Orlando, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — The average person now spends several hours each day on social media. Today, just about everything can become content. Your workout, your vacation, your dinner, your family. But some experts say constantly thinking about what to post, instead of simply being present, may be creating a new kind of burnout.
Today breakfast is content. Your workout, content. Your vacation, content. Your kids, content.
The average person uses about six and a half social media platforms every month. Spends two hours and 21 minutes a day scrolling, watching and posting, and over the course of a year, that adds up to nearly a month of their life on social media.
That’s why some people are trying something different. They call it de-branding your life.
You can start by keeping one part of your life offline. Don’t post everything in real time. Take one photo-free experience every week and ask yourself, “Would I still do this if nobody saw it?” The goal isn’t to quit social media. It’s to stop feeling like every experience has to be documented, edited or performed.
Maybe the best memories aren’t the ones that get the most likes, they’re the ones that never needed an audience in the first place.
The debate over just how much social media affects us is now playing out in court. Meta is facing a major trial brought by dozens of states, which Facebook and Instagram were designed in ways that kept children and teens coming back for more. Meta denies that its platforms were designed to be addictive. The case comes as health officials continue to raise concerns about the effects of social media and excessive screen use on young people. The U.S. Surgeon General has said we still cannot conclude social media is sufficiently safe for children and adolescents. But this isn’t just about kids. For all of us, the idea behind “de-branding” isn’t to delete social media. It’s to make sure some parts of our lives are still being lived for us and not for the feed.
Contributors to this news report include: Marsha Lewis, Producer; Bob Walko, Editor.
Sources:
https://www.broadbandsearch.net/blog/average-daily-time-on-social-media
https://www.hhs.gov/surgeongeneral/reports-and-publications/youth-mental-health/social-media/
https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2025/11/20/americans-social-media-use-2025
