Facebook is taking a big chunk of time away from our real lives. Users spend an average of 50 minutes a day on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during the company’s earnings call earlier this week. That’s 304 hours a year spent per person on Facebook platforms—and that doesn’t even include WhatsApp.
To help you with your addiction, there’s a new extension available for Google Chrome desktop users called Focusbook.
Every time you go on Facebook, the extension asks you for the purpose of your visit. Are you stalking people? Maybe you’re inviting friends to your party? Are you writing on a friend’s wall? Put that in the extension’s status bar. A blue popup bar reminds you, crudely, to stay on task and get off Facebook soon after. If that’s not enough, the blue bar starts creeping downward, taking a larger chunk of your screen’s real estate. Eventually it occupies the whole screen and you’re forced to leave Facebook.
Tearing ourselves away from social media is certainly a challenge for many us, and maybe being constantly asked what we’re actually doing on Facebook will will. But if this doesn’t do the trick, there are dozens of other extensions and apps that help limit your web distractions.