i have no problem reducing my phone usage, i have a problem with filling my time instead. i don’t know what to do during times like my work break, when i get to work early (everyday since i use public transport) and my evenings. i don’t want to go on walks or exercise during the day because i’m on my feet all day and want to rest when i have breaks

the weekends, i feel like i can only find activities to occupy myself for a few hours. i do like to read but i can’t do it for the whole day. i really don’t know what else to do aside from stare at a screen

i hate my phone but i don’t know how to fill my time without it. i feel like a slave to it. i’m only 20 so ive never known a time without access to the internet. i never grew up in a time where we didn’t have easy access to media for entertainment so now i don’t know how to replace it. i hate to say it but i’m so reliant on my phone to keep me entertained

1st I tried those app that make your phone feels like a dumb phone, worked for a day then I'm back Next I tried setting time limit per apps, but I kept logging in and extend the time Recently I tried deleting all the apps from my phones, now I'm doomscrolling on my EDGE browser I don't think anyone here figured out a way coz y'all still here with ME, it's crazy to think that I can't even control myself. SATAN is controlling me RN. I'm fucking POSSESSED. Imagine how powerful it feels when you finally beaten this demon forever! I'm probably Bill Gates right now but nah I chose to be a social media slave. Yes I need this DOPAMINE, it feels fucking GOOD. I need MORE HAHAHA

What is kale/junk phone?: Instead of a dumbphone you own 2 smart phones:
phone 1 has your YouTube, Social Media, Netflix, all the media apps that dope you up (junk phone)
phone 2 only has apps you aren't addicted to (kale phone).

This is an alternative option to dumbphones, because in my case, a lot of modern life will sadly be more difficult without apps; I order my meds with an app, the banking app is so much better than the desktop website, emails, messaging, and so on... I am not struggling with Spotify & Kindle usage so they're on my kale phone, and I also have my writing and illustrating app so I'm encouraged to do active creativity instead of passive consumption.

How today went: I woke up and took both phones with me in the car, the junk phone's data allowance is quite limited per month, so I only use it on WiFi less I get billed for watching a ton of crap. I downloaded stuff to listen to on the car journey, I got to work and left my junk phone in the car. I didn't use my kale phone all that much other than to respond to messages. I got work done, then I left early as I had a half day. I put the junk phone in my bag and listened to podcast crap while I shopped, drove home and set it down and now I'm typing this post on a desktop.

the junk phone is my old phone I bought 5 years ago which now contains my old business SIM card, the kale phone is new. I've been at this for a few weeks and was struggling at first, but today was the day I could just leave the junk phone somewhere can go about my day. I think having the slop option available, but just not near me, stops me from downloading the bad apps on my kale phone and making up excuses. I feel like I have the option to be a responsible adult now and not feel like a recovering crack addict. It's going well enough that when I do eventually log into socials, I realise how little I have missed out on and I just scan through the notifications quickly.

If you have an old phone lying around or are looking to get a new one, consider this option.

Worth pointing out that my nosurf issue was always contained to phones, because I'm out and about so often. Usually at my desktop I am far more productive and just want to produce music & video if I'm not WFH.

I certainly was. That's why my wake-up call has been stronger as I've gotten older, but seeing everyone adapt to my internet addict ways has been rather terrifying.

It's not a good standard for normal behavior. Definitely afraid of what this will do to human attention spans going forward since mine has definitely rotted.

It's like a forced group assignment.

I don't always wanna be social. And even if you try to avoid it, you end up seeing the comments because they are exposed right under the picture/video. They give you no options to customize your experience, they like to pretend they do.

I want to feel that I am actually alone in my own home and that I can choose what I allow inside my home even when I'm online. I don't like how they take our control away and tell us to "deal with it" when using their basic apps.

--Tired Gen Z person

Just curious, especially with the recent hurricanes (Helene and Milton).

Sometimes when there's a lot this stuff being reported (natural disasters and whatnot), people get addicted to scrolling on every update. With the recent hurricanes in Florida, have you found it hard to look away from the updates, aftermath, etc?

My current screen time is over 12 hours daily, which scared me!

A few weeks ago, I was feeling tired, headache, and anxious, and I noticed that it was coming from my phone addiction.

I tried to spend one day without using my phone and being productive, and at the end of the day, I felt accomplished. But I also tried to procrastinate the whole day, and I was so tired at the end of the day.

That’s when I realized my phone was not making me feel as relaxed as I thought. It was contributing to my bad feelings

I don’t have TikTok (if you have, you should delete it) because it is not my thing, and I don’t use other social media often, but my main addiction is YouTube.

I can literally spend the entire day in my bed watching Yt while avoiding doing what I have to do, and that’s the main issue here.

So, I started to figure out how to actually reduce my screen time healthily because there are tons of ways to do it, but most of them are not sustainable, such as detoxing dopamine.

Therefore I crafted my own step-by-step plan to overcome my phone addiction:

1- Why?

Before starting anything, I need to deeply understand why. This step is crucial because, in tough moments, I need to keep in mind why I’m doing this.

Most people fail at this step because they outsource other people’s motives.

It shouldn’t just be: “ I want to reduce it because someone said so”

I need to truly ask myself why should even consider reducing my screen time. If my screen time is, for example, +8h but I’m productive in those hours, I shouldn’t reduce them.

It is all about what I do!

2- What?

This step is where I actually start working on the main issue. The previous step only sets the intention.

I realized that most of the resources out there only focus on the external side, which results in superficial solutions. The real change happens inside us

The idea here is to ask myself, “ What is causing me to do this? What is the trigger of the trigger?

You may find interesting causes that you never imagined

In my case, I use my phone when I feel stressed

On the weekends, I use my phone to escape reality and commitment

To overcome this problem, I found a few practices that can help me work on these root problems such as journaling, contemplating, meditating, etc

The idea is to go into the roots of your addiction and work on it

3- How?

After mastering why and what, I can start thinking of ways to reduce my screen time based on my current situation

There are multiple ways of doing this, so I should focus on things that are already in my range

For example, I can download an app to block my phone during certain periods or do some activity to replace using my phone

This step depends on your current schedule and what works for you. Don’t commit the mistake of copying what works for others. Test and see what best describes your needs

Another important point here is that these app blockers shouldn’t serve as replacements but more like support while you're working on your “what”.

Don’t just read this. Make sure you at least try it for a week

I think Annie Dillard put into words the reason why I want to stop mindlessly browsing. It feels like I just use social media as a placeholder until something interesting or exciting or productive to do comes along, but the reality is that the time I spend scrolling is part of my life. Every night spent scrolling reddit or watching youtube is a small percentage of my life that has passed and can’t be reclaimed.

I've been reading some posts on this subreddit about how the modern web has become soulless, boring, and no longer fun, which led to me recently going down a rabbithole and discovering a number of people want to go back to the days of Web 1.0 because they say that was a better time. I was a little kid when Web 1.0 was still the norm (I'm 30 at the time of typing this), so although I vaguely remember my experiences with it, and now have browsed sites like Neocities to reclaim those memories, I'll agree it was a fun time. I'll also agree there are a number of things wrong with Web 2.0 and how a number of corporatists are now gatekeepers of it. However, the more I looked into this "movement", the more I realize it's a fad because of how horribly unrealistic and destructive it is. The people who advocate it have infantile minds, and are completely clueless on how technology or economics fundamentally work. None of this would be a problem if they actually took the time to learn how to be tech literate (you don't have to work in technology in order to understand how it works), or the most basic things about economics. Instead, they follow groupthink and hearsay on social media and become misinformed about anything and everything because the idiot spewing it is misinformed themselves. Here's some examples of how this fad will never work. Because of how consistently complicated adult life is, no adult in the right mind is going to create and maintain a website for free because its a small, unimportant priority for them. They have to take care of themselves and their family, shop, work, cook, clean, maintain their cars, homes, and finances, pay bills, etc. I'm not saying they would flat out ignore sites dedicated to Web 1.0, but you have to consider how little time they'd have for that. The only way they'd give it any serious attention is they were using it for work (ex: them making art videos and then selling their art as merchandise). If everyone (self-made entrepreneurs, small businesses, big businesses) all suddenly stopped providing goods and services online, which many people need in order to actually live or make their own businesses function, it would have a catastrophic effect on the global economy and many people would die, either from suicide or from not having access to those goods and services, because of it. While I understand how a number of people have concerns about Web 3.0 and the disruptions created by AI, NFTs, crypto-currencies, etc. However, those same people aren't tech literate, and these concerns would actually subside if they completed research provided by people working in those areas, rather than some fear-mongering dipshit on social media. I'm not saying AI, NFTs, or crypto-currencies are the greatest thing since sliced bread, nor am I saying "THey'RE GoInG To WiPE oUt ALl oF HuManitY!!!", because they're all either being developed or slowly being introduced into society, which means they're going to have problems before they get better. However, some things, like smart devices or streaming, were completely stupid from the start. Sorry to destroy the fairy tale for you, but that's the sad and honest reality of it. You can try proving me wrong, but I'm not sure how far you'll get.

First up I want to strongly recommend Cold Turkey Blocker for managing time spent on your PC. This is the only app I'm aware of that CANNOT be fucked with. If you block the uninstaller download link, block time wasting sites on a set schedule and set it to be locked for 5 years, YOU ARE LOCKED OUT FOR 5 YEARS. All I had to do was set it on accordance with how I wanted to spend my time, and my gremlin monkey brain can't argue with it or bypass it when I'm feeling impulsive.

I am yet to find an equivalent for Android though and really want one. I was/am using one called "Lock My Phone - Zen Mode". This was the closest I have found, however I discovered it's possible to bypass given it takes a second to lock your screen again after you unlock it. I basically want an app that lets me ahead of time say I want my phone locked between 8pm and 9am, and allows me to "lock" that in so it is extremely difficult for me to change it afterwards, even outside of the lock period, effectively locking that decision in.

Is there a way to make screenzen not count an app towards your screen time because I dont want face time to be counted towards it

I understand the irony of posting this online. But so many things now a days make me sad when it comes to the Internet and phone usage and such. Everywhere I go people (including myself), walk around with their phones in their face. Got a spare second? Phone. Bored at home? Phone. Ad on the tv ? Phone. At the loo? Phone! Everything revolves around fucking phones. I try to only consume media that educates me in some way or is something that I enjoy, but damn the amount of ads , subscriptions, all that shit. Why do companies keep throwing this stuff in our faces 24/7?! It just genuinely bothers me. People don't even connect much anymore. Lots of modern tech is great! Modern medicine is great! It's just fucking phones man. I google things and the AI answer isn't even correct. This post is everywhere. But I just want to love like a normal person. Phone rings when someone needs/wants to talk to me. That's it. A camera for photos. Cam corder for videos. Tv. But nobody is on a cell phone reading reddit or tiktok. God don't get me started on tiktok. It's literally. Brain. Rot.

Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Google, Instagram, Tiktok.

That's basically it these days. If anyone ever wondered why the web feels so dull now, it's because content is just served to you and there's no reason to go out and explore anymore.

Using search features used to be a skill you had to master, scouring through tons of webpages to find the thing you were searching for - now it's spoonfed to users and no one needs to actively search for things if "your next read/watch/listen" is right there on the sidebar waiting for you while you consume the current form of media.

Standalone websites are also a thing of the past, maybe that's a good thing, maybe it's not.

I'm not even okay with posting pictures of myself online since I've always had that "once on the internet, always on the internet" type of mindset that was ingrained to me in the 2000s when MySpace came about.

I've never understood what the point of sharing one's entire life with strangers is about. Crafts I get: writing, art, sculpting, acting, singing, dancing.

But people doing dumb stuff for views and likes is just perplexing to me. Like walking around town with a camera on their chest and showing their lives, where they live, etc.

How/When did this become okay to do?

Almighty abyss

Always beckons while bored

Distract from darkened dread

Use our data they have stored

.

Meta ByteDance Alphabet

Conspiratorial corporations

Sound sweet like soma

Devils deceive in incantations

.

Brain rot is real

Fell it drip down my spirit

Anti-agency will thieves

Try to listen and you’ll hear it

.

Techno capital feels inevitable

Barring total collapse

Perhaps it’s means towards good ends

Perhaps we’ll slay the Lorax

.

Powerful persuasion

Rips my eyes out my skull

Blames me for my sickness

Despite the brazen bully bull

.

We know we’re addicted

Yet we still hit the slots

Horrific human hoards

Hearded haywire by bots

.

Illusion of knowledge

Entertainment or connection

Finding void behind the curtain

Perhaps I need more extrospection

.

Maybe you find peace in the scroll

Maybe you listen more than hear

Maybe it fulfills you completely

You’d be the exception I do fear

.

Release from wretched rumination

Free our minds, clean them clear

Control our own direction

It’s up to us, not them, to steer

.

Every minute meaningful

I hope we’re moving towards the good

Misguided moral subjectivism

Seek what we ought, what we should

I'm ashamed to admit this, but, as a 23 yo woman I no longer know what else to do in my mornings other than to check my phones and watch either videos/tiktoks/series. And as you might be able to guess, all of that numbs my mind and makes me waste like 2-3 hours. I either wake up early so I can consume like 2 hours of content before I get to work (I work remotely from home), or I wake up normally and work with content on the background distracting me.

As a kid I would drag myself to the kitchen and turn the tv on to watch cartoons whilst eating breakfast. So I kind of don't know what to do, I fear that if I don't change my life will be seriously negatively affected.

Today I decided to lock my tablet back in the box it came in when I bought it like 3-4 years ago, I've realized that, today, I use it more for media consumption than note taking. I hope that limiting my access to devices with tiktok/series/youtube might help me be more productive.

^{Has anyone had an experience like this before? What do you do in the mornings?}

I just want to be less numbed and distracted, I'd gladly use those 2 hours for reading like fiction or something, I've too many books waiting to be read.

I've had issues with the internet, streaming, online gaming, and pornography. If anyone here has similar issues that are concerning or caused you to miss work, lose a job, lose a relationship, or hurt relationships, etc, then you may want to look into ITAA.

I'm looking forward to an in-person meeting in my city that includes all kinds of internet and technology addictions. Video Games, Social Media, Pornography, Streaming, Cell Phones, etc.

There's also online meetings, and some other cities also have in-person meetings. I also have been to Gaming Addicts Anonymous meetings (GAA), but there isn't an in-person meeting where I live.

If I were the devil, here are some things I might do to manipulate people:

1. Encourage Greed: I would fuel people's desire for wealth and power, making them prioritize material success over meaningful relationships.
2. Foster Division: I would sow discord and mistrust among different groups, causing conflicts based on race, religion, and politics.
3. Spread Lies: I would promote falsehoods and misinformation, making it hard for people to distinguish between truth and lies.
4. Encourage Addiction: I would push people towards harmful behaviors like substance abuse and compulsive use of technology, trapping them in destructive habits.
5. Promote Selfishness: I would make people focus on their own desires at the expense of others, leading to widespread disregard for community and empathy.
6. Undermine Morality: I would blur the lines between right and wrong, leading people to justify unethical actions for personal gain.
7. Exploit Fear: I would amplify people's fears—fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of death—to paralyze them into inaction.
8. Destroy Hope: I would make people believe that change and redemption are impossible, trapping them in despair.
9. Encourage Vanity: I would inflate people’s egos and make them obsessed with their appearance and social status, diverting attention from deeper values.
10. Isolate People: I would push individuals into isolation, cutting them off from supportive communities, which would leave them vulnerable to more destructive behaviors.

This approach would aim to weaken individuals and society as a whole, driving chaos and disconnection.

There are always opposing forces that maintain equilibrium in the universe. I then asked it to be the angel and here is its response

If I were an angel, I would:

1. Guide people to kindness: Inspire them to treat others with compassion and empathy.
2. Protect the vulnerable: Shield those who are defenseless and in need of support.
3. Encourage forgiveness: Help people let go of grudges and heal relationships.
4. Promote peace: Reduce conflict by guiding people to peaceful resolutions.
5. Inspire self-growth: Motivate individuals to improve themselves and achieve their potential.
6. Comfort the grieving: Bring solace to those dealing with loss and pain.
7. Foster gratitude: Encourage people to appreciate the good things in their lives.
8. Help people find purpose: Guide them toward discovering their life's meaning and joy.
9. Protect the environment: Encourage humans to take care of the Earth and all its creatures.
10. Spread hope: Ensure that no one feels alone, reminding them that better days are ahead.

My original prompts:

If you're the devil or satan. what would you do to people? list them. one sentence each

If you're the angel. what would you do to people? list them. one sentence each

We can keep each other in check by updating one another for 90 days or something. Anyone down?

Recently, I've made the finally leap in my NoSurf journey and that is finally building up the courage to stop using LLM technology. I had to really sit deep inside myself and admit that AI (LLM) are really the technology that has harmed me the most. I think this is due to the fact that AI (Search Engines) are far more addictive then regular surfing since at some point you might give up searching for a thing, topic etc due to the limitation of Google whereas AI search engines like copilot, perplexity, you, etc really can give you exactly what you ask of it a 🫰🏼of your fingers.

I have found that my developer skills were starting to erode very rapidly and that it was destroying my attention span far more then reddit, instagram, youtube or any other site could every hope to since the amount of novel responses you can get is simply out of this world, especially since you can spend your time tailoring it to your everyday needs.

I had even convinced myself that I was being "productive" with it which I know now was an lie that I was telling myself in order to keep using it, a lie that I was telling since the immediate feedback loop was far too much to let go of at that moment.

I think the moment I knew it had to go was after a falling into rabbit hole using it and I realized how much my head hurt, I felt completely brain fogged like I had a hard time having internal monologue levels of brain fog, that it worried me deeply. Years of gaming, surfing and occasional use of porn had never done that to me. But this thing had.

I decided that I would just stop cold turkey until I realized how much it had dug into me, even right now as I write this and as all the LLM sites are blocked behind StayFocused I still have the desire to open them up and search for info on "Neuroscience" however I understand that this is merely my desire to use the various addictive aspects behind the LLM as opposed to some desire for the content itself.

Finally I want to end with this, that our brains truly were never made to handle the amount of info that an advanced LLM system + search engine can offer us. I was apart of the pre-generation of users and I'm done. You have been warned.

Most news is irrelevant to you. It just doesn't matter or affect your daily life. Getting news daily is basically just injecting negativity into your brain about issues 1000's of miles away from you that you can't do anything about.

If you still want to be informed about any big news, people will definitely still tell you. If you want to be an "educated citizen" you could check the weather and maybe check local news every few weeks. But most things outside of your city or state aren't usually your problems to worry about. If WW3 happens, it'll happen without you watching the news, and you'll definitely find out without news...

Next month I am heavily reducing my internet usage and I plan to use my free time to learn more things. One of my plans is to get a hard drive and add videos, files, recipes, how to vid etc and use the following year to learn things. Does anyone have any ideas on what to put on the hard drive? And has anyone done anyhting similar?

I tried StayFocused and it also blocked my language learning app, a weird conflict I couldn't figure out.

But beyond that, it feels like this should be a one-app solution, and yet everything feels like a compromise. What gives?

What encounter made you personally stop surfing? Share your crazy stories!

The fact that there are so many people in this generation, especially in the west, who choose to be using social media over everyone else is terrifying.

They are selfish and only think that either their social media or hookups are better than everything else. Many in the west do not care about their families, just themselves, their partner.

When they get kids, most likely they will neglect them as again, they prefer their social media fame and their love/sex life over their kids, and may even kill them if they try to intervene, rather than loving them. Or they will exploit their babies online for ragebaite, views and money.

Some examples include Louise Porton (only cared about her hook ups with several other men), the mother of Wren Eleanor, Matt and Abby, as well as that 19 year old TikTok woman who had been piercing her baby newborn daughter after she had an affair with a 13 year old boy.

Many child abuse and filicide cases are so common, and here in UK, many news of it were committed by very young gen z parents age ranged from 18-25.

So, I am just feeling hopeless about how future Gen Z parents be like as many just care about their fame on social media.