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My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

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Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#361

Post by corobo »

pjerem wrote: post #245
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…

I've not managed it completely yet but something that decimated (oo, literal usage) my social usage was to get rid of all the apps

The mobile web interface equivalents are usually decent enough to sate the addiction but the quirks and oddnesses that try to push you to the apps will stop you falling into doom scrolling

Also of course when you're up against an algorithm, get rid of the data. All the page likes, groups, friend-of-a-friends, etc you don't need - unlike. Or go nuclear and create a new account

Facebook for example has no content that keeps me coming back on my new account -- it even says that I need to add more friends to get more content, nothing at all on the home feed. I gave it up by accident :)

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#362

Post by danuker »

oblio wrote: post #350
danuker wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> something like the Twitter interface. Good. The fact that they alienate power users means the platform will not be preferred by power users, and most of the content on it will have dubious value. I am thankful to HN's existence for this reason. It is among the last outlets where I can get quality content.

> Good. The fact that they alienate power users means the platform will not be preferred by power users, and most of the content on it will have dubious value. It doesn't work like that. Stratechery explains why. Aggregators aggregate users and even power users like to talk to/be listened to by a lot of people. So Twitter and Youtube and the like don't even need to target power users, in general. They need to target…

> Stratechery explains why.

I have experienced it myself, and anyone else can theorize all they want, but they can't invalidate my experience.

As an example, I can no longer use YouTube for tutorials, because they have no dislike signal visible to me, and as such, I can't judge whether they are worth watching.

I can not stand Reddit's new UI. But even with the old UI, the massive amount of users attract a lot of heavy-handed moderation, which also turn me off. I use it for "entertainment" and not "research" or "speech".

Even though HN has much fewer users, it is among the few platforms where I can use it for real speech, like deep insight.

Many platforms have such a low signal-to-noise ratio that I am wasting my time on them, and don't find them useful for neither entertainment nor speech. I don't care what Stratechery says I like, when clearly I know myself better.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#363

Post by HeavyStorm »

Beltalowda wrote: post #340
janmarsal wrote: post #306

Thankfully my monkey brain is stronger than my lizard brain when it comes to things like infinite scroll, modals and other horrible UI features that nobody in their right mind should add to any website. Even just a couple of minutes of twitter usage makes me rage quit the whole website. Why do you pause my video when I scroll down it's just a politician speaking I don't need to see it only listen WHY YOU DO THIS? I'm…

> I'm also one of those people who randomly clicks and "paints" the text on every website I use. On Reddit this means that I manage to close the thread by accident all the time because someone thought it would be a good idea to open the threads in a modal that closes when you click outside of it. I thought I was the only one with this habit hah! IMHO this "close modal when clicking outside of it" is a UX pattern you…

I "paint" text as well.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#364

Post by ksec »

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…

That is me as well in 40s. Infinite scroll doesn't capture me. So I dont understand how people could mindlessly scroll through instagram. My brain is constantly looking for new signals, not noise. And signals are very very rare. Especially once you know enough about a subject, it seems the only thing left are discussions in professional settings or you dig yourself into books.

I think most people dont scroll through social media to seek knowledge at all. They do it for leisure. Which is really switching much of their brain off, and that is normal. Unfortunately my brain is constantly thinking about many things. How? Why?

And as far as my life has gone, I am really abnormal.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#365

Post by swalsh »

corobo wrote: post #361
pjerem wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I've not managed it completely yet but something that decimated (oo, literal usage) my social usage was to get rid of all the apps The mobile web interface equivalents are usually decent enough to sate the addiction but the quirks and oddnesses that try to push you to the apps will stop you falling into doom scrolling Also of course when you're up against an algorithm, get rid of the data. All the page likes, groups,…

Thats a good point, up until now I've assumed this is an issue of willpower. But the app is a consumer too, if I can cutoff its food supply, it'll be much weaker.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#366

Post by BareNakedCoder »

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 method is super simple but does require a wee bit of self discipline. I "HALT!". I even have "HALT!" written on a post-it on my monitor. Whenever I notice that my (valuable) attention is wandering, I yell "HALT!" in my head or out loud (depending who is nearby). This makes me snap out of it, to break the pattern. Ideally, I return to what I should be doing but very often I can only do the minimum. The minimum being sitting there doing nothing, thinking of nothing (except the thing I should be doing), until I get bored and want to do something ... but only allowing myself to do what I should be doing otherwise I must continue to sit doing nothing (being halted). It's often too hard to halt AND switch do what I should be doing, so this method breaks it into two steps. Halting alone is much easier to force myself to do since doing nothing is easy. Once in halt-state, the only possible exit is to the proper do-state.

Oh, I just noticed something. HALT!

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#367

Post by imglorp »

HeavyStorm wrote: post #363
Beltalowda wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm also one of those people who randomly clicks and "paints" the text on every website I use. On Reddit this means that I manage to close the thread by accident all the time because someone thought it would be a good idea to open the threads in a modal that closes when you click outside of it. I thought I was the only one with this habit hah! IMHO this "close modal when clicking outside of it" is a UX pattern you…

I "paint" text as well.

Sometimes I need to zoom and paint to improve the contrast of something. Even on HN for downvoted things, sometimes that helps.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#368

Post by swalsh »

underwater wrote: post #87
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.

I use the Reddit website. It's slow and horrible enough that even though I visit every day, but don't get sucked into spending hours on it. I also watch YouTube instead of TikTok. YouTube is slower paced and hasn't (yet) fallen into the trap of continual submersion in content without a break. You have to consciously choose to watch another video. I can also tell myself that I'm watching content that is pseudo-educati…

My ability to read a long article notably dropped after Tik Tok. That app in particular is one of the worst.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#369

Post by blable2 »

janmarsal wrote: post #306

Thankfully my monkey brain is stronger than my lizard brain when it comes to things like infinite scroll, modals and other horrible UI features that nobody in their right mind should add to any website. Even just a couple of minutes of twitter usage makes me rage quit the whole website. Why do you pause my video when I scroll down it's just a politician speaking I don't need to see it only listen WHY YOU DO THIS? I'm…

Explain "Paints" as this primate can't understand.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#370

Post by informalo »

For the case of using Instagram on iOS, I recently posted something on reddit about how to disable the explore feed on iOS when browsing Instagram in Safari. Maybe it's of use to someone; I myself feel like I have a much healthier experience like this without missing out on what my friends are up to. https://www.reddit.com/r/ios/comments/t780bt/remove_the_expl...
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