How much time in a day do you waste on mindless scrolling? If you add up your time on social media, reading blogs, watching videos, and replying to messages, you’ll be wasting several hours weekly. Even 30 minutes of online browsing a day is 3 and a half hours lost every week. Continue reading for tips on how to stop looking at bad things on the internet and be more productive.
What is Internet Addiction?
Internet addiction is the excessive use or even complete dependency on the internet that causes issues in a person’s life and disrupts their daily activities. It is marked by an uncontrollable need to connect to the internet and browse. Whether it’s social media or online gaming, the internet can easily take control of your life.
The facts about internet addiction mostly involve statistics from surveys conducted by experts. The facts about internet addiction are listed below.
- Around 6% of the world are victims of internet addiction, with the majority rate being as high as 13% in some countries.
- 80% of Gen Z check their mobile phones within 5 minutes of getting a notification
- 68% of young adults with an internet addiction have issues concerning their sleep cycle, compared to 57% of people without addiction.
- Japan has identified “internet dependency” as a public health concern and has built treatment centres for those with addiction.
- Around 1 in 8 individuals in the world may suffer from some form of internet addiction.
Effects of Internet Addiction
Internet addiction causes significant problems due to its negative effects on individuals, relationships, and society as a whole.
Isolation and loneliness – While the internet provides options for online communication, it can also cause social isolation. People addicted to the internet often start turning away from their daily activities, choosing to engage with online activities instead.
- Negative experiences: Some people can come across negative online experiences, such as cyberbullying, abuse, or exposure to harmful or pornographic content which can have a deep impact on mental health.
- Improper Sleep: Regular internet usage, especially during late hours, disrupts the sleep cycles and can lead to sleep disorders. The light cast from mobile screens disturbs the body’s innate circadian patterns, resulting in difficulty in falling asleep or causing disturbed sleep.
- Poor Impulse Control – Internet obsession can damage the brain’s capacity to control impulses. The continuous availability of online activity and the expectation of rewards associated with the internet can weaken the brain’s prefrontal cortex, which takes care of actions such as decision-making and self-regulation.
- Damages relationships: Internet addiction can destroy relationships with close ones due to less time and attention given to them and more time spent on Internet usage. This leads to misunderstandings, disagreements, and feelings of negligence among loved ones.
- Dopamine Dysregulation – With excessive internet use, the brain’s reward system gets disrupted and begins to produce less dopamine, leading to a decreased sense of pleasure. They may require more internet use than usual to experience the same level of joy, leading to uncontrollable urges.
If you are a victim of internet addiction, you need to realise that you have a problem and dedicate yourself to overcoming it.
If you are wondering how to stop wasting time on the internet, you’ve taken the first step.
How to Overcome Internet Addiction?
1. Acknowledge the problem
Recognizing the addiction means acknowledging that you have a problem with internet usage and it is negatively impacting your life. It also means staying committed to making major changes in your lifestyle to overcome the addiction. It can also help in coming out of denial which may keep them stuck in the loop of addiction. This particular way of how to stop an internet addiction can also cause people to accept the reality of their situation
2. Keep track of your internet usage
Monitor the duration of your internet usage
- Have you made it a habit to scroll through social media as soon as you wake up?
- Do you regularly check the news on your phone for updates throughout the day?
- Do you find yourself stuck on internet shopping sites?
Record your usage by noting down the specific time you feel like using the internet and what sites you usually visit.
3. Set time limitations
After you have understood when and why you’re accessing the internet, try to reduce its usage slowly every day. Set screen time restrictions to help you attain a healthy tech-life balance. Ensure to completely stop visiting specific websites, and make use of the settings on your device to set a time limit on apps and other platforms.
4. Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy involves therapeutic approaches that target the underlying conditions that could be the reason for your internet addiction. Motivational interviewing has proved to be a great way to assist people in understanding their feelings when they are engaging in online activities and the emotions that are being addressed by the behaviour. CBT is also a prevalent therapy technique that helps people identify and change the negative thought process connected to internet addiction.
5. Medication
In cases where the cause of internet addiction is a mental health condition, medications can be prescribed as part of the treatment program. A 2024 review, “Internet Addiction Management: A Comprehensive Review of Clinical Interventions and Modalities” by Chadha et al., stated that anxiolytics and antidepressants, which treat co-occurring disorders, can help treat internet addiction. Researchers are also studying drugs like naltrexone that target internet addiction specifically.
6. Stop looking everything up
Are you the kind of person who turns to Google for everything?
It’s okay to have a curious mind but if your first step to get answers is the internet even for a simple question, it’s important to minimize these random searches. Challenge yourself to leave your phone aside when you feel the urge to search for random information. It’s common to get distracted once you pick up your phone. You view your notifications or decide to check social media or you may continue reading article after article.
7. Set no-gadget hours
Select certain times of the day or week when you want to stay away from the internet on all your devices. It is considered a useful method to overcome internet addiction because apart from helping you quit the habit of regularly checking your devices and experiencing FOMO(fear of missing out), it can also improve your sleep quality by avoiding the harmful light it produces before going to bed.
8. Reach out for help
Share your problem with a trusted friend or family member, or join a support group for motivation in dealing with internet addiction. You can share your stories or challenges you faced when it comes to extreme internet use and seek guidance and understanding from them during the journey to de-addiction. It enables the person to feel less lonely in their struggle and helps them gain a new perspective from people who are going through the same thing.
How to Stop Looking at Bad Things on the internet?
With online pornography being accessible in just a few clicks, it’s no wonder so many people use it to learn more about sex and explore their sexuality. While it is not wrong to watch adult content, however, excessive usage is not good and needs to be controlled. If you want to know how to stop watching bad videos on phone – you can read this article to learn the ways to quit porn.
Some of the most effective ways how to stop looking at bad things on the internet are –
- Use your phone’s built-in settings to restrict explicit content
- Use an effective porn blocker such as BlockP to Filter pornography in real-time and block custom websites not just restricted to adult content but also gambling, drug and any other site you want to stay away from.
- Use a Chrome extension like BlockP which facilitates porn blocking with a single click.
- Try to engage in a new hobby like reading a book, or engaging in a sport you are interested in and cultivate new practices.
FAQs on How to Stop Looking at Bad Things on the Internet
1] How to Stop Daily Masturbation in Male
To stop excessive masturbation –
- Identify triggers: Understand the triggers that cause the urge and keep them away.
- Stay busy: Engage in hobbies, physical exercise, or other productive work.
- Dont isolate: Spend more time socializing and taking part in different events
- Practice self-control: Use mindfulness to resist immediate temptations.
- Seek support: Talk to a therapist or join a support group.
2] How to stop watching bad videos on phone?
Start by identifying the triggers and consciously avoiding them. Use content blockers or parental control apps to restrict access to harmful sites. Set goals and remind yourself to stay committed to the process. Develop healthy habits and reduce screen time to break the addiction cycle.
3] Are there apps or tools that can help block unwanted content?
BlockP is a good porn blocker app offering features like customizable filters and real-time monitoring to block adult content effectively. It helps you to concentrate by restricting access to any harmful sites on your device.
