Last year, Olga Kidisevic decided that she didn’t want to spend the holidays scrolling through social media. 
?I had been really busy at work and I felt like I was addicted to my phone,? explains the Toronto-based children?s book editor. She was also feeling anxious about the pandemic and thought she?d feel better if she stopped reading alarming COVID headlines. But most importantly, she wanted to be more present around her seven-year-old son during his school break. 
Depending on which survey you look at, the average adult spends anywhere from three hours to five hours on their phone a day?and a lot of that time is spent on social media. This has been especially true in the past few years when pandemic restrictions have limited real-life socializing opportunities and when people have turned to their phones to get news and insights about the pandemic.  There’s another reason people spend a lot of time on their phones: the apps on them are designed to be addictive, says Sheri Madigan, associate professor in the department of psychology at the University of Calgary and Canada Research Chair in Determinants of Child Development. ?[These apps] are engineered to persuade us to be engaged, or make us stay engaged,? she says, adding, ?There?s really good evidence that they?re very habit-forming.? 
But even though we?re on social media all the time, it doesn’t make us happier. The 24/7 news style of Facebook and Twitter can lead to doom scrolling?compulsivel...