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How to overcome Phone Addiction

cognitiontoday.com

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Re: How to overcome Phone Addiction

#151

Post by OJFord »

bricemo wrote: post #136

“Phone addiction” is way too broad. A lot of this criticism of phones appears out of the fact that a phone can be used for a wide range of activities. If I said someone “spent the day doing some research for work, journaling, watching TV, chatting with friends, playing a game, looking at photos from a friend’s trip, then reading local and global news”, then that sounds like a healthy balanced day. But if I described…

Half of that I can't bare to imagine doing on a phone; the other half I'd really rather not, though platforms used (especially chat and photos) may necessitate it.

Re: How to overcome Phone Addiction

#152

Post by closeparen »

Bakary wrote: post #112

Some ideas on this topic: 1. Inconvenience based solutions don't address the problem: using apps to restrict phone use, physically hiding the phone etc. Once you leave those carefully constrained conditions, you are more vulnerable than ever. Not to mention the contradiction with the core issue that it's a symptom rather than a cause. 2. Turning abstinence as an ongoing status condition (e.g. "X days since I did Y")…

I use SelfControl on my Mac when I need a serious work session. It always surprises me, when I tab to HN or Reddit and get blocked, how automatic an action it was. I’m never inclined to fight it. It never represented an actual desire to be there. There’s no deep longing to say “no” to. After the first few times being thwarted, it stops for the next several hours.

I still feel the push “away” from what I’m trying to focus on, but it’s not “towards” anywhere in particular. So as long as I divert to something that’s itself not too interesting, I will tire of the diversion and get back to work in short order. It’s only debilitating when the diversion captures me for hours (looking at you, YouTube recommendation algorithm).

Re: How to overcome Phone Addiction

#153

Post by lrobinovitch »

seibelj wrote: post #20
launderthis wrote: post #9

correlation does not equal causation. Phone addiction or internet addiction is a symptom not a cause. People are escaping to the internet becuase of the world we live in is cold. There is a new US marine commerical out that shows a kid wandering the street kind of lost in hyper interactive world. The commercial plays off of this internet addiction and data mining product selling. Then clips to them becoming a Marine…

Escapism is intensely popular, it’s behind the boom in video games, watching people stream themselves playing video games, super hero movies, scripted tv. OnlyFans let’s you have a quasi-partner who takes your money and gives you intimacy. Instant gratification, and if you don’t have what you want, just blame society for not giving it to you. What’s great is that if you are a hard worker and have a long time horizon,…

I don't disagree with your take that escapism is popular, but this can partially be attributed to the capable people you reference building technology that exploits our psychology to encourage further escapism.

I don't understand the desire to bet on things that would personally enrich you and your investments/companies but decrease overall wellbeing. The capable should build that which guides society towards connection and elevates collective goals, not exploit the exploitable.

Re: How to overcome Phone Addiction

#155

Post by jimmyjazz14 »

My personal solution for this was to lock my phone in my cars glove box and never take it out except for in the case of an emergency. It was just enough work to go get it to make me not bother with it for casual use but easy enough to grab in the case that I really needed to make a call (or get directions somewhere). Worked like a charm for me and I noticed an almost immediate improvement in my mood and generally felt less distracted in life. I feel now that I have broken the habit of looking at my phone I could probably keep it closer but I just don't care enough to walk out to my car and grab it now.

I will still say I use my laptop more to do stuff I might have done on my phone but it feels like less of a problem to me since I don't carry my laptop around with me everywhere. I just do what I might have normally done then put the laptop away and don't think about it again. Having just a little division between my online life and real life is just enough to make me feel sane again.

Re: How to overcome Phone Addiction

#157

Post by scotty79 »

Bakary wrote: post #141
dasudasu wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could be argued that #5 is just another form of distraction. Any form of "rich life" is mostly keeping the death anxiety at bay.

By a rich life, I'm referring to something that needs no further justification. When you are in this state, the need to contextualize, criticize, or philosophize about your experiences almost disappears. Think of a young child in a state of playful flow. Even if you fully take on the anti-natalist conclusion, the experience still justifies itself on its own, as an end in itself.

> When you are in this state, the need to contextualize, criticize, or philosophize about your experiences almost disappears.

For me browsing and often gaming fulfills this description of rich life.

Re: How to overcome Phone Addiction

#158

Post by MAGZine »

One thing I've done to combat this is to aggressively tamp down on things that vie, or worse yet, call for my attention. I leave my phone permanently on do not disturb mode (pagerduty and immediate family are the only exemptions). I use greyscale settings to limit my interest in phones in the evenings. And, if you send me push notifications for ANYTHING I didn't expressly request (like a status update on a pending uber), I'll manually disable notifications in the system settings for the app.

The greyscale one in particular is fascinating, and I can feel the effect immediately if I disable the greyscaling in the evening. The colours are like candy for the sensory system. Instagram is downright boring in black and white :)

I wonder if there is some way to configure the same black and white mode on my laptop between certain times.

Re: How to overcome Phone Addiction

#160

Post by dasudasu »

Bakary wrote: post #141
dasudasu wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could be argued that #5 is just another form of distraction. Any form of "rich life" is mostly keeping the death anxiety at bay.

By a rich life, I'm referring to something that needs no further justification. When you are in this state, the need to contextualize, criticize, or philosophize about your experiences almost disappears. Think of a young child in a state of playful flow. Even if you fully take on the anti-natalist conclusion, the experience still justifies itself on its own, as an end in itself.

So the perfect distraction?
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