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

How to Stare at Your Phone Without Losing Your Soul

simone.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 145 posts

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

#91

Post by Der_Einzige »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #45
whiplash451 wrote: post #12

You can only replace an addiction with another (healthier) one. For instance: intense outdoor activity, time spent working in a farm, etc. The tech we’ve built is insanely addictive.

Isn't the strength of addiction inversely correlated with how healthy it is? Or put another way, how the fuck does one begin to like intense outdoor activity at all , much less to the point of it replacing a social media problem (including HN)? There's only one somewhat reliable "trick" I know that makes people do these kinds of switches: falling in love , or at least getting a crush on, someone who's already doing t…

See everyone tells me gaming is unhealthy but I loved doing it so much that I simply became a computer professional so that people can't stop me from gaming. It's a time honored tradition to game during downtime in many IT departments.

Seems a highly addictive and on paper "unhealthy addiction" was in this case quite gainful for me.

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

#92

Post by gte525u »

archixe wrote: post #80
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.

There is an add-on called unhook that allows you to disable almost everything on youtube. I turned off shorts, recommendations, the home page even the comments. Now all I see is my subsriptions page. It really stopped me from wasting hours hopping videos. It also workes on firefox mobile, I stopped using the default youtube app.

I started using Chrome plugin RYS that does something similar - where youtube functions but recommendations are removed. It's helped consumption dramatically. I'm kinda wondering if I need to do the same for reddit and hacker news where links/articles would work but the mainpage / subreddit pages wouldn't.

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

#93

Post by laratied »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #66
aembleton wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A few weeks ago I made an effort to connect more with local reality and less with the internet and its mountain of suck. To that end I removed all social media apps from my phone.. Don't you find that a lot of groups, such as your local running club organise over Facebook? Its those groups and even just organising a BBQ with friends that keep me on Facebook.

They probably do, but I haven't used Facebook at all aside from a brief period in the 2010s. If they organize on Facebook, and I don't have any other way of finding out about them or otherwise contacting them, I just don't bother. I am willing to accept some inconvenience in order to be aligned with my goals, which I am learning puts me very much at odds with the average person.

Also, if you don't have Facebook and want to go to this running club you would be forced to actually befriend someone to such a degree in the club that can keep you updated that has Facebook. It can't just be the "convenient" disposable Facebook relationship.

For me, without social media I pretty much miss out knowing about all the local art shows that I wasn't going to go to even if I did know about them. I don't get the invite to the friend of a friend's dinner party that I would have made up an excuse for why I can't go. I also miss out on seeing pictures of all these events that I didn't find worth my time to see with my own eyes.

We have really distorted the meaning of inconvenience to have something to do with the lack of high volume, unsatisfying, shallow experiences.

As if having sex is an "inconvenient" type of porn.

The best part though is I have actual experiences that aren't mediated by the judgement if the experience is worth someone else knowing about the experience the very moment after I have the experience.

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

#94

Post by mixmastamyk »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #86
ben_w wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I do, however, have a huge HN problem. So I've noticed — you and pjc50 are on enough threads, with interesting enough comments, that you fit into the same bit of my brain otherwise used for celebrities like Tom Scott and Scott Manly. (Weirdly, most other high-karma accounts don't get filed like that in my head)

In my case, it's likely because I post a lot of sophisticated sounding nonsense - I'm the biological ancestor of ChatGPT :). That, plus I tend to binge on HN, which makes my comments come in bursts - I either post nothing, or comment in 15 different subthreads across 5 different submissions simultaneously. So when you spot me in one place, you'll probably see me everywhere that day. Other high-karma accounts likely p…

You might ask to get limited. My account is limited to a about three comments per hour. If I exceed I’m told to slow down. dang didn’t like one of my posts—not sure why this solution was chosen but it was.

I’ve also set my maxvisit and minaway on my profile. So I can get more things done.

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

#96

Post by gonehome »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #86
ben_w wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I do, however, have a huge HN problem. So I've noticed — you and pjc50 are on enough threads, with interesting enough comments, that you fit into the same bit of my brain otherwise used for celebrities like Tom Scott and Scott Manly. (Weirdly, most other high-karma accounts don't get filed like that in my head)

In my case, it's likely because I post a lot of sophisticated sounding nonsense - I'm the biological ancestor of ChatGPT :). That, plus I tend to binge on HN, which makes my comments come in bursts - I either post nothing, or comment in 15 different subthreads across 5 different submissions simultaneously. So when you spot me in one place, you'll probably see me everywhere that day. Other high-karma accounts likely p…

I recognize your account too, and while I’m way less prolific I can relate to the same conversational draw and compulsion.

I noticed I had it less when working in the office in the Bay Area where it was more possible to engage in these kinds of discussions more frequently in person.

I suspect it’s just hard to get that kind of group together in the world outside of weird circumstances so it’s easier to find it online.

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

#97

Post by wussboy »

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.

I think this is a bug, not a feature. The mobile phone is to sociality as cocaine is to dopamine. It's super-charged, it's way out of our ancestral environment, and we don't see it as harmful only because we don't have the research yet. But we will.

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

#98

Post by bishopsmother »

smnrg wrote: post #30
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…

Hey, I'm the author of this small post. I was surprised to see it on HN. > The issue is that browser and certain apps are available to me on the phone instantly. I think you are right, and it has to do with decreasing UX friction: quick unlocks, overall performance, and muscle memory. I try to add some layers of friction, such as disabling tap to wake, or forcing password unlocks, or even browsers that offer a good b…

Adding friction with time-based bandwidth choking/restrictions I included as a feature when creating SocialsDetox, albeit this was primarily intended for video-based sites/apps - to increase frustration with them (poor user experience) rather than outright blocking. If you think it would help, and are happy to be a tester for expanding the functionality to other infinity apps/sites (e.g. Reddit), drop me an email (link in profile) and I'll look to get something setup to see if it works for you/your intended use case.

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

#99

Post by adamwong246 »

bckr wrote: post #72
adamwong246 wrote: post #70

Delete the bad apps and move on with your life.

For many, the bad app is the browser.

IDK if you can't help yourself, uninstall the browser. Or get a dumb phone. You'll have to exercise some self-control one way or the other.

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

#100

Post by mark_l_watson »

I like the parallels with AA. Also, re: not how much time you spend on a phone, rather how you use it:

Good uses: listening to good literature on audio books, reading ebooks, reading long form articles on Substack, listening to a good lecture on YouTube.

Bad uses: having any notifications turned on except for specific family members, consuming addictive content of Tic Toc, FB, etc.

EDIT: and use freedom.to tools to limit fun and sometimes useful things like HN and Twitter.

Post reply on HN