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Show HN: I built an app to stop me doomscrolling by touching grass

touchgrass.now

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Re: Show HN: I built an app to stop me doomscrolling by touching grass

#121

Post by Cthulhu_ »

baxtr wrote: post #42

Great concept! However my mind started already coming up with ideas how to circumvent this like printing out a color picture of grass! Hope you can detect these fake attempts! :)

If you have no intent of using the app, why install it in the first place?

But then, the purpose is less about going out and touching grass physically, and more about being aware of what you're spending your time on. A moment of self-reflection, if you will, and whether that's you going outside to find some grass or finding where you put your colour picture of grass and turning the lights on to get a good picture of it is by the by.

Re: Show HN: I built an app to stop me doomscrolling by touching grass

#123

Post by Cthulhu_ »

FollowingTheDao wrote: post #15

Fun idea, but not the right way to end an addiction. Making it more difficult to get the dopamine (really epinephrine) hit will only lead to more frustration and reinforce the relief when you get your reward. In other words, it only makes the reward more pleasurable.

What if the author adds some gamification strategies and awards the users points depending on how often, long, and diverse their grass-touching is, and add an infinite scroll feed of other users touching grass, which you can then upvote and engage with!

(please sign up to my onlygrass page)

Re: Show HN: I built an app to stop me doomscrolling by touching grass

#124

Post by cryptopian »

bloopernova wrote: post #92
hartator wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about the app?

I have never installed it. I prefer to access things through a web browser.

I actually found that certain browser equivalents of attention sucking apps were poor quality enough that using them only through the browser was enough friction to wean myself off them. old.reddit.com is especially badly optimised for anything other than a desktop screen.

Re: Show HN: I built an app to stop me doomscrolling by touching grass

#125

Post by mattcantstop »

camtarn wrote: post #90
satyarthms wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a connoisseur of plants growing in cracks in the pavement, mind sharing a link?

https://www.instagram.com/ct_thelittlethings/ :)

I'd be cool to create a simple template that you could repeat for each post in video form:

- The plant - The location (sidewalk, park, etc) - Native vs non-native? - Seen as a weed or flower/desirable plant? - Who pollinates it.

I just subscribed.

Re: Show HN: I built an app to stop me doomscrolling by touching grass

#127

Post by cryptopian »

bloopernova wrote: post #74

I added reddit.com to uBlock Origin's filters list. I can still visit it, but there's now a screen asking me if I'm sure I want to go there. It's stopped me a few times, and it's breaking that muscle memory of "pick up phone & check reddit/etc"

A few years back, I realised how bad the addiction was when I deleted a couple of apps. While doing other things on my phone, I'd autopilot going to the apps list and tapping the empty space where Reddit/Twitter used to be. You're right, that little bit of friction is enough to make you stop and ask "what am I really getting out of this?"

Re: Show HN: I built an app to stop me doomscrolling by touching grass

#129

Post by radlad »

CincinnatiMan wrote: post #43
camtarn wrote: post #8

This is a hilarious concept and would probably genuinely help. Nicely done! I used to have a similar issue with hiding inside all the time (during Covid times, of course) and to motivate myself to go outside, I started an Instagram of tiny little plants growing in cracks in the pavement. I tried to add a new tiny plant every day or two, which meant that I had to wander further and further afield to find a suitable sp…

I love the irony here. Going outside into “real life” to find pictures to post on a site that keeps people inside.

"[...] the outside world, the non-digital world, is merely a theatrical space in which one stages and records content for the much more real, much more vital digital space. One should only engage with the outside world as one engages with a coal mine. Suit up, gather what is needed, and return to the surface." -- bo burnham, Inside

https://youtu.be/PSClBFUe-o0?t=26

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