Show HN: Scream to Unlock – Blocks social media until you scream “I'm a loser” • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Scream to Unlock – Blocks social media until you scream “I'm a loser”

#111

Post by quantadev » Wed, Jun 25, 2025, 9:55 PM UTC

graemep wrote: post #82

quantadev wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, I didn't mean it necessarily had to be on it's own hardware. I don't have any Android development experience, but it seems like android could have a version that's as locked down a this. If I had kids I wouldn't even allow use of a smartphone. I think hardly any BigTech execs let their own kids use these dumpster fires called smartphones and social media. They know there's almost zero benefits to it. Just lead…

Depends on age, individual, usage and circumstances. My kids had phones as teens, and they were useful to some extent. It also depends what they do - social media + doomscrolling is the worst thing. There is Android support for locking things down for kids, but I do not know how effective it is - mine are adults of close to being an adult now. Its also hard to do without. I would have to pay a lot more for my daughte…

I agree with all that. Nowadays kids are so addicted to phones, the phone is like a toy (even like a baby pacifier) that they simply never outgrow even into adulthood. They can't sit at a stoplight without needing a "fix" like a junkie. It's so sad.

Re: Show HN: Scream to Unlock – Blocks social media until you scream “I'm a loser”

#112

Post by quantadev » Wed, Jun 25, 2025, 9:59 PM UTC

dylan604 wrote: post #102

quantadev wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But would you make your kid do CAPTCHAs every time they need to earn some privilege? We're talking about what's appropriate for kids, not what's easy or hard for adults or kids. I mean why not make them earn dessert by doing push-ups? Because it's mean, that's why.

If it was up to me, I'd make them do 5 push ups and 5 crunches instead. Or putting the devices down altogether. It's not mean to make your kids do physical activity. In fact, if you are not making them do physical activity, I'd say you are negligent as a parent. I guarantee you that if you had your kids start doing pushups and crunches they would get to the point of it being a nothing burger to do it. It will be a bu…

If you wanna have successful kids just make 'em solve a coding challenge on a white board for food and/or medical and dental care, whereby noncompliance or failure earns them a night out in the tent in the back yard, especially in winter. You wanna be a disciplinarian, then let's get it right, amirite?

Re: Show HN: Scream to Unlock – Blocks social media until you scream “I'm a loser”

#113

Post by busymom0 » Wed, Jun 25, 2025, 9:59 PM UTC

SoftTalker wrote: post #88

Good idea. Could be applied to other self-destructive categories: Porn, hookup apps, etc.

I created a similar app which locks your addictive apps until you exercise (climb stairs, bike, run etc) to earn screen time points. It's called Run for Fun:

https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/run-for-fun-screen-time-focus/...

Re: Show HN: Scream to Unlock – Blocks social media until you scream “I'm a loser”

#114

Post by asdf6969 » Wed, Jun 25, 2025, 11:35 PM UTC

haswell wrote: post #13

hodder wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the point is you aren't a winner if you are unlocking social media. You are opening the gate to loserdom. I'm not sure how the I'm a winner concept would apply here using one of the four methods of operant conditioning. The research stands, but the practical application of his app is based on a Positive Punishment operant conditioning.

> you aren't a winner if you are unlocking social media. You are opening the gate to loserdom That is not a psychologically healthy way to frame this. And I think it’s a stretch to say that screaming “I’m a loser” is positive punishment, which seems just as likely to reinforce negative self beliefs that lead to the outcomes described in the parent comment’s research and opposite of what the user presumably wants. To…

> That is not a psychologically healthy way to frame this.

But lying to yourself is so much worse. Eventually you won’t hold the illusion anymore and you’ll crash hard. It’s better to be honest and grounded in reality if you want any improvement to be sustainable

Re: Show HN: Scream to Unlock – Blocks social media until you scream “I'm a loser”

#115

Post by avoutos » Thu, Jun 26, 2025, 12:29 AM UTC

bitwize wrote: post #66

graemep wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would work short term, but I would worry that it makes a a price to be paid which will impair joy in learning the subject in the long term. Its much better to make kids interested in learning than to reward reaching goals or punish failing to reach them.

Math is a grind. Inherently. You gotta drill the basic arithmetic in order to learn it, and no amount of sugarcoating will make kids like it. So incentivizing kids to commit to the grind will beat attempting to make the subject more interesting, every time. This is the lesson unlearned by proponents of "New Math" and "Common Core" in the USA; in fact, maybe one of the reasons why Singapore Math is so successful is be…

As someone who grew up during the heyday of common core, I can attest to this. Standardization is not a bad thing, but the pace and complexity were dumbed down. We were taught arithmatic with block visualisations and "bundles" far too long as if it took great effort to understand the abstraction of arabic numerals. I constantly felt like my desire and aptitude to learn outpaced the learning materials supplied and I have never considered myself "gifted" with math.

I think many will be surprised by the amount children can learn if you actually test the limit of their capabilities.

I feel the limiting factor when it comes to learning increasingly difficult concepts is not intelligence but effort. Often teachers and parents may mistake the attention-span deficits of kids for a sign that the material is too hard, when the ability is there and only needs to be distilled with discipline.

Re: Show HN: Scream to Unlock – Blocks social media until you scream “I'm a loser”

#116

Post by dylan604 » Thu, Jun 26, 2025, 2:19 AM UTC

quantadev wrote: post #112

dylan604 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it was up to me, I'd make them do 5 push ups and 5 crunches instead. Or putting the devices down altogether. It's not mean to make your kids do physical activity. In fact, if you are not making them do physical activity, I'd say you are negligent as a parent. I guarantee you that if you had your kids start doing pushups and crunches they would get to the point of it being a nothing burger to do it. It will be a bu…

If you wanna have successful kids just make 'em solve a coding challenge on a white board for food and/or medical and dental care, whereby noncompliance or failure earns them a night out in the tent in the back yard, especially in winter. You wanna be a disciplinarian, then let's get it right, amirite?

no, now you're just being obstinate because you think it's cool on the internet or something. if you think doing 5 push ups and 5 crunches is punishment, then we're just on different planets. fine, if you're so against physical exercise. then make the ankle biters clean their room, take out the trash, walk the dog (oops physical exercise again), or any of a number of other things. unless you're one of those parents who thinks chores are too taxing for their sweetwiddleones

Re: Show HN: Scream to Unlock – Blocks social media until you scream “I'm a loser”

#117

Post by quantadev » Thu, Jun 26, 2025, 3:09 AM UTC

dylan604 wrote: post #116

quantadev wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you wanna have successful kids just make 'em solve a coding challenge on a white board for food and/or medical and dental care, whereby noncompliance or failure earns them a night out in the tent in the back yard, especially in winter. You wanna be a disciplinarian, then let's get it right, amirite?

no, now you're just being obstinate because you think it's cool on the internet or something. if you think doing 5 push ups and 5 crunches is punishment, then we're just on different planets. fine, if you're so against physical exercise. then make the ankle biters clean their room, take out the trash, walk the dog (oops physical exercise again), or any of a number of other things. unless you're one of those parents w…

I think you took my post a bit too seriously. I have no kids, but I just know the topic of how to discipline children is hotly debated among the "experts" (if there are any).

Re: Show HN: Scream to Unlock – Blocks social media until you scream “I'm a loser”

#118

Post by wraptile » Thu, Jun 26, 2025, 4:26 AM UTC

I genuinely don't get this. Let's say you believe it's an addiction - how is this an acceptable treatment? Would we justify something like this for alcoholics? "Scream you're a loser for another can of beer"

I'm not attacking this project and OP per se but if we do believe that social media addiction is a real problem we're approaching it in very immature ways. It's either an easy problem than can be solved with temperance or its a hard problem that needs to be solved with real science based tools. Anything in-between seems like it could be more harmful than helpful.

Re: Show HN: Scream to Unlock – Blocks social media until you scream “I'm a loser”

#119

Post by wraptile » Thu, Jun 26, 2025, 4:33 AM UTC

dylan604 wrote: post #84

rrgok wrote: post #73

Far from me criticizing people with disabilities. But are we, as a generation, really that desperate to use these kind of solutions to just control our impulses? Listen, I sometime spend my Saturday just doom scrolling and watching useless shorts for all day beside eating meals, doing nothing productive. But I can stop whenever I can. If you find hard stopping your compulsive behavior you have some other problem that…

I love it when normies come in and criticize addicts for having a lack of impulse control. Maybe we are not willing to use the addiction word, but until we accept people are addicted, we're never going to solve anything.

Except things like this are not treatment but just memes

Re: Show HN: Scream to Unlock – Blocks social media until you scream “I'm a loser”

#120

Post by dankwizard » Thu, Jun 26, 2025, 5:35 AM UTC

kevindamm wrote: post #87

recursive wrote: post #71

A lot of people are objecting to the "loser" unlock key. A lot of ideas about what to do instead. I think the biggest problem with social media is the loss of attention span. So I think it should force you to stare into the camera for 180 seconds without context switching to unlock. Practice focus to unlock distraction.

180 seems very high to me and I've already quit social networks (well, except for some forum-like ones such as HN). I like the idea, though, maybe five minutes for every 30 seconds of non-distracted gaze? Or something like that and tunable. Maybe even dynamic to the amount of time spent scrolling the feed in the last x hours?

If 180 is high you've got Tiktok Brain my friend.