131–140 of 217 posts
I have recently fully switched to a flip phone running AOSP. After years of fiddling with OneSec and others this really has been the only solution that has worked for kicking my screen addition. Best thing - with AI I can quickly build APKs for whatever I actually need! I build an app to give me turn by turn directions and (ironically) an app to talk to Claude w/ web search. I feel like I'm living in a world of truly…
I log out of every social media website/app because the act of logging in is just enough friction for me to be mindful: do I really want to do this? The sense of slowness creates the conditions for pausing and being mindful of what you're doing. In spirit, this reminds me of the return to slow/analog: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48084980 Consider it the no- or low-alcohol alternative to full speed. https://w…
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 log out of every social media website/app because the act of logging in is just enough friction for me to be mindful: do I really want to do this? The sense of slowness creates the conditions for pausing and being mindful of what you're doing. In spirit, this reminds me of the return to slow/analog: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48084980 Consider it the no- or low-alcohol alternative to full speed. https://w…
I like the idea of increasing friction, but I also found https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-control to be useful.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’ve been interested for a decade+, but appreciate the condescension
You can’t fix human problems with technology. You can only accelerate the human behavior, unless you involve another person in taking your freedom away. No condescension - and if you’ve been trying for ten years, there’s clearly a misunderstanding.
Yes you can.
Screen time limiters, nicotine patches, putting the cookies out of sight, all of these things empirically work better than willpower alone.
> No condescension - and if you’ve been trying for ten years, there’s clearly a misunderstanding.
Oh please. “Why are you depressed? Just be happy or you must not be ready for a change. No condescension btw.”
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.
yes but the point is that the people who doom-scroll cannot be bored, boredom is exactly what they want to avoid.
People who constantly have their phone in their hands often want to avoid boredom because when you're bored your mind wanders and you have to encounter in silence, your own thoughts. Which now a lot of people are uncomfortable with.
Just like people who overeat sure you can brute force yourself to stop doing it, but you're going to have much more success if you understand why you're engaging in an unhealthy habit, what you're trying to suppress, and then what you want to do instead. People struggle to break bad habits, and sustain changes when all they have is a reactive attitude of "I don't want to do it".
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…
Also effective (in my experience) is to use the Accessibility settings to turn down the screen saturation 90%.
A black-and-white phone is far less tempting to use, and quickly becomes tiresome.
Here are things that I’ve found helpful to substitute time spent doomscrolling. * periodic feed tidying to unfollow as much content as possible. It will be obvious which content is low quality. Right click and “not interested” on apps that support that. * fill the time with edifying activities: creative pursuits, social activities, helping out, gaming , fitness, bible study . * turn the phone off (up , down + power b…
I log out of every social media website/app because the act of logging in is just enough friction for me to be mindful: do I really want to do this? The sense of slowness creates the conditions for pausing and being mindful of what you're doing. In spirit, this reminds me of the return to slow/analog: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48084980 Consider it the no- or low-alcohol alternative to full speed. https://w…
This gives enough friction to the point, when I muscle-memory type the URL in a browser, and get an unreachable error... after a while I learn to just... break the habit.