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My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

alexanderell.is

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Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#241

Post by ralls_ebfe »

wmitty wrote: post #145
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…

My (crude) version of the same thing requires that I go 1000 meters from my house to press the button to enable the DNS for another 30 min of browsing (button is on a custom phone app, distance measured using phone GPS). One feature that I want to implement is to have the system randomly enable for 10 minutes - and to signal this by changing the color of light from a desk lamp (Phillips Hue). The idea is that when th…

I just realized: you did not actually hide some mysterious, physical button somewhere 1000m from your home.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#242

Post by onion2k »

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…

I will never understand how people moralize behaviours rather than outcomes. Drinking every night is fine if you don't do it to excess. A beer or two, or a glass of wine with dinner, or a nightcap, doesn't hurt anyone. Drinking every night to the level where you're damaging your health is a problem.

Having a few beers a couple of times a month is great. Binge drinking a couple of times a month to the point where you harm yourself or others is a problem.

It doesn't matter how often you do it. It matters what happens when you do. The time frame is essentially unrelated.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#243

Post by Tistron »

askura wrote: post #169
mikeomoto wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm still young so maybe my mind hasn't matured enough to where I can combat this well. I'm not sure this changes as you age, it certainly hasn't for me. :(

About to turn 34 and still with the same poor mental focusing of 14 year old me :/

I'm 40, so when I was a teenager the internet did not have so much different distractions. My mind was great at focusing. I'd read books, cover to cover, and tune out everything else. I'd sit hours and hours straight and make websites for IE4. today I struggle to read a chapter in a book without getting distracted. It's pretty disheartening to notice. I'm much better at other things, but I wish I could still read like I used to. I think the worst ones for me right now are YouTube and hacker news. I'll have a look at the procrastination settings here, but for some &£@£# reason my phone won't uninstall YouTube.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#244

Post by iapsngh »

vedtopkar wrote: post #3

It’s honestly so bad. No matter how hard I try, I find myself re-downloading TikTok or Reddit (Apollo) every month and then wasting away all my free time for a week or two before re-deleting them out of disgust. I truly don’t know what the solution is. I would just get rid of my smartphone if life wasn’t quite inconvenient without it.

Thought I'm not much on social media but I figured out that if I can restrict myself to browse between 11am and 4pm, work will certainly automatically force me off the 'scroll treadmill'. I wrote about that in this post[1] recently.

[1] https://qwertyloop.com/posts/doomscrolling

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#245

Post by pjerem »

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…

Does this works for you ? (Blocking)

I’ve tried it and even closed all my social media accounts. It sort of worked. For social medias… But it changed nothing, I found other addictions on the internet. It’s just … the smartphone. I blocked a little portion of the infinity that is the internet, but my lizard brain is smart enough to know that infinite content is still there, more easily accessible than letting my mind wandering.

I think I should speak about it to a psychiatrist but I’m not even sure it’s a topic they can handle nowadays.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#247

Post by r_singh »

This may not be a contribution to the discussion, but I've recently read a few books that made me aware of how most of my preferences are just arbitrary and a product of feedback loops and after finding this post on HN this morning I just have to say:

Thank you hacker news for being an anomaly on the web.

Even if opening HN maybe a habit that I'm not in control of, I don't regret wasting my time on this website as much.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#248

Post by vanviegen »

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.

And yet, here you are... ;-)

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#249

Post by ehnto »

Razengan wrote: post #184

Maybe addictive platforms could do some good and make more money if they limited the amount of content a user can see in one day, like some F2P mobile games: * Say you can only view 50 videos or 2 hours on TikTok per day. * If you need more, pay 50 cents. * The free limit resets every day. This could also lead to better payout systems for content creators. (the exact numbers would be tweaked as appropriate of course)

You've described an existing approach actually, and unfortunately there is a big caveat. Duolingo and many other applications use gated or timed content windows in order to increase retention and form stronger long term habits.

The TL;DR of that loop, is that in order to achieve your goals within the app you'll have to come back later to do so, which sets up a daily usage habit.

The Sims mobile for example, you can't just keep playing the game, you have to constantly check back in to see how your timed tasks are going. For DuoLingo, you run out of hearts as you get questions wrong, so you have to keep checking back to see if your hearts have replenished in order to finish the lesson you were on.

It might genuinely be healthier, I think that would need to be studied, but it's not out of the kindest of their hearts that they do it, it's just another way to keep you on the app, albeit over a longer period of time.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#250

Post by f1refly »

onion2k wrote: post #242
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…

I will never understand how people moralize behaviours rather than outcomes. Drinking every night is fine if you don't do it to excess. A beer or two, or a glass of wine with dinner, or a nightcap, doesn't hurt anyone. Drinking every night to the level where you're damaging your health is a problem. Having a few beers a couple of times a month is great. Binge drinking a couple of times a month to the point where you…

Two beers a day is very, very dangerous according to my girlfriend, a social worker.
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