I ain't that special, I fall into some Internet rabbit holes for long minutes too.

I never spent a whole hour on Tik Tok (look, maybe once or twice, but I can't honestly recall it) Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter (now X), or Facebook (anyone still on FB?). However, when I find myself for more than 30 minutes scrolling up and down the timeline (unless I'm uploading a piece of content), there's an alert light that I figuratively switch on in my brain. 

Since I'm not shy in admitting that social media algorithm is indeed a frenemy of mine, here's a list of actions I've been implementing to protect myself from the algorithm's insidious job of keeping me online for long minutes. 

 It's not a nice feeling to realize how much time you've spent online looking up for something and now you're in a rabbit hole full of video of cats dancing, animated cartoon gifs, and funny comedy sketches. Try to maximize your time on social media by setting up the type of content you want to come across more often, especially related to your field of studies, career, or creative journey. In this way you'll get to organically scout material that can turn out to be useful in other context besides filling the void in your free time. Yes, mute those useless hashtags about celebrities, 'cause nothing substantial is really going to change in the span of 20 minutes. You're just going to get more and more addicted into finding a higher number of details for a trivial matter.

Ok, maybe tailoring the algorithm based on your preferences wasn't the most efficient idea. What about setting up an alarm clock on your phone? Example: before hopping on social media, fix a 5-10 minutes frame time on your alarm clock and be strong enough to disengage with your phone once the alarm goes off.

Delete social media apps. I'm not saying for you to not have social media accounts, but how about logging in by just using the social media's website version. This process tends to be a little bit less less attractive and accessible when we want to consume our content. 

If you've got more tips, let me know. I'm trying to elevate this frenemy relationship of mine with social media.