Habit change is no small thing. Delete the apps, schedule or ration usage. My noticing the difference quitting social media made in my emotional health helped reinforce the change — reflection writing was a good routine that supported that noticing.
Ask HN: How do you avoid dopamine addiction on social media?
11–20 of 111 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid dopamine addiction on social media?
#12That reminds me, it's time for my ~monthly Reddit account deletion to avoid karma cravings.
I wish HN would do account deletion the same way Reddit does. They argue it would harm the flow of conversations, but I'd argue the conversations here aren't a sacred as they make them out to be.
Just denying myself access to the account isn't the same, I tried it and had to ask support to give it back. I don't like to have 11 years of content sitting out there that's tied to me that I can't control in anyway (account used to be my real name, but support changed it after a minor stalking incident, but there's enough data for figuring it out).
Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid dopamine addiction on social media?
#13There are no cool tricks to improving yourself. If you want to stop eating sugar then stop eating it. If you want to stop drinking alcohol stop drinking it. If you want to get fit start exercising. If you want to stop being addicted to social media then delete it. You can make all the excuses about how you need it to stay in contact with friends, or deals on the local market, or find events in groups but in the end i…
I disagree that there are no cool tricks. See my answer below.
I do agree that simply stop doing the thing is great, but that doesn't seem to work for many people. It can sound ridiculous if you have the will power, but if it were that simple we would have few overweight people, no addicts in the world, etc.
Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid dopamine addiction on social media?
#14There are no cool tricks to improving yourself. If you want to stop eating sugar then stop eating it. If you want to stop drinking alcohol stop drinking it. If you want to get fit start exercising. If you want to stop being addicted to social media then delete it. You can make all the excuses about how you need it to stay in contact with friends, or deals on the local market, or find events in groups but in the end i…
There are plenty of tricks to make improving yourself easier. I could list dozens, especially with respect to eating, drinking, and exercising.
As for social media, I'm not aware of as many, and I'm guessing the OP isn't either, which prompted his post.
Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid dopamine addiction on social media?
#15There are no cool tricks to improving yourself. If you want to stop eating sugar then stop eating it. If you want to stop drinking alcohol stop drinking it. If you want to get fit start exercising. If you want to stop being addicted to social media then delete it. You can make all the excuses about how you need it to stay in contact with friends, or deals on the local market, or find events in groups but in the end i…
There are plenty of tricks to make improving yourself easier. I could list dozens, especially with respect to eating, drinking, and exercising. As for social media, I'm not aware of as many, and I'm guessing the OP isn't either, which prompted his post.
When I got my new phone I never installed Instagram, Facebook or TikTok.
I kept the social media apps on my old phone only, so that one became my 'social media phone's instead of my main phone.
Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid dopamine addiction on social media?
#16I mostly don't use Twitter, Facebook, or Reddit. I have reason to log into my Facebook account a few times a year. The only reason I log into Twitter is when I get a link to a Twitter thread, same with Reddit. I'm no paragon of restraint, I had to delete Universal Paperclip from my phone to quit playing it. I guess the easiest way to deal with any addiction is not to become addicted in the first place. Not great advice for people who are already addicted. . .
Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid dopamine addiction on social media?
#17There are no cool tricks to improving yourself. If you want to stop eating sugar then stop eating it. If you want to stop drinking alcohol stop drinking it. If you want to get fit start exercising. If you want to stop being addicted to social media then delete it. You can make all the excuses about how you need it to stay in contact with friends, or deals on the local market, or find events in groups but in the end i…
There are plenty of tricks to make improving yourself easier. I could list dozens, especially with respect to eating, drinking, and exercising. As for social media, I'm not aware of as many, and I'm guessing the OP isn't either, which prompted his post.
What I mean by "tricks" is that there's only one thing that matters and that's doing it. You're right that there are efficient methods but I certainly have spent a lot of time researching "the best methods" before realising that the most important thing is to actually just start and then everything works out fine later. Everything else is an excuse to put off doing it.
Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid dopamine addiction on social media?
#18I did two things recently cause I've wasted just about half my life on reddit:
- Blocked reddit at a dns level across my entire network via pihole (I run a personal vlan so the rest of the house network wasn't affected).
- Disable my internet completely on this vlan after working hours via a schedule in pfsense.
I get around the reddit block sometimes by enabling a VPN, which is only a few button clicks. But since this work around causes me extra steps, it makes me pause to think 'do I really want to aimlessly browse reddit?' which the answer is usually no, so I usually stop in my tracks there and get back to work/whatever.
The entire internet being cut was more about configuring a sleep schedule instead of blocking dopamine.
The big take away: make it hard to access the content. The extra step makes you mindful of your time.
Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid dopamine addiction on social media?
#19Install an extension like News Feed Eradicator https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/news-feed-eradicat...
Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid dopamine addiction on social media?
#20Make it hard to login to social media. For example, setup 2FA via a hardware key, keep the key at home (or other place that’s hard to access throughout the day) and then logout of the site when you feel you’ve reached your “dose” for the day.
That ways you can’t just log in every time you crave a hit for a day.
Think of this like an alcoholic who always carries a flask — getting rid of the flask could be a good first-step in controlling the addiction.