is not important to me. If it is a negative thing in your life, then by all means eradicate it. Or use it strictly to keep in touch with faraway loved ones, not for keeping tabs on local friends.. or them keeping tabs on YOU.

[Sir]

If you are talking about dating, hookup sites--I'll make it easy for you: in today's (USA) world, no one meets anyone via online anymore. They did back in 1997, maybe even until about 2005..., but that has changed because too many people had bad experiences. Now, go to a social media or dating site and all you'll find are mean people who are mad for whatever reasons, or desperate scammers trying to leave bad situations. So honestly it's a total waste of time.

It's a downer because many people are in real life situations (offline) that are very unsocial. But online dating hookup has become just another dead end.

So why are people constantly chatting online?--it's to established connections only.