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Glued to Your Phone? Here's How to Rethink Your Relationship with Social Media

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Re: Glued to Your Phone? Here's How to Rethink Your Relationship with Social Media

#21

Post by Calvin02 »

tharne wrote: post #4

I'm starting to get annoyed with these articles. Most people cannot use things like smartphones and Facebook "responsibly". To think you can compete with companies that have virtually unlimited financial resources available to highjack your attention and get you hooked is completely naïve. It's like telling a heroin addict to "rethink your relationship with heroin and use it more moderately". The only realistic way t…

I think you're cherry picking a bit.

How much time do you spend on HN?

HN is a social network for folks who are interested in technology and general interest topics -- much like other social networks.

Do you think that people can use HN "responsibly"? The feed is algorithmic and designed to surface topics to elicit responses/engagement with the community.

Re: Glued to Your Phone? Here's How to Rethink Your Relationship with Social Media

#22

Post by CogitoCogito »

zahrc wrote: post #14

Social media nowadays is not just Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. There is Discord, Reddit, LinkedIn, Twitch, YouTube… I’d even count HN. There a many people, possibly still the minority, but very solid amount of people way to invested in those See those twitch donation whales, for example, the amount is big enough to have sparked a more than feasible business. I wouldn’t call that responsible.

I spend way too much time reading HN and reddit. Most of the time I'm not even logged in, but I'm still pretty much addicted. I also don't really see any reason to treat these sorts of sites differently.

Re: Glued to Your Phone? Here's How to Rethink Your Relationship with Social Media

#23

Post by mastrsushi »

“Navigating the internet” is dead. The majority of users are swiping at 5 second videos between 5 major platforms. The rest of the web is weird tabloids and abandoned blog spots. Try looking up a recipe and tell me you don’t get plagued with ads like you’re on XVideo.

Re: Glued to Your Phone? Here's How to Rethink Your Relationship with Social Media

#24

Post by david422 »

powellzer wrote: post #18

I recently deactivated Facebook (which I only ever used via web browser) and since then I’ve been counting the number of times I unconsciously end up on the Facebook login page when I’m bored/killing time. I’ve noticed that faced with a “new tab” I’ll often just hit the f key and hit enter without thinking about it, landing me on the Facebook login page. Before I deactivated, this would result in me somewhat unconsci…

That's what I do with Hacker News. Hello :/

Re: Glued to Your Phone? Here's How to Rethink Your Relationship with Social Media

#26

Post by throwawayswede »

tharne wrote: post #4

I'm starting to get annoyed with these articles. Most people cannot use things like smartphones and Facebook "responsibly". To think you can compete with companies that have virtually unlimited financial resources available to highjack your attention and get you hooked is completely naïve. It's like telling a heroin addict to "rethink your relationship with heroin and use it more moderately". The only realistic way t…

This kind of article is mostly clickbait at this point. There's a lot of "interest" in these kinds of topics and they attract a lot of attention on -funny enough- the same social media platforms.

I believe the main problem with those social media apps is not an issue of time, but of productivity and determination/will-power. Think of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, etc... These are not social networks exactly, but all contain elements from it. I've deleted my Facebook account about 6 years ago now and slowly got off all the other ones after. Now I only use RSS to follow websites I care about. At first I felt like I'm out of a lot of loops and circles of friends, but I later realized that it was all useless anyway, people who I care about and who cared about me still text or call me. I didn't need to know about every little random thing that happens in the world unless I specifically choose to know about it. It later felt really liberating. People were taking about who marked who safe and I just managed with a text message. People talk endlessly about how good/bad social media is and I'm totally out of the entire conversation. Still to this day I meet people who find it very weird that I'm not on Facebook, or if they are as well not on Facebook then probably because they have Reddit/Tiktok/etc.

I can't stress this enough, but I really felt like my productivity was fading away about 6 years ago, after quitting I find the energy to work on the most random stuff that take weeks of work, I don't get interrupted and my interest doesn't fade away from over exposure to random stuff (even if interesting). I've asked friends who felt the same way to try to delete Tiktok (and video games from their PCs) for a month to try to work on something and they all reported great results. Every single one said that they wouldn't have been able to do it if they didn't delete app X.

My point is this; it's not about time, it's about what you get exposed to. If you feel unproductive (compared to what you were before) or think "what could 10 minutes on Tiktok do", try deleting these apps one by one. The difficulty won't be the same for all people, but it'll be manageable for EVERYONE. It's not about being on your phone all the time, it's about being on your phone because you want to do something, not just for mindless scrolling.

(I intentionally did not mention tracking or privacy reasons from this because that's whole other beast of a topic.)

I love this quote from Stephen Fry:

> Jacking out of the matrix would cast one as a hero of the kind of dystopian film that proved popular in the 70s, Logan’s Run, Zardoz, Soylent Green, Fahrenheit 451 … on the run from The Corporation, with the foot soldiers of The System hard on your heels. We really are starting to live in that kind of movie, mutatis mutandis, so surely it’s time to join the Rebels, the Outliers, the Others who live beyond the Wall and read forbidden books, sing forbidden songs and think forbidden thoughts in defiance of The One.

https://www.stephenfry.com/2016/04/off-the-grid/

Re: Glued to Your Phone? Here's How to Rethink Your Relationship with Social Media

#27

Post by adkadskhj »

tharne wrote: post #12
rmah wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Um, I use social media "responsibly" and it's quite easy. I look at various social media sites I'm on perhaps two or three times a week. Takes up maybe 30 minutes of my time a week. I feel no addictive urge to use them more. Most people I know may use them a bit more, but not much. The only adults that I know who use social media a lot more do it for work. I submit that the majority of adults use social media sites a…

Perhaps we run in different circles. I constantly notice compulsive smart phone use. At work it's very common to see 8 people load into an elevator and like clockwork 6 or 7 of them will instantly pull out their phones. Any little piece of downtime where folks might have to be alone with their thoughts, or make small talk with people they don't already know, you can see people mindlessly grabbing their phones. You se…

So i agreed with you until:

> I'd certainly classify that as addictive behavior -- i.e. when a healthy young man is more interested in what's on his phone than he is in the attractive woman sitting across the table from him. Something is very wrong there.

We can definitely debate online life vs "in the flesh" - but it seems small minded to me for you to suggest someones preferences for experience are only the result of unhealthy addiction.

Many would argue your allowance of modern life, from TVs to cars to in city restaurants/etc. That you (or that person, i guess) didn't make a home cooked meal, or go experience nature together - to be an addiction to the modern and lacking in down to earth, honest and real connections.

Not that i agree with any of that of course. My point is that i think there is a perfectly valid possible course where someone prefers to experience their life in cities, in the woods, or in more virtual spaces.

The reality though, and where i agree with you - is that i don't think we actually have a virtual space that _isn't_ fueled entirely be addiction. Powered by highly financed and motivated teams of people.

I just think we need to be cognizant of alternative life styles. Just because commonly certain lifestyles result in unhealthy behavior doesn't inherently mean that lifestyle shouldn't be followed at all. If that was the case i think this argument should probably switch to avoiding much of modern life. As it is full of unhealthy habits and poor balances. We'll be living in the woods pretty soon if we can't recognize the possible healthy and balanced ways to live in the unhealthy-unbalanced minefield that is so many alternate forms of life.

Re: Glued to Your Phone? Here's How to Rethink Your Relationship with Social Media

#28

Post by FourthProtocol »

Maybe age has something to do with it - yes, I used to spend too much time on Facebook. Back in 2007. I also used to drink too much alcohol. Today I just don't have time for social media other than when I'm waiting for something, like a bus or train or my boy to come out of school.

I can't program with a hangover, I can't read, I can't scratch-build radio-controlled trucks. I can't scuba dive when I'm hung over and I can't do Krav Maga while I'm online. I like these and other things more than being online. But yes, I like being online too. Pintrest is great for research when you're building a garden bench.

I guess filling my life with meat-space things I really like and enjoy means I spend comparatively very little time online.

I do wonder what people who don't have meat-space interests more important to them than being online, think about.

Re: Glued to Your Phone? Here's How to Rethink Your Relationship with Social Media

#29

Post by lifeisstillgood »

I feel the need to start with metrics (mostly because I do worry about the effect (good and bad) it has on my kids).

I am planning on somehow pulling screentime metrics and youtube history data together - have not really got a plan but if anyone fancies a few spare hours please shout.

(ironically those of us with kids probably have the least time to scratch this itch !)

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