Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Mobile phone addiction help?

news.ycombinator.com

81–90 of 266 posts

Re: Ask HN: Mobile phone addiction help?

#81
Something that worked for me: I bought an Onyx Boox Note, which runs most Android apps. I installed all of my news and social apps on that, and uninstalled them from my phone. When I want to consume content for entertainment, I use that. The e ink screen adds enough friction and takes away some of the stimulation, so it's far less addictive. My phone use has dropped to about 1 hour a day, just for necessary messaging, banks, maps, etc. My e ink tablet usage is probably 2 hours a day or less.

This doesn't really prevent re-installing scroller apps. But if your phone is in your hand less often, and you have another way to check those apps from time to time, you won't have as much temptation to fight.

I also leave my phone around the house instead of in my pocket. I put it on the table, or leave it on a shelf, etc, and forget about it. I also recommend going for a walk every once in awhile and leaving your phone at home.

Re: Ask HN: Mobile phone addiction help?

#82
This is not going to be an easy fix but it is possible since phones are just a recent thing we've gotten addicted to.

First, don't blame your bank for the scroller apps. Those are two things that don't relate. You shouldn't need to lock down your phone to stop it.

Start with why. "why do you want to quit or curb your phone use?" I believe you know this answer to this but write it down on a piece of paper. When you do this, your mind will play it back for you from time to time.

You have an iPhone, download a meditation app. Don't sit down like a yogi and meditate, open the meditation app where you scroll on twitter/ig/amazon, whether that's your couch or your bed. Meditate for 3 minutes, that's it, not more for your first time.

The meditation will be really hard the first few times. It will feel silly too. Get an app where they guide you for meditations, e.g. Calm / Headspace (they are free to use for basic meditation).

Your phone is a powerful tool, and just like any tool, it can be use for helping yourself or harming yourself.

I am happy to guide you through more of this, please feel free to reach out to me me at contact@usman.xyz. I've been through this before, I know what it feels like and I can guarantee you that you'll get out of this!

Re: Ask HN: Mobile phone addiction help?

#83
Don't know about you but I never could stop addicting behaviors without setting goals in other more productive areas in my life.

Set a few worthwhile goals every day that will take the majority of your time, and be sure to complete them before using the phone for entertainment. Then enjoy yourself for the rest of the day.

Re: Ask HN: Mobile phone addiction help?

#84
Try to understand what are you getting from your addiction, and how that is missing from your life, or was missing in the past.

The problem with feeds is that some entries provide a small amount of gratification. So you keep looking from the next entry that will provide the next small amount of gratification and so on. But it will never be enough.

Re: Ask HN: Mobile phone addiction help?

#87

Get a new bank. If the bank is a part of a significant problem for your life you should just swap it out for a bank that will let you access your accounts through a browser as needed. Toss your smart phone and only use the dumb phone.

Can you advise a bank account? I have three, currently, and they all require a smartphone to use them. My GitHub account now also requires a smartphone to log in for 2fa, which I was required to setup on my account (they do have SMS functionality, but not in my country). More and more, a smartphone is simply inescapable as a form of identity. It sucks - but the backup form of identity is a phone number, which sucks e…

Not intending to offend or be offensive, but how do old people bank in your country?

My parents wouldn't be caught dead with a smartphone, but they still need to do banking.

Re: Ask HN: Mobile phone addiction help?

#88
Stop making excuses for why you need a smartphone and smash your phone right now.

You will survive without it.

Everything you need can be done from your computer.

Everything else is just an excuse. I made several excuses why I needed Facebook app, but ultimately I just impulsively deleted it and have felt so free from it since then.

Reddit and HN are next...

Re: Ask HN: Mobile phone addiction help?

#89

Everyone is offering tricks or hacks to help, is simply stopping an option? I wasn't able to quit smoking until I really decided I wanted to quit and did it cold turkey. Same with both Facebook and reddit. I was blowing hours of my day on reddit. Then I decided I didn't like that for myself and quit cold turkey. It really really sucked at first, but I feel like until you really want to quit, no amount of hacks or tri…

Telling addicts to "simply stop", I believe we (as a society) have already tried that. It doesn't work.

S/he is telling addicts to tell themselves to stop.

Re: Ask HN: Mobile phone addiction help?

#90
My cofounder and I have been working on this problem for the past few years after being frustrated by the software solutions. You need your entire phone out of sight, new studies show even the presence of your phone can be a distraction[1] We are super-excited to be launching on Indiegogo in the next few weeks. Check it out at https://pausbox.com

[1] https://news.utexas.edu/2017/06/26/the-mere-presence-of-your...

Post reply on HN