Is it useful to set a limit on the use of social networks?

I have several social media apps installed on my phone.

The most used, the ones that top the list that I receive every week in a notification about the use of the mobile, are Instagram, Twitter and TikTok, in addition, of course, WhatsApp.

On these three applications I have imposed a time control: I cannot use them (those and others like Facebook, Discord or LinkedIn) more than an hour and a half a day.

During busy days I do not exceed the self-imposed limit, but there are days when my finger automatically presses the "ignore limit today" key.

It is almost impossible not to overcome that restriction.

I am not alone.

Here we all sin by spending more hours than necessary in the endless loop of social networks reading over and over again the tweets from our home page, the TikTok videos of more or less appetizing recipes or the vacations that your friend Antonio is posting. by fascicles on Instagram.

Emanoelle Santos has analyzed in this newspaper a preliminary study, pending review, by three researchers from the universities of Duke and Delaware, in the United States, which addresses precisely the effectiveness of setting usage time limits on applications.

To my surprise, according to these researchers, the limits are totally counterproductive, since we conceive that being those minutes a day is "acceptable" and, as when we go over a little of the budget for the rods of the month, it is not so difficult for us to exceed that limit.

TikTok has recently announced that it will limit the time of use to those under 18 years of age: teenagers will not be able to use the application for more than one hour a day.

This can help young people to put their phones aside and go out into the street, but in practice it is not valid, since it is possible to access this social network without having logged in and, in addition, many can be rogue and change their year of birth to bypass this limit.

We have all done it.

In an article on this limit in

, Sapna Maheshwari recounts the case of students who, after becoming addicted to TikTok during the pandemic — spending about five hours a day and having trouble sleeping if they didn't watch videos from bed — , they decided to quit the app and get

from TikTok.

The same was done by Judith Mudge, a reader who commented in a

from

about the article by the American researchers: “I removed the applications from social networks.

Now I only use them to search for something specific or post something.

Limiting access can be more effective than limiting time,” she said.

Maybe that's the key.

Addiction to social networks is a highly addressed issue in recent times.

A search for this matter on Spotify returns numerous

that, without going into their quality, show that there is interest and concern on the subject.

On Twitter it is common to find users who consider themselves addicted to that network and who want to stop spending so much time on it.

“My main goal for 2023 is to spend a lot less time on Twitter.

I explain why.

It goes thread.

(1/259)”, @ManuelBartual tweeted ironically on January 1st.

Many times, this concern becomes greater because social networks negatively affect people's health, either by causing eating disorders when compared to the "models" that appear in the photos and videos on the networks, or by becoming in victims of cyberbullying... but that gives for another column.