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It’s honestly so bad. No matter how hard I try, I find myself re-downloading TikTok or Reddit (Apollo) every month and then wasting away all my free time for a

It’s honestly so bad. No matter how hard I try, I find myself re-downloading TikTok or Reddit (Apollo) every month and then wasting away all my free time for a week or two before re-deleting them out of disgust. I truly don’t know what the solution is. I would just get rid of my smartphone if life wasn’t quite inconvenient without it.

pojzon 5y ago
Replace tiktok with “X game” and have exactly the same issue. We are just addicted and need professional help. Im just happy its not smoking or drinking. Would make life a lot harder.
heavyset_go 5y ago
If you must use Reddit, set up an account that's unsubscribed from all subreddits. Then only add small, niche subreddits and never any of the default or popular subreddits. At worst, you'll get a homepage that updates with new content maybe once or twice a day, drastically reducing the chance of scrolling your free time away. It's preferable to just not use it at all if you can, though.
- runnerup 5y ago
  Yeah this method really turns it into a slot machine for me. Reload 120 times, get a “jackpot” (new post) 1 time.
- obligate_self 5y ago
  Another good technique is to use an RSS reader. Every subreddit has a corresponding feed (simply append .rss to the url).
- 45ure 5y ago
  I initially started using the multireddit feature, to section off specific but related interests. It can also be used to build a focused feed.
  - heavyset_go 5y ago
    Are you able to set a multireddit as the homepage, or do you have to visit specific URLs to see the mutlireddits?
    - 45ure 5y ago
      You can do that in Apollo (iOS) paid version, the client I use the most. Although, I will have to check again, but I am sure you can set the same on Sync and/or Boost (Android) on the free version, as I have a multireddit set as default on launch. On the browser, you can use RES + old reddit and change default behaviour. I find it easier to keep a very small number of frequently used subs for the home feed, and stick the rest in multi, as it helps to make them portable and easily shared. You can also find lists in r/multihub -- compiled and shared by others e.g. cars.
stank345 5y ago
I had the same issue with the Reddit app so now I just use the neutered web app and consider the frustration stemming from its brokenness to be feature that keeps me from spending too much time on it.
- hesdeadjim 5y ago
  This worked wonderfully for me too.
lonely_wanderer 5y ago
I think the first step is admitting that, even with any incidental value you get out of these services, it is an addiction and you are addicted. I don’t say this with negative connotation to your character. Digital media has made me realize how powerless addiction makes one feel, even if one is well adjusted otherwise. The reality is you binge, much like a binge drinker, and wake up a week later with the app hangover. The same thing happens to me and I think the OP provides one good solution: stick to mobile UI in a browser. Generally, increase friction wherever you can. This only really works if you can stick to the worsened experience and not crack/redownload the app. One way to tackle that is to perhaps set a daily or weekly reminder to purge the apps you have a problem with (or all apps you don’t need) from your phone. Maybe you will redownload them again, but giving yourself that extra moment where you can go to the App Store will surely make you quit halfway once or twice, then consistently, before you fall for the trap. I have an inadvertent example. I frequented a website on my phone for a while that relied heavily on a certain file format for videos. I switched phones and (by accident) got a new phone that doesn’t support the format and would require me to download external apps to watch it. That friction of needing a third party app, paired with a decision to only use mobile websites when possible, meant by browsing time on that site dropped precipitously and I’ve now almost entirely cut the bad habit. Another habit is screen time. It is easy to go overboard and delete limits but you’re setting friction points where you need to think about what you’re doing.
- Terry_Roll 5y ago
  > it is an addiction and you are addicted This is legal dopamine, and cocaine although a Selective Dopamine Reuptake Inhibitor (SDRI) is illegal. You choose.
  - jkaplowitz 5y ago
    > cocaine although a Selective Dopamine Reuptake Inhibitor (SDRI) is illegal I know you were discussing recreational cocaine, but fun fact: cocaine can be prescribed legally in most countries including the US. For relatively obvious reasons it's an uncommon prescriber choice, and it's generally applied topically (including to the nose) rather than snorted. Legal methamphetamine pills are also available by prescription, and of course also an uncommon prescriber choice when alternatives work well, although its chemical relatives in the amphetamine family are very much among the commonly prescribed ADHD drugs.
eointierney 5y ago
Read books I'm not joking, it's the best antidote to the thought-theft of "social media". Pick a subject in which you're interested, find a representively excellent text, and read. And then re-read, because unless you're a genius you won't absorb everything first time. Also it's wonderful to just curl up with a book and a cup of tea and let time pass you by as you ... learn the considered thought of others! This is civilised! Normally I'd recommend history but around these parts Category Theory in Context by Emily Riehl is probably acceptable :) About re-reading, especially textbooks: it takes time and trouble to appreciate the difficult and often esoteric ideas represented in a text and understand the underlying deep thought. The author(s) wrote and re-wrote every damn phrase in terms of their imagined audience. The first pass yields a basic familiarity, but try every chapter again in light of the later insights. I remember the first time I read Introduction to Metamathematics by Kleene, and I remember the fourth time so much better. I can feel the cloth binding, I can hear his voice clearly.
- ZYinMD 5y ago
  I'm a huge book reader and I usually read very gripping novels. For me, TikTok is much healthier, because 1. it's easy to put down when I need to do other things 2. it's easy to refrain from opening it. Books however are very hard to put down, and very hard to refrain from picking up again. For me, starting a book = no life for a week.
- sh4rks 5y ago
  I would love to do this, but years of mindlessly browsing social media has seriously shortened my attention span. I used to read books all the time. I remember staying up late as a kid just to read the new Harry Potter book. Nowadays I pick up a book, read a few pages, then immediately lose interest and go do something else. Anybody know how to get back into reading?
  - andyzweb 5y ago
    For me it was moving in with my fiance. I read out loud to her every night till she falls asleep.
  - 5y ago
hi41 5y ago
I too do the same. I have deleted Reddit app about 5 times over the last year and deleted it 5 times.
- adhesive_wombat 5y ago
  It doesn't help that they now won't even let you read many subreddits without the app on mobile. Once you're logged in, just to read that one thing, it can't hurt to engage on that one issue, can it? Before you know it, you're 23 increasingly angry comments into a thread about sand, people are still wrong on the internet, it's 3am and you hate everyone, everything and yourself.
underwater 5y ago
I use the Reddit website. It's slow and horrible enough that even though I visit every day, but don't get sucked into spending hours on it. I also watch YouTube instead of TikTok. YouTube is slower paced and hasn't (yet) fallen into the trap of continual submersion in content without a break. You have to consciously choose to watch another video. I can also tell myself that I'm watching content that is pseudo-educational in nature (like Jay Foreman, Stuff Built Here, Jazza or Mark Rober). I've started using TikTok a couple of times and it just seems like the perfect engagement machine. It's like a machine that drip-feeds dopamine. Pure evil, in my opinion.
- swalsh 5y ago
  My ability to read a long article notably dropped after Tik Tok. That app in particular is one of the worst.
throwawayboise 5y ago
Life isn't that inconvenient without a smartphone, it's only been something people have had for a couple of generations at the most. You just have to plan things in advance a bit more. It's liberating in a way. You plan dinner with someone on Thursday at 6:00 and it's set. You don't have to think about it, tweet about it, post it on Facebook, or anything else. Just show up.
iapsngh 5y ago
Thought I'm not much on social media but I figured out that if I can restrict myself to browse between 11am and 4pm, work will certainly automatically force me off the 'scroll treadmill'. I wrote about that in this post[1] recently. [1] https://qwertyloop.com/posts/doomscrolling https://qwertyloop.com/posts/doomscrolling
k8sToGo 5y ago
Whenever I am addicted to a service, I just block it on DNS level. This is enough for me to stop opening a website in the browser automatically. Whenever I am thinking of redownloading it, I think about why I deleted it in the first place.
benhurmarcel 5y ago
> Reddit (Apollo) Apollo for Reddit has a feature to disable infinite scroll.

pojzon 5y ago

Replace tiktok with “X game” and have exactly the same issue. We are just addicted and need professional help. Im just happy its not smoking or drinking. Would make life a lot harder.

heavyset_go 5y ago

If you must use Reddit, set up an account that's unsubscribed from all subreddits. Then only add small, niche subreddits and never any of the default or popular subreddits. At worst, you'll get a homepage that updates with new content maybe once or twice a day, drastically reducing the chance of scrolling your free time away. It's preferable to just not use it at all if you can, though.

runnerup 5y ago
Yeah this method really turns it into a slot machine for me. Reload 120 times, get a “jackpot” (new post) 1 time.
obligate_self 5y ago
Another good technique is to use an RSS reader. Every subreddit has a corresponding feed (simply append .rss to the url).
45ure 5y ago
I initially started using the multireddit feature, to section off specific but related interests. It can also be used to build a focused feed.
- heavyset_go 5y ago
  Are you able to set a multireddit as the homepage, or do you have to visit specific URLs to see the mutlireddits?
  - 45ure 5y ago
    You can do that in Apollo (iOS) paid version, the client I use the most. Although, I will have to check again, but I am sure you can set the same on Sync and/or Boost (Android) on the free version, as I have a multireddit set as default on launch. On the browser, you can use RES + old reddit and change default behaviour. I find it easier to keep a very small number of frequently used subs for the home feed, and stick the rest in multi, as it helps to make them portable and easily shared. You can also find lists in r/multihub -- compiled and shared by others e.g. cars.

stank345 5y ago

I had the same issue with the Reddit app so now I just use the neutered web app and consider the frustration stemming from its brokenness to be feature that keeps me from spending too much time on it.

hesdeadjim 5y ago
This worked wonderfully for me too.

lonely_wanderer 5y ago

I think the first step is admitting that, even with any incidental value you get out of these services, it is an addiction and you are addicted. I don’t say this with negative connotation to your character. Digital media has made me realize how powerless addiction makes one feel, even if one is well adjusted otherwise. The reality is you binge, much like a binge drinker, and wake up a week later with the app hangover. The same thing happens to me and I think the OP provides one good solution: stick to mobile UI in a browser. Generally, increase friction wherever you can. This only really works if you can stick to the worsened experience and not crack/redownload the app. One way to tackle that is to perhaps set a daily or weekly reminder to purge the apps you have a problem with (or all apps you don’t need) from your phone. Maybe you will redownload them again, but giving yourself that extra moment where you can go to the App Store will surely make you quit halfway once or twice, then consistently, before you fall for the trap. I have an inadvertent example. I frequented a website on my phone for a while that relied heavily on a certain file format for videos. I switched phones and (by accident) got a new phone that doesn’t support the format and would require me to download external apps to watch it. That friction of needing a third party app, paired with a decision to only use mobile websites when possible, meant by browsing time on that site dropped precipitously and I’ve now almost entirely cut the bad habit. Another habit is screen time. It is easy to go overboard and delete limits but you’re setting friction points where you need to think about what you’re doing.

Terry_Roll 5y ago
> it is an addiction and you are addicted This is legal dopamine, and cocaine although a Selective Dopamine Reuptake Inhibitor (SDRI) is illegal. You choose.
- jkaplowitz 5y ago
  > cocaine although a Selective Dopamine Reuptake Inhibitor (SDRI) is illegal I know you were discussing recreational cocaine, but fun fact: cocaine can be prescribed legally in most countries including the US. For relatively obvious reasons it's an uncommon prescriber choice, and it's generally applied topically (including to the nose) rather than snorted. Legal methamphetamine pills are also available by prescription, and of course also an uncommon prescriber choice when alternatives work well, although its chemical relatives in the amphetamine family are very much among the commonly prescribed ADHD drugs.

eointierney 5y ago

Read books I'm not joking, it's the best antidote to the thought-theft of "social media". Pick a subject in which you're interested, find a representively excellent text, and read. And then re-read, because unless you're a genius you won't absorb everything first time. Also it's wonderful to just curl up with a book and a cup of tea and let time pass you by as you ... learn the considered thought of others! This is civilised! Normally I'd recommend history but around these parts Category Theory in Context by Emily Riehl is probably acceptable :) About re-reading, especially textbooks: it takes time and trouble to appreciate the difficult and often esoteric ideas represented in a text and understand the underlying deep thought. The author(s) wrote and re-wrote every damn phrase in terms of their imagined audience. The first pass yields a basic familiarity, but try every chapter again in light of the later insights. I remember the first time I read Introduction to Metamathematics by Kleene, and I remember the fourth time so much better. I can feel the cloth binding, I can hear his voice clearly.

ZYinMD 5y ago
I'm a huge book reader and I usually read very gripping novels. For me, TikTok is much healthier, because 1. it's easy to put down when I need to do other things 2. it's easy to refrain from opening it. Books however are very hard to put down, and very hard to refrain from picking up again. For me, starting a book = no life for a week.
sh4rks 5y ago
I would love to do this, but years of mindlessly browsing social media has seriously shortened my attention span. I used to read books all the time. I remember staying up late as a kid just to read the new Harry Potter book. Nowadays I pick up a book, read a few pages, then immediately lose interest and go do something else. Anybody know how to get back into reading?
- andyzweb 5y ago
  For me it was moving in with my fiance. I read out loud to her every night till she falls asleep.
- 5y ago

hi41 5y ago

I too do the same. I have deleted Reddit app about 5 times over the last year and deleted it 5 times.

adhesive_wombat 5y ago
It doesn't help that they now won't even let you read many subreddits without the app on mobile. Once you're logged in, just to read that one thing, it can't hurt to engage on that one issue, can it? Before you know it, you're 23 increasingly angry comments into a thread about sand, people are still wrong on the internet, it's 3am and you hate everyone, everything and yourself.

underwater 5y ago

I use the Reddit website. It's slow and horrible enough that even though I visit every day, but don't get sucked into spending hours on it. I also watch YouTube instead of TikTok. YouTube is slower paced and hasn't (yet) fallen into the trap of continual submersion in content without a break. You have to consciously choose to watch another video. I can also tell myself that I'm watching content that is pseudo-educational in nature (like Jay Foreman, Stuff Built Here, Jazza or Mark Rober). I've started using TikTok a couple of times and it just seems like the perfect engagement machine. It's like a machine that drip-feeds dopamine. Pure evil, in my opinion.

swalsh 5y ago
My ability to read a long article notably dropped after Tik Tok. That app in particular is one of the worst.

throwawayboise 5y ago

Life isn't that inconvenient without a smartphone, it's only been something people have had for a couple of generations at the most. You just have to plan things in advance a bit more. It's liberating in a way. You plan dinner with someone on Thursday at 6:00 and it's set. You don't have to think about it, tweet about it, post it on Facebook, or anything else. Just show up.

iapsngh 5y ago

Thought I'm not much on social media but I figured out that if I can restrict myself to browse between 11am and 4pm, work will certainly automatically force me off the 'scroll treadmill'. I wrote about that in this post[1] recently. [1] https://qwertyloop.com/posts/doomscrolling https://qwertyloop.com/posts/doomscrolling

k8sToGo 5y ago

Whenever I am addicted to a service, I just block it on DNS level. This is enough for me to stop opening a website in the browser automatically. Whenever I am thinking of redownloading it, I think about why I deleted it in the first place.

benhurmarcel 5y ago

> Reddit (Apollo) Apollo for Reddit has a feature to disable infinite scroll.