Feel Like Social Media's Running Your Life? Here's How to Take Back Control

In the past decade, social media has evolved from a tool for staying connected into a dominant force in daily life. Research is unambiguous about the risks. A comprehensive review found that 78.6% of studies on social media linked heavy use to increased depression, anxiety, loneliness, and mood disturbances. Young adults aged 18 to 35 are particularly vulnerable. And yet, how you use social media turns out to matter just as much as how much you use it.

Passive versus active use

Not all social media engagement carries the same psychological weight. Passive use, scrolling aimlessly through a feed and consuming content without interacting, is consistently linked to negative outcomes. Research specifically ties passive use to increased rates of depression, loneliness, and feelings of inadequacy. The mechanism is fairly straightforward: you are absorbing a stream of curated highlight reels with no sense of agency or participation. Active use is a different story. When people engage intentionally by messaging friends, commenting meaningfully, or participating in communities they care about, the outcomes improve. Studies suggest that around 33% of users who engage actively report better mental wellbeing, using social media as a genuine resource for connection and support. The quality of your engagement shapes the experience far more than the platform itself. This connects to broader patterns in how short-form media is rewiring the way we pay attention.

Practical strategies to reduce screen time

Reducing time on social media is not about disconnecting from the world. It is about building a healthier relationship with the technology you already use. Here are six approaches that research and clinical practice support:

• Delete apps from your phone. Removing social media apps from your device adds meaningful friction. Without instant access, you are more likely to pause before logging in.
• Set daily time limits. Most smartphones have built-in tools to cap time on specific apps. Even a modest limit creates awareness and tends to reduce habitual use.
• Turn off notifications. Notifications are engineered to pull you back. Disabling them removes a constant source of interruption and reduces the reflexive checking behaviour many of us have developed.
• Switch to laptop access only. Using social media on a laptop rather than a phone adds a layer of deliberateness. It makes mindless scrolling harder and encourages more intentional interaction.
• Keep your phone out of reach during key hours. Research shows that keeping your phone in another room during sleep and focused work improves both sleep quality and concentration.
• Reserve phone use for scheduled breaks. Designating specific times to check your phone, rather than reaching for it reflexively throughout the day, allows you to use it purposefully without letting it consume your attention.

The bigger picture

These strategies work best when they are part of a broader effort to understand why you reach for your phone in the first place. Boredom, loneliness, anxiety, and habit all drive social media use in ways that are worth examining honestly. The neuroscience of dopamine-driven scrolling helps explain why content like this spreads so far and so fast. If you are finding that social media is feeding anxiety or low mood rather than alleviating it, that is a signal worth taking seriously.

Final thoughts

Social media can be a valuable tool when used with intention. The goal is not to eliminate it but to ensure it is working for you rather than against you. If you would like to explore the relationship between your digital habits and your mental health in more depth, our team at Contemporary Psychology in St Kilda is here to help.

Reference: Koh, G.K. et al. (2024) 'Social media use and its impact on adults' mental health and well-being: A scoping review', Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing, 21(4), pp. 345-394.