When Social Media Becomes an Escape

July 24, 2026 · 9 min read

When was the last time you checked how much time you spent on social media apps?

At the point of writing, I'm ashamed to say that I had spent close to seven hours last week! Across X and Instagram.

And that's on my phone. On the tablet, I clocked another two hours on it. 🤦

In my defence, I'm trying to grow my social media presence. So it's inevitable that I have to spend more time on the platform.

But if I'm being honest, I would have been able to achieve my objectives in less than half the time. Way less.

And I can't justify my usage of Instagram - I'm not even actively promoting myself on that platform. Yet.

Seven. Freaking. Hours.

I could have watched The Odyssey twice over in that time!

Again, I could tell myself that I needed all that time to grow on the platform.

And, in all honesty, it would be an excuse.

I realised it was becoming a problem when I noticed myself reaching for my phone several times in an hour. Instead of thinking of the solution to the problem I'm working on, I would find myself scrolling Twitter/X.

That is not a good thing in and of itself - spending time unproductively. It gets worse when it steals my time away from other activities such as paying my bills.

If it were just this, I would not be so concerned.

Multiple research studies have shown that social media are affecting our cognition ability i.e. our ability to think. The common offenders: TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels. The effects apply to a whole range of activities related to the brain: attention span, mental health, problem solving, sleep hygiene.

It might come as a shock (or not): researchers see similar symptoms between compulsive use of social media and drug addictions. And, like any addictions, that can lead to undesirable behaviour changes.

As an adult, I have difficulty controlling my social media usage. What hope is there for young children?

To be clear, there is definitely value in social media:

many learning concepts are visualised in an interesting way for easy comprehension
clear way to demonstrate expertise, passion and experience in a particular subject

The problem is that it is also highly addictive.

This is a problem that I hope to address before my kids become hopelessly addicted.

Like I mentioned, I'm of the view that there is value is digital devices and social media. The goal that I'm trying to achieve is to realise the value without getting addicted.

Here are some of the things that I'm exploring:

tools to manage app usage and screen time (there are built-in options to do this already)
alternate devices to remain digitally connected without the lure of social media
in-person games to be an alternative to digital entertainment for wholesome fun
blended learning to ground children in reality while acquiring digital skills.

I'll be going into details of each of my approaches in future posts.

For a start, I'll be evaluating the viability of an e-ink display phone as a daily driver for a smartphone. I've got a whole list of criteria to evaluate. One of them is whether it works for a teenager.

The key phrase is "for a teenager". We can avoid the problem by avoiding social media completely. Just use a feature phone (aka a "dumb" phone). But that would cut them off from their friends on instant messaging apps. Nope.

The replacement device has to be functional. I have high hopes that e-ink display phones can meet those criteria.

I will share more after I've completed the evaluation.

References

Research studies on the effects of short form videos on cognition:

Research studies on the effects of digital device and social media addiction:

Research studies on how behaviour can be shaped by our actions:

(Majority of research extracted from show notes of Diary Of A CEO: Brain Rot Emergency: These Internal Documents Prove They’re Controlling You!)

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References