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

Glued to Your Phone? Here's How to Rethink Your Relationship with Social Media

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 106 posts

Re: Glued to Your Phone? Here's How to Rethink Your Relationship with Social Media

#61

Post by MuffinFlavored »

tharne wrote: post #4

I'm starting to get annoyed with these articles. Most people cannot use things like smartphones and Facebook "responsibly". To think you can compete with companies that have virtually unlimited financial resources available to highjack your attention and get you hooked is completely naïve. It's like telling a heroin addict to "rethink your relationship with heroin and use it more moderately". The only realistic way t…

> to get my brain back.

What do you do all day that is so different? I use social media (and this website) to kill time. I have too much time as it is to do nothing/nothing to capture my attention, I don't need more of it just wishing I was doom scrolling on Instagram.

At least on this website I learn stuff periodically throughout the day.

Re: Glued to Your Phone? Here's How to Rethink Your Relationship with Social Media

#62

Post by [deleted] »

MuffinFlavored wrote: post #61
tharne wrote: post #4

I'm starting to get annoyed with these articles. Most people cannot use things like smartphones and Facebook "responsibly". To think you can compete with companies that have virtually unlimited financial resources available to highjack your attention and get you hooked is completely naïve. It's like telling a heroin addict to "rethink your relationship with heroin and use it more moderately". The only realistic way t…

> to get my brain back. What do you do all day that is so different? I use social media (and this website) to kill time. I have too much time as it is to do nothing/nothing to capture my attention, I don't need more of it just wishing I was doom scrolling on Instagram. At least on this website I learn stuff periodically throughout the day.

[deleted]

Re: Glued to Your Phone? Here's How to Rethink Your Relationship with Social Media

#63

Post by reidjs »

I think people have a bad relationship with social media because they use it to consume instead of produce. I changed my mindset from 'social media is a place where I learn about/keep in touch with my friends' to 'social media is a place where I share my art, jokes, life events, etc with my friends'. I spend less time on it because I go in with the mindset of 'What can I create right now?' instead of just mindless scrolling. Or when I am mindlessly scrolling I have more of a perspective, what do people find interesting right now?

Re: Glued to Your Phone? Here's How to Rethink Your Relationship with Social Media

#64

Post by redisman »

paganel wrote: post #17
derwiki wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What basic phone did you switch to? I ended up getting a cellular Apple watch because it’s “smart” enough but no distraction apps (unless you count iMessage)

Not the OP but I'm personally using an iPhone SE. It's good enough for HackerNews and i.reddit.com but when it comes to apps like FB or Instagram I get bored pretty quickly, maybe the smaller screen plays a part in that, I can't tell exactly.

I’m on the SE and it’s really not curbing my addictions at all. Everything works if somewhat painful because it’s a bit smaller. I think I’ll need something much more restricted

Re: Glued to Your Phone? Here's How to Rethink Your Relationship with Social Media

#65

Post by bennythomson »

ruffrey wrote: post #46

> I'm a Libra which means I was born to find balance While there may be good points in the article, this indicates a low level of scientific rigor by the writer. Couldn't continue after that.

Stopped reading as soon as I saw that

Re: Glued to Your Phone? Here's How to Rethink Your Relationship with Social Media

#66

Post by tharne »

everdrive wrote: post #15
rmah wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Um, I use social media "responsibly" and it's quite easy. I look at various social media sites I'm on perhaps two or three times a week. Takes up maybe 30 minutes of my time a week. I feel no addictive urge to use them more. Most people I know may use them a bit more, but not much. The only adults that I know who use social media a lot more do it for work. I submit that the majority of adults use social media sites a…

You could say the same for overeating, or drinking too much. Some people have no issue with overeating, but at least in America most people are too fat. ie, they cannot intake calories responsibly.

When something involves a small percentage of the population, it's typically an individual issue/failure. When it becomes the vast majority of people, like in the case of obesity, you have to seriously consider that the issue is in large part systemic. I seriously doubt, for instance, that in the last 20-30 years, 80% of the American population suddenly woke up and lost all willpower when it comes to food, especially now that the obesity problem appears to be spreading to other countries.

Re: Glued to Your Phone? Here's How to Rethink Your Relationship with Social Media

#67

Post by redisman »

mabub24 wrote: post #41

One way to rethink your relationship with social media is to, for lack of a more succinct phrasing, get a life. I don't mean "don't be a loser", I mean have a life with goals, projects, and real relationships. Once that life flowers, you see social media as merely a tool for the further flourishing of that life. This mindset also makes you take a hard look at the connections you make through social media. Most are 1…

It’s much easier than I thought as a teenager too. You don’t need to be doing “cool” stuff. Just go for a hike or swim once a week and learn some craft like woodworking or electronics. Once you start there will be decades of learning to discover

Re: Glued to Your Phone? Here's How to Rethink Your Relationship with Social Media

#68

Post by nsbk »

ruffrey wrote: post #46

> I'm a Libra which means I was born to find balance While there may be good points in the article, this indicates a low level of scientific rigor by the writer. Couldn't continue after that.

Same here. Very off-putting. How do I know that the rest of the article is not just hocus-pocus?

Re: Glued to Your Phone? Here's How to Rethink Your Relationship with Social Media

#69

Post by tharne »

MuffinFlavored wrote: post #61
tharne wrote: post #4

I'm starting to get annoyed with these articles. Most people cannot use things like smartphones and Facebook "responsibly". To think you can compete with companies that have virtually unlimited financial resources available to highjack your attention and get you hooked is completely naïve. It's like telling a heroin addict to "rethink your relationship with heroin and use it more moderately". The only realistic way t…

> to get my brain back. What do you do all day that is so different? I use social media (and this website) to kill time. I have too much time as it is to do nothing/nothing to capture my attention, I don't need more of it just wishing I was doom scrolling on Instagram. At least on this website I learn stuff periodically throughout the day.

> What do you do all day that is so different?

I read (paper books) more, exercise more, started doing yoga more frequently. I've made it a point to call friends more too. At this stage in my life, time is at premium so I think we're in very different situations.

Re: Glued to Your Phone? Here's How to Rethink Your Relationship with Social Media

#70

Post by GavinMcG »

ruffrey wrote: post #46

> I'm a Libra which means I was born to find balance While there may be good points in the article, this indicates a low level of scientific rigor by the writer. Couldn't continue after that.

> Couldn't continue after that.

Sure you could have. You even acknowledge that there may be good points in the article. But you chose to prioritize whatever positive feeling you got out of closing it and coming back to HN to make a comment about how you'd done so.

Post reply on HN