6 Free Chrome Extensions for Social Media Addicts

Social media sites are designed to be addictive. Their business models rely on users staying on their platforms for as long as possible – so if you’re hooked on social media, you’re not alone.

The good news is that there are plenty of web extensions that promise to help fight your social media addiction.

In this article I’ll mention just six of the best Firefox and Chrome extensions for social media addicts. I use all of these extensions on a daily basis, and together they’ve changed my attitude towards social media. I spend less time scrolling meaningless posts, and more time doing things I actually love.

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6 free Chrome extensions for social media addicts

1. Any website blocker

If you’re serious about reducing your social media intake, the first thing you should do is install a website blocker on your browser.

The best way to fight your social media addiction is to just stop using it. But if that’s too big of a step, then at least try to avoid social media for a few hours a day.

Some website blockers work manually, whereas others work on a timer. I’d recommend taking a look at what’s on offer and choosing an extension that fits your needs best.

2. Buffer

Buffer is a fantastic tool that allows you to schedule your social media posts, without entering the actual app. This means you can stay active on social media, while avoiding its distractions.

But it gets better. Buffer has a web extension for both Chrome and Firefox that allows you to share the page you’re currently looking at to any of your social media accounts, in just two clicks.

3. News Feed Eradicator for Facebook

Facebook is brilliant for staying in touch with people, but its endless news feed is extremely distracting.

This extension replaces your Facebook feed with a positive quote. It’s that simple. All that’s left to do when you log into Facebook is to check to see if you have any new messages or notifications, and if not then you can just log out again.

4. Distraction Free YouTube

I love watching YouTube videos, and I don’t think it’s inherently unproductive – especially if you’re subscribed to the right channels.

The issue is that when you open YouTube you’re bombarded with content. Your homepage contains dozens of videos that YouTube’s algorithm have chosen because they’re good at getting a lot of clicks, from a lot of people.

Distraction Free YouTube removes your entire homepage, as well as the ‘watch next’ sidebar.

You can still access your subscription feed, and you can still access the Trending tab – although there’s an option to remove those pages, too.

Distraction Free YouTube will make your YouTube experience much more pleasant. Give it a shot – I think you’ll enjoy it.

5. Better Twitter

Better Twitter doesn’t remove your entire timeline the way News Feed Eradicator for Facebook does, but it does attempt to make Twitter slightly less addictive.

It removes every single like and retweet counter, so you’re not left refreshing a tweet and wondering why no one’s liking it. It also removes everyone’s follower counts, so you don’t get that addictive rush as you watch your follower count increase.

But best of all – it removes the trending sidebar. How often do you log in to Twitter, see that something new is trending and end up scrolling that hashtag for half an hour? My bet’s on never, if you use Better Twitter.

6. Papier

Papier, in short, turns your browser’s homepage into a word document.

It has a lovely, minimal design, and it’s a helpful place to write down anything important – your to do list, reminders, or positive affirmations, for example.

But my favourite thing to do is to write myself a note reminding me to stay off social media.

Most people will stumble upon social media sites by habit, rather than a real desire to check their accounts, so sometimes a little reminder to stay off social media is enough.

Comment and Subscribe!

You may think that you’ll have a social media addiction forever, and I used to as well. Getting over your addiction to social media will take a lot of hard work and discipline, but downloading these six Chrome extensions will help break the cycle.

Do you use any web extensions to increase your productivity levels? If so then let me know in the comments – especially if you use one that I haven’t mentioned on this list.

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