My love-hate relationship with social media goes something like this: I love glimpsing into the lives of my friends and family members who live all around the world because it helps me feel more connected to them. But I hate seeing videos and ads from people and organizations I didn't choose to follow, and I detest even more how adept social media apps are at luring me in to watching videos of strangers.
I started thinking about this when, thirty minutes after looking at a picture of an old friend in Hawaii and her pineapple plants, I found that I had somehow watched 50 clips of middle-aged women bobbing their heads to the same sampled and remixed cut of "Another One Bites the Dust." Where had the last half hour of my life gone, and why in all that time did I never see my cousin's latest photo?
Clearly, I needed a change, but I didn't want to give up Instagram or Twitter or any other social media app completely.
I accidentally stumbled upon a solution that works extremely well at curbing my social media usage while letting me get an appropriate fill. While there are other ways to cut back on social media, this trick is really the simplest method.
Delete the App, Use the Mobile Site
It started a few years ago when I realized I was getting sucked into Twitter more than I wanted to be. To cut back, therefore, I deleted the Twitter app from my phone. The idea was not so much to give up Twitter but rather to stop using it on the phone.
Within a few days, I found myself logging in to the mobile website rather than reinstall the app, which sounds like cheating, but you know what? The mobile site had far fewer distractions and features. The pared down version gave me a noticeably better experience. Below I'll show you some side-by-side screenshots that show how different the experience is.
More recently, I did the same thing with Instagram. I deleted the app and logged in on the mobile website instead. Once again, the browser version has a much more limited experience than the app, and I was able to see what I had come to see and none of the stuff I didn't want.
Mobile Site vs. App
The mobile version of many social media sites, not just Twitter and Instagram, have limited features. On one hand, that means you won't be subjected to potential distractions, such as auto-play for video and audio. On the other hand, you won't be able to do everything that you're used to doing in the apps. For example, the photo editing tools in the mobile website versions work less reliably.
Are you willing to live without a few conveniences to eliminate the distractions?
Here are a few images showing Twitter and Instagram in the mobile site version (far left image) versus the app (right images) and notes on how they're different.
Almost No Pop Ups, No Twitter Spaces
On the mobile website, you see one pop-up message every time you log in asking if you'd like to use the app instead. No thank you! If you stayed logged in, you don't see this pop-up again. In the Twitter app, pop-ups are much more frequent, asking your permission to send notifications, drawing your attention to new features, and so forth.
No Suggested Reels, Posts, or Sponsored Content
In the Instagram app, Suggested Reels are videos you did not sign up to see. Suggests Posts show you posts from people you don't follow. And Sponsored Content are just ads. As of this writing, none of them exists in the mobile website version.
What About Facebook, TikTok, and Others?
What about TikTok, Facebook, and other social media sites? I deleted my Facebook account a few years back and therefore can't speak to the current experience—although the last time I did use Facebook, I remember that I could not access Messenger from the Facebook mobile site.
As to TikTok, I barely use it but briefly exploring the mobile version of the site, it's similar to the app with only a little bit of feature reduction. I don't actively use other social media apps, but there's a good chance that other app developers pour their resources into optimizing the official mobile apps and invest less in the mobile sites.
Minor But Worthwhile Limitations
If, like me, you don't want to give up social media, but you do need a way to seriously cut back, I highly recommend deleting the apps and using a browser to access your accounts instead. Both the mobile and desktop browser versions are similar, with many of the same reduced features but also no (or few) ads and sponsored content.
You won't see Tips in Twitter or "on this day" memories in your Instagram Story creation tools. Image editing in general is spotty, too. But if that all helps you put down your phone more and not spend too much time on social media, it's probably for the best.