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Launch HN: Atmana (YC S21) – An app to help cut down on compulsive porn usage

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101–110 of 196 posts

Re: Launch HN: Atmana (YC S21) – An app to help cut down on compulsive porn usage

#101
post #87
post #15

Isn’t it like dieting? What I mean is that digital escapism is a symptom, not a problem. Before social media existed, people used to fill up their time with: 1) Having many children 2) Watching TV 3) Excessive alcohol use etc. Media addiction is a manifestation of something, not the root cause.

> Media addiction is a manifestation of something, not the root cause. I only partly agree. I have two children. We are loving parents and provide them with a stable house, lots of food, plenty of attention. They have friends, toys, games, books, musical instruments, bikes, and a whole neighborhood to explore. We are an extremely typical middle-class household. But left to their own devices, they will happily spend e…

[deleted]

Re: Launch HN: Atmana (YC S21) – An app to help cut down on compulsive porn usage

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, probably. Who you who didn’t like smoking. Doh, Godwin’d. Anti drug people are the worst kinda authoritarians too.

[flagged]

Not claiming this at all, didn’t mention alcohol. What I am proposing is many groups (esp religious ‘addiction’ services) _organizing_ come from a place of authoritarian, paternalistic and moral policing of those they believe are “weak”.

Re: Launch HN: Atmana (YC S21) – An app to help cut down on compulsive porn usage

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Not claiming this at all, didn’t mention alcohol. What I am proposing is many groups (esp religious ‘addiction’ services) _organizing_ come from a place of authoritarian, paternalistic and moral policing of those they believe are “weak”.

> Not claiming this at all, didn’t mention alcohol.

Wait, so you claim it of people who want to quit unspecified "hard drugs", but not alcohol specifically? Attendance to alcoholics anonymous is voluntary (usually, though sometimes a court compels it.) Use of this application is also voluntary. So what's the fundamental difference here?

> groups (esp religious ‘addiction’ services) _organizing_

If this is really key to what you're getting at, then it makes no sense for you to exclude Alcoholics Anonymous from your ire since that is an organized group that is religion-adjacent if not outright religious.

Re: Launch HN: Atmana (YC S21) – An app to help cut down on compulsive porn usage

#104
I truly appreciate your recognition of the problem and your sincere attempt at rectifying some of the behaviors that every generation is struggling with right now. I'd like to share some of my own personal experiences with the hope that it might influence your efforts in a positive direction.

The reason that I don't watch porn anymore has very little to do with personal discipline and more to do with a reframing of the people that produce it. Porn commoditizes a powerful part of the human experience. It is, in effect, prostitution. In order to recognize this, I had to have enough life experience to understand what sex is and is not, how people trade parts of their soul for money, and how people compartmentalize and lie to themselves. I also had to understand something about what keeps that machine running. That takes time.

I used to watch a lot of porn. I'm not sure that I would be able to fully convey and distill all the lessons I've learned since then to a version of myself that is 15 years younger and internally screaming for the kind of gratification that sex can bring. The only real way to absorb everything that you need to know is by actually living the experience. I needed to relate to people, to get messy and make mistakes and actually live and learn lessons about myself that you can't absorb through a computer monitor. Women are different when they're actually there with you in a way that you can smell, taste, and touch.

Once you realize that the heart is involved and that's the way that it should be, then you start to look at the Riley Reids or Sasha Greys of the world through a different lens. You see what they've sacrificed. It's not sexy anymore.

Re: Launch HN: Atmana (YC S21) – An app to help cut down on compulsive porn usage

#105
post #93

Some of this is interesting, such as the social media aspect, but I'd like to understand exactly what your motivation is and where your funding is from. One of the things few people know about the new "porn addiction" websites, including NoFap and "Fight the New Drug" is that there are connections between these groups and the LDS (ie Mormon) church. It's less about "addiction" than creating a stigma around pornograph…

we're completely bootstrapped and haven't taken any external funding yet. we aren't sponsored by any church etc. and have no religious affiliation.

restriction might help all addictions. But, we need to start somewhere, and we have chosen this specific problem. we plan to launch solutions for compulsive usage of technology products in the coming months and years.

Re: Launch HN: Atmana (YC S21) – An app to help cut down on compulsive porn usage

#106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not claiming this at all, didn’t mention alcohol. What I am proposing is many groups (esp religious ‘addiction’ services) _organizing_ come from a place of authoritarian, paternalistic and moral policing of those they believe are “weak”.

> Not claiming this at all, didn’t mention alcohol. Wait, so you claim it of people who want to quit unspecified "hard drugs", but not alcohol specifically? Attendance to alcoholics anonymous is voluntary (usually, though sometimes a court compels it.) Use of this application is also voluntary. So what's the fundamental difference here? > groups (esp religious ‘addiction’ services) _organizing_ If this is really key…

You are missing what I’m saying. It’s not about a particular substance. All power to folks who want to face their demons. I want people the be healthy, like anyone else. This isn’t about the people wanting to quit.

It’s about the people that are building structures to enforce their own morality and dressing it up as helping addiction. Those that prey on those wanting to quit.

Re: Launch HN: Atmana (YC S21) – An app to help cut down on compulsive porn usage

#107
post #104

I truly appreciate your recognition of the problem and your sincere attempt at rectifying some of the behaviors that every generation is struggling with right now. I'd like to share some of my own personal experiences with the hope that it might influence your efforts in a positive direction. The reason that I don't watch porn anymore has very little to do with personal discipline and more to do with a reframing of t…

thanks for sharing your experience. this is helpful!

Re: Launch HN: Atmana (YC S21) – An app to help cut down on compulsive porn usage

#108
post #93

Some of this is interesting, such as the social media aspect, but I'd like to understand exactly what your motivation is and where your funding is from. One of the things few people know about the new "porn addiction" websites, including NoFap and "Fight the New Drug" is that there are connections between these groups and the LDS (ie Mormon) church. It's less about "addiction" than creating a stigma around pornograph…

we're completely bootstrapped and haven't taken any external funding yet. we aren't sponsored by any church etc. and have no religious affiliation. restriction might help all addictions. But, we need to start somewhere, and we have chosen this specific problem. we plan to launch solutions for compulsive usage of technology products in the coming months and years.

> we're completely bootstrapped and haven't taken any external funding yet

Didn't you take YC money? That sounds external and not bootstrapped to me. Unless they've changed the rules.

Re: Launch HN: Atmana (YC S21) – An app to help cut down on compulsive porn usage

#109
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

we're completely bootstrapped and haven't taken any external funding yet. we aren't sponsored by any church etc. and have no religious affiliation. restriction might help all addictions. But, we need to start somewhere, and we have chosen this specific problem. we plan to launch solutions for compulsive usage of technology products in the coming months and years.

> we're completely bootstrapped and haven't taken any external funding yet Didn't you take YC money? That sounds external and not bootstrapped to me. Unless they've changed the rules.

Fair point, but I’d assume the parent meant outside of YC. To my knowledge, YC doesn’t have any connections to LDS or the Mormon church. :)

Re: Launch HN: Atmana (YC S21) – An app to help cut down on compulsive porn usage

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it is very similar to dieting. Generally people get Bored/Nervous/Sad/Angry and try to eliminate that emotion with a hit of dopamine via some external input like Food/Sex/Drugs/Entertainment instead of recognizing the emotion and dealing with it another way Meditation/Mindfulness/Therapy/Fixing a Life problem. Removing all carbs from your home forces you to get out of the house to get junk food. During that time…

quite true, porn is definitely very hard to stay off of as it's easily accessible at any time from any device.

You could make porn a special occasion to look forward to by only consuming porn content in person, in real life, outside the home, at peep shows and striptease clubs.
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