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This is like saying to addicts “Just stop smoking crack”. Everyone knows smoking crack is bad for you. A lot of people want to quit but are unable to no matte

This is like saying to addicts “Just stop smoking crack”. Everyone knows smoking crack is bad for you. A lot of people want to quit but are unable to no matter how much “self discipline” they have. And app developers have teams of people dedicated to making sure you stay on these apps longer and longer. Now imagine your dealer is in your pocket 24/7.

skidd0 3y ago
Except crack and other drugs form physical dependencies which leads to withdrawal. Smart phone addicts have a more psychological battle. That's the willpower/self-discipline part. How do you build discipline? Practice! So, yeah, it can be as simple as telling yourself "just stop using the apps" as often as you can to build up the skill.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- vonjuice 3y ago
  If you think addiction is about chemical dependence you need to deepen and broaden your knowledge on the subject.
  - skidd0 3y ago
    Addiction has many factors. I was pointing out that crack and other drugs can form chemical dependencies that apps and screen time cannot.
    - vonjuice 3y ago
      Conversely there's aspects of screens that are not present in crack, such as widespread acceptance and even encouragement, hijacking of our most prioritized sense organ, etc. If you were to design a visual drug, as a concept, you wouldn't get very far from the current state of affairs.
      - skidd0 3y ago
        Completely agree.
- Erratic6576 3y ago
  Psychology takes place in a physical organ or network of physical organs
XorNot 3y ago
Your smartphone is in absolutely no way like smoking a physically addictive hard narcotic. Again: learned helplessness. You've picked a comparison to ensure that you have maximally separated any notion of your own culpability. Drug addicts who get clean start by recognizing that they made the choice to start, and need to be mindful of the choice to quit, outside the physical addictions which drive it. The answer for them isn't "I need the crack dealers to all go away first".
- lethologica 3y ago
  You can substitute it with any addiction. Try replacing it with porn instead. It doesn’t matter. Your analysis is cruel and lacks empathy into how addiction actually works. You wouldn’t tell a depressed person to just stop being depressed either and that they lack the discipline to be happy.
- darth_avocado 3y ago
  Addiction to smartphones, porn, shopping, eating, coffee, gambling etc. all work on the same neurological pathways. While it’s not the same as a drug addiction, “just don’t do it” isn’t that straightforward. People have to go to therapy and rehab to get rid of some of these, but somehow when it comes to smartphones, the opinion is that “it’s not that hard”.
  - XorNot 3y ago
    People can go to therapy and rehab for being addicted to their smartphones, but all of those things are voluntary activities. You have to choose that you want to get better. Externalizing the locus of your problems is itself a pathology: "I receive too many notifications from social media apps" in a normal person leads to "so I just silenced them all" or "that's why I don't install social media apps, who needs that?". The first thing anyone does in this topic though is externalize the problem: it's not a problem with them, it's a problem with the broadest possible generalization of a thing. They're not incapable of having a smartphone, everyone is. People fail therapy and rehab all the time because of that expectation mismatch: you don't go in and "they fix you", you go in and put in the work to fix yourself, with some assistance.

skidd0 3y ago

Except crack and other drugs form physical dependencies which leads to withdrawal. Smart phone addicts have a more psychological battle. That's the willpower/self-discipline part. How do you build discipline? Practice! So, yeah, it can be as simple as telling yourself "just stop using the apps" as often as you can to build up the skill.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
vonjuice 3y ago
If you think addiction is about chemical dependence you need to deepen and broaden your knowledge on the subject.
- skidd0 3y ago
  Addiction has many factors. I was pointing out that crack and other drugs can form chemical dependencies that apps and screen time cannot.
  - vonjuice 3y ago
    Conversely there's aspects of screens that are not present in crack, such as widespread acceptance and even encouragement, hijacking of our most prioritized sense organ, etc. If you were to design a visual drug, as a concept, you wouldn't get very far from the current state of affairs.
    - skidd0 3y ago
      Completely agree.
Erratic6576 3y ago
Psychology takes place in a physical organ or network of physical organs

XorNot 3y ago

Your smartphone is in absolutely no way like smoking a physically addictive hard narcotic. Again: learned helplessness. You've picked a comparison to ensure that you have maximally separated any notion of your own culpability. Drug addicts who get clean start by recognizing that they made the choice to start, and need to be mindful of the choice to quit, outside the physical addictions which drive it. The answer for them isn't "I need the crack dealers to all go away first".

lethologica 3y ago
You can substitute it with any addiction. Try replacing it with porn instead. It doesn’t matter. Your analysis is cruel and lacks empathy into how addiction actually works. You wouldn’t tell a depressed person to just stop being depressed either and that they lack the discipline to be happy.
darth_avocado 3y ago
Addiction to smartphones, porn, shopping, eating, coffee, gambling etc. all work on the same neurological pathways. While it’s not the same as a drug addiction, “just don’t do it” isn’t that straightforward. People have to go to therapy and rehab to get rid of some of these, but somehow when it comes to smartphones, the opinion is that “it’s not that hard”.
- XorNot 3y ago
  People can go to therapy and rehab for being addicted to their smartphones, but all of those things are voluntary activities. You have to choose that you want to get better. Externalizing the locus of your problems is itself a pathology: "I receive too many notifications from social media apps" in a normal person leads to "so I just silenced them all" or "that's why I don't install social media apps, who needs that?". The first thing anyone does in this topic though is externalize the problem: it's not a problem with them, it's a problem with the broadest possible generalization of a thing. They're not incapable of having a smartphone, everyone is. People fail therapy and rehab all the time because of that expectation mismatch: you don't go in and "they fix you", you go in and put in the work to fix yourself, with some assistance.