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Quit everything, or quit the feed?

Deleting your apps and keeping the useful half are both valid. Here's an honest comparison.

Updated July 2026

The short answer

If you genuinely don't need social media, deleting it is the strongest option — and we'll say so. But most people need some of it: messages, work, communities, family. For them, all-or-nothing usually ends in reinstalling. Sociano is the middle path: keep your accounts and the useful flows, remove the feeds that eat the time.

What changes — and what stays

Removed

  • ✕Reels, Shorts, For You and Popular feeds
  • ✕Autoplay and recommendation chains
  • ✕Suggested content between the things you chose
  • ✕The quit-reinstall-quit cycle of cold turkey

Kept

  • ✓Your accounts, followers and history
  • ✓DMs and group conversations
  • ✓Posting, for work or for friends
  • ✓Search and specific profiles

How it works

  1. 1

    Download Sociano

    Get Sociano on the App Store. It's free to download on iPhone, and setup takes about a minute.

  2. 2

    Open your platforms inside Sociano

    Sign in through each platform's official login. Your accounts stay exactly as they are — the feeds just stop being the front door.

  3. 3

    Add native-app blocking (optional)

    If muscle memory keeps opening the native apps directly, enable Sociano's native app blocking. It uses Apple's Screen Time framework, so the calm route becomes the default one.

Download on the App Store

Why cold turkey usually ends in a reinstall

Cold turkey has a hidden failure mode: re-entry. The moment you need social media for something real — a work account, an event, a friend who only messages on Instagram — the app comes back, and it comes back with the feed attached. Deleting removes the useful parts and the harmful parts together, so it only sticks when the useful parts were near zero.

Removing just the feed changes what relapse even means. There's no forbidden fruit — Instagram is right there when you need it — but the surface that consumed the hours isn't. You're not resisting social media; you're using a version that doesn't have a slot machine in it.

Good to know

If you can delete social media entirely and feel no loss, do that — it's simpler, and Sociano isn't for everyone. Sociano is built for the larger group who still need parts of it.

Keeping your accounts also means keeping the native apps' temptation — that's what the optional Screen Time block is for. And web sessions limit some native-only features; see the limitations page.

Frequently asked

Isn't deleting more effective than any app?▼
While it lasts, yes. The catch is how often it lasts. Re-entry is usually unplanned and unprotected: you reinstall for one task and the feed comes back too. A setup that survives needing social media occasionally tends to beat one that doesn't.
When is fully quitting the right call?▼
If nothing in your life depends on social media — no work, no communities you value, no relationships maintained there — quitting is clean and complete. Honest recommendation: try deleting first. If it sticks, you don't need Sociano.
Can I use Sociano as a step toward quitting?▼
Yes, and it's common. Removing the feeds first shows you how much of your usage was the feed. What remains is what you actually use — which makes the keep-or-quit decision much clearer.
Do I lose anything by choosing Sociano over deleting?▼
You keep the native apps' pull, which is why the optional Screen Time block exists, and some native-only features are limited in web sessions. The trade-offs are listed on the limitations page.

More guides

All guides →

Sociano vs. Screen Time & blockers

Timers count minutes and get ignored. Removing the feed doesn't.

How to stop doomscrolling

It's a design problem, not a willpower problem. Here's the design fix.

Use social media intentionally

Open with a task, leave when it's done — a setup, not a mindset trick.

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