My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll • Hacker News Board

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#221

Post by pcurve » Mon, Mar 07, 2022, 5:06 AM UTC

LiquidPolymer wrote: post #111

I’m curious what the generational divide is for this. I’m 57, love tech and enjoy the positive side of the internet in limited doses. But I find most social media boring. There is incredible and AMAZING art, accidental moments, serious discussion and fascinating analysis of the world to be found online. But without grounding myself in genuine experience in the stinky, cruel real world of human interaction, nature, an…

Would you mind sharing these sites? I would love to be engaged in the space the way you are.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#222

Post by sizzle » Mon, Mar 07, 2022, 5:11 AM UTC

winternett wrote: post #188

I still mostly use the web browser on my mobile phone. Many apps are just too damn invasive now as well, they cross the line way too far for metrics they don't even really pay attention to; this is why I only install apps that don't use dark patterns and I've deleted many that go that route. I also schedule my important daily tasks on my calendar with silent (vibration alerts) so that I know when things need to get d…

Thankfully iOS has implemented Screen Time limiting and I someone I trust set the pin to add more time. Works like a charm across the apple ecosystem

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#223

Post by inopinatus » Mon, Mar 07, 2022, 5:18 AM UTC

LiquidPolymer wrote: post #111

I’m curious what the generational divide is for this. I’m 57, love tech and enjoy the positive side of the internet in limited doses. But I find most social media boring. There is incredible and AMAZING art, accidental moments, serious discussion and fascinating analysis of the world to be found online. But without grounding myself in genuine experience in the stinky, cruel real world of human interaction, nature, an…

I think it's a fallacy to presume this is generational. Thirty years ago, the previous generation of grumpy old farts had basically the same class of remarks to make about us, and our preferences, since a great many of one's peers were practically glued to that TV screen. Social media is designed to weaponise our dopamine/reward pathways; if you're a holdout against that, fine, but so are a ton of twentysomethings. My assessment is that responses to attention capture stimuli are individual, not generational, and the observable variations have more to do with technological change, than cultural or anthropological change.

More generally, making value judgements on the basis of media consumption is something to let go of, in my experience.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#224

Post by me_me_mu_mu » Mon, Mar 07, 2022, 5:21 AM UTC

lrvick wrote: post #164

sodality2 wrote: post #24

I'm still young so maybe my mind hasn't matured enough to where I can combat this well. So I went heavy-handed - I have a button on my desk that when I press it, my server's DNS server (through which all my devices and router resolve) begins rejecting requests to reddit, instagram, twitter, hackernews, news.google.com, etc. For the next two hours, there is nothing I can do outside of SSH'ing through my mobile device…

I just ditched my smartphone entirely. Humanity survived until the 00s without them. You can too.

I got the new iPhone SE (small screen) in 2020 so I limit my screen time. It has worked but not as well as I'd hoped for.. maybe I need to go back to my razr.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#225

Post by soared » Mon, Mar 07, 2022, 5:32 AM UTC

imron wrote: post #172

Twitter recently made a change on mobile where if you are not logged in, you can only scroll through a handful of tweets before being prompted to login. This has dramatically cut back the amount of time I’d spend browsing twitter (don’t have an account, and not interested in creating one).

Reddit also has the same feature on the mobile site where they randomly force you to download the app or stop browsing. Pretty nice.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#226

Post by ec109685 » Mon, Mar 07, 2022, 5:34 AM UTC

sixstringtheory wrote: post #85

polio wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you enjoy the product, this risks skewing the input to the recommendation algorithm. Presumably they use time spent to determine what content you enjoy.

Not sure I follow, it doesn’t sound like any particular post would be on screen any longer than normal, unless you’re suggesting that time since load is what is measured instead of time on screen (or time since last scroll), or that they use overall duration of the app session to infer things about all the posts that were loaded.

It might register a whole bunch of skips, and skips might be weighted more than re-runs (or not and it’s a good technique!).

TikTok is ridiculously captivating. I just don’t use it because it sucks me in.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#227

Post by m8s » Mon, Mar 07, 2022, 5:37 AM UTC

I just want to give a quick shout out to the Apollo Reddit reader on iOS for two specific features:

1. You can disable infinite scroll. When I’ve been scrolling Reddit for 20 or so posts, it’s a sobering reminder that I’ve gained nothing of value on Page 1, and Page 2 likely won’t be any better.

2. You can disable r/all. If it’s there, odds are I will look at it. Without it, I don’t feel tempted to wander outside of my curated feed of programming languages and such.

Two really excellent features to combat the addictive noise I have trouble filtering.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#228

Post by mariebks » Mon, Mar 07, 2022, 5:38 AM UTC

dboreham wrote: post #214

rg111 wrote: post #179

I have actually won against doomscroll. I used to spend 5-6 hours per day, and it peaked at 10 hours per day for some days of the year. I realized that doomscrolling is not only clever algorithms trying to get me hooked, but also a symptom of deeper problems that I had. And I realized that I was unhappy because I spent most of my doing things that I didn't like. I was deep frustrated. I did not want to spend my brain…

I've had some success with time blocking (which I usually do by Google searching for "30 min timer"). But I'm curious what you do about asynchronous interrupts? e.g. you block out your morning carefully, then 1h into things a guy you called three weeks ago to ask if he would estimate for painting your fence shows up and wants to spend 30min looking at the job asking questions. Now your time blocks are scattered to th…

Check out the app Sorted on iOS (not sure if on Android). You can set all your tasks for the day and all their lengths (great for timeblocking), a default buffer between each task, and then autoschedule all the tasks throughout the day. If one gets interrupted, you can re-schedule them for the rest of the day after a certain time.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#229

Post by weq » Mon, Mar 07, 2022, 5:44 AM UTC

irjustin wrote: post #162

resonious wrote: post #76

Lately I've become convinced that video games and social media are in the same class as drugs and alcohol. They're a pretty fun way to kill time, but some people are predisposed to doing too much, and too much is dangerous. Also similar to drugs/alcohol: it seems to affect some people more than others. I know people who can check FB/TikTok for a couple minutes and then they're done, and I also know people who continu…

> video games and social media are in the same class as drugs and alcohol. Disagreed - one key aspect of the latter is physical dependance where withdraws are potentially life threatening. It's similar sledge hammer approach to putting weed on class 1 or treating all wrong doings as 'sin'. They are not the same things, should not be thought as the same nor treated the same.

Are you kidding me? Have you not seen people die from selfies?

Anyone can become addicted to anything and suffer the same consequences peddled by religion for "drugs". There is no argument against this, humans can programme themselves just as opiates, pathways are pathways.

My ex-wife was a Doctor with PTSD from being raped (she was raped by a doctor who was drunk, then raped by a physcologist who treated her, got her pregnant, then forced her to give up her kid) (med school, what a cesspool!)

She was addicted to gaming AND social media. They were the only way she could stop thinking about her PTSD which haunted her everyday. She is a functioning Senior ER doctor. She had all the same symptoms as my mate who was raped by an uncle when he was a child and consequently took up drugs in adolencence. he gave up drugs. She hasnt given up gaming, or scoail media, and she is only a trigger away from killing someone on the ER table due to it.

FYI i found out we were getting a divorce because she unfriended me from FB. Are u kidding me? What an ADDICT! Threatened to kill herself unless i had a baby with her. That was my last straw. She couldnt do a sh*t in the morning without scrolling. Somehow FB status was more real to her then life. Least she have a moment to recollect her trauma.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#230

Post by me_me_mu_mu » Mon, Mar 07, 2022, 5:49 AM UTC

trutannus wrote: post #185

yupper32 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But without grounding myself in genuine experience in the stinky, cruel real world of human interaction, nature, and emotions it’s hollow. The ability for younger people to actually experience life is fading. Having to work multiple jobs to keep a roof over your head, massive inflation, burnout from everything, covid spikes recently, etc, etc, etc, etc. Instagram/other social media is free and doesn't require any c…

>Having to work multiple jobs to keep a roof over your head, massive inflation, burnout from everything, covid spikes recently So the consequences of inept, corrupt, and broken governmental systems basically.

In many cases, people voted for it.