By Leo Gladys
Whether you’re an individual with a social media addiction, or you’re a small business owner who needs social media in order to function, it can be easy to spend too much time scrolling through your phone instead of living in the real world. This is a real problem, and it’s spreading. Luckily, there are some great tools out there to help you control this behavior, which means you can spend more time with your friends or running your business successfully.
Socialrocketer published its top Instagram tools list, and we’ve put together one solely dedicated to solving the problem of how much time you spend on the app. That way, you don’t have to give it up entirely, but you can get some control back on how often you use Instagram.
1 SocialSteeze
When you’re running an Instagram account as a business leader or aspiring influencer, getting followers can take up tons of time. It requires researching constantly and engaging all the time, too. But this can be an addictive behavior. That’s why SocialSteeze is so great. According to Hackernoon, this tool “helps you get real followers for Instagram, making it easy to get more followers, grow your Instagram, and in turn, grow your business.” So you don’t have to lose all that time.
2 Hashtagsforlikes.co
Another easy way to spend too much time on social media is by trying to perfect your hashtag game. So why not use an app like Hashtagsforlikes.co to make your life easier? That way, you can quickly post clever captions and cute photos without having to spend hours stalking industry celebs to find out what’s trending.
3 MagicSocial
MagicSocial is another great app that will help business leaders avoid social media addiction. They’ll get you real followers (as opposed to fake ones), which means you don’t have to worry about researching your audience and spending hours online getting their attention. Considering that people touch their phones 2,617 times daily on average, this tool can make a huge difference in your life.
4 Hold
Incentives are always a good thing when it comes to addiction. According to Bustle, “For every 20 minutes that you spend off your phone between the hours of 7 a.m. and 11 p.m., the app will reward you with points. These points can then be converted into super cheap cinema tickets, free coffee, and Amazon gift cards. Or you can decide to help someone else and donate to charity.” If you think this app would work for you, use it, especially if you’re one of the 71 percent of people who sleep with or next to their mobile phone.
5 Quality Time
Sometimes, knowing what our goals are and if we’re meeting them is enough to keep our behavior in check. If that’s what usually works for you, use Quality Time, an app that counts how many times you’ve logged into an app and if you’ve gone over your set limit of use. In 2017, 29 percent of 18-to-24-year-olds were addicted to social media in their own view, which goes to show how easy it can be to get addicted and why it’s so important to use apps to stop it.
6 Flipd
If it really is difficult for you to get off your phone, use an extreme app like Flipd. This app actually shuts down your device for a limited period of time, and there’s no way for you to get back in until that amount of time has passed.
7 Screen Time
Apple has created a feature that’s specifically designed for telling you how long you’ve spent on social networking apps. Available in the iPhone with iOS 12, it’s a great solution for anyone who owns this device. Social networking accounts for 28 percent of all media time spent online–which is why you need an app like this so that you’re using your time more wisely.
8 Socialgoneviral.com
Anyone running a business or working as an influencer needs to get followers–but that can cause addiction itself. By using a tool like Socialgoneviral.com, you can focus on your own life while this app gets followers fast.
9 Offtime
If you simply want to avoid certain apps, you can block them for a specific amount of time using an app like Offtime. By using tailored modes, you can switch between different kinds of blocking depending on what you’re doing currently. Instagram has 1 billion users, and using an app like Offtime will help you avoid becoming a user who’s spending too much time on it.
10 App Off Timer
If you have a specific amount of time you want to work on something–say, an important project for work–then App Off Timer will block you for that set time from using social media apps. That way, important calls can still come in, but you’ll be way less distracted.
These are some of the best tools you can use to curb the amount of time you’re spending on Instagram. Are there other tools you’d recommend?
