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How to Stare at Your Phone Without Losing Your Soul

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Re: How to Stare at Your Phone Without Losing Your Soul

#51

Post by Barrin92 »

nobrains wrote: post #7

But its more than that. I might visit Reddit and Hacker News, not because the app summoned me via notifications, but because my brain summoned the app, after just a 15 minute hiatus. The issue is that browser and certain apps are available to me on the phone instantly. And there are no good controls to help me me MINDFUL. What I want from the phone (I use an iPhone): - Upon every unlock, or upon every app open, I sho…

simplest thing to do is to just put your phone away in a drawer in another room. Keep any distracting gadgets out of where you work, sleep or spend time with other people.

There's really no need for yet another app or trick, just putting distracting devices out of reach is enough of a hassle to only use it when you actually need to.

Re: How to Stare at Your Phone Without Losing Your Soul

#52

Post by TeMPOraL »

contravariant wrote: post #48
jjgreen wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could take up smoking. Problem is that you can smoke and zombie-phone at the same time ...

Just start drinking as well, you'll have to quit one habit or take up juggling.

Haha, no. I can smoke and drink and tap on the phone at the same time. Hold my beer while I show you.

Re: How to Stare at Your Phone Without Losing Your Soul

#53

Post by em500 »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #50
divan wrote: post #47

The problem is that internet is both a library and a public place. You need library for information and for work, and internet delivers here better than anything else - almost any information is available instantly. But unlike library with silence and no distractions you're at the same time in the middle of the giant public square, where all the people from your social circle also available instantly. It's like study…

> I really believe this social aspect of reachability of people (friends, haters or some people on internet you follow) is crucial. It's not about apps or a screen time, it's about social connection (even ephemeral) that gives this gratification and makes our brains summoning the apps. This. I've concluded the same, observing my own interaction patterns. I use very little social media (would've ditched Facebook if no…

One way to moderate this is to remove them from your phone and just access them from a PC end of day. There is no value from 24/7 instant access to Reddit or HN (or the majority of network connected apps if you think about it), as opposed to browsing for an hour or two at the end of the day if you have some downtime.

Re: How to Stare at Your Phone Without Losing Your Soul

#54

Post by TeMPOraL »

em500 wrote: post #53
TeMPOraL wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I really believe this social aspect of reachability of people (friends, haters or some people on internet you follow) is crucial. It's not about apps or a screen time, it's about social connection (even ephemeral) that gives this gratification and makes our brains summoning the apps. This. I've concluded the same, observing my own interaction patterns. I use very little social media (would've ditched Facebook if no…

One way to moderate this is to remove them from your phone and just access them from a PC end of day. There is no value from 24/7 instant access to Reddit or HN (or the majority of network connected apps if you think about it), as opposed to browsing for an hour or two at the end of the day if you have some downtime.

I wholeheartedly agree. I wish it would work for me, though.

In fact, I dislike browsing Reddit and HN on my mobile, as even though Reddit Is Fun (for Reddit) and Firefox (for HN) are excellent for consuming, I'm in it for participation, so I'm limited by touch keyboards, which universally suck.

At this point I've pretty much given up. During my HN-satiated moments, I can't devise a plan that my HN-deprived self won't overcome. Case in point: the last thing I ever posted on my blog, three years and five days ago, was about setting up a HN block at a router level. I was so happy with my trick that I had to share it with the world. Guess how long that trick worked? Less than a week after publishing the blog post.

Re: How to Stare at Your Phone Without Losing Your Soul

#55

Post by jtr1 »

prox wrote: post #10
nobrains wrote: post #7

But its more than that. I might visit Reddit and Hacker News, not because the app summoned me via notifications, but because my brain summoned the app, after just a 15 minute hiatus. The issue is that browser and certain apps are available to me on the phone instantly. And there are no good controls to help me me MINDFUL. What I want from the phone (I use an iPhone): - Upon every unlock, or upon every app open, I sho…

As the old saying goes, there is an app for that. Here you go : https://one-sec.app/

This looks very cool, although I went to check out their browser extensions and the permissions(!)

> This app can read and change your data on any website

Re: How to Stare at Your Phone Without Losing Your Soul

#58

Post by woudsma »

ape4 wrote: post #34
ygouzerh wrote: post #9

That's so true. I love Youtube for its music, documentaries and software engineering content. But I hate the Shorts features, if I click on only one video, it sucks all my night. I built a small app for blocking the Shorts features, in this way I can enjoy the advantages without having the bad sides.

I've heard if you select "Not interested" for all the shorts in your feed one time - that will stop them.

Only for 30 days for me. I want to disable shorts from my recommendations altogether.

Re: How to Stare at Your Phone Without Losing Your Soul

#59

Post by haswell »

teekert wrote: post #18

Is miss this insight from the iOS screentime feature: The thing often reports: More time spend than last week, average 2.5 hours a day. Yeah that's fine, but if half is Apple Maps because I had to drive somewhere far away, this result is meaningless. I indeed also just want to know how much time I spend in soul sucking apps. Or rather, in soul sucking websites because I feel that using websites for ie reddit are what…

The screen time reports show a breakdown by app (and website if you use safari) to help clarify which apps are taking your time.

The daily average is just a benchmark to see high level trends. Drilling down is far more interesting.

The “first used after pickup” report can be quite interesting as well.

Re: How to Stare at Your Phone Without Losing Your Soul

#60

Post by dmbche »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #54
em500 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One way to moderate this is to remove them from your phone and just access them from a PC end of day. There is no value from 24/7 instant access to Reddit or HN (or the majority of network connected apps if you think about it), as opposed to browsing for an hour or two at the end of the day if you have some downtime.

I wholeheartedly agree. I wish it would work for me, though. In fact, I dislike browsing Reddit and HN on my mobile, as even though Reddit Is Fun (for Reddit) and Firefox (for HN) are excellent for consuming , I'm in it for participation, so I'm limited by touch keyboards, which universally suck. At this point I've pretty much given up. During my HN-satiated moments, I can't devise a plan that my HN-deprived self won…

Just a quick tip - but I understand it's possibly not ideal.

You have a lot of karma, and I've noticed that the karma counter going up feels somewhat addictive. The existence of a "persona" (it's possible you think of your identity here as slightly different from your daily identity) that is only supported by your commenting also might encourage commenting.

I'd propose to nuke your account by changing the password to gibberish (or asking a significant other to put a weird password and keep it written somewhere if you reaaaally want to keep access to your account) and to use HN anonymously. Just give it a try - if it's really an issue for you this has helped me with other things.

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