PauseApp forces you to confront how much time you spend on social media

LAKE MARY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - With countless apps available to connect you to your social networks, there’s now an app out there to make you realize how much time you’re actually spending on those networks.

PauseApp launched last month on the Google Play store and developer Daniel Floyd hopes to bring it to Apple devices soon as well.

The app links to a user’s various social media accounts, monitors usage of those accounts, and alerts users throughout the day as they exceed healthy levels of use.

Floyd, a Chicago man taking his first attempt at app development, said he came up with the idea after seeing various friends suffer depression and anxiety, partially due to constant social network usage. 

"When you start to reach an excessive usage time, that's where the problem lies,” said Floyd. 

The app doesn’t actually shut down or disable social media apps after a certain amount of use, it just alerts users to the facts and allows them to make decisions about their use as a result, Floyd said.

According to a recent study published in Time, Americans are checking their phones an average of 46 times per day. Several studies have linked that excessive use and the excessive use of social media to high stress levels.