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I made my phone slow on purpose

vinewallapp.com

41–50 of 217 posts

Re: I made my phone slow on purpose

#41
post #28

This is a method, but it's the underlying issue that needs to be resolved. People doomscroll primarily to avoid certain thoughts/feelings/situations. The way out of it is to: 1. Note that you're avoiding something. 2. Identify what it is. 3. Face it. This is an addiction and reaching for the phone is just what gives relief to whatever pain one might be experiencing. Just removing that is laying ground for a substitut…

While a popular refrain, this is not the only reason one might engage in avoidance. Furthermore, even if it is rooted in a pain, not everyone will be motivated optimally by thinking of it as something that must be analyzed and extracted. One can simply be bored without it being a pathology.

If one is so constantly bored that doomscrolling turns into an addiction, then that person most certainly is suffering from some kind of psychological imbalance. Occasional boredom is normal, constant boredom is not.

Re: I made my phone slow on purpose

#42
The most effective rule for me is no addictive apps on my phone or laptop - browser apps only. The browser apps are _far_ less addictive and just enough friction to keep me off them for extended periods of time. As well, infinite scroll just isn't as effective in a browser and there's a real feeling of limited content running out.

Re: I made my phone slow on purpose

#43
Imagining a version of this that scales by how long I've been using the phone since the screen's been off. If I need to check something quickly, I want the internet and processing to be fast, because checking my phone a lot is fine with me – just not zoning out for long periods of time. First 60s or so unpenalized. Then beyond that, if I'm getting close to my daily target, it starts throttling. A little longer than 60s? Maybe only a bit slowed down. 5min? I want it to get cronchy. Not sure network's the right axis though. Maybe actual screen responsiveness?

Re: I made my phone slow on purpose

#44
post #13

HN hug so I can't read it right now, but this approach doesn't really work for most people. The problem with these types of approaches is that anything done can be undone. And if you have the willpower to not undo it, then you have the willpower to not need to have done it in the first place. Now, buying a slow phone on purpose may work, but that's a different approach.

By that logic, buying a slow phone can also just be undone. A perfect solution that works 100% is not the goal. Small influences that can help you change behavior can still be beneficial. Maybe they doom scroll 5% less because of this tweak? Still a positive change.

> By that logic, buying a slow phone can also just be undone.

That is such a first-world comment it should be coloured red, blue and white. Wow.

Re: I made my phone slow on purpose

#45
post #37

I have a few hacks that work for me, documented here: https://open.substack.com/pub/theperfectlycromulent/p/how-to... tl;dr Don’t keep your charger handy. Don’t have a good charger. Lose your phone (at home). Don’t have a phone case. Have a phone case.

> Don’t have a phone case. Have a phone case.

Re: I made my phone slow on purpose

#46

I think more people should set up their iPhone using Apple Configurator, a Mac app used to control apples mdm solution. You do have to factory reset your phone for this once, but after that you have extremely granular control over what you can and can’t do. It’s much more powerful than the parental controls system and much harder to circumvent. I use it to straight up disallow a bunch of apps and websites (tiktok, Re…

Does that website blocking work for browsers other than Safari?

Re: I made my phone slow on purpose

#47
post #11

I think this is a great idea. Wouldn't have guessed this would be possible so I looked into how it'd actually be implemented. I guess this is done on the device as a VPN via Apple's NetworkExtension config. But instead of a normal VPN where traffic goes through a server, the app just locally applies rules based on the app the packet came from and then routes them normally to their destination.

That is correct! There is no annotation of which apps a packet comes from, so VineWall also runs locally a DNS proxy and uses the domain to infer the app

Re: I made my phone slow on purpose

#49
"It was a bit ironic to spend that much on a phone just to build the thing that would slow it down."

That doesn't seem ironic to me, it seems economically foolish. Why not simply buy an older phone?

Okay, reading further down. Really this is just an advertisement for an app they made targeted to people without self control who watch videos on their phone too often.

Re: I made my phone slow on purpose

#50
post #28

This is a method, but it's the underlying issue that needs to be resolved. People doomscroll primarily to avoid certain thoughts/feelings/situations. The way out of it is to: 1. Note that you're avoiding something. 2. Identify what it is. 3. Face it. This is an addiction and reaching for the phone is just what gives relief to whatever pain one might be experiencing. Just removing that is laying ground for a substitut…

That is something I want to eventually incorporate into VineWall.

My goal is to have VineWall to detect user patterns and use this information to help the user cope with the situations in a more healthy way

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