I know I’ve shared this on my main blog, but maybe not here: my worst time-waster is Instagram.
I never waste time on Pinterest (I hardly use it!)
Facebook isn’t at all addicting (I basically only have pages and groups related to my blog, so there’s almost no feed for me to see.)
Twitter isn’t a huge time-suck because I follow only a handful of people (15, to be exact. Also, one of them is Cookie Monster, and he tweets only occasionally.)
Instagram, though? Yikes.
I can easily waste a long time looking at people’s photos, scrolling through the Explore page, finding new accounts, catching up on those accounts’ old posts…Instagram is perfectly designed to suck me in and keep me in.
So, I install the Instagram app when I want to post something and then I delete it.
I tried other, less-drastic measures (screen time limits, reducing the number of people I follow, etc.), but nothing worked.
I do access Instagram via my laptop, but like most people, I don’t waste time on social media nearly as much on my computer as I do on my phone.
(This has been documented but I currently feel too lazy to look up the link.)
Relatedly, I do not keep Twitter on my phone, and the same is true for Facebook.
Sometimes, I think it’s good to depend on self-control. And sometimes, it’s just good to know that you DO NOT HAVE self-control, and then set up your life accordingly.
Definitely Facebook. (Tim Cotton (timcottonwrites.com) calls it Faceplant. That’s accurate.)
I pop in on my laptop while something is saving and all of a sudden, five minutes have passed. Not good.
My router and a program called Cold Turkey help me to block and focus. 🙂
Candy Crush!! I spend a ridiculous amount of time playing this silly game.
The Internet in general. I don’t have any social media accounts, and I don’t have a smartphone, but I can waste quite enough time just reading random things on the Kitchn website or The Atlantic or whatever on my laptop. I find it much harder to concentrate on a book with my children racing around me and interrupting me (which, of course, they do ALLLLL the time), so I fall back on reading stuff online that doesn’t require as much concentration and takes less time to read.
It’s really bad for my brain, though. At certain periods in my life (by which I mean, the newborn years) I could FEEL my brain atrophying. I try to read a Real Book–the most recent was “Guns, Germs, and Steel”–occasionally to make my brain work a little more. But it sure is easier just to read the latest round-up or rice krispie treat recipes on the Kitchn . . .
Sometimes I think I’m weird because I may be the only one in the world without any social media accounts?? My biggest time-waster is TV. I don’t watch much but if I have a hard day then at night after everything is done I’ll turn it on and stay up too late instead of getting some sleep which I should do. It’s so easy to keep watching because the next show automatically plays for you. They knew what they were doing. Grr! I always regret it the next day.
We may be the only two without social media, Sara!
Make that three of us not on social media. Hard enough to only look at Kristen’s two blogs. Rabbit trails get me every time. I’ve watched two daughters exit Facebook after dealing with people they don’t even know criticizing them. Not worth my time….. I do like to read anything Dennis Prager sends, and Graham Ledger, as well, plus anything the Colson Center sends out. I can spend an hour doing that, as well as dumping all the junk that hits my inbox every day.
Ditto on Dennis Prager… he is spot on!!!
Make that three without social media! But the Internet and TV can be time wasters for me.
If you’re weird, so am I. (But then, I don’t think that was ever in much doubt. 🙂
The internet in general!! I have zero social media accounts and I don’t watch TV. It was all part of my massive downsizing a few years ago. My answer could be exactly like Kristin’s @going country. I find myself reading a blog or a recipe or looking something up and before I know it I’ve gone down that black hole of following link after link to the next related article or recipe. I kick myself because I used to read books constantly but in the last few years, I find myself reading short spurts of things like blog articles and recipes. It feels so “dumbed down”. I find that the writing on the internet is so so so SO poor that I just get irritated and that’s usually what makes me stop. Honestly, Kristen, it’s one reason I love your blog so much. Not only do I love the content but you know how to write!
Facebook. I don’t have the app on my phone, but I still have to be intentional about not spending too much time there.