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Ask HN: How do you avoid dopamine addiction on social media?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid dopamine addiction on social media?

#21

Post by sbmthakur »

Here's what works for me:

1. Only permit important notifications

2. Avoid mobile apps like a plague

3. Avoid apps that have dark patterns like deep scrolling

4. Use simple alternatives when available. I use NewPipe instead of YouTube and i.reddit.com in place of reddit.com

5. I know that my time and attention are valuable. There's no reason I should give it to these companies.

6. Use app specific hacks. For example, it's not possible for me to avoid LinkedIn as I am looking for jobs. But instead of routinely browsing it I can just configure daily alerts.

Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid dopamine addiction on social media?

#23

Post by johnkpaul »

raspyberr wrote: post #9

There 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…

As much as my brain would like to agree with you and find the black and white more calming of a world to live in, at least for one of these examples I’ve found it untrue in a practical sense.

I’m now 5 years from any sucrose or fructose and I’m getting pretty close to totally zero carbohydrate. I’ve tried dozens of times over decades to “eat less sugar”. Until I learned about how eating fat will help satiate me (not saying it’ll work for everyone but it worked for me), I was unable to successfully eat less or no sugar.

Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid dopamine addiction on social media?

#24

Post by gnicholas »

I deleted the mobile apps and instead use various browser apps for this purpose. I took the browser apps and hid them in folders on various remote screens (on iOS you can now remove them from all pages, forcing you to flip all the way to the end, where all apps are listed). After each session, log out and don’t save your password. The idea is to create a few seconds of time between the urge and the payoff, during which time you can reconsider whether you actually want to access the app.

Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid dopamine addiction on social media?

#25

Post by qbasic_forever »

Make your password very long and impossible to remember without a password manager. Keep the password in a very difficult to use or annoying password manager, like maybe a local instance of keypass on a single device. Log out of the service on all your devices. Now every time you want to use the service you have to go through an annoying process to log in and have time to question, do I really need to do this right now?

Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid dopamine addiction on social media?

#26

Post by yuppie_scum »

I went on a big “social media diet” over the past couple years and it’s been amazing.

One trick I used successfully was, remove the apps from your Home Screen so you don’t see them.

Turn off emails, notifications, badge counts, etc so it isn’t constantly reminding you of its existence and is easier to forget.

Don’t leave the tabs open on your computer. There’s probably plug-ins that can shut the tabs after x amount of time.

For mobile, there are app time limit settings (iOS I think has this in the Settings page), intended for parental controls but hey you can use them too.

You don’t have to follow everybody or anybody. When you notice an app, a channel or a certain account is bothering you, consider muting or unfollowing them.

Consider finding other things like games, work, or books that you can absorb your full attention.

Remember, you are the boss. You can use it on your terms. You’ll realize very fast that FOMO does not really exist for these, when you stop using them constantly.

You can do this. You’re gonna feel a lot better on the other side, I guarantee it.

Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid dopamine addiction on social media?

#27

Post by [deleted] »

raspyberr wrote: post #9

There 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…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid dopamine addiction on social media?

#28

Post by notreallyserio »

If I find that I'm doing too much A and I don't want to give up on it entirely I look for ways to make A less convenient. That may mean deleting an app (instead using a possibly clunkier website), not having candy in the house (I have to go to the store to get my fix), etc.

It's an extension of some typical advice to create healthy habits: make doing the right thing easier and the wrong thing harder.

Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid dopamine addiction on social media?

#30

Post by aronowb14 »

notreallyserio wrote: post #28

If I find that I'm doing too much A and I don't want to give up on it entirely I look for ways to make A less convenient. That may mean deleting an app (instead using a possibly clunkier website), not having candy in the house (I have to go to the store to get my fix), etc. It's an extension of some typical advice to create healthy habits: make doing the right thing easier and the wrong thing harder .

> make doing the right thing easier and the wrong thing harder.

I’ve never heard it put so succinctly! In the realm of breaking social media addiction I’ve tried to block all feeds on my laptop using chrome extensions, logout on mobile. To be honest: it’s the “make the right thing easier” that has been tricky for me. I’m trying to read more, but frankly post work tiredness does make diving into good books kind of tricky. Not 100% sure what the right “right thing” to replace social media in my life is yet.

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