With so many people stuck at home and social media usage at an all-time high, a lot of us are probably glued to our phones due to the enhanced community quarantine in the Philippines. But if you haven't noticed lately, social media hasn't been all that great lately. Aside from the constant barrage of news about the virus, political posts from both sides of the aisle has made hanging out on Facebook and Twitter a drain on many people's mental health, and has made working from home an even bigger challenge that it already is.
Thankfully there are apps out there that can help you detox from social media and the digital world in general. Unplugging from the constant barrage of bad news and partisan politics is good for your mental health, and here are five apps that'll let you do just that:
Flipd
The idea behind Flipd is simple — it effectively hides and locks distracting apps like social media apps to help you stay productive and keep on whatever task you need to work on.
The app gives you daily reminders to unplug from your phone for a set amount of minutes (which you can set), and you can challenge your friends to unplug with you to concentrate on other, more productive IRL tasks. Just like many apps in this list, Flipd still allows you to receive calls and texts.
Freedom
With Freedom, you get exactly what they promise — freedom from all the distractions online, allowing you to concentrate on your work while you're at home. Freedom allows you to block specific sites during work hours so you can concentrate on work, and is flexible enough to extend the block to registered devices like phones and tablets so you can't sneak a peek via your phone when you're supposed to be working.
And like the cliche goes, Freedom isn't free, but it only costs around $2.42 a month (around Php 123) a month for a subscription if you get the yearly plan.
Moment
They say you have to know if you have a problem before you can solve it, and that's exactly what the app Moment is for. Moment tracks how much time you spend on your phone in an intuitive, invisible way, and gives you an idea how much time you're really spending in the digital world. Moment also tries to help you curb your phone habit so you spend more time in the real world instead of the digital one.
AppBlock
AppBlock does exactly what the name says on the tin — it blocks distracting apps and notifications so you can concentrate on work and the real world without fiddling with your phone. Blocking apps like Facebook, Twitter and other apps is easy, and you can set whitelist hours when these apps go back online (after work, for example) so you can concentrate on what you're doing. You can also block your email from delivering notifications, useful when you're supposed to be relaxing on a weekend or are in vacation mode.
You can download AppBlock here.
Forest
Most of the apps on this list have similar features (they all basically block apps on your phone) but only Forest gamifies your time away from your device in a meaningful way.
The idea is simple: once you run Forest, a tree is planted in a virtual forest. If you leave the app and start using your phone normally, the tree dies. If you don't, the seed grows into a tree that you can plant in your own forest.
What makes Forest great is that the people behind the app have partnered with real-tree-planting organization, Trees for the Future, to plant real trees on Earth. Whenever you spend virtual coins in the app, the devs donates to their partner to plant trees in the real world.
