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My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

allthatjazz.me

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Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#211

Post by CharlesW »

weast wrote: post #207
brushfoot wrote: post #123

Apps to fight apps has never worked for me. When I'm bored/tired enough, it becomes a game to disable my own restrictions. What works for me is removing the antecedent completely by charging my phone in another room at night. Now the battle is easier: Decide once a day to put it there, and track how many days you succeed. For me that's a lot easier than having it in my pocket, where the Internet is always a couple la…

I am currently working on a phone designed to reclaim the digital toolbox nature of the smartphone- access to maps, messages email etc, but with an e-paper display. There are some (albeit not so interface friendly) e readers with SIM cards, but I think there is great power in just having a screen that doesn't vibe with the oversaturated video and image based distractions we are so used to lugging around with us all t…

Are you thinking about a clear USP vs. the Light Phone II/III?

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#212

Post by johnfn »

Almondsetat wrote: post #174
mindcrime wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair enough. I guess I was still thinking of "doom scrolling" as being specifically about scrolling for negative news. But from reading some of the other comments it seems that a lot of people feel like the definition has shifted. I can buy that.

No, the definition was always about the state of the person doing the scrolling, not of the content. For some reason it them changed, and now it appears to be coming back to the original meaning

That is not true. Look up the definition of doomscrolling and most sources (e.g. wikipedia) will say that it tends to be negative content.

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#213

Post by thinkling »

weast wrote: post #207
brushfoot wrote: post #123

Apps to fight apps has never worked for me. When I'm bored/tired enough, it becomes a game to disable my own restrictions. What works for me is removing the antecedent completely by charging my phone in another room at night. Now the battle is easier: Decide once a day to put it there, and track how many days you succeed. For me that's a lot easier than having it in my pocket, where the Internet is always a couple la…

I am currently working on a phone designed to reclaim the digital toolbox nature of the smartphone- access to maps, messages email etc, but with an e-paper display. There are some (albeit not so interface friendly) e readers with SIM cards, but I think there is great power in just having a screen that doesn't vibe with the oversaturated video and image based distractions we are so used to lugging around with us all t…

> I think there is great power in just having a screen that doesn't vibe with the oversaturated video and image based distractions we are so used to

Similarly (easier but less drastic) I’ve seen people turn their phone to grayscale mode to make the device less engaging and remind you that it’s a productivity device, not an entertainment device. On iOS you can do this through the Accessibility settings. (Settings > Display & Text Size > Color Filters > Color Filters on, Grayscale

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#214

Post by seb1204 »

nicbou wrote: post #193
mindcrime wrote: post #154

Ugh. I don't necessarily do "doom" scrolling, but lately I have gotten drawn into wasting time on these various stupid "shorts" or "reels" or whatever, mostly on FB. It's weird too... for ages I was vehement about never, ever clicking on any of that crap on FB or Youtube (and I barely use Instagram at all and don't even have TikTok). But one day, somehow, I got suckered in by a thumbnail of a cute dog or something, a…

I blocked anything to do with Shorts because of how addictive they are.

Is it possible to block just YouTube shorts and not YouTube?

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#215

Post by malfist »

bloopernova wrote: post #151

Reading on an e-ink device has kept me somewhat sane over the past 12 months. It's still very tempting to just "hop on reddit and see what's there" or "I'll just check bluesky for..." Then it's 2 hours later and you're angry and despondent. I've found that having no social media apps on my phone has helped. It also helps to stick to just Firefox+ublock on Android and resist every time a site tries to install an app.…

I hear you about amygdala-bait. Back when reddit had third party clients, I used RIF and it let you block subreddits from showing up in /r/all, and so I blocked hundreds of subreddits. Anything that seemed focused on ragebait got blocked.

Made reddit's /r/all mostly about interesting new things or funny memes.

When reddit banned third party clients, I logged out and have never logged back in. I don't really miss it, even if it means I spend more time here or on fark. That was my last major social media site account, and I don't miss it at all.

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#216

Post by 3vidence »

This post randomly gave me an idea for an infinite scrolling site that may help break the cycle while still being fun.

Imagine a TikTok / YT style video scrolling but after each video you have to swipe progressively more times to get to the next video.

By the time you are swiping like 30 times to slowly inch to the next video maybe people would naturally stop.

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#217

Post by thesuitonym »

gnatman wrote: post #189
thesuitonym wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know exactly how you feel, 20 years ago I went on a trip and saw almost everybody utterly absorbed in a newspaper, or magazine. Some even had books. I couldn't believe all these people were wasting their precious time entertaining themselves instead of staring blankly at the wall!

You used to see this argument come up frequently in defense of smartphones, but it's fallen off recently. In my personal experience, scrolling through short-form videos is 100x more soul sucking than reading a book, magazine, or newspaper ever is. They're just not the same.

In general, you're right, but this comment was about an airport. People are stuck there, sometimes for hours, with not much to do, and they can't really go far. And for all anyone knows, they could have been working, or reading, or who knows what. Anecdotal, I know, but my wife has crazy high screen time--like several hours a day, but it's because she reads a lot of ebooks, but doesn't want to carry a separate device.

There are all kinds of reasons a person may be looking at their phone, and to judge them for it, especially in an airport of all places, is kind of ridiculous.

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#218

Post by l3w3 »

j3s wrote: post #208
l3w3 wrote: post #205

The Lightphone is all about making the phone a tool, minus infinite feeds. I've preordered a v3 and am very much looking forward to its arrival. My Android can live on my desk for 2fa apps, etc. If I want to consume the internet, I'll do it using nice screens and a real keyboard. Doing anything via a mobile is less good generally, just more convenient perhaps.

remember - the light phone is a product. they’re selling you the idea of simplicity, not the reality. if you don’t fundamentally change your life or behavior, i guarantee it’ll be sitting in a box collecting dust within 6 months. as soon as you’re out & about and need an uber, or maps-based navigation to another location, or to transfer money from one bank, or even to look up an important tidbit of information - the…

Maybe, I'm not so sure. The pre-order was cheap enough, it will sell if I don't get on with it. It alleges maps with GPS, ride-share isn't something I use or has much of market in these parts. Banking isn't something I need or want in my pocket. A calendar is most important. I agree the answer is not buying things, not being spied on (less spied on?) to perpetuate an ad-based economy is a feature to me. I just want my attention back, the trade-offs don't seem to have much value. We'll see. :-)

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#219

Post by bloopernova »

malfist wrote: post #215
bloopernova wrote: post #151

Reading on an e-ink device has kept me somewhat sane over the past 12 months. It's still very tempting to just "hop on reddit and see what's there" or "I'll just check bluesky for..." Then it's 2 hours later and you're angry and despondent. I've found that having no social media apps on my phone has helped. It also helps to stick to just Firefox+ublock on Android and resist every time a site tries to install an app.…

I hear you about amygdala-bait. Back when reddit had third party clients, I used RIF and it let you block subreddits from showing up in /r/all, and so I blocked hundreds of subreddits. Anything that seemed focused on ragebait got blocked. Made reddit's /r/all mostly about interesting new things or funny memes. When reddit banned third party clients, I logged out and have never logged back in. I don't really miss it,…

Yeah RiF was great software, it was asinine how we couldn't just buy a reddit API token.

My blocklist was several hundred subreddits long too :)

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#220

Post by SpaceManNabs »

I used to have an issue with smoking too much weed during the day (I still do).

The only thing that helped was the KitchenSafe / kSafe.

I put my phone in the kSafe during pomodoro sized chunks. If there is an emergency, I can still do calls from my apple watch/ipad. I keep my ipad in my closet so i don't use it for doom scrolling.

It is funny because I random found out that the ksafe got popular from a sharktank episode where the inventor was advocating for controlling binge eating lol.... I found that funny because I've only heard it propose to quit smoking/vaping nicotine/weed.

Still figuring out the interface for other things. When I am at work, social pressures help. Still figuring out a way to prevent myself from opening incognito on my mac laptop and opening hackernews / reddit.

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