Notice how much time you spend online and on social media. You can check your devices for usage patterns of the different social media apps you have installed.

Using social media can interrupt and interfere with in-person communications. You’ll connect better with people in your life if you have certain times each day when your social media notifications are off. Commit to not checking social media during meals with family and friends, and when spending time or talking with others.

Schedule regular multi-day breaks from social media. You can also cut back without going cold turkey: try and use your usual social media accounts for only 10 minutes per day. It may be difficult at first, but seek help from family and friends by publicly declaring you are on a break. You can also download apps that will track your social media usage or block access to social media after a certain amount of time or during certain hours of the day.

Experiment with using your favourite online platforms at different times of the day and for varying lengths of time, to see how you feel during and after each session. You may find that a few short spurts help you feel better than spending 45 minutes exhaustively scrolling through a site’s feed. If you find that going down an online rabbit hole at midnight routinely leaves you depleted and feeling bad about yourself, eliminate social media usage after 10 p.m. Also note that people who use social media passively, just browsing and consuming others’ posts, feel worse than people who participate actively, posting their own material and engaging with others online.

If you look at a social media platform first thing in the morning, think about whether it’s to get informed about breaking news – or if it’s a mindless habit that serves as an escape from facing the day ahead. Do you notice that you get a craving to look at social media whenever you’re confronted with a difficult task? Be brave and brutally honest with yourself. Each time you reach for your phone (or computer) to check social media, answer the hard question: Why am I doing this now?

Over time, you have likely accumulated many online friends and contacts, as well as people and organisations you follow. Some content is still interesting to you, but much of it might be boring, annoying, infuriating or worse. Now is the time to unfollow, mute or hide contacts; the vast majority won’t notice. Pruning some “friends” and adding a few motivational or funny sites is likely to decrease the negative effects of social media.

Using social media to keep abreast of your cousin’s life as a new mother is fine, as long as you don’t neglect to visit as months pass by. Messaging with a friend can be engaging and fun, but make sure those interactions don’t become a substitute for talking face to face. When used thoughtfully and deliberately, social media can be a useful addition to your social life, but sometimes a person sitting across from you is needed to fulfil the basic human need for connection and belonging.