How to Scroll Less on Social Media by Feed Setting Changes?

Ever noticed how a “quick” five-minute scroll on LinkedIn, YouTube, or Instagram turns into an hour lost to the rabbit hole? Here are 3 easy ways by which you can create a short barrier between checking your feed and getting lost in the feed.

Keep your social feeds blank. No suggestions mean no starting point for distractions. Here are a few tools

News Feed Eradicator

• Platforms: Chrome, Firefox.
• Features: Replaces social feeds with blank or quotes. It also removes distracting sections like YouTube’s “similar videos” sidebar.

BeTimeFul

• Platforms: Chrome, Safari, Android app, ios app
• Features: allows timed social media breaks (e.g., 1, 5, or 10 minutes). Removes the sidebar too.

Customise your feed to become boring. The algorithm may take time to adjust, so consistency in marking ‘not interested’ or ‘unfollow’ is key.

Tiktok

• While watching a video, tap and hold (long-press) on the video until a menu appears.
• Select “Not Interested” from the options.
• Optionally, you may be prompted to specify why – select “Not relevant”

YouTube

• On the Home or Recommended feed, click the three dots (⋮) next to a video. Select “Not interested” or “Don’t recommend channel”.
• You can also select “Tell us why” to further refine what you don’t want to see.
• Use “Don’t recommend channel” to mute all its content from your feed.
• Switch-off watch history

Linkedin

• Click the three dots (⋮) on the top right of any post. Select “I don’t want to see this” to hide it.
• Unfollow connections or mute specific people or companies to reduce their posts in your feed.
• Use “Report this post” for spammy or irrelevant content to further clean your feed.

Instagram

• On Explore or Reels, tap the three dots (⋮) on a post. Select “Not Interested” to see less of that type of content.
• Go to an account’s profile, tap “Following,” then “Mute,” and choose to mute posts, stories, or both.
• Tap the three dots on an ad and select “Hide Ad” or “Not relevant.”
• Tap the three lines (menu) in the Instagram app. Go to “Content Preferences.” Select “Hidden words and phrases.” Add “#” as a muted word to block most posts with hashtags (which covers a lot of Explore and Reel content). For extra filtering, add common words like “and,” “or,” “post,” “when,” etc.
• Toggle “Snooze suggested feed for 30 days” to stop suggested Reels from showing up in your main feed.

Facebook

• Tap the three dots on an ad and choose “Hide ad” or “Why am I seeing this?” to adjust preferences.
• Click the three dots (⋮) on the top right of a post. Select “Hide post” to see fewer posts like it.
• “Snooze” a person/page/group for 30 days or “Unfollow” to stop seeing their posts without unfriending.

Filter out specific words, topics, or categories (e.g., politics, sports, spoilers), so your feed only shows less engaging content.

1. Poper Blocker

• Platforms: Chrome, Edge, iOS
• Blocks pop-ups and offers advanced social media content filtering, allowing you to hide posts containing specific keywords

2. uBlock Origin

• A free, open-source ad blocker that also allows custom filters for keywords, elements, and URLs. With some configuration, you can hide posts or sections containing certain words or topics.
• Platforms: Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera (not mobile).