Here’s how I organized my phone to use it less

Our phones are designed to be addicting. How can we be better about using them?

Whether you are an iPhone or Android user, we can all admit that we use our phones more than we might like to admit.

Social media has become a hot discussion lately. In the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma, former employees at Google and Facebook confirmed it: yes, it’s intentional.

These apps track every single move you make, how long you look at an advertisement, what intrigues you and what you’re interested in. Apple has added policies for developers, requiring them to ask for permission to track users across apps. They’ve also barred them from recording keystrokes on devices.

Apple’s Screen Time can be used as an extension of Norton’s parental control software, which I would routinely hack so I could use my computer past 9 p.m. on weekdays. With Screen Time, that wouldn’t happen.

Adults can use it too, though. It’s highly useful for tracking how often a user is on their phone. My daily average last week was just under 2.5 hours. I can add limits to who can contact me at specific times, which apps are allowed to send me notifications, add content and privacy restrictions. It’s very useful.