When Gayle Macdonald reached a summit in Spain's Sierra Nevada mountain range earlier this year, she didn't just stop and take in the moment.

Instead, the 45-year-old did what a great many people would do - she looked for the best spot to take a selfie for her social media accounts. Gayle even admits that she moved dangerously close to the edge while doing so.

It was after that moment, for which she was berated by her husband, that she decided to quit social media.

"I was like, 'this has got to stop,'" recalls Gayle, a British expat who lives near the Spanish city of Grenada. "Taking a photo was previously the first thing I thought about when I got out of the car.

"Thinking all the time about creating content, and worrying about what to say, was taking up too much headspace and getting me down."

A week later she posted on Facebook and Instagram that she would be leaving the platforms. "It was amazing how it was my most-liked post on Instagram. Everyone was commenting 'I wish I could do that' and 'you're so brave'."

• The people deciding to ditch their smartphones

Gayle, who is a life coach specialising in helping people give up drinking, worked out that she spent about 11 hours a week, on average, on social media.

She says the thought of ditching the apps was much scarier than actually leaving.

"Once the initial withdrawal was over, I didn't have cravings," she says. "It was quite liberating. I am now more than six months into my social media sobriety, and I have regained some of that sense of freedom and peace that I experienced when I quit alcohol."

For many of us, a hefty chunk of our time is spent on social media. One global study in July estimated that the average person spends two hours and 29 minutes per day on such apps and websites. That's five minutes more than a year earlier.

While some people might think that this is a bad habit that they should cut down on, for others it's an actual addiction that they need help to overcome.