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I made my phone slow on purpose

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Re: I made my phone slow on purpose

#51

Post by orsorna »

SapporoChris wrote: post #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.

Your comment carries disdain for people who lack "self control" from engaging with algorithms that are proficiently designed to keep you engaged with the content, as if checking little boxes in the user's grey matter. Does your grey matter have foolproof methods to avert manipulation from processes that have billions of dollars and thousands of man hours poured into figuring out how to keep you engaged? Are you immune to tricks being developed in the future right now? Who's to say you haven't been manipulated through multiple degrees of separation?

Re: I made my phone slow on purpose

#52

Post by irawen »

js98 wrote: post #36

Personally, my recent and surprisingly greatest win was to set up my old phone (samsung S21) with the addictive apps, removing them completely from my iPhone. Quite literally "cold-turkey'ed" from 4.5-ish hours/day to 2 hours a day in a single day, consistent over the last few weeks. I set up my second phone with a custom homescreen, and installing the 'bad' apps on there (Instagram, Youtube, NYTimes in particular).…

cold-turkey doesn't seem to be the right phrase here, but i do agree with your overall point. i really do treat my scroll sessions as like a cigarette break, which, in a funny way, helps me feel better about wasting the time. it's an indulgement of a vice :p

Re: I made my phone slow on purpose

#53

Post by chatmasta »

There is a great habit-breaking app called “One Sec.” You configure it with your addicting apps or websites and it uses iOS shortcuts to interrupt you when you open them, and make you wait for some time — optionally with the selfie camera open — and confirm you really want to open it. It’s extremely effective and I highly recommend it. I don’t have it anymore since it led me to eventually delete Instagram and I never looked back. Although I should reinstall it and apply it to YouTube shorts…

App Store link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/one-sec-screen-time-focus/id15...

Re: I made my phone slow on purpose

#54

Post by Taek »

chatmasta wrote: post #53

There is a great habit-breaking app called “One Sec.” You configure it with your addicting apps or websites and it uses iOS shortcuts to interrupt you when you open them, and make you wait for some time — optionally with the selfie camera open — and confirm you really want to open it. It’s extremely effective and I highly recommend it. I don’t have it anymore since it led me to eventually delete Instagram and I never…

Wow, that is a fantastic idea. Basically interrupting the instant gratification loop by just enough to let the more rational mind get a word in.

Another tool that I've found to be incredibly helpful for breaking app-addition is the colorblind accessibility tool. You can use it to make the entire phone greyscale, which entirely defeats a huge range of techniques that apps and feeds use to draw your attention. Tiktok in greyscale I would estimate is 1/10th as likely to pull me into a 5+ minute video binge vs the full color version. And 1/100th as likely to pull me into a 90+ minute video binge (which unfortunately does happen to me in full color).

Re: I made my phone slow on purpose

#55

Post by latexr »

Version467 wrote: post #24

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…

> I think more people should set up their iPhone using Apple Configurator

I tried that app briefly to organise my pages, and not only was it stiff and awkward to use, it decided to screw everything up and reset positions.

Re: I made my phone slow on purpose

#56

Post by shiba-inu »

chatmasta wrote: post #53

There is a great habit-breaking app called “One Sec.” You configure it with your addicting apps or websites and it uses iOS shortcuts to interrupt you when you open them, and make you wait for some time — optionally with the selfie camera open — and confirm you really want to open it. It’s extremely effective and I highly recommend it. I don’t have it anymore since it led me to eventually delete Instagram and I never…

I personally prefer ScreenZen. It is a lot less restrictive on the free version and you can just tip once to get full access instead of a subscription. It also has a system where you can “earn back” app unlocks if you don’t use the app for the full allotted time, which encourages using your apps even less rather than feeling like having to make the most of your unlock.

App Store Link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/screenzen-screen-time-control/...

Re: I made my phone slow on purpose

#57

Post by 65 »

mmastrac wrote: post #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.

If you use the broswer verison of apps you can also inject custom scripts. I have one for Instagram that completely removes the recommendation feed. Works great.

Re: I made my phone slow on purpose

#58

Post by latexr »

fhdkweig wrote: post #16
p0358 wrote: post #6

As someone who used to have actually slow phones before: this will not help your doom-scrolling. You will still doom-scroll, but you'll just be frustrated and miserable due to the lags. You're welcome.

My solution to doom scrolling on the desktop was to edit my /etc/hosts file to disallow me from going to the offending sites. After a few weeks, the habit was broken and I didn't even miss them anymore.

Doesn’t work for Safari on macOS, as it does not respect /etc/hosts nor your DNS settings, it uses its own.

Re: I made my phone slow on purpose

#60

Post by jjice »

chatmasta wrote: post #53

There is a great habit-breaking app called “One Sec.” You configure it with your addicting apps or websites and it uses iOS shortcuts to interrupt you when you open them, and make you wait for some time — optionally with the selfie camera open — and confirm you really want to open it. It’s extremely effective and I highly recommend it. I don’t have it anymore since it led me to eventually delete Instagram and I never…

YouTube also added a shorts timer that does a more in-app version of this that you can set to 0 minutes to have it always on. It's under "time management" in the app settings. Can't do it on the website from what I'm aware.
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