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My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

alexanderell.is

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Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#11

Post by pojzon »

vedtopkar wrote: post #3

It’s honestly so bad. No matter how hard I try, I find myself re-downloading TikTok or Reddit (Apollo) every month and then wasting away all my free time for a week or two before re-deleting them out of disgust. I truly don’t know what the solution is. I would just get rid of my smartphone if life wasn’t quite inconvenient without it.

Replace tiktok with “X game” and have exactly the same issue. We are just addicted and need professional help.

Im just happy its not smoking or drinking. Would make life a lot harder.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#12

Post by heavyset_go »

vedtopkar wrote: post #3

It’s honestly so bad. No matter how hard I try, I find myself re-downloading TikTok or Reddit (Apollo) every month and then wasting away all my free time for a week or two before re-deleting them out of disgust. I truly don’t know what the solution is. I would just get rid of my smartphone if life wasn’t quite inconvenient without it.

If you must use Reddit, set up an account that's unsubscribed from all subreddits. Then only add small, niche subreddits and never any of the default or popular subreddits. At worst, you'll get a homepage that updates with new content maybe once or twice a day, drastically reducing the chance of scrolling your free time away. It's preferable to just not use it at all if you can, though.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#13

Post by _carbyau_ »

For me, the important part is to actively commit your time. IE I am actively deciding to spend X minutes doing Y. If that is doomscrolling/TV/games, that's fine.

The problem only comes when that time limit is breached. And THEN you can review and figure out whether that time got you what you wanted. IE usually doomscrolling is to zoneout/relax/catch up with friends news, etc.

But this requires dedication to think in this way.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#14

Post by ethbr0 »

jraph wrote: post #7
ethbr0 wrote: post #4

I don't use any product with infinite scroll. If it's not paginated or single-paged, it's a clear sign they regard their users' time as worthless. Why would you interact with a company that believes that?

An exception: I find Duck Duck Go's infinite scroll quite pleasant, and find paginated results quite cumbersome. Elsewhere it's just annoying. Especially when a misclick makes you lose the position. Dilbert's website is a good example of this. For Reddit or Twitter I don't know, I read them using libreddit and nitter when I occasionally land on them from a link or a search result. TikTok and Facebook I have never tri…

Point. I should qualify that to "non-terminating infinite scroll." E.g. DDG is likely neither hoping nor expecting their users to infinitely scroll through search results all day, without clicking anything.

Also, where does DDG have infinite scroll? I just checked (it's my default) and Firefox on Android shows a "More Results" footer button.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#15

Post by stank345 »

vedtopkar wrote: post #3

It’s honestly so bad. No matter how hard I try, I find myself re-downloading TikTok or Reddit (Apollo) every month and then wasting away all my free time for a week or two before re-deleting them out of disgust. I truly don’t know what the solution is. I would just get rid of my smartphone if life wasn’t quite inconvenient without it.

I had the same issue with the Reddit app so now I just use the neutered web app and consider the frustration stemming from its brokenness to be feature that keeps me from spending too much time on it.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#18

Post by sodality2 »

moltke wrote: post #16

I've removed everything with this from my life. Everyone knows how bad it is now, there's no excuse.

> Everyone knows how bad it is now, there's no excuse.

I disagree. Ask any 20-30 year old and I don't think many will say that TikTok, Instagram, etc is "harmful to your health". Maybe a "bit addictive", maybe a few people who say "I have a problem with it". But never "I know this is very harmful for my attention span, my mental health, etc".

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#19

Post by hifikuno »

I also struggle with this. As such I've tried doing little things to stop the infinite scroll. I don't use reddit anymore unless it is something I am actively looking into (e.g. a tech subreddit or something). I went through and unfollowed every friend and product on facebook. Luckily, I think that's all I use that has infinite scroll.
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