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

touchgrass.now

141–150 of 287 posts

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

#142

People are just going to carry a patch of fake grass around with them to bypass the checks. So I suspect the reviews will be astroturfed.

Just google grass pics? The thing is if you are gonna cheat anyways you can just not use the app and you “win”

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

#144
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Information Collection 1.1 Required Permissions Location: Used solely to determine local sunset times; location data is not stored or transmitted

Wouldn't checking the time (which should include TZ data) and comparing it with a database be adequate or can you not get local timezone data without permissions?

You can get local timezone data without permissions in iOS.

But I think the OP's app is using the location data to ensure you walked a few meters to touch grass and not just have a patch of grass at your desk.

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

#145

Can I touch snow instead? There is no grass in sight in Canada this time of the year

Same thought... ("Instructions unclear, all I see around me is snow")

Never worry, it will melt when the scorched-earth tactics are used...

/s

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

#146

People are just going to carry a patch of fake grass around with them to bypass the checks. So I suspect the reviews will be astroturfed.

This is on the order of the "descartes before the whores" joke on reddit years ago. Generational stuff

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

#148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

For me, it’s that I have a million keyword and subreddit filters on my desktop computer and Reddit is unreadable for me without those filters, so I never read it on my phone

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

#149
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.

From what I’ve seen, Instagram is better at motivating young people to go outside and do things than video games were in the 90s or even today.

With Instagram they see their friends doing things and it’s a reminder that going outside and/or spending time with friends is fun. There’s a lot of pearl clutching about people getting jealous about other people’s vacation pictures, but on the whole the active Instagram users I know are much more social and likely to spend time outside the house than the gamers or Redditors. By a wide margin.

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

#150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Old.reddit.com is the only way reddit loads on my se2. The actual mobile website just times out with half the comments loaded every time. A lot of noticeable lag. It is a super heavy site in comparison with old.reddit.com.
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