Rest assured, you are far from alone. As Global Web Index recently reported, the average time people spend on social networks and messaging is 2 hours and 23 minutes per day. While that amount may not seem excessive, it adds up. Curious as to whether or not your social media stretches are average? Thanks to recently added tools by Facebook and Google, you can now view usage reports on Facebook and Instagram and manage your time better if needed. Let’s see how they work. These features are for use on both Android and Apple mobile devices and will only track the periods you spend using the apps on a smartphone. No desktop version of these tools is currently available.
See how much time you spend watching Facebook and Instagram
If you spend a considerable part of your day on social media, chances are you do not realize how long you spend on Facebook and Instagram; however, using the “Time on” feature, you can manage both time and notifications for each app. To view and manage your duration on Facebook navigate to Settings then choose the option Your Time on Facebook. Here, you can see how many hours and minutes per day you have spent on the site during the last week.
Furthermore, you can manage your time and notifications, such as setting a daily reminder to help limit your social media presence. In the Your Time on Facebook section, tap Set Daily Time Reminder, then choose a time limit spent using the Facebook app for each day. Once you’ve set this up, Facebook will send you a reminder when you’ve hit your time limit.
To view your time on Instagram, click on Settings, and choose Your Activity. As with Facebook, you will see the hours and minutes you have spent on Instagram over the previous seven days. You can manage your time and notification settings as well, it works the same as Facebook’s reminder.
See how much time you spend watching YouTube
Similar to Facebook’s move to help social media users curb their stretches online, Google has introduced a new feature, Time watched profile to its digital well-being initiative. In addition to viewing the amount of time spent on YouTube over the previous seven days, you can create reminders to take a break by using the Remind me to take a break setting. Once you have reached your time limit, you will receive a pop-up notification. To view the time you have spent on YouTube: Log in to your account and click Time watched. Under Tools to manage your YouTube usage you can enable Remind me to take a break setting. One other feature you may find helpful in reducing the duration spent on YouTube is Scheduled digest. Enabling this setting will send all of your YouTube notifications as a daily digest, and you can customize the delivery time.
Although these tools are not available for desktop use (as of yet), their purpose is admirable. As with everything else in life, moderation is key. If you find you are spending a large chunk of your day perusing social media, you may want to cut back on or eliminate social media altogether.
