41–50 of 111 posts
Between those two things, my Instagram usage is down from 1+ hours a day to ~10m.
Part of that is because the ig webapp is pretty terrible, so it won’t work for hn.
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 tri…
My solution for Twitter, which is a work in progress, was to create a second account that is focused on being more "positive"[0], and leave that one signed in. That makes the right thing easier. I use it to post jokes or interact with content creators that I enjoy. If I find myself wanting to interact with something that makes me feel angry, like some shitty thing a politician said, I think to myself: "which account do I want to use for this?" If it's the account I use for negative stuff I have to go through extra work to use it and then I don't bother. And nothing of value is lost.
I haven't found an ideal solution for reading. I bought a Kindle and have been using it every day but I don't know if it's because it's still shiny and new or because I've started a new habit. I do carry it with me throughout the house so it's pretty much always in view, which may help me consider doing the "right" thing (maybe pick it up instead of my phone).
0: Of course I'm assigning right and wrong, positive and negative, arbitrarily. That's ok for me because I'm not having a philosophical debate with myself, heh.
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…
This is bullshit. There are lots of simple tricks you can employ to improve yourself. For example:
>If you want to stop eating sugar
If you want to stop eating sugar, throw it all away, and when you go to the supermarket go when you have just eaten, and avoid buying sugar and sugary products.
This gets recommended a lot, but because it is good - Atomic Habits by James Clear.
I use ideas taken from behavioral psychology book, Nudge, but in reverse. For instance, I use an extension that adds a 2 second delay to every Facebook page load. The added friction is small but it very quickly gets me frustrated and I just stop.
Since I can browse the first page, that allows me to "cut back" on those distractions without going cold turkey.
- Facebook: I realized everything I posted got maybe 1 or 2 likes. Either no one was looking at my stuff or the algorithm wasn't propagating it. At the time I had 150 friends, so I would have expected more response out of most of my posts than that. Thus I was just giving Facebook info about myself and that it really was a waste of my time.
- Most social media apps: It's so easy to get caught up in the hope that your stuff goes viral, but understanding the above and really thinking about how things go viral (essentially purely random or so plugged into a developing zeitgeist that you stumble upon it), the chance of that happening is so small that your efforts are honestly better spent elsewhere. Even if it does happen, what's the reward. What's the true value of merely being Internet famous? Is it worth posting multiple times daily and being consumed with the reactions? Most worthwhile Internet famous people have lives and value beyond their social media posts.
After really realizing this social media became mostly pointless to me and I wasn't doing social media instead of more important things in my life.
If you are getting a lot of meaningful engagement with your posts, then maybe it's a value-add and you shouldn't stop. Otherwise maybe taking a 1-week break and seeing if anything significant in your life changes will put it into proper perspective.
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…
One that I've found is effective to me is to replace the habit with some other habit. One that's beneficial. Example, every time you feel the need to go on social media replace social media with reading. Be sure to have a book at hand. Or a quick 1 minute or so workout. I heard of a guy that curled dumbbells, 10 reps. He got huge biceps. I don't know if it helped his habit but he sure got results. Think of something beneficial to you that you want to improve. You might fail at first but keep at it you'll succeed.
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…
> There are no cool tricks to improving yourself. This is bullshit. There are lots of simple tricks you can employ to improve yourself. For example: >If you want to stop eating sugar If you want to stop eating sugar, throw it all away, and when you go to the supermarket go when you have just eaten, and avoid buying sugar and sugary products. This gets recommended a lot, but because it is good - Atomic Habits by James…
Have two fixed time slots in a day and check all the apps during that time. Ignore/ Clear any notifications during all other time. Requires some self discipline but limits the usage considerably.
I never use social media outside of this slot.
I enforce it even when I have nothing else to do- like waiting in a queue or waiting for someone.
I do something else, or stare at the floor rather than pulling up my phone and opening a scroller.
This has had more benefit than just saving time. Attention span has gotten better, focus has improved. It sounds BS, but you can verify this yourself.
I have learned about it in Cal Newport's book Deep Work.
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…
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.
Please do.