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 to reduce the grip of the these technologies on your mind is to use fewer of them and completely opt out of the worst offenders, like FaceBook, and TickTok.
I've deleted most of my social media accounts at this point and gone back to a more basic phone and my life is noticeably better for it. Sure there are some inconveniences and some people think I'm a weirdo, but it seems like a small price to pay to get my brain back.
So much of the power these technologies have over us is not that they're so useful or wonderful, but that there's a social expectation that we use them, i.e. people sending social invites via FaceBook, stigma against the "green bubble people", etc. We use them initially because of social pressure and then get hooked. If even a small and stubborn minority opted out of some of these technologies, say 9% of the population, reasonably distributed across ages and demographics, a lot of these expectations would disappear or at least reduce.
HN is a social network for folks who are interested in technology and general interest topics -- much like other social networks.
Do you think that people can use HN "responsibly"? The feed is algorithmic and designed to surface topics to elicit responses/engagement with the community.
HN can be addictive, but it’s different in several relevant ways. It has no notifications. Its user base is relatively small and industry specific. It has no infinite scroll. It is plain text so it doesn’t reward semi-mindless scrolling like media rich social networks. It has a dead simple noprocrast feature that doesn’t play games. It virtually never changes its design, unlike social networks that are constantly tweaking things to increase engagement. In fact the people who run and moderate HN seem pretty intent on slowing down growth, so they can keep it focused and stay on top of moderation. Of course it can still be addictive but it’s in a different category from TikTok etc.
HN is also different in that it's full of serious thoughtful discussion about things that matter. It's certainly addictive, but after I get sucked in I don't feel the same regret as with FB because at least I learned something about a variety of topics and saw what some intelligent people's take was on each
I agree. HN reminds me of the early days of reddit (pre-2010) where STEM people were over-represented compared to other popular websites at the time. The comments here often tend to be informative and insightful, and after catching up on the latest posts, there isn't much of an incentive to stick around. It's just how bulletin boards from the early days used to be, and reminds me of some small forums.
Reddit, on the other hand, has been a difficult addiction for me to break. It's gradually been growing into an alternative social media platform, and every new feature addition to reddit indicates such a transition.
It's still funny that redditors seem to be self-aware of their reddit addiction but somehow perceive Facebook et al to be worse. Different strokes for different folks, but at the end of the day, the mechanisms of addiction are similar regardless of the platform.
Agreed, But FOMO home page content can be still be overwhelming as the rate of change of new content is high. Thankfully HN has 'best stories' feature.
So to reduce the addiction by slowing things down further, I started reading best HN stories on my kindle. Apart from sweet e-paper goodness it also allows me to assimilate the knowledge in comments which we all know is the real gold using clipping.
To add to that, Facebook/Instagram shows approx. one advertisement for every three posts you see. It's a constant barrage on your psyche that I'm happy to avoid on HN.
I don't think that's an apt comparison. The difference in degree becomes a difference in kind IMO. HN doesn't send you alerts or notifications that are optimally spaced based on A/B testing. HN isn't personalized per user to maximize each individuals HN time. The HN top doesn't refresh on command and provide a fully new page on each refresh (new topics come up but if you refresh the page every 12 seconds you will see very little change vs any engagement app that always tries to give you something new).
HN can be a time draw, but it's based on a somewhat transparent vote/flag system. Features of other social media sites/apps like A/B testing, personalization, variably spaced notifications, daily digests to draw you in are features that are extraordinarily well designed for our dopamine-reward system.
I've done something similar, cutting Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and all other major social media apps out of my life over the past few years. I would agree that HN is an issue as well, and that I should probably moderate my time on it.
However, I also can't deny that I've genuinely learned a lot from links shared on HN, and I can also attribute nearly my entire push to eliminate social media from my life to HN.
Additionally, HN, like a few other "hobby forums" I belong to, doesn't try to manipulate me to spend more time on the site so it can show me more ads. It only shows me content that other users have posted and shared -- unlike Facebook or Instagram, I don't see an ad every 2-3 posts or comments. That means something to me. Right now, all of those "hobby forums" teach me more about things I care about than they stress me out or piss me off or steal my time. Toward the end, Facebook was just a thing that ate up 10-15 minutes of my time multiple times per day. I can at least point to genuinely interesting facts I've learned from browsing HN.
And most importantly, I mostly do it during work hours anyway :-).
> The feed is algorithmic and designed to surface topics to elicit responses/engagement with the community.
I don't think that's entirely fair. For instance, posts with a large number of comments or a high ratio of comments to votes (I can't remember which) are actually penalized, since that is an indicator that the topic is controversial. The flag feature is another example in that it is a way for users to veto low value posts that might otherwise get high engagement.
hacker News is definitely part of the problem. I've started to use three rules to evaluate habits similar to hacker news.
eliminate things that:
1) are unproductive
2) I do not enjoy
3) are pathological (This includes things that float around in your head and create negative thoughts after you do it. coming back to a very negative political argument as an example of this)
I'm not perfect at applying them but it has dramatically improved my life because it has given me a tool to evaluate social media use And I have successfully ramped down use of social media that made my life worse.
Is HN social media? It's media, its sort of social, but I don't know anyone on it personally.
I tend think of social media as non-anonymous (onymous?), because it seems far from a "real" social interaction when it is a faceless (possibly non-human) text account. But could just be me redefining things.
I think HN is not social media, unless you stay long enough to start recogning names in the comment section (BTW, hi TeMPOraL!). It can be used responsibility, but for me it can be very addictive. I try not to engage, yet here you are to witness my failure.
How is HN any different? Endless stream of attention capture just like Tiktok and FB. And the people who point at the pluses sound exactly like ppl on FB and Tiktok.
HN is a good laboratory to see if your suggestions work. If it doesnt work on the few thousand here mindlessly scrolling and jabbering away where is it going to work on 2 billion.
I think GP's important insight here is that people need to start being selective about their social media engagement and ditching their smartphones entirely.
I've used a flip phone for a couple of years now and I would never go back to a smartphone. Having a rich interface to the internet in my pocket is too addictive and does not enrich my life at all. More importantly, I feel like I'm part of the solution to the world's vanishing privacy problem. Yes, I'm just 1 person without a smartphone against 1,000 with smartphones, but by existing this way, I am preserving a lifestyle of deliberate technology use that I know is smarter, healthier, and worth preserving.
You're not alone, man. I sometimes still use my smartphone, but I'm trying to ditch it completely. It's too tempting, to the extent where it's life-damaging or life-destroying.
>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.
The problem is that ordinary people have absolutely no concept whatsoever of what all goes into an app like Facebook. They load it on their phones, open it up, and it's just a magical screen that shows them images and text. There's no understanding of it beyond that. They don't know that there is a huge office building in California full of thousands of some of the smartest people on earth who spend their entire working lives
and billions of dollars to figure out how to hack your brain more effectively.
Big tech really needs the Upton Sinclair treatment. But even then I doubt people will care.
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)
It's WAY more basic than most people are willing to live with, but it's been working surprisingly well for me. Like I said in my original comment, there are definitely some inconveniences, no way around that, but it's been worth it.
Honestly, the biggest downside to using a flip phone is that you start noticing exactly how much people are on their phones and it becomes both creepy and annoying. You start to feel like you're the last man standing in a zombie movie.
One thing I particularly like about the Sunbeam phone is that it's sold my a small American company with amazing customer service. I asked a question about the phone via the contact form on the website and got a prompt and very thoughtful answer from one of the owner's of the company.
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.
Still using a 2016 SE. I'm convinced that the small screen encourages me to read more text content (by discouraging me from consuming image content since it's only an OK viewing experience). And whether or not a site is unusable on the SE's 4" screen is an excellent litmus test of whether that site is worth visiting in the first place. Sites with giant popup banners that are so wide the "x" in the corner is off my screen? Not worth my time anyway.
Same. And I've got 2 new ones in the box sitting in my closet should this one break. I'll never buy a new phone again until Apple releases another 4 inch screen. The new "mini" iPhones are literally the size of an iPhone 6.
I used the SE for a long time too, for the exact same reason, the small screen. It's a fantastic phone. I have a fairly addictive personality when it comes to tech so I had to end up taking more extreme measures.
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
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.
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.
This kind of article is mostly clickbait at this point. There's a lot of "interest" in these kinds of topics and they attract a lot of attention on -funny enough- the same social media platforms.
I believe the main problem with those social media apps is not an issue of time, but of productivity and determination/will-power. Think of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, etc... These are not social networks exactly, but all contain elements from it. I've deleted my Facebook account about 6 years ago now and slowly got off all the other ones after. Now I only use RSS to follow websites I care about. At first I felt like I'm out of a lot of loops and circles of friends, but I later realized that it was all useless anyway, people who I care about and who cared about me still text or call me. I didn't need to know about every little random thing that happens in the world unless I specifically choose to know about it. It later felt really liberating. People were taking about who marked who safe and I just managed with a text message. People talk endlessly about how good/bad social media is and I'm totally out of the entire conversation. Still to this day I meet people who find it very weird that I'm not on Facebook, or if they are as well not on Facebook then probably because they have Reddit/Tiktok/etc.
I can't stress this enough, but I really felt like my productivity was fading away about 6 years ago, after quitting I find the energy to work on the most random stuff that take weeks of work, I don't get interrupted and my interest doesn't fade away from over exposure to random stuff (even if interesting). I've asked friends who felt the same way to try to delete Tiktok (and video games from their PCs) for a month to try to work on something and they all reported great results. Every single one said that they wouldn't have been able to do it if they didn't delete app X.
My point is this; it's not about time, it's about what you get exposed to. If you feel unproductive (compared to what you were before) or think "what could 10 minutes on Tiktok do", try deleting these apps one by one. The difficulty won't be the same for all people, but it'll be manageable for EVERYONE. It's not about being on your phone all the time, it's about being on your phone because you want to do something, not just for mindless scrolling.
(I intentionally did not mention tracking or privacy reasons from this because that's whole other beast of a topic.)
I love this quote from Stephen Fry:
> Jacking out of the matrix would cast one as a hero of the kind of dystopian film that proved popular in the 70s, Logan’s Run, Zardoz, Soylent Green, Fahrenheit 451 … on the run from The Corporation, with the foot soldiers of The System hard on your heels. We really are starting to live in that kind of movie, mutatis mutandis, so surely it’s time to join the Rebels, the Outliers, the Others who live beyond the Wall and read forbidden books, sing forbidden songs and think forbidden thoughts in defiance of The One.
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 are using them "responsibly" (i.e. occasionally and non-obsessively). My opinion (with no real evidence) is that the addictiveness is overblown for most adults.
Perhaps we run in different circles. I constantly notice compulsive smart phone use. At work it's very common to see 8 people load into an elevator and like clockwork 6 or 7 of them will instantly pull out their phones.
Any little piece of downtime where folks might have to be alone with their thoughts, or make small talk with people they don't already know, you can see people mindlessly grabbing their phones. You see this in line at the grocery store, kids and adults in school while do this while class starts, or the very second it ends.
You see a shocking number of people in restaurants who appear to be on dates where both people are glued to their phone. I'd certainly classify that as addictive behavior -- i.e. when a healthy young man is more interested in what's on his phone than he is in the attractive woman sitting across the table from him. Something is very wrong there.
> I'd certainly classify that as addictive behavior -- i.e. when a healthy young man is more interested in what's on his phone than he is in the attractive woman sitting across the table from him. Something is very wrong there.
We can definitely debate online life vs "in the flesh" - but it seems small minded to me for you to suggest someones preferences for experience are only the result of unhealthy addiction.
Many would argue your allowance of modern life, from TVs to cars to in city restaurants/etc. That you (or that person, i guess) didn't make a home cooked meal, or go experience nature together - to be an addiction to the modern and lacking in down to earth, honest and real connections.
Not that i agree with any of that of course. My point is that i think there is a perfectly valid possible course where someone prefers to experience their life in cities, in the woods, or in more virtual spaces.
The reality though, and where i agree with you - is that i don't think we actually have a virtual space that _isn't_ fueled entirely be addiction. Powered by highly financed and motivated teams of people.
I just think we need to be cognizant of alternative life styles. Just because commonly certain lifestyles result in unhealthy behavior doesn't inherently mean that lifestyle shouldn't be followed at all. If that was the case i think this argument should probably switch to avoiding much of modern life. As it is full of unhealthy habits and poor balances. We'll be living in the woods pretty soon if we can't recognize the possible healthy and balanced ways to live in the unhealthy-unbalanced minefield that is so many alternate forms of life.
Phone use is ubiquitous and people are glued to their screens even when walking down the street or talking with their family.
Our opinions are being shaped by all sorts of propaganda we encounter on every corner online and it has never been easier to end up radicalized. I think it's definitely not under control.
There is a lot of "I" and "my" usage in your post. I submit that you're only arriving at your conclusion anecdotally, using a dataset (you and your like-minded peers, whose use you can't actually track) that is not reflective of average users worldwide.
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.
> Across mobile devices and computers, GlobalWebIndex reports that we now spend an average of 2 hours and 24 minutes per person, per day using social media [1] (in the US, it is 2:03)
Delete Instagram and Facebook from your phone. I did and I recommend everyone do it. You can still access via browser, but obviously not as good UX (which may make you less addicted).
I get how people can get addicted to social media apps (I got addicted to FB when I was in college 2005-2007 ish), and I am happy to see articles like this and other media outlets cover social media addiction and spread awareness, its a big problem. I would not blame the apps, though.
I think the real problem is that social media turbo-charges the social dynamics of the real world:
* attention seeking - "likes" are attention, and people love attention
* social presentation - you can present the best picture of your fake life
* envy and fantasy - men and women who think they live boring lives observing the curated, filtered lives of the people they want to be
* social hierarchy - who follows who? Prettier people having more follower / friends
* etc
I fell into those traps, and fb/insta were there to indulge my insecurities - but, critically, it was insecurities that fed the into the addiction. I'm a different guy now - I spend more time on myself than observing others.
I'm poorly articulating all this, but I think there is something to be analyzed there.
Additionally, using Facebook and Instagram from your browser will constantly expose you to their obnoxious "better in the app!" banners that you can never fully dismiss. Just making another one of their dark patterns visible enough to make you (hopefully) question the intent of the company...
Also, Instagram ads are actually blockable in-browser because they haven't bothered to update the site beyond the bare minimum of compatibility updates in years. So my iPhone on a VPN running a pihole made Instagram a little more bearable until I noticed that none of my friends ever posted anything any more.
I started exclusively using Instagram on my phone through mobile Safari and the experience is much better. There are no ads in either stories or the timeline. I don’t have any ad blocking set up on my phone.
The “Discover” section also isn’t as snappy as the app, so I find myself rarely using it. That section is what used to be my largest time sink when I used the app.
I ended up using at least Twitter and Reddit just as much through the browser after deleting the apps. Had to install the NetGuard firewall on my phone to block them.
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 dimensional, and based on emotional extremes or hits of "content". Instead, follow people you actually know. Then do stuff with them out in the world.
Doing stuff, and not just surfing social media, with other people is far more rewarding than being amongst 3 billion users.
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
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.
You should also consider it a hook for people who do not consider these addictive facets of social media but would listen to what another astrology fanatic would say. Meaning the article is not specifically for you. That doesn’t make it any less informational. Consider this is NPR a widely read source for the layman and they’re playing to their audience.
Christ, the replies and me-toos on this thread sound like a bunch of atheists who can't stop telling everyone around how bad Christians are because they are constantly proselytizing.
Yup. I usually really like NPR but I had to stop once I read that. Why'd they have to say they were a Libra? They could have just said "I was born to find balance". ugh.
The propositions in the article are good, although the tips proposed by the Center for Humane Technology [1] are much more tactical (they are apparently mentioned in the audio version, but I only read the article).
Also, as a complete aside, I'm not sure if the third passage [2] in the article is facetious or what, but I'm always surprised to see credibility-destroying statements like these in legitimate publications. In this day and age readers have to be ruthlessly efficient in discerning reliable information/advice from nonsense. They are on the lookout for any reason to abandon articles and content to avoid wasting valuable time and attention. There is an old direct-response copywriting dictum: "The purpose of each sentence is to get the next sentence read." The aforementioned passage does the opposite, even though the subsequent tips are pretty good.
I recently deactivated Facebook (which I only ever used via web browser) and since then I’ve been counting the number of times I unconsciously end up on the Facebook login page when I’m bored/killing time. I’ve noticed that faced with a “new tab” I’ll often just hit the f key and hit enter without thinking about it, landing me on the Facebook login page. Before I deactivated, this would result in me somewhat unconsciously scrolling through my newsfeed mindlessly consuming whatever Facebook decides I should see that day. I don’t consider myself to be mentally weak so it scares me to think about what percentage of the population does this without ever realizing it.
Oh I totally do this with Hacker News too, which is why I typically block access during work hours. I feel better about it if I'm consciously giving myself a break to read HN. Right now I'm using the LeechBlock Extension which allows for timed overrides.
I use SelfControl to block these websites on my mac. I use uBlock filters to block feeds on my phone. I also log out of some websites when I'm done. It helps a lot.
Maybe age has something to do with it - yes, I used to spend too much time on Facebook. Back in 2007. I also used to drink too much alcohol. Today I just don't have time for social media other than when I'm waiting for something, like a bus or train or my boy to come out of school.
I can't program with a hangover, I can't read, I can't scratch-build radio-controlled trucks. I can't scuba dive when I'm hung over and I can't do Krav Maga while I'm online. I like these and other things more than being online. But yes, I like being online too. Pintrest is great for research when you're building a garden bench.
I guess filling my life with meat-space things I really like and enjoy means I spend comparatively very little time online.
I do wonder what people who don't have meat-space interests more important to them than being online, think about.
Pre-Corona, I'd spend approximately 2-3 hours after work online, mostly working on hobby projects or catching up with quick TV (40 minute shows feel like a waste of time, whereas 2x20 minute shows feel more productive...)
Nowadays, I have no need to leave the house. My meat-space activities are gone, so I poured myself into my hobby projects and learned that working on what you love more than 5-hours a day (out of genuine want!) quickly turns into a chore, and before you know it you're in a mindless spiral of ticking boxes that you arbitrarily set yourself to give the impression that the time spent on said hobby/chore is meaningful.
I cannot wait to get back to work. I miss my 2 hour biking commute, it was beautiful.
Interesting. I have too many ideas and far too little time. I wish I didn't have to work so I could do the hobby full time. Alas it doesn't pay as well as the day job.
Social media nowadays is not just Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.
There is Discord, Reddit, LinkedIn, Twitch, YouTube… I’d even count HN.
There a many people, possibly still the minority, but very solid amount of people way to invested in those
See those twitch donation whales, for example, the amount is big enough to have sparked a more than feasible business. I wouldn’t call that responsible.
Yeah, and if you look at all the engagement tactics that the NPR, NYTimes, or the CNN apps use, they are basically saying: spend your time here and not there.
Most of the internet is vying for your attention and asking you to spend more time on their site than the others.
To truly come up with meaningful solutions, we need to look at the entire problem. Otherwise we're just moving marbles around.
I'd struggle to place Discord, HN and possibly Reddit into the "social media" category. They sure aren't dead websites and they sure have a community, but they don't feel the same way as Facebook, Twitter and TikTok. Maybe it's the lack of name recognition that makes them feel different.
Discord definitely falls under the “social networking” category, but can definitely used as a social media platform.
The rest is certainly social media.
The difference essentially,
Social media: broadcast a message, share news, showcase your stuff and get people to interact with it: Facebook, insta, tiktok, reddit, HN - not necessarily two-way
Social networking: engage in two-way communication with similar minded people
I spend way too much time reading HN and reddit. Most of the time I'm not even logged in, but I'm still pretty much addicted. I also don't really see any reason to treat these sorts of sites differently.
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?
Am I the only one bored by virtually everything on social media? Everything feels like its been curated for either teens or people with exceptionally low attention spans. I find it all very annoying (With Hacker News being the exception).
I solved the problem when I went to facebook and deleted all groups (except two - both related to family events: I personally know in the real world everyone in both groups). Often when I check facebook now it has no idea what to show me as I've seen everything, and it has to revert to showing me pictures of classmates I haven't interacted with in years - which is what I'm on Facebook for in the first place! Even then it runs out of things to show me fast.
Also, I have ~1000 facebook "friends" but I only follow 25 or so close friends who don't post too much (except my sister who posts too much). I don't find Facebook a time sync. I also only follow about 10 people on Instagram so not a time sync. I only check it once every 1-2 weeks.
I do tend to use Facebook on the desktop web browser with FB Purity installed and filtering all the worst of facebook's horrible time wasters like "so and so commented on X" and "so and so liked Y" etc.
I have a couple of hacks I use that, once developed as a habit, have been enormously helpful for me.
1) I never look at a general feed. (Which I means I just never use Twitter as that's kind of all it has) I open FB on my message url, which shows me the three things I want: messages, event notifications, and a search box to go to the four or five dedicated topic areas I use where off-topic posts aren't tolerated. Basically all the "designed to be addictive" shit is on the feed page.
2) I use Stylebot on Chrome, which allows you to add custom css overrides for every page. It's awesome. You can just turn every thing that clamours for your attention or has "suggestions" into empty whitespace.
3) I don't use any of their apps. You can't control the apps the same way.
“Navigating the internet” is dead. The majority of users are swiping at 5 second videos between 5 major platforms. The rest of the web is weird tabloids and abandoned blog spots. Try looking up a recipe and tell me you don’t get plagued with ads like you’re on XVideo.
I wonder how long before the advertisers on these platforms realize how much the social media companies are using the same variable rewards, random payoff, low friction, and rule of reciprocity to manipulate companies into continuing to buy ads? Measuring ad effectiveness is already hard, now the social media giants are both the platform and the technology for measuring "engagement".
Isn't it blindingly obvious to ad buyers that they are essentially putting coins in a slot machine, pulling the "show my ads" lever, and getting a good feeling when the metrics show their ad 'went viral'?
Take social media off your phone. Install a news feed blocker that forces you to toggle on the news feed for your site of choice when you want to scroll. That helped me cut my social media time from 1+ hour a day to less than 15 minutes.
I've never heard a convincing argument for the upside of social media. It's never looked like a good way to spend time from the outside.
I guess this is the difference between people who look at drugs and decide not to even try them vs. people who don't think about any of that and promptly get addicted.
The connection of all social media companies to either DARPA or CIA is also a strong negative trait from the get-go. Having visited East Berlin before 1989 and seen what totalitarian surveillance looks like and operates like, I'm a bit sensitive to the sight of the same all over again.
I connect with a lot of people on social media that I wouldn’t connect with otherwise. Whether it’s worth the tradeoff is up for debate. Could I connect with them in some more deliberate manual way like directly emailing or calling them? Sure, but would I do it? Probably not.
Last year at the start of the pandemic, I stopped using Facebook, Youtube, Reddit and Linkedin. Just stopped, no exceptions. It took an incredible amount of discipline at first, but now it's become a habit. Its had a net positive effect on my life and I highly recommend others to try it.
Its incredible how little I'm tempted to open these apps now. Once you're properly out of the hyper-addictive ecosystem that they create, that's it, you're unlikely to want to get back in.
It has been an absolute game changer for me in reducing my screen time. The app is really good at changing habits - it makes opening up social media apps annoying and disrupts the expected dopamine hit. My app opens are way down and I’m no longer even hitting my screen time limit for social media apps.
I feel the need to start with metrics (mostly because I do worry about the effect (good and bad) it has on my kids).
I am planning on somehow pulling screentime metrics and youtube history data together - have not really got a plan but if anyone fancies a few spare hours please shout.
(ironically those of us with kids probably have the least time to scratch this itch !)
Read something, an article or a book which is more short snippets (try Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, those five minutes will change your life). I have a list with a whole bunch of tech topics that I could read a quick MDN/wikipedia/whatever article on. If its a quick game, Call of Duty or some racing game where a race only takes a few minutes. I actually find taking a break and then gaming for five/ten minutes to be really good for my attention since it really forces me to focus completely for that time. Otherwise, just stand outside with your coffee and breathe.
Learn to enjoy doing nothing. There’s no rule that you have to constantly be doing something or need to be constantly optimizing your time. That’s just societal anxiety talking.
The only realistic way to reduce the grip of the these technologies on your mind is to use fewer of them and completely opt out of the worst offenders, like FaceBook, and TickTok.
I've deleted most of my social media accounts at this point and gone back to a more basic phone and my life is noticeably better for it. Sure there are some inconveniences and some people think I'm a weirdo, but it seems like a small price to pay to get my brain back.
So much of the power these technologies have over us is not that they're so useful or wonderful, but that there's a social expectation that we use them, i.e. people sending social invites via FaceBook, stigma against the "green bubble people", etc. We use them initially because of social pressure and then get hooked. If even a small and stubborn minority opted out of some of these technologies, say 9% of the population, reasonably distributed across ages and demographics, a lot of these expectations would disappear or at least reduce.