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A guide to reduce screen time

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Re: A guide to reduce screen time

#81

Post by wonger_ »

MarcelOlsz wrote: post #67
andai wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been doing a lot of mindfulness meditation lately, and also learning about self soothing, emotional processing etc. I found that now that I can access blissful and peaceful states at will, and deal with difficult emotions without getting overwhelmed, my "need" for compulsive behaviors has dropped massively. There's no longer so much pain to medicate. It's like you say, we use this stuff because we don't know a b…

How does one get started? I've been doing 20 minute wim hof breathing sessions that help and I've been looking into TM due to David Lynch but nothing beyond reading.

Not OP, but seeing a therapist, journaling, breathing exercises, and spending time lingering outside (e.g. walking), helped me regulate emotions and access peaceful states. Anxiety is the source of lots of problems for me, including doomscrolling, and unmanaged thoughts and feelings are a big source of anxiety for me. So once I learned some techniques for tending to those thoughts and feelings (instead of ignoring them), everything got a bit better.

So I guess keep reading, keep breathing, find more techniques that help you, and consider finding a professional if you need more help.

Re: A guide to reduce screen time

#82

Post by mooglevich »

sshkhr wrote: post #59

Earlier this year, I decided to set up a couple of software based systems to reduce my screentime. They have been largely been successful. I have reduced my average daily phone screen time from 5-6 hrs to 2-3 hrs, around 1.5 hrs of which is 'wasteful' (reddit, HN, instagram) and the remaining 1.5 hrs is actual communication time (email, calls, chat). On my computer, my screen time is nearly all productive time by my…

I went full grayscale on my phone and it really helped. It just made my phone way more boring.

I also highly recommend turning off history in the YouTube app, if you all use it. It then surfaces...zero recommendations. It's blissfully quiet.

Re: A guide to reduce screen time

#83

Post by andai »

MarcelOlsz wrote: post #67
andai wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been doing a lot of mindfulness meditation lately, and also learning about self soothing, emotional processing etc. I found that now that I can access blissful and peaceful states at will, and deal with difficult emotions without getting overwhelmed, my "need" for compulsive behaviors has dropped massively. There's no longer so much pain to medicate. It's like you say, we use this stuff because we don't know a b…

How does one get started? I've been doing 20 minute wim hof breathing sessions that help and I've been looking into TM due to David Lynch but nothing beyond reading.

I use Insight Timer. The daily streak feature helped me finally make it a habit, after half assing it for many years.

When starting it can be helpful to use guided meditations. There's a bunch in that app (mostly free), and on YouTube of course.

I like Shinzen Young's videos and audiobooks, he takes a very grounded, "technical" approach to this stuff.

My main "lessons learned":

- Do it every day, even if just a few minutes. Makes a huge difference.

- Make awareness broad. This takes practice, it's like a muscle. I made the mistake of making it narrow like a laser, which is much harder, less stable, and less useful! i.e. learn to hold 2, then 3 objects in mind "at the same time". e.g. the breath, and the birds outside, and the "sense of space" of the room.

The classic meditation object is the breath. In my case, that brought up a lot of emotional pain. It's fine to use other objects in that case (though eventually you can learn to integrate / heal the emotions too), e.g. focus on sounds or anything "grounding".

Re: A guide to reduce screen time

#84

Post by anthk »

AStonesThrow wrote: post #39

Look, why should it be the individual consumer or their parents who regulate screen time when it’s not our fault? Computers have become an unprecedented scourge and curse to our attention, our moods and our very souls, but radio, telephone, and TV led up to this. It is time that the architects of consumer communications technology took responsibility for the utter grind and drain they’re causing us in every waking ho…

Radio and TV had discrete programmes. Either you were there, or forget any watching in years except a rerun, if there was any. Yes, they were recordings in vynil, cassetes and whatnot, but these were not cheap.

Nowadays, you can, you know, just download narrated podcasts, ebooks from Gutenberg, free PD audiobooks...

Listen to some stories in silence, on your bed, at night. Let your brain imagine the story. You don't even need an internet connection at all. Download them at your library, listen them at home.

On news, RSS feeds. Feeder on Android (and any good client under Linux too) has access to full content, you don't need to be online to read the news.

The Conversation and Science Alert have the whole news in their feed. Use Feeder, and while you add a feed, don't forget to check the 'get the whole content' option or similar.

Now you will be able to read news offline. No alerts, no dopamine, no useless bullshit, no bait 'news', no nothing.

The Conversation has curated articles from major sections (Science, Health, Culture, Environment, Economy, Politics). Everything else it's just boring propaganda -from all sides- to polarize and scare you like hell so you are rendered a zombie customer.

Science Alert it's that, Scientific News, popular science. If The Conversation Science feed feels bland to you, here your have.

Re: A guide to reduce screen time

#85

Post by andai »

ivansavz wrote: post #62
andai wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to do this every morning, for the first hour of the day. I started doing it to cope with severe unmedicated ADHD. I found the only way I could get any work done was to turn off my phone and unplug the router. (I downloaded offline docs, and if I got really stuck, made a note of what to Google later and just switched tasks.) I then found that I enjoyed getting stuff done so much, that I'd usually keep it off un…

Very interesting. I was thinking of scaling this up by adding Sunday too, but offline mornings might be even better... I'll look into adding a schedule in the router. I think it might be helpful to program the rule to start in the desired bedtime in the evening to make the pixel devices unexciting and incentivize reading old school books (the most efficient technology for getting me to sleep). I've heard the advice d…

Oh yes, forgot to mention. I started doing it as a sleep hygiene thing (internet off before bedtime) then realized it carries over elegantly into "deep work" in the morning :)

You definitely want the right choice to already have been made for you, in terms of device/net hygiene, when you stumble out of bed, bleary eyed!

Re: A guide to reduce screen time

#86

Post by doright »

RadiozRadioz wrote: post #75
grigri907 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the challenge is to use TikTok, but to use it in moderation.

I don't think that's a worthwhile challenge. Either you fail and get addicted, or you succeed and... what? Spend some of your free time watching low quality micro videos and being advertised to by teenagers? I don't see the upside here.

It's less a challenge and more that there are people who are consumers/creators on TikTok and can limit their usage to under an hour a day without needing to use time restrictions. The question is what aspect of their personality/mindset/upbringing enables this relative to someone unable to inhibit their urge to compulsively use social media.

Re: A guide to reduce screen time

#87

Post by asdfman123 »

I created a two-factor authentication app that only provides login codes for social media sites during certain hours of a day.

If I want access to a site, I have to plan it carefully to log in within that window. Then if I find I'm misusing it it's easy to kick myself off.

Re: A guide to reduce screen time

#88

Post by Vaslo »

yapyap wrote: post #8

I’ve scrolled through the article and another tip would be: Have an alternative. You can’t just go from screentime to no screentime if you have nothing to do off the screen, plan some activities.

This is a great point. It’s talked about in a book called Indistractabke. The author talks about trying to get rid of his phone during the day and even moving to a flip phone. But other nonsense just takes its place.

It’s essentially like being a dry drunk. You need something else to replace the alcohol or you just trade alcoholism for something else.

Re: A guide to reduce screen time

#90

Post by fluidcruft »

codethief wrote: post #28

Which Android apps for limiting screen time does the HN crowd recommend? Is there one that doesn't sell your data or request network access? (Ideally of course the app would be open-source but I'm not getting my hopes up.) I've been wanting to try Digital Wellbeing but it looks like it's still not available for non-Google devices. Or at least it's shown as "not compatible" when accessing the Play Store from GrapheneO…

I use TimeLimit. It's open source, available on F-Droid or Google Play, etc.

https://timelimit.io/

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