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How to overcome Phone Addiction

cognitiontoday.com

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Re: How to overcome Phone Addiction

#261

Post by _huayra_ »

One thing that proved very useful for me was to decouple impulse from habit.

Instead of immediately jumping to HN or "yet another youtube conference video for some language I'm only tangentially curious about", I use a browser extension (Leechblock) to give myself a lot of time (an hour) at the end of the day.

This trick works in two ways

1. when I feel that urge during the workday, my emotional brain thinks "oh boy! a whole hour of this at the end of the day! I can totally wait because it will be an hour!" 2. when that hour comes, I find I only browse around for maybe 10 minutes before I get bored.

ymmv but after trying to go "cold turkey" for the longest time, this was the best solution I could figure out. I genuinely like the info on HN / certain parts of youtube, but having them as some emotional relief mechanism that I would get a "hit" from myriad times each day was the unhealthy part.

Re: How to overcome Phone Addiction

#263

Post by varrock »

_huayra_ wrote: post #260
dead_neopets wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Habits are related to our environment. Your brain is probably wired to your current living arrangements and taking a vacation- with the added caveat that you know you have no internet- means no behaviors. This is why people can easily get sober in rehab and then come home and instantly relapse.

I actually used this tactic to break some habits when I moved. New living place did not trigger the same habits as the prior one, so long as I was careful to not "install" them again...

I experienced this. When I moved, my sloppiness and classiness improved tremendously. However, I've recently started to notice it getting back into its old ways now that I'm more settled. The benefit is that I'm much more aware of it, and am able to recognize it and address it instead of never noticing it to begin with.

Re: How to overcome Phone Addiction

#264

Post by stinos »

makecheck wrote: post #74

I basically discourage addiction by making things “difficult” for myself on my phone: - Minimal web bookmarks (i.e. I have to type in most web sites I want to visit; this is just enough of an encumbrance that I won’t flip open things like Reddit every 30 seconds). - I never install apps meant for content consumption, I use their web sites. (This is usually a better experience anyway, since the vast majority of them a…

I have to type in most web sites I want to visit

Huh, what browser? Or did you make it not remember anything visited? Don't they all figure out what you want these days? I mean if I type 'r' FF presents me reddit.com, 'n' is news.yconmbinator.com as best match etc. For the sites I visit most, it's actually faster than looking up a bookmark.

Re: How to overcome Phone Addiction

#265

Post by diebeforei485 »

Bakary wrote: post #112

Some ideas on this topic: 1. Inconvenience based solutions don't address the problem: using apps to restrict phone use, physically hiding the phone etc. Once you leave those carefully constrained conditions, you are more vulnerable than ever. Not to mention the contradiction with the core issue that it's a symptom rather than a cause. 2. Turning abstinence as an ongoing status condition (e.g. "X days since I did Y")…

How about just the using a small phone? The small text size would make it hard to use for too long.

Re: How to overcome Phone Addiction

#266

Post by cryptograthor »

Bakary wrote: post #112

Some ideas on this topic: 1. Inconvenience based solutions don't address the problem: using apps to restrict phone use, physically hiding the phone etc. Once you leave those carefully constrained conditions, you are more vulnerable than ever. Not to mention the contradiction with the core issue that it's a symptom rather than a cause. 2. Turning abstinence as an ongoing status condition (e.g. "X days since I did Y")…

Hard to disagree that no longer needing to distract onesself is the goal, but the difference between "be intentional in almost every action" and "be more mindful of actions, including picking up one's phone" is large.

Intentionality in every action is not a useful framing for most people.

Re: How to overcome Phone Addiction

#267

Post by syl_sau »

I have come to think that the key point of cutting down on this browsing addiction was to have something better and more interesting to do. Something you can show to friends or to yourself afterwards, some tangible and original, whatever that is (from a GitHub project to a sculpture or an article on an interesting topic). It might just be, in the end, a motivation problem.

As argued by many in the comments section, forceful, explicit counter-measure (like hiding your phone or installing a block app) can be good temporary solutions but aren't efficient in the long-term. The problem may live deeper in ourselves, as some fundamental lack -- my point is maybe we're inclined to do this because we're kind of lost as regards to what really drives us.

Re: How to overcome Phone Addiction

#268

Post by xapata »

launderthis wrote: post #9

correlation does not equal causation. Phone addiction or internet addiction is a symptom not a cause. People are escaping to the internet becuase of the world we live in is cold. There is a new US marine commerical out that shows a kid wandering the street kind of lost in hyper interactive world. The commercial plays off of this internet addiction and data mining product selling. Then clips to them becoming a Marine…

> Que

[Helpfully] I believe you meant "cue."

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cue

Re: How to overcome Phone Addiction

#269

Post by greggman3 »

syl_sau wrote: post #267

I have come to think that the key point of cutting down on this browsing addiction was to have something better and more interesting to do. Something you can show to friends or to yourself afterwards, some tangible and original, whatever that is (from a GitHub project to a sculpture or an article on an interesting topic). It might just be, in the end, a motivation problem. As argued by many in the comments section, f…

I agree in that if I really have something to do then I'll do it. I got into some personal project in October and worked 6-12 hours a day on it for 3 weeks. I wasn't distracted by HN. Conversely the last week I've probably spent ~6 hours a day just mindlessly wasting time on the net, mostly HN, like right now.

Re: How to overcome Phone Addiction

#270

Post by scotty79 »

bumby wrote: post #201
scotty79 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say individual. You are letting people to condition you into becoming obedient killer and believing it's a virtue and worthwhile skill.

The society they are a part of does consider it a worthwhile skill, which is why they’ve created a niche for it. There may be disagreements on the individual level, but society creates institutions (like the military) and the policies they execute based on their aggregate values. Or in cliched terms, people get the government they deserve

> The society they are a part of does consider it a worthwhile skill, [...]

It only mitgologizes it. That's not the same thing. When they rejoin economy nobody says "let me offer you a job or money or food or a place to live because now you can kill people on miltary command".

The only places where people might find your "skill" worthwhile outside the place that conditioned you are criminal or borderline criminal.

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