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

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

#31
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Just because surveys say X = Y it doesn't necessary mean it has to apply to everyone's mindset.

In practice, I have never encountered a person who benefits from such negative self beliefs in the long term, or anyone who would claim they were beneficial. My perspective on this is driven by many years of real world experience with addiction and related communities, and more personal exploration of the negative bias than I can quantify.

There’s a good reason addiction recovery is now often focused on the underlying issues of shame and other negative self beliefs. They tend to be at the root of the issue, despite being the default reaction people feel towards themselves due to social conditioning.

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

#32

If you want to make a kids app... Forcing the child to do a number of math problems to continue using the tablet would be an amazing app that I would definitely pay for. My daughter is a second grader. If every 5 minutes of tablet use 'cost' her 5 correct arithmetic answers she would be working at space x right now.

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.

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

#33

If you want to make a kids app... Forcing the child to do a number of math problems to continue using the tablet would be an amazing app that I would definitely pay for. My daughter is a second grader. If every 5 minutes of tablet use 'cost' her 5 correct arithmetic answers she would be working at space x right now.

It certainly seems like someone would've invented a Kid Friendly phone by now that's completely safe, and doesn't allow access to the "real" internet at all, but only an ability to send texts without images, make voice calls, etc. Now that we have AI it would be easier, an you could potentially give "Google" access that's censored into a "child friendly" output by the AI. You could have a texting app where friends can talk, but only to kids in their own school for example, or at least limited by geographical area, to foster friendships IRL, rather than some Chinese Bot being able to trick your kid into eating Tide Pods or whatever their latest Attack on America happens to be.

But TBH making kids continually solve math problems seems a bit mean to me. Like making a kid do pushups for food if they're overweight. Too militaristic and authoritarian for my liking, but I can respect your creativity for creating that. It's good to try new ideas.

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

#34
I had similar efforts. so I made a Chrome extension that helps you be more mindful of your social media usage by prompting you to think twice before visiting social media sites. If you really want to see, just wait after the counting down:

https://github.com/chaosprint/twice

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

#35
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because surveys say X = Y it doesn't necessary mean it has to apply to everyone's mindset.

In practice, I have never encountered a person who benefits from such negative self beliefs in the long term, or anyone who would claim they were beneficial. My perspective on this is driven by many years of real world experience with addiction and related communities, and more personal exploration of the negative bias than I can quantify. There’s a good reason addiction recovery is now often focused on the underlyin…

Your not wrong, I do agree. But for a pet-project, it's a bit of fun? Or should we just face it.

Everyone is a loser for using social media?

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

#36
post #3

This is cute, but in all seriousness it would be much more effective to shout "I'm a winner" Research: - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3354773/ – Low self-esteem + rejection hurts self-control - https://selfdeterminationtheory.org/SDT/documents/2007_Power... – Self-criticism predicts less goal progress - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9916102/ – Social exclusion slows inhibitory control - https:/…

Then it would be even simpler to build an app, because if you shout "I'm a winner", the extension doesn't need to do anything at all, just keep everything blocked as before...

Be kind to yourself, but think through the problem before sending a week worth of research articles.

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

#39
post #32

If you want to make a kids app... Forcing the child to do a number of math problems to continue using the tablet would be an amazing app that I would definitely pay for. My daughter is a second grader. If every 5 minutes of tablet use 'cost' her 5 correct arithmetic answers she would be working at space x right now.

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.

On the other hand, the kids might do lot of exercises to keep playing, then they get better at something, then they realize that it is much more enjoyable to be good at something than not...

Long term, it could still be a win.

Obviously not the same, but in the first years of university, I hated math because it suddenly got hard (never before university did I have to learn math or physics just to barely pass). Then, after many nights of reading through books and practicing, grinding, I realized it's not that hard and it made me enjoy solving the "challenges".

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