Turning my phone to grayscale solved the doomscrolling issue for me. Now I only browse HN all day long.
I made my phone slow on purpose
71–80 of 217 posts
Re: I made my phone slow on purpose
#72Here are things that I’ve found helpful to substitute time spent doomscrolling.
* periodic feed tidying to unfollow as much content as possible. It will be obvious which content is low quality. Right click and “not interested” on apps that support that.
* fill the time with edifying activities: creative pursuits, social activities, helping out, gaming , fitness, bible study .
* turn the phone off (up , down + power button – it’s deliberately onerous) . Stash it in the glovebox or backpack. Even half an hour is a relief. moving my car key to the watch allowed me to leave the phone behind when doing fitness. Try to identify the specific “hook” to your phone.
* turn off push notifs & background app refresh. try moving your important contacts over to a single messaging app if you can so you can minimize the ones with notifications . Otherwise use pull over push if possible (i get that work often isn’t practical) . iOS focus modes let you automate this.
* replace doomscrolling with AI dialogs on any topic. You can go much deeper this way by asking “why” questions like a toddler. Let’s say you’re watching motorcycle crash videos, do a dialog on the history of motorcycle racing. Or any topic
Re: I made my phone slow on purpose
#73I have that too where I live. It’s called “Verizon”
Re: I made my phone slow on purpose
#74There is a great habit-breaking app called “One Sec.” You configure it with your addicting apps or websites and it uses iOS shortcuts to interrupt you when you open them, and make you wait for some time — optionally with the selfie camera open — and confirm you really want to open it. It’s extremely effective and I highly recommend it. I don’t have it anymore since it led me to eventually delete Instagram and I never…
Wow, that is a fantastic idea. Basically interrupting the instant gratification loop by just enough to let the more rational mind get a word in. Another tool that I've found to be incredibly helpful for breaking app-addition is the colorblind accessibility tool. You can use it to make the entire phone greyscale, which entirely defeats a huge range of techniques that apps and feeds use to draw your attention. Tiktok i…
> You can use it to make the entire phone greyscale, which entirely defeats a huge range of techniques that apps and feeds use to draw your attention
As a counter-anecdata: I've had my phone in greyscale for a few years now. At first it worked amazingly, made me hate my phone and pickups dropped significantly. But over time I realized "Oh wait, 90% of my phone use is text and this is actually super nice for reading".
Now I use my phone just as much as before, except in greyscale.
Re: I made my phone slow on purpose
#75This is a method, but it's the underlying issue that needs to be resolved. People doomscroll primarily to avoid certain thoughts/feelings/situations. The way out of it is to: 1. Note that you're avoiding something. 2. Identify what it is. 3. Face it. This is an addiction and reaching for the phone is just what gives relief to whatever pain one might be experiencing. Just removing that is laying ground for a substitut…
"don't change anything unless you can completely solve the root cause [assuming you have accurately identified it]" is really not backed up by research.
Plese refer to point 3. of my list. That is change.
Re: I made my phone slow on purpose
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
"don't change anything unless you can completely solve the root cause [assuming you have accurately identified it]" is really not backed up by research.
Plese refer to point 3. of my list. That is change.
which is implied to be only after step 2, which is essentially "find the cause", yeah.
there's plenty of benefit to be had from reducing harm while searching (or when wrong about the cause).
Re: I made my phone slow on purpose
#77There is a great habit-breaking app called “One Sec.” You configure it with your addicting apps or websites and it uses iOS shortcuts to interrupt you when you open them, and make you wait for some time — optionally with the selfie camera open — and confirm you really want to open it. It’s extremely effective and I highly recommend it. I don’t have it anymore since it led me to eventually delete Instagram and I never…
I use the Minimalist launcher on Android and it's working pretty well. I have a rule that I don't use Facebook on Brave, and I have Chrome behind a wait, as is Reddit. I uninstalled other addictive apps, (e.g. Instagram, Facebook App) because I just don't use them anymore. Working better than I expected.
Re: I made my phone slow on purpose
#78This is a method, but it's the underlying issue that needs to be resolved. People doomscroll primarily to avoid certain thoughts/feelings/situations. The way out of it is to: 1. Note that you're avoiding something. 2. Identify what it is. 3. Face it. This is an addiction and reaching for the phone is just what gives relief to whatever pain one might be experiencing. Just removing that is laying ground for a substitut…
While a popular refrain, this is not the only reason one might engage in avoidance. Furthermore, even if it is rooted in a pain, not everyone will be motivated optimally by thinking of it as something that must be analyzed and extracted. One can simply be bored without it being a pathology.
My understanding is that when someone uses the term "doomscrolling", they mean something negative.
Re: I made my phone slow on purpose
#79I think more people should set up their iPhone using Apple Configurator, a Mac app used to control apples mdm solution. You do have to factory reset your phone for this once, but after that you have extremely granular control over what you can and can’t do. It’s much more powerful than the parental controls system and much harder to circumvent. I use it to straight up disallow a bunch of apps and websites (tiktok, Re…
Does that website blocking work for browsers other than Safari?
Yes
Re: I made my phone slow on purpose
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wow, that is a fantastic idea. Basically interrupting the instant gratification loop by just enough to let the more rational mind get a word in. Another tool that I've found to be incredibly helpful for breaking app-addition is the colorblind accessibility tool. You can use it to make the entire phone greyscale, which entirely defeats a huge range of techniques that apps and feeds use to draw your attention. Tiktok i…
> You can use it to make the entire phone greyscale, which entirely defeats a huge range of techniques that apps and feeds use to draw your attention As a counter-anecdata: I've had my phone in greyscale for a few years now. At first it worked amazingly, made me hate my phone and pickups dropped significantly. But over time I realized "Oh wait, 90% of my phone use is text and this is actually super nice for reading".…
Do you still have problems with doomscrolling addiction?