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

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#311

Post by lopis » Mon, Mar 07, 2022, 8:56 AM UTC

IIAOPSW wrote: post #208

wmitty wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Before I read "custom phone app", I was imagining a mysterious physical red button somewhere up a telephone pole you had to climb, which through some abuse-of-job-privileges-or-connections you had wired directly into the telephony wires leading into your house. Or perhaps a comically large high-voltage pull switch labelled "reddit" which sparks a bit for no reason. Maybe a series of such pull switches, one for every…

That would have been so much better. It would force OP to run back to maximize his browsing time, thus forcing them to exercise a bit.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#312

Post by Freak_NL » Mon, Mar 07, 2022, 8:57 AM UTC

onion2k wrote: post #259

f1refly wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

My partner is a therapist and strongly advocates having a glass of wine with dinner most nights.

Two drinks each night versus one is quite a difference. It's double the amount of alcohol!

Current recommendation from the Netherlands Nutrition Centre:

> It is advisable to refrain from drinking alcohol, or to consume at most one glass a day. This advice applies equally to men and women.

> Moderate consumption of alcohol at one glass a day may reduce the chance of getting certain chronic diseases, but also raises the chances of getting breast cancer for women. Drinking more than one glass a day, is not beneficial at all, and has negative effects on health. It increases the risks of having a stroke; and getting breast, intestinal, or long cancer.

> The potential benefits of alcohol do not outweigh the negative effects on your health.¹

(Personally, I drink only in the weekends; usually one glass, occasionally two. It prevents making a habit out of it.)

1: https://www.voedingscentrum.nl/encyclopedie/alcohol.aspx

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#313

Post by MandieD » Mon, Mar 07, 2022, 8:58 AM UTC

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…

Nothing to do with age, I'm afraid - I'm over 40, and far more scattered and subject to the lure of the endless internet than when I was 20. In my personal situation, my best hope is that it is mommy brain, and that I'll outgrow it as my kid gets further from infancy.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#314

Post by nonrandomstring » Mon, Mar 07, 2022, 8:59 AM UTC

eointierney wrote: post #30

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.

Read books I'm not joking, it's the best antidote to the thought-theft of "social media". Pick a subject in which you're interested, find a representively excellent text, and read. And then re-read, because unless you're a genius you won't absorb everything first time. Also it's wonderful to just curl up with a book and a cup of tea and let time pass you by as you ... learn the considered thought of others! This is c…

If you're looking for a book I wrote one specifically about this problem. Some of you may like it. It's short and has short chapters you can read in one "boredom chunk" of about 10 mins.

It's https://digitalvegan.net

One reason for making it an old fashioned paper book is that some of the ideas it presents would simply be censored on what the internet is becoming.

It's not really written as "self-help", more as philosophical musings for intellectual self-defence. Many people who have read it tell me they successfully quit their smartphone.

As ongoing research in modern critical technology studies I'm trying to keep a list of ones I read and at least found interesting (below). Good luck finding the courage to take back control of your technology.

Jenny Oddell How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy

Paul Kingsnorth Life versus the machine

Roger McNamee Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe

Siva Vaidhyanathan Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us

Virginia Eubanks Automating Inequality

Sophie Brickman Baby Unplugged

Mike Monteiro Ruined by Design

Thomas Kersting Disconnected: Protect Your Kids Against Device Dependency

Nicholas Kardaras Glow Kids

Jaron Lanier Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media

Douglas Rushkoff Team Human

Carissa Véliz Privacy is Power: Why You Should Take Back Control

David Shenk Data Smog

Paulina Borsook Cyberselfish

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#315

Post by Havoc » Mon, Mar 07, 2022, 9:02 AM UTC

None of the scrolling apps really do it for me.

Reddit in the other hand has enough content and subs that there is always one more thing to check out. And by the time you’ve looked at all your subs you can basically start at the front again since so much time has passed

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#316

Post by rightbyte » Mon, Mar 07, 2022, 9:04 AM UTC

blessingdusk wrote: post #283

Infinite scrolls and other features are classified as dark patterns, meaning it is a feature that is designed to engage the user as much as possible. The common denominator of all dark patterns are that they benefit the service provider or business at the detriment of the consumer. It helps being able to define what infinite scrolling does, because once you can recognize what a dark pattern entails, it will be much e…

I played way to much Clash Royale, a really good tower defence game, for two three months.

But I realized the grinding element in that game was insidious. "This chest opens in three hours". It wasted your time for no fun added, rather than being a game mechanic. I just deleted it.

I.e. the game rate limited your grind and made you pay to remove the grind cap.

At some point it got impossible to increase your ELO ranking without having better card levels, so you had to pay up or grind, or you would lose to bad players with high level decks. Really boring ...

It is a shame that the gaming industry got to this. Becouse Clash Royale is a really good game underneath the leveling of cards grind and pay-2-win.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#317

Post by pgt » Mon, Mar 07, 2022, 9:05 AM UTC

Same with food. If I have unhealthy food in the house, I will eventually eat it in a moment of weakness when I experience a dip in fortitude. So the solution has been to not allow bad food in the house, by never shopping on an empty stomach. And ensure I always have a whole lamb in the freezer.

Another trick is to go shopping on my bicycle, so I can only buy what fits in a backpack - and usually that's high-nutrition items.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#318

Post by onion2k » Mon, Mar 07, 2022, 9:11 AM UTC

Freak_NL wrote: post #312

onion2k wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My partner is a therapist and strongly advocates having a glass of wine with dinner most nights.

Two drinks each night versus one is quite a difference. It's double the amount of alcohol! Current recommendation from the Netherlands Nutrition Centre: > It is advisable to refrain from drinking alcohol, or to consume at most one glass a day. This advice applies equally to men and women. > Moderate consumption of alcohol at one glass a day may reduce the chance of getting certain chronic diseases, but also raises th…

Two drinks each night versus one is quite a difference. It's double the amount of alcohol!

2 bottles of 5% abv beer has a little less alcohol than 1 normal sized glass of 13% abv red wine.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#319

Post by xxs » Mon, Mar 07, 2022, 9:13 AM UTC

sushid wrote: post #239

beebeepka wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For day to day activities? No, you probably don't need GPS and camera. I gave up my smartphone a decade ago. It's only "inconvenient" when people expect me to have internet in my pocket.

I don't _need_ it but using a smartphone instead of navigating via a physical map and taking photos of memorable events throughout the day sure is nice.

The car has a map + navigation already, and I care very little about documenting events... although I do use the phone during tear downs for the purpose. Still the prime use of the (my) phone is actual phone calls.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#320

Post by esperent » Mon, Mar 07, 2022, 9:15 AM UTC

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 have something similar except that it's permanent and only in software (although I love the idea of a red button). I use NextDNS with a huge list of blocked websites. I set NextDNS as my dns server on windows and android so they're blocked on my laptop and phone.

To use one, I have to go to next dns and enable it, then when I'm finished I disable it again. I find this is mostly enough to make my usage mindful.