Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

allthatjazz.me

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 330 posts

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#241

Post by swatcoder »

yagyu wrote: post #142
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…

Second this. I ended up building a nice charging station right near the entrance. It has storage for keys, wallet, and other things to grab when heading out. It has an abundance of wired and wireless chargers for all devices. Then I got a dumb (but nice) alarm clock for the bedroom. Then I noticed that a common reason to pick up the phone is to check the calendar. I ended up hanging a monitor on the wall, displaying…

> to check the calendar. I ended up hanging a monitor on the wall, displaying the family month/agenda calendars

I hear the ancients had their own crude technology for this:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar_(stationery)

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#242

Post by deaddodo »

nobodywasishere wrote: post #170
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 finally broke wasting hours on YouTube shorts (and youtube in general) by turning off the watch history on my account [1]. It completely removes all videos from the "homepage" (including shorts from the sidebar). There are still shorts in the subscriptions page, but I think this is an acceptable tradeoff. YouTube for me now has just become who I'm subscribed to, which is a much more pleasant experience - there's an…

I've always found "doom-scrolling" fascinating because, for all of my addiction-prone traits and ADHD-granted hyperfocus, I never seem to get sucked into it. I've opened TikTok a few times for some random video I've searched and continued scrolling the next few videos out of some UX-driven guidance...then completely lost interest after 4 or 5.

Funny/Memey videos with low content value are entertaining, here and there. A rapid succession of them does nothing to the reward center of my brain. Or worse, the video would clearly be better as a longer form video and now I'm just frustrated (this is more common with YouTube Shorts).

That being said, I probably have YouTube normal-long form content running in the background 4-8hours out of the day.

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#243

Post by heap_perms »

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.…

"amygdala-bait" is such a good, concise way of expressing the phaenomenon. I too try to stay away from infinite scrolling. I installed an extension to block youtube shorts, for example, as they offer no value to me.

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#244

Post by Modified3019 »

thinkling wrote: post #213
weast wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 > Di…

It’s possible to create a (greyscale) color filter toggle, as well as time based or app open/close activation with the iOS “shortcuts” automation: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W32pf_97onM

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#245

Post by marliechiller »

skeeter2020 wrote: post #234
yapyap wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Replacing that monitor with an e-ink device could be interesting

or buy a day planner for $3. or print a weekly TODO list and mark it up with pen/pencil

great until I add something to my digital calendar when im out and I forget to update it, or my wife adds something to her calendar and doesnt use the shared calendar :/

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#246

Post by lumost »

The only thing that has worked for me is to uninstall all of the social media apps. I still use some of their mobile web interfaces, but the friction of mobile web is enough to stop a doom scrolling loop.

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#247

Post by nicbou »

seb1204 wrote: post #214
nicbou wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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

I blocked the right elements in Safari on iOS. I use Unhooked in Firefox on my laptop.

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#248

Post by rbanffy »

goatlover wrote: post #113
rbanffy wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 2025 it's fair to say it's just scrolling. The doom part is implied.

Very much depends on what content you consume. The shy has always been falling, but there's plenty of other stories.

The sky has been falling for a while, but the chunks were much smaller.

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#249

Post by 1kurac »

I replaced doomscrolling, a passive and empire-led activity, with active playing chess. I play correspondence games so a minute or two of engagement, per active match, fits me just right any fit time of the day.

I don't at the slightest feel bad about it.

Tell them I sent you: https://www.chess.com/?ref_id=7467288

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#250

Post by yohannparis »

hammock wrote: post #204
yagyu wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Second this. I ended up building a nice charging station right near the entrance. It has storage for keys, wallet, and other things to grab when heading out. It has an abundance of wired and wireless chargers for all devices. Then I got a dumb (but nice) alarm clock for the bedroom. Then I noticed that a common reason to pick up the phone is to check the calendar. I ended up hanging a monitor on the wall, displaying…

What alarm clock did you get? Curious And great insight about the calendar. That's the #1 reason why I keep my phone near me (thereby facilitating all the unwanted behaviors)

I personally use the Braun, because it does not have a snooze function. Just one big button on the top to turn it on/off. Run on a single AAA battery for months. Only problem is no backlighting, so no way to read time in the middle of the night. For me that's a feature not a bug. https://us.braun-clocks.com/collections/clocks/products/bc12...
Post reply on HN