What excessive screen time does to the adult brain • Hacker News Board

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#171

Post by ElevenLathe » Thu, Oct 03, 2024, 1:17 PM UTC

vasco wrote: post #138

MrJagil wrote: post #11

“One of the biggest issues with picking up the phone right away in the morning is that when you have an object close to your face, it’s registered as a threat,” says Loeffler. “You wouldn’t want to wake up and look a bear in the face every morning. On a physiological level, it’s the same thing.” This is interesting to me. It does make some evolutionary sense but at the same time, i wake up every morning and look at m…

Other than sounding "bad for you" for some reason to some people, what's wrong with waking up with a threat? Like why would that inherently be bad for you? Nobody explained that in the article and it's taken at face value. What's wrong with "activating your fight or flight"? I could easily see some pop-sci book being written about how activating your fight or flight boosts testosterone or makes you more aware during…

The problem is that basically nothing that happens on the phone is something you can deal with more effectively with a dose of stress hormones. Unless there is a text message that says you suddenly have to literally run somewhere and/or literally fight somebody, you will "deal with" it by like...posting more stuff yourself, and possibly not even that.

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#172

Post by marcusverus » Thu, Oct 03, 2024, 1:31 PM UTC

MaxMatti wrote: post #162

andai wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got into "deep work" a while ago, keeping my internet off until noon every day. It blew my mind how calm and focused I was when I didn't fill my head with nonsense first thing in the morning.

I'm unsure how much of a difference that really makes as there's lots of distractions in my (and probably most peoples) morning routine that are not related to my phone. Boring things like the hygiene routine but also things that come up and require thought such as (almost) empty grocery items or things related to the commute such as radio in the car or ads in public transit. While most of these are not specifically…

It's all about your body's natural response to dopamine highs and lows.

Social media, doom scrolling, candy crush, etc. are all high-dopamine activities. After you engage in these activates for a while, then stop, you're left at a relative dopamine deficiency, which your brain abhors. It attempts to rectify the deficiency by encouraging you to engage in high-dopamine activities, which you experience as being 'distracted' from the relatively low-dopamine-rewarded work you're trying to focus on. If you avoid engaging in high-dopamine activities in the morning, your brain WILL be more amenable to focus on low-dopamine-rewarded work.

Read Dopamine Nation for a handy primer on this.

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#173

Post by dataengineer56 » Thu, Oct 03, 2024, 1:40 PM UTC

sojournerc wrote: post #154

dataengineer56 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> workout loggers both gamify progress I agree but I just find it too useful to be able to see what my workout is going to be and what I did last time, as well as my progress on different exercises. The alternative would be printing out my workout app before each workout, filling it in with pen and paper and then inputting it back into the app later. I'd love an alternative.

My Suunto sport watch logs the workout and automatically syncs to the phone. You could get your work tracked and avoid screen time that way. It sounds like you're using the phone for a workout plan though... Nothing is perfect

Yeh it's weightlifting not cardio so I need to see specific lifts and my history with them, as well as being able to switch out exercises depending on how I'm feeling/how much time I have.

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#174

Post by andai » Thu, Oct 03, 2024, 2:00 PM UTC

MaxMatti wrote: post #162

andai wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got into "deep work" a while ago, keeping my internet off until noon every day. It blew my mind how calm and focused I was when I didn't fill my head with nonsense first thing in the morning.

I'm unsure how much of a difference that really makes as there's lots of distractions in my (and probably most peoples) morning routine that are not related to my phone. Boring things like the hygiene routine but also things that come up and require thought such as (almost) empty grocery items or things related to the commute such as radio in the car or ads in public transit. While most of these are not specifically…

To be clear, I woke up, opened a sugar free red bull, and began working immediately.

The rule was to spend at least the first hour offline, but I'd find myself getting so much done, I'd want to keep going, and usually extend it to 3 or 4.

In fact I was so productive during this time, I found myself looking actually looking forward to work the next morning.

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#175

Post by etrautmann » Thu, Oct 03, 2024, 2:11 PM UTC

MrJagil wrote: post #11

“One of the biggest issues with picking up the phone right away in the morning is that when you have an object close to your face, it’s registered as a threat,” says Loeffler. “You wouldn’t want to wake up and look a bear in the face every morning. On a physiological level, it’s the same thing.” This is interesting to me. It does make some evolutionary sense but at the same time, i wake up every morning and look at m…

This strikes me as likely over extrapolating from weak or shaky data. I highly doubt that objects close to you are generally registered as threats. that's absurd, and completely dependent on context, etc. No parent views their baby from a foot away as a threat. The phone is a different context as well, and might be a thread, but certainly not in the general sense.

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#176

Post by thfuran » Thu, Oct 03, 2024, 2:32 PM UTC

ninalanyon wrote: post #164

defyonce wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is only one reason why my phone alerts: something gone wrong, and they need my attention. I hate phone alerts with all my soul. I wish they never existed as a concept.

You do know that you can turn alerts off?

Given the first sentence, that seems quite likely.

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#177

Post by simmerup » Thu, Oct 03, 2024, 2:54 PM UTC

globular-toast wrote: post #78

simmerup wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read but every night for 1-2hours? No way.

Why not? You can make reading a habit if you want to. I find it highly rewarding and glad I have this habit instead of something else like scrolling social media.

Not disparaging your hobby, its just not for me. I already read enough

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#178

Post by simmerup » Thu, Oct 03, 2024, 2:55 PM UTC

kmarc wrote: post #59

simmerup wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you do instead of TV/Computer before bed?

You might be interested in this collection: https://www.reddit.com/r/nosurf/wiki/index/#wiki_how_to_use_... /r/nosurf is a good start (but isn't particularly a high quality sub)

Nice resource, thanks

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#179

Post by clinjar » Thu, Oct 03, 2024, 3:15 PM UTC

"Instead, we suggest engaging in a lifestyle medicine activity upon waking to promote whole-body health"

For me, keeping a book next to my phone has been a game changer.

We recently built a whole feature in our screen time app around this concept. When we onboard users we ask them to select a number of "scroll replacements" — these are simple things you can substitute for scrolling, like going outside or reading.

The app will block you from scrolling and direct you towards a chosen replacement.

One I make the split second decision to pick up the book it's easy to stay there. That single moment of decision can make a big impact.

(I'm the founder of an app called Roots)

Re: What excessive screen time does to the adult brain

#180

Post by Diesel555 » Thu, Oct 03, 2024, 4:26 PM UTC

While I agree the conclusion of the article is likely accurate, the arguments lack warrant.

“Since the eyes are directly connected to the brain, Loeffler encourages us to think about our eye health to ensure overall brain health.”

My arm is also connected to the brain. We can argue the definition of direct. Warrant connects the evidence to the claim. This article lacks warrant in many places.