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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

#181

Post by woliveirajr »

sh4rks wrote: post #44
eointierney wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Read books I'm not joking, it's the best antidote to the thought-theft of "social media". Pick a subject in which you're interested, find a representively excellent text, and read. And then re-read, because unless you're a genius you won't absorb everything first time. Also it's wonderful to just curl up with a book and a cup of tea and let time pass you by as you ... learn the considered thought of others! This is c…

I would love to do this, but years of mindlessly browsing social media has seriously shortened my attention span. I used to read books all the time. I remember staying up late as a kid just to read the new Harry Potter book. Nowadays I pick up a book, read a few pages, then immediately lose interest and go do something else. Anybody know how to get back into reading?

Force of will. Really try, commit, get involved in this goal.

It won't be easy because you'll be changing some habit. But with time you'll learn how to appreciate books again.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#182

Post by Wiseacre »

ZYinMD wrote: post #180

I find these apps much healthier than games, because they're easy to put down, because there's no continuity between two items when you scroll. Some games are impossible to put down once you get hooked, and even when you're not playing them you still constantly think about "I'll do this and this next time".

Do you play them the moment you wake up in the morning?

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#183

Post by hinkley »

wmitty wrote: post #145
sodality2 wrote: post #24

I'm still young so maybe my mind hasn't matured enough to where I can combat this well. So I went heavy-handed - I have a button on my desk that when I press it, my server's DNS server (through which all my devices and router resolve) begins rejecting requests to reddit, instagram, twitter, hackernews, news.google.com, etc. For the next two hours, there is nothing I can do outside of SSH'ing through my mobile device…

My (crude) version of the same thing requires that I go 1000 meters from my house to press the button to enable the DNS for another 30 min of browsing (button is on a custom phone app, distance measured using phone GPS). One feature that I want to implement is to have the system randomly enable for 10 minutes - and to signal this by changing the color of light from a desk lamp (Phillips Hue). The idea is that when th…

Related to this but somewhat tangentially, I’ve been trying to figure out how I could programmatically determine if I look “busy” and engage Do Not Disturb for a period of time (roughly pomodoro interval) so that emails and alerts can’t distract me. The problem is that when I’m doing rudimentary code my interactions can be rather intense and obvious, but the more technical the problem the more I slow down, mulling things over in my head or wondering why we wrote code this bad and why it hasn’t broken before. I can be pretty deep in thought at this point and not showing my tools much to go off of.

In the end I think just making a pomodoro tool that automatically disables alerts until break is by far a simpler and more accurate prospect.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#184

Post by Razengan »

Maybe addictive platforms could do some good and make more money if they limited the amount of content a user can see in one day, like some F2P mobile games:

* Say you can only view 50 videos or 2 hours on TikTok per day.

* If you need more, pay 50 cents.

* The free limit resets every day.

This could also lead to better payout systems for content creators.

(the exact numbers would be tweaked as appropriate of course)

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#185

Post by trutannus »

yupper32 wrote: post #120
LiquidPolymer wrote: post #111

I’m curious what the generational divide is for this. I’m 57, love tech and enjoy the positive side of the internet in limited doses. But I find most social media boring. There is incredible and AMAZING art, accidental moments, serious discussion and fascinating analysis of the world to be found online. But without grounding myself in genuine experience in the stinky, cruel real world of human interaction, nature, an…

> But without grounding myself in genuine experience in the stinky, cruel real world of human interaction, nature, and emotions it’s hollow. The ability for younger people to actually experience life is fading. Having to work multiple jobs to keep a roof over your head, massive inflation, burnout from everything, covid spikes recently, etc, etc, etc, etc. Instagram/other social media is free and doesn't require any c…

>Having to work multiple jobs to keep a roof over your head, massive inflation, burnout from everything, covid spikes recently

So the consequences of inept, corrupt, and broken governmental systems basically.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#186

Post by dylan604 »

tyre wrote: post #131
dylan604 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it was sitting in drawer not doing anything and now it is doing this, then it's still better than being in the drawer. Plus, what else that is small form factor and can execute ssh scripts when triggered by a smashable button are there?

Reminds me of this Dash buttons Amazon was pushing a while back.

I've seen some people have actually repurposed those useless things to something actually useful. I never did stop to read up on how/what they did to repurpose, just filed it away as one of those things that could/might be interesting to look into when my long list of other interesting things gets low.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#187

Post by aasasd »

Overindulgence to the point of disgust worked relatively well for me. Imgur: fun for a while, then it's a handful of themes-of-the-day and rapid-fire stock comments. Reddit: teenagers and kidults either desperately trying to sound smart while peddling left or right wing of the same US bubble, or again just polluting the site with current stock responses.

YouTube: a few good recommendations, and lots of clickbait junk. Oh my god the clickbait. I whipped up a uBlock filter to get rid of ‘insane’ and ‘you won't believe’. Also 99% of videos are 10:01 in length. However I kinda managed to do the ‘deliberate’ thing by collecting promising videos into ‘watch later’ playlists—hundreds of vids are in there now.

I may be hitting this point with HN, as the low-effort sentiment on many topics is easily predicted. Thankfully there are still plenty of articles too involved, technical and boring to just spit out a readymade opinion.

I heard that WoW players kick the habit by moving to a new server: when you have to grind again (afaiu), the game becomes tedious.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#188

Post by winternett »

I still mostly use the web browser on my mobile phone.

Many apps are just too damn invasive now as well, they cross the line way too far for metrics they don't even really pay attention to; this is why I only install apps that don't use dark patterns and I've deleted many that go that route. I also schedule my important daily tasks on my calendar with silent (vibration alerts) so that I know when things need to get done. Ringers and notifications are always off on my phone...

I do get pulled in to TikTok at times, but I frequently recognize when the content gets "preachy" and/or boring, and I quickly quit the app and take a break when that happens. Sometimes, it's just simple fun to take a mental break from being serious too, so we shouldn't always ruin all the good aspects of social platforms.

Product owners and companies now often think their role is to manipulate people into staying on apps, and that's a very toxic attitude that discourages trust in corporations behind the apps.

In truth, these platforms are accountable for the suicides, societal depression, crimes, and negative effects their platforms encourage in real life, and eventually they will be held accountable for it.

For us, there are careful choices to make; we need to identify dark patterns and encourage public awareness about them. We need to refuse to do development work that supports negative outcomes and dark profit.

If any of us collect a check for creating bad algos and just think it's just "doing our job" we're just as accountable as the greedy and morally corrupt execs that push for profit goals without any sense of societal responsibility and moral accountability.

Re: My lizard brain is no match for infinite scroll

#189

Post by rr808 »

imron wrote: post #172

Twitter recently made a change on mobile where if you are not logged in, you can only scroll through a handful of tweets before being prompted to login. This has dramatically cut back the amount of time I’d spend browsing twitter (don’t have an account, and not interested in creating one).

Hey I got this too! At first I was annoyed they wouldn't let me check my favorite accounts then realized its actually good.
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