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Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

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Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#21

Post by lompad »

skynet97 wrote: post #19
4ndrewl wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you asserting that people's ability to counter addiction has changed?

[flagged]

What's with that idea that compulsions aren't real? They are just as real and difficult to drop as substance-based addictions, for a rather simple reason: The physical addiction is only a compounding factor, not the core difficulty in a "classic" addiction.

What really makes people always come back, no matter what, is the psychological addiction, not the physical one. Which is also why phones can be just as difficult to stop as gambling compulsions or drug addictions.

Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#22

Post by PittleyDunkin »

Y_Y wrote: post #2

Cool idea. Amazingly they've found a way to put "in-app purchases" though. This app could just be an image set as your lock screen background. I've found a good way to discourage mindless phone staring is to set the display to monochrome (e.g. through colorblind emulation). The decreased visual stimulation seems to have an effect on me, at least until I want to see a photo or video in colour and go back to normal.

> Amazingly they've found a way to put "in-app purchases" though.

I've been so happy slowly going through my phone and removing every single app on my phone that has either ads or in-app purchases. I don't miss a single one.

Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#24

Post by jeofken »

For me the only really useful intervention was getting a black and white e-ink Android smartphone. I started to read a book per month and my short video watching time was decimated.

I got the Bigme Hibreak which isn’t the worst, but lacks recent android versions. Gives me hours of my life back every day, compared to the phone addiction I experience with my lcd colour screen smartphone

Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#26

Post by jarko27 »

iLoveOncall wrote: post #17

I haven't seen any of those apps (or built-in OS features like screen time on iOS) not become useless in a matter of days. People that will use their phone for distraction (which I don't think there's actually anything wrong with) will take only a few days to get "notification fatigue" from those screens and automatically bypass them without even thinking about it. I get that you can prevent bypassing the screen as y…

Well, I agree.

The fatigue from the screen is real.

What I'm trying to achieve here with the app is to give a set of tools that can help deal with this fatigue. Like adding a variety to the texts you see, changing the intensity of the pop-up screen, adding cooldown, or hard mode and schedules.

The Northstar is to adjust the nudge automatically based on the level of fatigue from the screen.

I know I'm far from it now. But I'm attempting. I'm changing the nudges often and their configuration manually for myself now. And it works for me and I believe it can help other folks as well.

That's it.

Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#27

Post by lompad »

skynet97 wrote: post #20
Mashimo wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dang, I think you just solved alcohol and nicotine addiction. Can you also do something against gambling? Would be cool.

Nobody can help the weak minded. However, they need to learn that the rest of us is no longer willing to reat them like grown up adults.

This is an extremist position and disagrees with a century of science on the topic. That simplistic "weak-minded" indicates that you are just looking for a chance to make yourself feel/look better than others and are unable to get positive stimuli on your own positive merits.

Additionally, you seem to need this illusion of control, that you and your "strong mind" are actually in charge, which current research heavily disagrees with. If you want to put that to the test, I've got a few ideas for you...

Humans are not as simple as you seem to think. If only it were that easy. I'd argue, actual adults are primarily able to discuss a topic without shitting on those they perceive as "weak".

Greetings from somebody who used to work on the treatment side of things.

Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#28

Post by p1necone »

I feel like we're far too obsessed with the "nobility" of stuff we do for fun. Watch YouTube shorts, scroll reddit, whatever.

It's only "addictive" because it's fun, it's no more pointless than anything else you might do for fun. What are you really achieving by using this app? Do you have an unhealthy relationship with your phone, or are you just arbitrarily ranking it low on the "worthiness" of random shit you might choose to do to kill some time.

Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#30

Post by littlecranky67 »

iLoveOncall wrote: post #17

I haven't seen any of those apps (or built-in OS features like screen time on iOS) not become useless in a matter of days. People that will use their phone for distraction (which I don't think there's actually anything wrong with) will take only a few days to get "notification fatigue" from those screens and automatically bypass them without even thinking about it. I get that you can prevent bypassing the screen as y…

> There's not a single person (myself included) I have seen use screen time not automatically bypass the limitation instantly as it pops up.

You can take the more drastic approach and lock yourself out of your phone by changing it's unlock code and use a timelock [0] to prevent yourself from bypassing it for a given time. Works also with parental-control like Apps that require you to enter a password/code to unlock. No bypassing here.

[0]: lockmeout.online

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