Taking control of your smartphone can be done in a number of ways.

Are you in command of your smartphone, or does it command you? It's not always easy to tell. You could be chatting with loved ones on FaceTime one minute and tweeting about your favorite TV show the next. You're then trapped in a TikTok "scroll hole" or tapping your 29th email notification of the day, unable to concentrate on anything else.

We frequently feel unable to separate ourselves from our electronic devices. That is by design, according to several psychologists and Silicon Valley whistleblowers.

Many people are attempting to resist the urge to use their smartphones and take a break from them. People of all ages, especially younger respondents, limit their time spent on social media, according to a GWI survey from 2021. Twenty-five percent of Generation Z and twenty-three percent of millennials said they use social media less to manage their mental health.

However, as recent studies have shown, not all tech time is equal. Passively perusing through Facebook and comparing your life to others' has never made anyone happy. Actively using Twitter for social support, on the other hand, can be.

Instead of making well-intentioned but ultimately unsustainable commitments or enrolling in some sort of extreme "digital detox," consider tweaking the settings on some of your apps to make them less time consuming.

1. Twitter

Mute people and topics

Some may refer to it as "cancelling," but we prefer "curation." You may make your Twitter experience better by muting anything you don't want to see, such as fad diets, Black Friday deals, or movie spoilers. It's simple to accomplish – and reverse. Simply press the three dots on a person's profile and select "mute." You won't be able to read their tweets anymore, but they won't be aware. Do the same with words, phrases, movie titles, and whatever else comes to mind. Go to "settings," then "privacy and safety," then "mute and block," then "+" to add anything you wish to blot out.

2. WhatsApp

Disable read receipts

For many of us, sending a message and then being "left on read" is a big source of stress. Receiving a message and feeling compelled to drop everything and respond immediately is another example. Disabling read receipts can help relieve stress and paranoia immediately. Toggle read receipts off by going to "settings," then "account," then "privacy." The terrible blue ticks will no longer appear on your screen, and neither will the people you communicate.

3. Facebook

Neutralise your news feed

You aren't anxious about how many "likes" your latest post receives since you are a confident, resilient person, but you undoubtedly know someone who is. Remove the like count, that's what they should do. Select "hide like count" from the three dots in the top right corner of a post. Only you can see the number of likes if you click through to check who has liked a photo now. Do you want to take it a step further? Hide other people's like counts by going to "settings," selecting "privacy," selecting "posts," and turning on "hide like and view counts." As a result, Instagram no longer feels like a popularity game.

5. YouTube

Remove related videos

Delete the YouTube app from your phone and resolve to watch it exclusively on your computer. Then, to give you additional control, you can install a browser extension. For example, "Improve YouTube" is a Chrome extension with a number of features to help you improve your viewing experience, the best of which is the ability to hide the "associated videos" sidebar. By sending you into a video rabbit hole, this feature of YouTube can easily consume up more of your time than you expected.

6. TikTok

Set a time limit

TikTok might feel like a portal to another world. You think you've spent five minutes viewing movies of dogs wearing hats, but it's been an hour. Set a time limit within the app to take control of your watching. Select a time limit of 40, 60, 90, or 120 minutes per day by going to "settings," "digital wellbeing," and then "screen-time management." When your timer runs out, you'll need to enter a passcode to continue using TikTok, which should be enough of a prompt to get you to do something else.

7. Notifications

Take a hard line

How frequently is your attention drawn to your smartphone screen by a new, and ultimately irrelevant, notification? Most apps have them turned on by default. Consider this: do you really want to be stabbed in the brain by various social media platforms, old acquaintances, and pizza delivery firms on a regular basis? Most likely not. Decide instead the ones you truly require. Yes, there are calendar reminders. No, not that person you haven't spoken to in 20 years who "liked" one of your images. Surprisingly, a study from 2021 found that 89 percent of phone disruptions are due to the need to check, rather than notifications. Getting a handle on notifications, on the other hand, can help you break your habit of checking your phone every few minutes — just try to stick with it for a few days. Be brave.

8. Email

Check emails twice a day

From the zero-email strategy to adding colorful folders or filters, there are 101 ways to claim that your inbox is stress-free. However, one simple new email habit is to check your emails only once a day — or twice if necessary. Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek, has long suggested this productivity trick. You'll need to disable email notifications and set a reminder to check your inbox. Scheduling emails will make things easier for you, as will staggering responses so that your inbox doesn't fill up again in minutes. You may also construct an autoreply that explains your email approach and warns senders not to anticipate a response right away.\

9. LinkedIn

Unfollow annoying people

Unfollowing someone on LinkedIn is a helpful function that prevents you from seeing their updates. Many individuals are aware of this feature, yet they rarely use it. Consider unfollowing someone on LinkedIn who brags about their new promotion, Ted talk, or number of Substack followers. It's quicker to undo than deleting or unfriending someone, and it's a fantastic alternative for coworkers you don't want to offend because they won't notice you've unfollowed them.

10. Messenger

Make yourself unavailable

Remove the green dot that appears next to your name in Messenger, indicating that you're online to everyone you know. This luminous green emblem is only beneficial on rare occasions, and the rest of the time it's the internet equivalent of a Post-it note plastered to your forehead that says "please talk to me." Toggle this feature off by going to Messenger, tapping your profile, then selecting "active status."