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Digital addictions are similar to pathologies of food, and unlike other things we usually think of as addictive, like hard drugs. That is because, as with food,

Digital addictions are similar to pathologies of food, and unlike other things we usually think of as addictive, like hard drugs. That is because, as with food, most of us cannot escape the digital. Everyday, we are exposed to the thing that also incites pathological behavior. It's impossible to go cold turkey. People with food pathologies resort to things like time-bounding exercises (if it's noon, I can eat). Like processed food, digital experiences are backed by an industry whose profits are pegged to how much of us they consume. People with digital addiction are suffering from a kind of informational metabolic syndrome. The cure is harder than the author thinks. "Making our lives so warm that the digital is dull in comparison" sounds great, but our phones channel all the vices, titillations, and novelties of the world. It's actually hard to make that dull. I'm not sure there is a cure, but a good approach would be a digital purge -- take a month off if you possibly can. That will serve as a dopamine reset, and make many things IRL seem more interesting. Buy a device that limits what you can do, like a lightphone. https://www.thelightphone.com https://www.thelightphone.com Barring a light phone, various parental controls... Because if you let the digital channel duke it out with the analog without rigging the game, the digital will keep sucking you back in.

tracerbulletx 3y ago
Dopamine is a general purpose neurotransmitter used for all kinds of things, all of the time. There is no such thing as a "dopamine reset". If doing a digital purge is beneficial it has nothing to do with "resetting dopamine"
- emptyfile 3y ago
  [dead]
- kelipso 3y ago
  It's a term that's widely used by people who try to stop addictions like this and in topics related to dopamine's effects. Sometimes these terms get jargony/technical meanings and criticizing it or the entire topic just because you can't understand the meaning of these terms from the words themselves is not warranted.
- blueyes 3y ago
  "Dopamine reset" refers to resetting your baseline levels of dopamine. Highly recommend listening to Huberman's interview of Dr. Anna Lembke: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3JLaF_4Tz8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3JLaF_4Tz8 As well as her book, Dopamine Nation: https://www.amazon.com/Dopamine-Nation-Finding-Balance-Indulgence/dp/152474672X?tag=namespacebran400-20 https://www.amazon.com/Dopamine-Nation-Finding-Balance-Indul... Frequent, large spikes in dopamine, like those people get from drugs and to a lesser extent Twitter, can both lower your baseline and also make other activities seem uninteresting. They often lead to addiction, which is the primary example of people feeling low dopamine baselines and chasing high spikes.
- rchaud 3y ago
  I think of it as resetting our body's 'instant gratification' clock.
extr0pian 3y ago
Well said. It can be even simpler than buying a new device. Personally, I use a $100 Android device and via some ADB commands have removed app stores, email, and even the web browser, keeping the most useful such as navigation, a camera, SMS, etc. If I really want to install an app, there's the additional barrier preventing me which is to plug my phone into my computer and sideload an APK for F-Droid, a web browser, Newpipe, or whatever. For the most part this has been working for me.
- pmg101 3y ago
  I too did this. Switched to a £99.99 Oppo A5 and followed instructions to remove chrome via adb. pm uninstall --user 0 com.android.chrome The only tricky part is explaining to people why you have no browser on your phone and can't follow any links they DM you. "To handle my addiction", while accurate, can sound overdramatic. However I have concluded that although I'm 90% satisfied with a cheap device it's a shame to have a poor camera, so may try to repeat this process on a better device. Ideally I want the experience to be crappy to reduce the addiction (eg a terrible screen for instance) but the camera to be top notch, battery to be long-lived, and device to be lightweight and pocketable. Don't believe that exists unfortunately.
bheadmaster 3y ago
I think there's more to the "making our lives warm" than just to make digital dull. Anecdotally, the times in my life when I was the least addicted to digital media were in my teens, when I had a big circle of people I spent time with. If you can choose between going out having fun with people and staying home playing videogames, the former wins every time. It is only later, when my friendships and acquaitances faded, that I turned to digital media, because there's just nothing to do. My family is not really a fun bunch, and except for playing an instrument or reading books, I don't know how to spend time. Combine that with work-related stress and unreasonable effectiveness of video games at providing an immersive, relaxing experience, and you get a perfect recipe for addiction - I get home every day, bad mood, bad thoughts in my head, stress keeping me on the edge, and I have to choose whether to play some videogames to relax, or to stay stressed out for the sake of "not being addicted". Every time, the former wins by far. All addiction (food, drugs, digital media) has one thing in common - people running away from problems and stress. The only thing that can beat addiction is solving those. Digital media is the opiate of the masses.
- soupfordummies 3y ago
  > I get home every day, bad mood, bad thoughts in my head, stress keeping me on the edge I think this sounds like the bigger issue here to be looked into rather than your screentime, etc. Sorry you feel that way man !
  - bheadmaster 3y ago
    I agree. That's very close to what I was trying to say - (almost?) all addictions are merely symptoms of deeper issues, just a way of running away from problems. The only way to cure an addiction is to solve those deeper issues.
- blueyes 3y ago
  Fully agree that we should all do our best to make IRL interesting. I think the best thing is to do both: control access to digital stimuli, and enrich analog life (in healthy ways! ;).
yosito 3y ago
When the lightphone supports mainstream messaging apps, I'll consider it a viable option
YurgenJurgensen 3y ago
Every time I see the equivalent of "Making our lives so warm that the digital is dull in comparison" I interpret it as 'The problem is you, because you're a loser. If you were popular and successful like me you wouldn't need to do <thing I don't like>.'
- RugnirViking 3y ago
  The above comment might seem flippant but I do agree that it's important to remember for people communicating on stuff like this. So much of wellness, especially psychological wellness like this can so easily just verge into "look how effortlessly I can fulfill my needs" without people really intending it

tracerbulletx 3y ago

Dopamine is a general purpose neurotransmitter used for all kinds of things, all of the time. There is no such thing as a "dopamine reset". If doing a digital purge is beneficial it has nothing to do with "resetting dopamine"

emptyfile 3y ago
[dead]
kelipso 3y ago
It's a term that's widely used by people who try to stop addictions like this and in topics related to dopamine's effects. Sometimes these terms get jargony/technical meanings and criticizing it or the entire topic just because you can't understand the meaning of these terms from the words themselves is not warranted.
blueyes 3y ago
"Dopamine reset" refers to resetting your baseline levels of dopamine. Highly recommend listening to Huberman's interview of Dr. Anna Lembke: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3JLaF_4Tz8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3JLaF_4Tz8 As well as her book, Dopamine Nation: https://www.amazon.com/Dopamine-Nation-Finding-Balance-Indulgence/dp/152474672X?tag=namespacebran400-20 https://www.amazon.com/Dopamine-Nation-Finding-Balance-Indul... Frequent, large spikes in dopamine, like those people get from drugs and to a lesser extent Twitter, can both lower your baseline and also make other activities seem uninteresting. They often lead to addiction, which is the primary example of people feeling low dopamine baselines and chasing high spikes.
rchaud 3y ago
I think of it as resetting our body's 'instant gratification' clock.

extr0pian 3y ago

Well said. It can be even simpler than buying a new device. Personally, I use a $100 Android device and via some ADB commands have removed app stores, email, and even the web browser, keeping the most useful such as navigation, a camera, SMS, etc. If I really want to install an app, there's the additional barrier preventing me which is to plug my phone into my computer and sideload an APK for F-Droid, a web browser, Newpipe, or whatever. For the most part this has been working for me.

pmg101 3y ago
I too did this. Switched to a £99.99 Oppo A5 and followed instructions to remove chrome via adb. pm uninstall --user 0 com.android.chrome The only tricky part is explaining to people why you have no browser on your phone and can't follow any links they DM you. "To handle my addiction", while accurate, can sound overdramatic. However I have concluded that although I'm 90% satisfied with a cheap device it's a shame to have a poor camera, so may try to repeat this process on a better device. Ideally I want the experience to be crappy to reduce the addiction (eg a terrible screen for instance) but the camera to be top notch, battery to be long-lived, and device to be lightweight and pocketable. Don't believe that exists unfortunately.

bheadmaster 3y ago

I think there's more to the "making our lives warm" than just to make digital dull. Anecdotally, the times in my life when I was the least addicted to digital media were in my teens, when I had a big circle of people I spent time with. If you can choose between going out having fun with people and staying home playing videogames, the former wins every time. It is only later, when my friendships and acquaitances faded, that I turned to digital media, because there's just nothing to do. My family is not really a fun bunch, and except for playing an instrument or reading books, I don't know how to spend time. Combine that with work-related stress and unreasonable effectiveness of video games at providing an immersive, relaxing experience, and you get a perfect recipe for addiction - I get home every day, bad mood, bad thoughts in my head, stress keeping me on the edge, and I have to choose whether to play some videogames to relax, or to stay stressed out for the sake of "not being addicted". Every time, the former wins by far. All addiction (food, drugs, digital media) has one thing in common - people running away from problems and stress. The only thing that can beat addiction is solving those. Digital media is the opiate of the masses.

soupfordummies 3y ago
> I get home every day, bad mood, bad thoughts in my head, stress keeping me on the edge I think this sounds like the bigger issue here to be looked into rather than your screentime, etc. Sorry you feel that way man !
- bheadmaster 3y ago
  I agree. That's very close to what I was trying to say - (almost?) all addictions are merely symptoms of deeper issues, just a way of running away from problems. The only way to cure an addiction is to solve those deeper issues.
blueyes 3y ago
Fully agree that we should all do our best to make IRL interesting. I think the best thing is to do both: control access to digital stimuli, and enrich analog life (in healthy ways! ;).

yosito 3y ago

When the lightphone supports mainstream messaging apps, I'll consider it a viable option

YurgenJurgensen 3y ago

Every time I see the equivalent of "Making our lives so warm that the digital is dull in comparison" I interpret it as 'The problem is you, because you're a loser. If you were popular and successful like me you wouldn't need to do <thing I don't like>.'

RugnirViking 3y ago
The above comment might seem flippant but I do agree that it's important to remember for people communicating on stuff like this. So much of wellness, especially psychological wellness like this can so easily just verge into "look how effortlessly I can fulfill my needs" without people really intending it