Live data from Hacker News

How to overcome Phone Addiction

cognitiontoday.com

71–80 of 325 posts

Re: How to overcome Phone Addiction

#71
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I myself spent a lot of time on the computer back then, mostly playing computer games. And I remember how everyone talked about how addictive and bad computer games were.

I remember skipping college classes to play World of Warcraft. Then my graphics card crapped out. So I skipped classes reading psychology books I got from the library. Turns out, my problems were depression and social anxiety, not video games.

I'm lucky that I didn't have issues like that. For me, it was just entertainment, nothing too detrimental. But maybe if I had a computer in my pocket, it would have been different.

Re: How to overcome Phone Addiction

#72

phone addiction is not the problem, application addiction and products built around addictive loops are the problem.

Phone addiction is just a collective word for it, and while not technically correct, it's a practical choice that a majority of people understand.

Re: How to overcome Phone Addiction

#73
Interesting. For all the issues listed, the one thing I did not see mentioned is the effect on long term memory. I wonder if it is simply discarded in the way discard the fact that we used to, out of necessity, remember phone numbers and now we do not and thus considered just a cultural change.

Then again, having near constant access to almost all human knowledge can render a man rather unwilling to retain information.

Re: How to overcome Phone Addiction

#74
I basically discourage addiction by making things “difficult” for myself on my phone:

- Minimal web bookmarks (i.e. I have to type in most web sites I want to visit; this is just enough of an encumbrance that I won’t flip open things like Reddit every 30 seconds).

- I never install apps meant for content consumption, I use their web sites. (This is usually a better experience anyway, since the vast majority of them are somehow worse than their web sites, packed with ads/notifications/spying/crap that no one should want anyway.)

- Certain web sites I refuse to use at all on mobile. This gives me a much larger and more useful view anyway, and I can enforce sanity with a lot more plug-ins that way.

- As of latest iOS, I shove most apps into the Library so they are not even on my home screen. That way, they are straightforward to retrieve with a swipe-down search but not as easy as just tapping them open. I find that I use them slightly less this way.

- I turn off many notifications, since app-makers have long abused them anyway (as virtual ads, or designed in some way to suck people back into their apps for no reason; I drew the line when apps started outright lying about things, e.g. red dots implying messages that were not actually there, etc.).

- I set it up so that my lock screen will not show most things without an extra step.

Re: How to overcome Phone Addiction

#75
The paper they are basing the opening sentence "phone addiction is one of the biggest non-drug addiction(sic) in human history" on is written by a Doctor of Business Administration, a dean that has "particular industries of interest are banks and non-profit organizations" in his bio and a third researcher with 2 publications total, including the article in question (published 2011).

This may in no way weaken the point that some of the brightest minds of today are working on producing digital Skinner boxes, black on top, with humans as the rats, interfaced via phones.

But basing an attempt at a strong argument about the addictive nature of cell-phones on an article with low relevance in scientific fields specializing in addiction could be described as suspect (most citations on g.scholar on the piece could be delineated as in the fields of business and management ).

Re: How to overcome Phone Addiction

#76

on android, you can set your phone to grayscale (night time mode). This helps with the fact that the bright colors subconsciously lure you in

^ This.

Especially Samsung have built-in some excellent tools for helping managing screen time.

Myself I am terrible with Twitter/Reddit and can easily waste hours there, but my S10 locks the apps after 45m usage per day.

Re: How to overcome Phone Addiction

#77
post #51

Given this is Hacker News, I await the solution of LSD-assisted therapy to counter phone addiction to be proposed soon.

Lol I'm not proposing an LSD-based solution, but I do have a relevant anecdote from my first trip.

We were on the beach sitting on blankets, and my phone somehow got lost in the folds of the blanket while I was coming up. For the next ~4 hours I basically forgot "who" I was, being deprived of a phone that constantly shows me my friends, notes, and pictures. Eventually, I did find my phone and it was the weirdest experience ever to look at my phone and slowly start "remembering" who I am.

Re: How to overcome Phone Addiction

#78
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The problem is that people under the age of 40 or so don't communicate via phone calls in the first instance. Where on Earth are you getting this information? You've made an unsupported claim that I was able to debunk by talking to the four tables around me. What's your source for "people under the age of 40 or so don't communicate via phone calls?"

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/26/whatsa... https://www.forbes.com/sites/briannawiest/2019/11/04/millenn... https://bgr.com/2018/12/09/millennials-phone-calls-survey/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/mobile-chat/why-millennia... https://www.inc.com/john-brandon/why-millennials-dont-like-t... https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/nz-life-leisure/110277251... https://jeffjbutler.com/2019/04/02/why-mi…

None of your links back up your claim.

>Maybe the people around your tables are just really rude?

Maybe, but you certainly are.

Re: How to overcome Phone Addiction

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I do is to tell the other person that I'll be using this other number and to call me if there's any change of plans. Edit: I actually have two phone numbers. So the new phone is still at home receiving everything

Is having a second phone number and telling people when to contact you using it really easier than just... not looking at your primary phone?

Not specially hard. And you're comparing different stuff. I'm not using a different phone because it's easier, but because having a smartphone is distracting. It's noticeable, but in case you need a link.

https://www.sacurrent.com/the-daily/archives/2017/06/28/just...

Re: How to overcome Phone Addiction

#80
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/26/whatsa... https://www.forbes.com/sites/briannawiest/2019/11/04/millenn... https://bgr.com/2018/12/09/millennials-phone-calls-survey/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/mobile-chat/why-millennia... https://www.inc.com/john-brandon/why-millennials-dont-like-t... https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/nz-life-leisure/110277251... https://jeffjbutler.com/2019/04/02/why-mi…

None of your links back up your claim. >Maybe the people around your tables are just really rude? Maybe, but you certainly are.

I don't know what you're looking for?

The first one says 'millennial[s] won't take your phone call' in the first line. Then it even quantifies it 'a quarter never use [their phone] for calls'.

If a quarter of people you might be meeting never make or take a phone call, how successful do you think you're going to be in trying to reach them via a phone call?

'Most of the twenty- and thirty somethings I socialise with would rather suck Donald Trump’s toe than make or receive a call in order to have a chat'

Lol what more are you looking for?

Post reply on HN