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I employ various hacks: - I permanently deleted my Facebook account - I block certain sites in /etc/hosts. My /etc/hosts file also blocks several hundred Face
by hairofadog 8y ago
I employ various hacks:
- I permanently deleted my Facebook account
- I block certain sites in /etc/hosts. My /etc/hosts file also blocks several hundred Facebook tracking urls, and I scatter the “tempting” sites randomly throughout these so that unblocking them requires more than muscle memory
- I change the passwords on the tempting sites to random strings but don't save them so the only way in is to do a password reset
- I use content blockers
- I excoriate myself in a journal entry each day (this hasn't worked yet, but I keep on doing it)
These things sorta slightly work in that they slow me down for a second and give me a chance to consider whether I really want to visit [website]. However, my lizard brain tends to adapt pretty quickly, and disabling the blocks gets incorporated into muscle memory as well.
So I think my solution will have to involve zen-like self-discipline as opposed to hacks. I keep telling myself I want to give it all up for good, to become a person who makes things instead of a person who consumes things, who reads books instead of surfing the internet. My solution will have to be simply deciding to change.
- osrec 8y agoWould you mind sharing the list of sites you block? It would probably be a good starting point for others wanting to do something similar. Thanks!
- dnhz 8y agoSelfControl is an app that comes with a decent starting blocklist that you can then add your own vices to. https://selfcontrolapp.com https://selfcontrolapp.com
- hairofadog 8y agoOk, here it is: https://github.com/jmdugan/blocklists/blob/master/corporations/facebook/all https://github.com/jmdugan/blocklists/blob/master/corporatio... That's not me, but it's the list I use.
- EasyTiger_ 8y ago> I excoriate myself in a journal entry each day Fail to see how this will help
- hairofadog 8y agoIt doesn’t. I don’t recommend it.
- calabin 8y agoCould you share your block list?
- hairofadog 8y agoI’m on the go; will report back in a bit with the block list.
- superasn 8y agocold turkey was a rather good app for doing this on Windows (7) because it didn't allow you to reset your hosts file back until the timer was done (or at least made it really hard). Rescuetime is also similar but I think it was more of a reporting app than blocking app. Anyway my addiction was reddit (facebook, twitter never appealed to me in the first place) and my niravan was an openwrt router that my brother gifted me. It had a hosts blocker and i changed the password to unknown. Only way to get back was to do a hard reset and that meant doing umpteen setting up tasks like ppoe, adguard, hosts, etc which made it quite a friction. The only workaround was browsing on 4g and thankfully 4g here is very slow which made browsing ridiculous. Soon the addiction was cured.
- secfirstmd 8y agoOr a VPN would have been easier to get around the blocking? :)
- superasn 8y agoyes i did that recently (got a windscribe lifetime account) but thankfully by then the bad habit had left me :)