How To Improve Your Wellbeing Online

How To Improve Your Wellbeing Online

At Yubo, we love smartphones as much as the next person. They allow us to connect with new people, unwind with our friends, share memories, and have a laugh or a heart-to-heart. They facilitate our interactions with the world and help us learn new things. However, it is essential to be thoughtful about how and when we use our devices.

Scrolling mindlessly and checking notifications instantly can have detrimental effects on wellbeing. For some, spending too much time online triggers feelings of isolation or inferiority because they are comparing themselves to others, such as influencers. 

Young people are most vulnerable to the downsides of this kind of screen time because they are still growing and developing, compared to adults, and need support to develop well. in earlier stages of development, compared to adults. This is why promoting healthy and sustainable habits around using devices is of utmost importance for us at Yubo.

For your own wellbeing, you could ask yourself questions about how you use social media, such as:

• how much (or long) am I scrolling? How does it make me feel? 
• Do the people I interact with online make me feel good? 
• Do I notice when a conversation is going south, and do I take care of myself (or leave) when I notice that? 
• Should I turn off some of my notifications or think about ignoring them? 
• Do I give myself time to do other things that are meaningful to me or make me feel good? 

If your relationship to devices is having downsides, like making you constantly check for notifications or causing you to miss deadlines, it can be helpful to take stoch of whether  managing your habits with devices might be beneficial for you. 

Below are tips on how you can adjust your smartphone settings to explore a different approach to using your devices for improved wellbeing.

Balancing social media and your day-to-day IRL

To proactively engage with this issue, we have created a video with a brief overview of tools that can help you manage your social media use and strike the right balance between your offline activities and social media use each day. We encourage you to take some breaksfrom on-screen time to read a book, go for a walk, or just take a pause to close your eyes and relax. Use your device to make plans with friends and engage without screens as much as you use your device to chat with friends online.

Managing your smartphone use on iOS

If you’re using an iOS device, go to your Settings, click on Screen Time and ****turn it on. In the menu, you then will be able to turn on Downtime. Downtime ensures that during your scheduled hours you will only be getting phone calls as well as notifications from the apps you hand-picked – no other distractions. You can also limit your time spent on individual apps. This is also accessible through the same part of the Settings menu. Click on Screen Time, then choose App Limits and enable them. You could designate a custom amount of time for every individual app, so make sure to try using this tool if your screen usage in certain apps seems a little excessive. If your time on an app is coming to an end, your device will send you a reminder and gray out the app until the next day.

Managing your smartphone use on Android

If you’re using an Android device, go to your Settings, click on Digital Wellbeing and Parental Controls, then tap on Focus mode and toggle on the switch to activate it. This mode will allow you to set your notification-free time from selected apps, and the apps themselves will be grayed out for the time being. When trying to access your grayed-out apps in Focus mode, you will get a notification reminding you that app use is currently paused. You can also control the time spent on individual apps and designate the amount of time a day that you are allowed to use them for. So go set your Yubo timer to whatever you feel would be the most beneficial to you – we promise we won’t mind!

We would also like to share some general tips on how to prevent your relationship with your device from becoming a problem:

• Use your phone purposefully, not habitually. Think about when (and how often) you pick up your device and why. Consider reducing the number of times you browse through an app without any purpose. Entertainment can certainly be a purpose, but you probaby have other purposes and other things you want to do with your time. You might be interested in checking out our blog post on how to use social media mindfully. If you find that you pick up your device a lot without any particular reason, think about a new behavior you might want to adopt in place of checking your phone – like a short breathing exercise, a walk, or helping someone out with something.
• …but it’s fine to scroll too. If cutting out scrolling completely does not sound realistic, one of the best ways to manage it is to think about how you could control it. If you go on your device every time you have a free second, think about setting aside a specific amount of time when you allow yourself to scroll through all your favorite social media guilt-free. Mindful can be fun; it’s just not reflexive or automatic. You are planning what you can do with YOUR time.
• NotificatiONs, notificatiOFFs. Go through all the apps that send you push-notifications and make a conscious decision about which ones you can go without. This can be freeing. It helps people break the habit of checking their phone every time their screen lights up and feel more in control of their device, rather than the other way around.
• Designate “device-free” times or zones. You can make time for activities and hobbies that don’t require any device use at all, such as cooking, swimming, or reading. If you can, plan device-free activities with friends, so you can spen time with them without the distraction. You can boost your wellbeing by learning something, or by giving to others, by cooking them a meal or creating something they would value, like a playlist. Use iOS and Android tools suggested above to help you change your settings. Alternatively, you can have designated “device-free zones” in your house, such as your kitchen or bathroom. 

In conclusion: Don't hesitate to take a break from your device and enjoy life without screens. Yubo will still be there after that for you to make new friends.