How to Break Social Media Addiction (Glenn Sanford’s Plan)

The irony wasn’t lost on me. Here I was, CEO of eXp World Holdings and publisher of SUCCESS® magazine—a publication dedicated to helping ambitious people achieve their highest potential—and I couldn’t stop doomscrolling through my phone at 2 a.m.

It started innocuously enough: a quick check of social media between meetings, a scroll through industry news during lunch. But over several days, I found myself diving deeper into rabbit holes of conspiracy theories, outrage content and the kind of clickbait that can hijack your brain’s reward system. 

The dopamine hits kept coming, but so did the anxiety. My sleep suffered, my focus fractured and I was in a constant state of agitation—all textbook social media addiction symptoms.

That’s when I knew I had a problem and, more importantly, that it wasn’t just personal. This was part of a global crisis: Among the billions of social media users online, some estimates have indicated that as many as 210 million are struggling with social media addiction. Dependence on social media can have far-reaching consequences, including increased isolation and loneliness; greater likelihood of anxiety, depression, and social anxiety disorder; sleep disruption; poor work performance; reduction in empathy; and decreased physical activity, which can negatively affect overall health and wellness. And, when your health is at stake, taking a break from social media isn’t optional; it’s essential.

For high-achievers, the trap cuts even deeper. Our drive for the next edge or insight is the very thing these platforms exploit. What feels like productivity leaves us drained and unfocused. That’s why learning how to break social media addiction is so important—especially for leaders and entrepreneurs.

The numbers are staggering. One study reported that 56% of users reported feeling anxious without access to their social media profiles. But what makes this particularly dangerous for leaders and entrepreneurs is how it can masquerade as productivity.

In 2024, the New York City Health Department released a report declaring social media “a threat to youth mental health.” The U.S. surgeon general has called for increased transparency and for companies to prioritize user well-being over revenue.

Yet most business leaders I know treat their social media habits as a necessary evil rather than recognizing them as a genuine threat to their cognitive performance and decision-making capacity.

As comedian Bill Maher put it in a quote that Cal Newport highlights in his book Digital Minimalism: “The tycoons of social media have to stop pretending that they’re friendly nerd gods building a better world and admit they’re just tobacco farmers in T-shirts selling an addictive product to children. Because, let’s face it, checking your ‘likes’ is the new smoking.”

The comparison to tobacco isn’t hyperbole. According to research published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 24% of TikTok users and 28% of Instagram users studied qualify as “addicted” using clinical diagnostic criteria.

Why high-achievers are especially prone to digital addiction

Success-oriented individuals face the following unique vulnerabilities that make social media addiction more likely and more damaging.

1. Information addiction masquerading as research

We tell ourselves we’re staying informed, networking or researching our markets. But “an endless bombardment of news and gossip and images has rendered us manic information addicts,” Newport observes. “Incessant clicking and scrolling generates a background hum of anxiety.”

2. FOMO amplified by competitive nature

High-achievers are naturally competitive. Social media exploits this by creating artificial urgency around every update, every trend, every competitor’s move. “The urge to check Twitter or refresh Reddit becomes a nervous twitch that shatters uninterrupted time into shards too small to support the presence necessary for an intentional life,” Newport warns.

3. Validation seeking despite success

Even successful leaders crave external validation. “Tech companies encourage behavioral addiction through intermittent positive reinforcement and the drive for social approval,” creating what Newport calls “virtual slot machines” that keep us scrolling for the next hit of engagement.

4. Always-on mentality

James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, identifies mindless phone scrolling as “the greatest interruption” to productivity. For leaders who pride themselves on being always available and always learning, this creates a perfect storm of distraction disguised as diligence.

The recognition phase: Identifying your digital addiction patterns

My own wake-up call came when I recognized the physical and mental symptoms that mirrored other addictive behaviors I’d observed in myself and others over the years. Here are major signs to look for to help you conduct your own honest assessment.

Physical warning signs

• Checking your phone within minutes of waking up
• Feeling phantom vibrations from your phone
• Anxiety when your phone battery dies or you lose signal
• Neck and shoulder pain from “tech neck”
• Sleep disruption from late-night scrolling

Cognitive warning signs

• Difficulty concentrating on single tasks for extended periods
• Mental fatigue despite not doing mentally demanding work
• Decreased attention span for books, articles or deep conversations
• Racing thoughts or feeling mentally “wired” even when tired

Emotional warning signs

• Irritability when interrupted while on your phone
• Comparing yourself to others based on social media posts
• Mood swings correlated with social media engagement
• Feeling empty or unsatisfied after spending time on social media 

Behavioral warning signs

• Automatically reaching for your phone during any moment of potential boredom
• Checking social media while in conversations with others
• Using social media as a procrastination tool
• Lying to yourself or others about how much time you spend on your phone

Recognizing the reality of our reliance on social media is a necessary first step. Most of our social media consumption is driven by anxiety about future scenarios that may never materialize. The stoic approach promoted by Ryan Holiday, author of The Obstacle Is the Way, offers a powerful reframe: “Focus on the moment, not the monsters that may or may not be up ahead.” 

The intervention framework: Systems over willpower

Once you recognize the problem, the temptation is to rely on willpower to simply “use less.” This fails because addiction rewires your brain’s reward system. Instead, you need systematic changes that make the desired behavior easier and the undesired behavior harder. Clear’s Atomic Habits framework provides the perfect structure for breaking digital addiction:

1. Make bad habits invisible

Remove apps from your home screen: Clear says, “If I have my phone in front of me, I’ll check it every three minutes just because it’s there.” Create friction by moving social media apps off your home screen and into folders buried deep in your phone.

Use grayscale mode: Make your phone less visually appealing by switching to grayscale. The bright colors and red notification badges are designed to attract attention and may even trigger dopamine responses.

Create phone-free zones: Clear’s “one space, one use” principle means designating specific areas where phones are not allowed. I established my home office as a phone-free zone during deep work sessions.

2. Make bad habits unattractive

Understand the true cost: Research has shown that children and adolescents using social media for three or more hours daily can face double the risk of depression and anxiety symptoms. The cost isn’t just time—it’s cognitive capacity, emotional regulation, and decision-making quality.

Reframe social media companies: Newport suggests viewing social media companies as “attention merchants” rather than technology innovators. “These addictive properties of new technologies are not accidents, but instead carefully engineered design features.”

3. Make bad habits difficult

Delete apps entirely: During my recovery period, I deleted social media apps from my phone entirely. If I wanted to check them, I had to use a web browser, log in manually and deal with clunky mobile interfaces.

Use app timers and restrictions: Set daily time limits on social media apps. When you hit the limit, the app becomes inaccessible for the rest of the day.

Change your environment: “The basic idea here is you want fewer steps between you and the desired behavior and more steps between you and the undesired behavior,” Clear explains.

4. Make bad habits unsatisfying

Track your usage: Use your phone’s built-in screen time tracking to confront the reality of your usage. Most people underestimate their screen time by 2-3 hours per day.

Share your goals: Public accountability increases the social cost of failure. I told my executive team about my digital detox, making it harder to backslide without losing credibility.

Newport emphasizes that “digital minimalists see new technologies as tools to be used to support things they deeply value—not as sources of value themselves.” The key isn’t just removing social media—it’s replacing it with activities that provide genuine fulfillment.

For information addiction:

• Curated newsletter subscriptions: Instead of scrolling endless feeds, subscribe to 2-3 high-quality newsletters that deliver curated information weekly.
• Physical books and magazines: Newport notes in his book Deep Work that “idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body.” Reading physical books forces you to slow down and think deeply.

For social connection:

• Voice calls over text: “Where we want to be cautious is when the sound of a voice or a cup of coffee with a friend is replaced with ‘likes’ on a post,” shared Holly Shakya, Ph.D., an assistant professor of global public health. Instead, schedule actual phone calls or coffee meetings.
• In-person networking: According to sociologist Sherry Turkle, “Face-to-face conversation is the most human—and humanizing—thing we do. Fully present to one another, we learn to listen. It’s where we develop the capacity for empathy.”

For dopamine and stimulation:

• Physical exercise: Regular exercise provides natural dopamine while improving cognitive function and stress resilience.
• Creative hobbies: Engaging in activities that require skill development (music, art, crafts) provides the satisfaction of progress without the hollow rewards of social media.
• Nature exposure: Regular solitude in nature helps address what Newport calls “solitude deprivation,” the state of spending “close to zero time alone with your own thoughts.”

The stoic mindset: Staying focused in a world of distraction

Holiday’s stoic philosophy provides crucial mental frameworks for maintaining digital wellness: “Choose not to be harmed—and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed—and you haven’t been,” he writes in The Obstacle Is the Way. This applies directly to social media triggers. You cannot control what others post, but you can control your response to it.

“In a world of distraction, focusing is a superpower,” Holiday observes in Discipline Is Destiny. The leader who can maintain sustained attention while others fragment their focus across multiple platforms gains enormous competitive advantage.

Key stoic practices for digital wellness

Morning reflection: Start each day with intentional planning rather than reactive scrolling.

Evening review: End each day by assessing how your technology use aligned with your values and goals.

Acceptance of FOMO: According to Newport, digital minimalists “don’t accept the idea that offering some small benefit is justification for allowing an attention-gobbling service into their lives and are instead interested in applying new technology in highly selective and intentional ways that yield big wins.”

My 30-day digital detox: The system that finally worked

Here’s the specific system I used to break free from my social media addiction:

Week 1: Awareness and removal

• Used screen time tracking to establish baseline usage
• Deleted social media apps from phone
• Informed my team about the experiment for accountability
• Replaced phone with book during usual scrolling times

Week 2: Replacement habits

• Established morning routine: exercise, reading, planning (phone-free)
• Created evening routine: reflection, gratitude, physical book
• Scheduled two in-person coffee meetings to replace online networking
• Started taking walks without phone for thinking time

Week 3: Systematic reinforcement

• Put phone in airplane mode during all focused work sessions
• Established “communication windows”—specific times for checking messages
• Practiced being less available over text to paradoxically strengthen relationships
• Added meditation practice to improve impulse control

Week 4: Integration and calibration

• Slowly reintroduced necessary platforms with strict time limits
• Established clear criteria for what constitutes “valuable” online activity
• Created systems for regular digital detox periods
• Built support network for ongoing accountability

The business case for digital wellness: How leaders gain an edge by disconnecting

The impact on my leadership and business performance was immediate and dramatic.

Improved decision-making: Without the constant input of competing voices and artificial urgency, I could think more strategically and make decisions based on data and principles rather than reactions.

Enhanced focus: Recounting the research of communication professor Clifford Nass, Newport notes in Deep Work, “Once your brain has become accustomed to on-demand distraction, it’s hard to shake the addiction even when you want to concentrate.” Breaking this cycle restored my ability to engage in what he calls “deep work.”

Better relationships: Decreasing your availability over text has the potential to strengthen relationships while simultaneously leaving you (slightly) less available to your loved ones.

Increased creativity: With mental space freed from constant information input, I found myself generating more innovative solutions to business challenges.

Reduced stress: The constant state of partial attention created by social media use was replaced by focused attention and genuine rest periods.

Advanced strategies for sustained digital wellness

Once you’ve broken the initial addiction cycle, these advanced strategies help maintain long-term digital wellness:

The digital sabbath

Schedule regular periods (weekly or monthly) of complete digital disconnection. Newport recommends in Digital Minimalism to “spend some time away from your phone most days. This time could take many forms, from a quick morning errand to a full evening out.”

Value-based technology audit

Regularly assess your technology use against your core values. Newport’s framework outlined in Digital Minimalism requires that technology should “serve something you deeply value” and “be the best way to use technology to serve this value.”

Attention training

Practice sustained attention through meditation, reading or other activities that require focused concentration. “The ability to concentrate is a skill that must be trained,” Newport emphasizes in Deep Work.

Environmental design

As Clear writes, “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” Design your environment to support digital wellness rather than relying on willpower.

When failure happens: The recovery protocol

Digital addiction recovery isn’t linear. “Action and failure are two sides of the same coin. One doesn’t come without the other,” Holiday reminds us. When you slip back into old patterns:

1. Recognize without judgment: Notice the pattern without self-criticism.
2. Analyze the trigger: What situation or emotion led to the relapse?
3. Adjust your system: What environmental change could prevent this in the future?
4. Restart immediately: Don’t wait until Monday—begin again right now.

“It’s okay to be discouraged. It’s not okay to quit,” Holiday writes. The goal isn’t perfection—it’s conscious, intentional engagement with technology.

The competitive advantage of digital discipline

In a world where, on average, people spend over 2 hours daily on social media, the leader who reclaims this time and attention gains an enormous competitive advantage.

“The ability to focus is becoming the scarcest commodity of the 21st century,” Newport observes in Deep Work. While others fragment their attention across multiple platforms, you’ll develop what he calls “the ability to quickly master hard things” and “the ability to produce at an elite level, in terms of both quality and speed”—two of the core abilities for thriving in the new economy.

Focus isn’t just about productivity—it’s about presence, creativity, and the quality of your thinking.

My 7-day digital detox challenge to help reset your mind

Ready to break free from social media’s mental health stranglehold? Here’s your day-by-day action plan:

Day 1: Audit and awareness

• Install screen time tracking on all devices
• Document your current usage patterns
• Identify your top three digital triggers (boredom, stress, FOMO)

Day 2: Environment design

• Remove social media apps from phone home screen
• Set up phone-free zones in bedroom and workspace
• Switch phone to grayscale mode

Day 3: Replacement activities

• Choose two-three high-value activities to replace social media time
• Schedule specific times for these activities
• Purchase physical books or materials for new hobbies

Day 4: Communication boundaries

• Establish specific times for checking messages (e.g., 10 a.m., 2 p.m., 6 p.m.)
• Turn off all nonessential notifications
• Practice delayed response—wait at least one hour before replying to nonurgent messages

Day 5: Solitude practice

• Schedule 30 minutes of solitude: time by yourself without input from outside sources, just you and your thoughts 
• Take a walk without your phone
• Practice what Newport calls “productive meditation”—thinking through a problem while walking

Day 6: Social connection upgrade

• Replace two digital interactions with voice calls or in-person meetings
• Focus on being a person in others’ lives “who actually talks to them on a regular basis, forming a deeper, more nuanced relationship than any number of exclamation points and bitmapped emojis can provide”

Day 7: Integration and planning

• Review your week’s experience
• Identify which strategies were most effective
• Plan your ongoing digital wellness practice
• Set up accountability measures for continued success

The path forward: Living with intention through digital minimalism

“Digital minimalism is a philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you deeply value, and then happily miss out on everything else,” Newport defines.

This isn’t about becoming a digital hermit—it’s about becoming intentional with your technology use. “Digital minimalism definitively does not reject the innovations of the internet age, but instead rejects the way so many people currently engage with these tools.”

The leaders who will thrive in the coming decade won’t be those with the most followers or the fastest response times. They’ll be those who can think deeply, focus intensely and maintain genuine human connections while navigating an increasingly distracted world.

Social media promised to connect us, but it’s been isolating us. It promised to inform us, but it’s been overwhelming us. It promised to entertain us, but it’s been exhausting us.

The time to reclaim your attention—and your mental health—is now.

Your future self, your family, your team and your business will thank you for choosing depth over shallow engagement, intention over addiction and genuine human connection over digital simulation.

The most successful leaders aren’t always connected—they’re purposefully disconnected when it matters most. In a world of infinite distraction, your focused attention isn’t just an advantage—it’s your superpower.

Photo by Benjamin Sow/Unsplash

Ready to join the ranks of digitally disciplined leaders? Start with Day 1 of the challenge above, and discover how reclaiming your attention can transform both your personal well-being and professional performance. For more strategies on peak performance and intentional living, subscribe to SUCCESS® magazine’s newsletter at SUCCESS.com.