It’s no secret that social media is addictive. 99% of people I know are on either Facebook, Instagram, X, or TikTok (or all of the above), and most of those people admit to getting sucked into scrolling longer than they’d like.

I’m guilty as charged. I’ve been known to sit down on my couch, not-so-mindfully opened up one of the apps, and 2 hours later I’m shocked and appalled at how much time I’ve wasted. Not to mention, my mood has declined in the process.

Almost everyone I know has had a similar experience. We’re conscious that scrolling isn’t good for us, yet we continue to do it. I went through a period of a few months in which I’d lose hours every day to TikTok, and most of the time I’d feel awful once I finally came up for air.

It started innocently enough. I found a few personal development accounts that were sharing content that was genuinely helpful. Then I started watching artists’ processes, which were both inspiring and entertaining. It seemed like a positive place to be spending time online.

Then one day I got sucked into a “doom and gloom” political post which lasted several minutes. Suddenly the algorithm stopped showing me inspiring posts and started showing me nothing but apocalyptic bullshit that haunted my dreams at night.

I tried to “retrain” the algorithm to show me the inspirational content I enjoyed, which it did just enough to keep me opening the app. But before I realized it, my feed was flooded with negativity, division, and fear-mongering, which would leave me feeling completely hopeless about the world.

So, why do we keep scrolling when we know it’s bad?

I think we all know on some level that social media is addictive by design. We know that the algorithm shows us content that keeps us engaged so the platform can keep on serving up ads. We know this intellectually, and I’m willing to bet none of us feel great about it. Yet we keep on scrolling, even if it continues to steal our time and our joy.

I recently heard Seth Godin, a well-known marketer and author, talk about the toxicity of social media. He explained that there is no limit to how much social media we can consume. He compared it to hot sauce – a little isn’t bad, but drink a whole bottle and we get physically ill.

Unfortunately, there’s no obvious physical consequence that occurs when we consume too much social media. Our bodies don’t tell us to stop. After too much, most of us only have a vague sense that something feels wrong.

And the world tells us it’s important to keep engaging. What if second-cousin Susie announces she’s having a baby? What if a high school classmate experiences a tragedy and needs help? What if there’s simply a community event happening that we want to know about? There’s certainly still value to gain from being on social media, but it can be extremely difficult to draw the line of how much (if any) is healthy.

And if you’re a business owner like me, the messaging that you NEED to be on social media to be successful is LOUD. Somewhere along the way, someone made up the lie that you’re not “legit” as a business owner unless you have a Facebook page and Instagram account – and the more followers you have, the more legit you must be. (As an aside, social media has never contributed to even 1% of my bottom line as a business owner)

How much is too much?

I’ve always questioned how much social media consumption was good for me, as I’m sure we all have from time to time. But over the past few months as I’ve embarked on the One-Year Fun Experiment, I’ve started realizing how much social media steals my joy. At its best, it’s a mildly entertaining, yet decidedly joyless way to spend time when I’m tired or bored.

At its worst, it’s a soul-sucking activity that contributes heavily to the anger and division in the world. Even if I’m not actively engaging with all of the “bad” stuff on social media, passively consuming it can still fuel the algorithm in a negative way, amplifying the voices of people causing anger, division, and hopelessness.

And if that weren’t terrible enough, our mental health suffers. I personally pretty much never walk away from a scroll session feeling uplifted. 9 times out of 10 I feel worse than when I started – annoyed, frustrated, sad, or upset.

Where I’m Drawing the Line

After several months of my tumultuous relationship with TikTok, I finally quit the app cold turkey early this summer, and I haven’t opened it since. I also deleted Facebook and Instagram from my phone, so the only way I could look at them was in a web browser on my computer.

Yet I still found myself getting lost in the scroll (often when I was supposed to be working!). So I recently installed a Chrome extension called News Feed Eradicator, which hides my social media feeds when I login to the platforms. This way I can still access the groups and communities where I get real value, but getting lost in the scroll is a lot harder.

Time will tell if this lean social media diet improves – and truly limits – my time spent on the platforms, but so far it seems to be working out well. I might miss important shares from friends and family, but I trust that if the news needs to get to me, it will. I’m choosing to see it as a trade-off that’s worth it for my mental health – something that is more important than anything.

And when I’m tempted to scroll, I’ll be heading back over to my Fun File to find activities that fill me up and bring me joy instead of depleting my energy and destroying my mood.

I still plan to share my blog posts on Facebook and Instagram, at least for the foreseeable future. However, since I’ll be engaging less, the algorithm might not always show you my posts. If you want to be sure not to miss my future blog posts, sign up to receive them by email: