Cleaning up my online life - tips on reducing doom-scrolling, watching shorts? \ stacker news ~meta

Cleaning up my online life - tips on reducing doom-scrolling, watching shorts?

1947 sats \ 22 comments \ @south_korea_ln 29 Feb meta

I waste too much time online. I am trying to take care of this.

I basically need to get away from any platform that allows for doom-scrolling and reels/shorts/etc.

I've deactivated my Twitter account (waiting for it to be truly deleted after 30 days).
I've removed all my Youtube subscriptions and cleaned my history AND paused history recommendations. That way, when I open Youtube, it's empty... no suggestions.
I still waste time on Facebook. Watching shit I don't even care about. But there is one group I need to get the updates from, but unfortunately, it's full of boomers, so they don't want to move away from Facebook. Are there ways to automatically get updates from this group into Telegram or other platforms that are lower on the procrastination ladder? Another reason it's harder to get rid of Facebook is that it is a good way to have a way to contact old friends, whenever the need arises.
SelfControl on Mac is pretty good too to block access to certain websites.

How are you dealing with this type of procastrination?

Maybe that's why I've been more active on SN in recent weeks... silver lining I guess? Please, do not introduce shorts and doom-scrolling :)

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1374 sats \ 4 replies \ @freetx 29 Feb

These are all good remediation strategies, however I think they are primarily defensive in nature, to truly succeed you need an offensive strategy.

Personally I have 2 or 3 long-term hobby projects that help keep myself offline. For me, they have the following properties:

There are no commercial or entrepreneurial aspects to these projects. I'm not trying to "build a product", I'm simply building something for my own sake.
They are multi-discipline. They require a blend of embedded programming, 3D model making, etc. This keeps my interest because there is so much to learn.
They are long-time horizon projects. Realizing that its impossible to complete this task over a weekend, actually prolongs my interest in a rather counter-intuitive way: I can break this project down into smaller 2-3 week "sprints" and occupy myself with that. (ie. this week I'm going to explore programming using this Beagleboard vs that RPI vs that TI chip).
Apply proven tricks to jump start progress. There is a way procrastination can be hacked -- tell yourself "I'm only going to do this one thing today". For example, you've reached a complicated part of the project....there are lots of complications and variables...so much so that they make your headspin and it becomes easy to lead to procrastination. To solve that, tell yourself "I'm not going to actually try to write any code right now, I'm simply going to open the editor and clean up the code and add needed comments". Before you you know it, you will suddenly jump-start yourself into being productive
Along with the above, set a time everyday to work on your project. It needs to be the minimally possible time...say 1 hr. So maybe you say every day between 6-7pm you're going to work a little on your project. Again, this is potentially a year+ project...free yourself from the expectation that you are going to complete it anytime soon. A little progress each day consistently builds greater results.

275 sats \ 2 replies \ @south_korea_ln OP 29 Feb

Take some sats. Very good recommendations. Not the first time I heard them, but it's good to have a reminder once in a while. My job in academia has been my passion-project for many years. But the last few months have not been the best in terms of research, that's probably why I am going through these ruminations. I'll think of a side project to work on, to compensate when the research is going through a difficult phase like this.

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @freetx 29 Feb

I think about my father and his generation a lot. When I grew up (70s) nearly all dads were "handymen". They didn't throw out the blender when it stopped working, they fixed it in their shed / garage.

For example, as I've learned more and more about 3D modelling / printing / CNC millings (I started knowing nothing), the more I utilize these skills around the house. Take the wifes mixer apart because she is complaining it stopped mixing properly and you spot the problem: The gear connecting the motor is worn. You can make this!

When its fixed, you get a better dopamine hit than just spending another hour mindless scrolling youtube...

This view of "fixing things" also fits better into a bitcoiners worldview. Minimize waste. Maximize stacking sats. Low-time preference.

28 sats \ 0 replies \ @south_korea_ln OP 29 Feb

I do get huge satisfaction solving small problems in the house using my hands. Especially as i am more of a theory and equation guy, by trade. I'll focus more on that. Good tip.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @Signal312 29 Feb

Love the idea of offensive instead of defensive. I have some other thoughts - mostly defensive - which I'll put into another comment, but this is gold.

28 sats \ 0 replies \ @Atreus 29 Feb

@freetx Already smoked this question. You need something forward-thinking to work on. Call it a "project/mission/quest/vocation," whatever.

The only things I would add to him are:

Start a workout program. You may not realize it, but you're low energy right now, and all that time browsing (grazing on the internet like a cow 🐮) is making it worse. This will help you build energy even in your current state.
Website blockers exist and you should use them. These are "defensive" strategies like the man said, but that also has its place in early stages. Cold Turkey is good for computers, plain old ScreenTime for iPhones, etc.
A lot of your browsing is just automated and thoughtless. Track the time wasted on cringe websites. Once you see yourself spending '10 hours a day browsing cat memes,' it puts the thought back into the equation, and that motivates you to act.
Start everything we said today.

Best of luck, troop! 🫡 Take some sats for the road.

115 sats \ 2 replies \ @jessikabtc 29 Feb

The best way to use TikTok - is to delete it!

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Bell_curve 29 Feb

I’ve never used it

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @JuanMiguel 29 Feb

same!!! the content there is so bad, it feels like it's made for 70 IQ zombies. the app it's also full of spyware.

110 sats \ 2 replies \ @0xbitcoiner 29 Feb

tiktok is crack cocaine :)

74 sats \ 1 reply \ @south_korea_ln OP 29 Feb

Luckily I'm too old to ever get suckered into Tiktok. I weep for the younger generation.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @0xbitcoiner 29 Feb

I don't use it either, but when I see people scrolling through TikTok, the first image that comes to mind is a crack addict :)

110 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei 29 Feb

I was just thinking the other day that SN has more or less obliterated my use of FB n IG. I tend to use IG to post my book reviews. Now that I use ~BooksandArticles regularly, IG has outlived its usefulness. I used to detail my daily adventures on my FB; these days, I just do it on the Saloon.

I think I spend way too much time on SN, but at least I am in the productive mode here, posting n commenting, basically creating a portfolio of uniquely me contents.

How can you spend more time productively on SN that will divert your focus away from FB?

I deleted the FB app so that I introduced more friction for myself whenever I felt the urge to scroll.

I try to plan what I wanna do on social media so that I achieve my objective and then will myself to go elsewhere.

I also listen to YouTube videos while I’m working (sometimes I just replay the video again and again because my mind doesn’t allow me to absorb the key points during work haha) so that I don’t feel the need to watch YouTube after work.

I’m also struggling and experimenting!

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @Coinsreporter 1 Mar

I haven't done any of these, yet I don't waste my time on twitter, YouTube, etc. However I wasn't that way until 2016. Supposing what I went through might help you, let me just tell you.

Up until 2016 I used to waste a lot of my time on online chatting, watching videos, playing games (I even reached level 4000 in Candy crush saga) etc. But one day somebody told me a fact. A fact that shook me from inside. I was told that if I lived 100 years, I would only have 36500 days. Out of which nearly 1/4 had already past. 1/4 of these are in fact when I got too old, if i was still alive. So I did a little maths and came to realise that I didn't have more than 15000 days left. I made a promise to myself that day, I would evaluate every second of my life at least once every day. Currently I don't use any of the addictive social medias without getting V4V. That's what I always search if I do any.

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @Signal312 29 Feb

I have some more ideas and details in this post: My favorite tip for avoiding online distractions and mindless scrolling but here's some highlights:

Use the hosts file to prevent access To put a hard stop on ALL access to sites you want to stop accessing, block them via the hosts file. That means that on your main device, you can't access it at all (unless you edit the hosts file)
Get a slow device for when you must have access to addictive sites - Say there's a few of these doom-scrolling sites that you still need access to. You need another (crappy! cheap! slow!) hardware device that is not restricted. But it needs to be a very limited experience. Maybe take the battery out, it need to be plugged in. Maybe you have a very short cable, have to stand somewhere right next to the outlet. You get the idea. You can still access Facebook, etc, when you need to. But it's harder to get stuck in the loop.
Limit Youtube - You can still watch youtube videos, but in a targeted, non-addictive way, by limiting it to something like https://yewtu.be/. So block youtube entirely via the hosts file, but don't block https://yewtu.be/. There's no tracking. It's rate-limited at times, but there's ways to get around it.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @ablunderfilledlife 1 Mar

In my faith, we celebrate Lent. One of the pillars of this 40-day season is giving something up. This Lent, I have given up a good number of my online pastimes.

Here is what I have learned:

App blockers are wonderful, but my fingers still automatically type out YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and others. That teaches me that it's not just the environment that I have created around myself but how I have become habituated to seek it out. If I had to commute to these things, I might have an easier time breaking the habit of directing myself toward them.
Upon seeing the block notice after subconsciously typing my way to YouTube, I have paused to reflect on what was I doing just before I decided to get there. Upon that reflection, I have found that I was either dealing with a boring task, a task that would involve deep cognition, or a task that invoked a negative feeling.

Putting on music has helped. I'll keep my body moving at a standing desk, and that can keep my engaged in otherwise boring or uncomfortable tasks.

I wish you the best of luck nipping this thing in the bud.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @PlebeiusG 1 Mar

GrapheneOS helped.

I cant download those doom scrolling apps. I can use the websites... but i dont.

I use NewPipe which is essentially free youtube. No ads. Only subscribe to high signal channels. Only listen to things I'm highly interested in.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @BTCFC 29 Feb

For me what seems to work when dealing with any sort of vice or bad habit, has been to learn about the physiological factors of why say certain things are addictive and tend to lead to procrastination. In terms of doom scrolling, social media, and behavioral addictions at large, the book Dopamine Nation by Anne Lembke gave me insights into understanding what exactly is happening within the brain that lead to us mindlessly scrolling through social media. She was also on the Huberman podcast if you are interested in hearing her knowledge.

With that being said, I also have the tendency to mindlessly roam around the internet. When I had IG on my phone I would go on there every time I was bored or didn't know what to do, but deleting it helped immensely. I also am prone to watching a lot of videos on YouTube so what has helped me there is to put a limit on how many videos (any online video, not just YouTube) a day I can watch. Currently the limit is 5 videos a day. This way I'm much more mindful and particular when it comes to choosing the videos I watch in a day.

What I've learned is that the internet and the digital world is near infinite in information and content, whereas, we humans have finite lives and operate better within the parameters of scarcity. As we know when comparing Bitcoin with fiat, fiat is a shit show because it is essentially infinite in supply whereas Bitcoin is digitally scarce. Therefore, humans just do not do well with things that are infinite in supply such as fiat and the internet. Thus, what I try to do nowadays is to create my own form of internet "scarcity" if you will, by making the watching of online videos a scarce commodity of 5 videos per day, as well as limiting until what time I can be online (Lembke refers to this as digital intermittent fasting). By creating your own version of internet scarcity, the internet is no longer this overwhelming, procrastination inducing monster that controls your life, but a valuable tool that you now have control over.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @JuanMiguel 29 Feb

Facebook in 2024, what

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @south_korea_ln OP 29 Feb

I'm not that young. And that group i need to follow is full of boomers. They are the ones that keep funding zuck with their attention...

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 29 Feb

I deactivated Facebook in 2020. Don’t miss it

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @jetecs6 29 Feb

The best way is be more active in SN and STACK SATs and STAY HUMBLE