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A majority, 54% of teens, said they spend too much time on their phone, and nearly that many – 52% – said they are trying to limit their phone use in various wa

A majority, 54% of teens, said they spend too much time on their phone, and nearly that many – 52% – said they are trying to limit their phone use in various ways. Knowing is one thing and actually getting rid of it is a completely different ball game. There's a gulf between the planner and the doer. The far-sighted "planner" in us knows that social media/Netflix/cigarettes are bad for us. When you conduct a survey, we are conscious and reasonable people who know what is good from what is bad and hence 54% of use agrees that we spend too much time on useless stuff. But when it actually comes to doing, the myopic "doer" part of us keeps on snoozing that alarm clock in the morning and goes to Facebook to check the number of likes & comments received every five minutes.

dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago
Maybe, maybe no longer so. The social media experiment is quite old now - old enough to make quite a few people disillusioned about what it actually does to you in a deeper way, and not to feel the urge anymore. The bigger problem is that FB actually replaced not only discussion forums but also mailing lists for non-technical people, so very often you have no option other than to join a particular FB group if you want to participate in offline events. But even this might change with time.
afarrell 8y ago
The best way to approach this is to start by mechanically removing the possibility of doing the thing you wish to avoid. In the cases you mention: - An alarm clock without a snooze button: https://www.amazon.com/Travelwey-Clock-Outlet-Powered-Operation-Brightness/dp/B01CEGW56O?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_3 https://www.amazon.com/Travelwey-Clock-Outlet-Powered-Operat... - An app that you can use to block facebook and other sites from your phone: https://freedom.to/ https://freedom.to/ There are people who claim that this sort of thing is 'a crutch'. These same people probably would not encourage a dieter to keep a packet of cookies on their desk though. Regardless, crutches are useful whether you've broken your ankle or your mindfulness. You can and should build more active mindfulness practices on top of this.
- JansjoFromIkea 8y ago
  As someone who's pretty pathetically addicted to the internet at times, having Freedom on my laptop and phone has been a huge plus. I'm sure I could work around it very easily (I know I can on the laptop) but the shame factor involved is enough to stop me generally and I'm surprised there isn't a huge market for this kind of thing. Been gradually limiting my usage of certain sites down to tiny windows of the day and it's left me with so much more time. Along with that, it's largely removed those sites from my reflex routine of checking for updates... several of them I've just dropped entirely. Used a few free ones beforehand and the risk of it messing up my hosts file or w/e was always too high to actively recommend to anyone.
  - froindt 8y ago
    > Along with that, it's largely removed those sites from my reflex routine of checking for updates... several of them I've just dropped entirely. Removing the Facebook app from my phone and logging out when I was done with a session on the computer was a great improvement in my life. Even the barrier of typing the password in was enough for me to avoid mindlessly browsing through stuff whenever I finished a small task. It's been about 6 years since I took these steps, and I don't regret them. Since the Cambridge Analytica stuff came out, I've been dabbling with dropping FB entirely, but there are some people who I like receiving updates from, but they are only on FB.
- koboll 8y ago
  Of course it's a crutch. A crutch is a device used to help you heal, without with healing would take much longer or be much more ineffective. We need to stop demonizing crutches.
- Jaruzel 8y ago
  > An alarm clock without a snooze button: https://www.amazon.com/Travelwey-Clock-Outlet-Powered-Operat.. https://www.amazon.com/Travelwey-Clock-Outlet-Powered-Operat.... 'cept that one DOES have a snooze button?
- canadianwriter 8y ago
empath75 8y ago
One definition of addiction is ‘continuing an action in the face of rising negative consequences.’ Continuing to use the phone when you know it’s harming you seems like it fits.

dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago

Maybe, maybe no longer so. The social media experiment is quite old now - old enough to make quite a few people disillusioned about what it actually does to you in a deeper way, and not to feel the urge anymore. The bigger problem is that FB actually replaced not only discussion forums but also mailing lists for non-technical people, so very often you have no option other than to join a particular FB group if you want to participate in offline events. But even this might change with time.

afarrell 8y ago

The best way to approach this is to start by mechanically removing the possibility of doing the thing you wish to avoid. In the cases you mention: - An alarm clock without a snooze button: https://www.amazon.com/Travelwey-Clock-Outlet-Powered-Operation-Brightness/dp/B01CEGW56O?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_3 https://www.amazon.com/Travelwey-Clock-Outlet-Powered-Operat... - An app that you can use to block facebook and other sites from your phone: https://freedom.to/ https://freedom.to/ There are people who claim that this sort of thing is 'a crutch'. These same people probably would not encourage a dieter to keep a packet of cookies on their desk though. Regardless, crutches are useful whether you've broken your ankle or your mindfulness. You can and should build more active mindfulness practices on top of this.

JansjoFromIkea 8y ago
As someone who's pretty pathetically addicted to the internet at times, having Freedom on my laptop and phone has been a huge plus. I'm sure I could work around it very easily (I know I can on the laptop) but the shame factor involved is enough to stop me generally and I'm surprised there isn't a huge market for this kind of thing. Been gradually limiting my usage of certain sites down to tiny windows of the day and it's left me with so much more time. Along with that, it's largely removed those sites from my reflex routine of checking for updates... several of them I've just dropped entirely. Used a few free ones beforehand and the risk of it messing up my hosts file or w/e was always too high to actively recommend to anyone.
- froindt 8y ago
  > Along with that, it's largely removed those sites from my reflex routine of checking for updates... several of them I've just dropped entirely. Removing the Facebook app from my phone and logging out when I was done with a session on the computer was a great improvement in my life. Even the barrier of typing the password in was enough for me to avoid mindlessly browsing through stuff whenever I finished a small task. It's been about 6 years since I took these steps, and I don't regret them. Since the Cambridge Analytica stuff came out, I've been dabbling with dropping FB entirely, but there are some people who I like receiving updates from, but they are only on FB.
koboll 8y ago
Of course it's a crutch. A crutch is a device used to help you heal, without with healing would take much longer or be much more ineffective. We need to stop demonizing crutches.
Jaruzel 8y ago
> An alarm clock without a snooze button: https://www.amazon.com/Travelwey-Clock-Outlet-Powered-Operat.. https://www.amazon.com/Travelwey-Clock-Outlet-Powered-Operat.... 'cept that one DOES have a snooze button?
canadianwriter 8y ago

empath75 8y ago

One definition of addiction is ‘continuing an action in the face of rising negative consequences.’ Continuing to use the phone when you know it’s harming you seems like it fits.