Live data from Hacker News

My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

allthatjazz.me

301–310 of 330 posts

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think any app that tries to minimize your usage needs to have mays to moderately allow that usage. Black and white thinking, particularly at the beginning, seems likely to fail.

I think you have to just treat this like any other addiction. I feel like I compulsively play chess online. I had not slipped up from 1/1 until last night. Then I really fell off the wagon tonight and played about 10 games. It sounds ridiculous but I just have to put that behind me and get back to not playing online chess. I can play in person for fun but not the mindless waste of time chess has become for me online.…

oof same here brother. chess is killing me. i go cold turkey but i come back eventually. one idea is to replace it with something and then ditch the replacement. or just capitalise next time there’s enough momentum built up for wanting to get rid off of it. i did do it before though, went not playing for months. but when it’s it’s back for good

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#302
post #120
post #112

Recommend olauncher, a text-based launcher, in lieu of default: 1. No icons -> less temptation to open another app 2. Faster because you only have to type part of the name, eg typing 'po' opens Spotify (for me) 3. Probably less resource-intensive since we're just rendering text

i use such a launcher and still do, 1. Unlock Phone 2. Swipe up, type "ti" 3. TikTok opens 4. Let the doomscroll commence I do love these simple launchers, though!

Same here, "chr" and "yo" are at the reflex level by now

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#303
post #207

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 went thru the author’s struggle, too. Here’s what I came with:

https://vonnik.substack.com/p/how-to-take-your-brain-back

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#305
post #34
post #15

What are you guys reading from your infinite scroll suppliers? Are you really that dumb to cease reading (e)books for observing some stories written by no-names? And do you consider your pictures' ability to move as a superiority? How can you know at least anything about the world, the Nature and the agressive nature of the Government, how are you supposed to obtain this knowledge from your infinite scrolling devices…

> Are you really that dumb Do you really want an answer to your questions, or do you just want to flaunt some misguided moral superiority? Insulting people isn’t an effective way to get them to do something for you. Are you really that lacking in empathy that you’re incapable of understanding your fellow humans are being constantly bombarded with addictive messages and technology which—surprise!—makes them addicted?…

I am incapable of understanding why our follow humans are constantly bombarded with proprietary software. I am encouraging those to read a printed word, not the capitalists' burp, how can I ridiculate their efforts if "the efforts" is nothing?. The books I have "skimmed" are from Psychology which is a pseudo-science, sorry.

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#307
post #142

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…

My main problem doing this is with certain 2FA (like Microsoft) forcing use of their 2FA app so I have to pick it up regularly.

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#308

My strategy is to do a lot of "Not interested" curation about any negative content, like ragebait, thirstbait, politics, etc. This leaves mostly meditation and health advice, spiritual and religious uplifting content, cute animals videos, sweet things to share with friends, etc.

I used to do that but I can’t keep up! The amount of bait (particularly rage bait and fulmination bait) has gone up considerably on social media, even in the last 2 years.

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#309

There is a big opportunity for someone to make a all encompassing blocker. I am yet to find one. I think everyone is struggling with this in some way. Anytime I get setup with a blocker it helps heaps. But I always slip back in. Every source of useful information (Reddit, YouTube) comes with toxic clickbait that you cannot disable. I realized that my addiction is to the point that I cannot reason my way out of it. Th…

> You want to let yourself think about things that you enjoy and motivate you INTRINSICALLY, not someone else because then you just keep needed to rely on their enthusiasm.

Legitimate question for debate: how does this differ for social media vs other media? Apart from social media being more addictive, all media is pushing someone else's thoughts on you, in some way. I can imagine old folks would've made similar arguments against TV and books.

(I ask this but still 100% agree social media sucks)

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#310
I built an app (https://usedigest.com) for this exact reason, I couldn't stop with the doom scrolling. I wasn't particularly looking for anything either, just swiping and swiping... constantly reaching for my phone even when I'd just stop to pee for 30 seconds I'd find myself taking out my phone and swiping. The app I built aggregates content from all the sources I was looking at and just sends me a daily summary. I've been able cut way down on this addiction.
Post reply on HN