While we do have agency to decide not to use addictive technology, it's not always that simple. For many of us, the addictive technology is tightly integrated

While we do have agency to decide not to use addictive technology, it's not always that simple. For many of us, the addictive technology is tightly integrated with technology that we want or need to use. For example, I use local facebook groups for certain things, I use youtube to learn how to do things, I sometimes use instagram to communicate with certain people who prefer that. All of these have integrated those horrible short videos that can become very addictive - I've seen myself get stuck there, and many people I know who were never tech or phone addicts before this technology came around, including my mom. I could and maybe should radically change my life and just not use these things - facebook and instgram I could get by without, but youtube would be difficult - I am a musician and use it for finding music, and also for how to do or fix anything. I finally three months ago got a combination of firefox extensions and android apps to make it impossible for me to see these short videos, as well as all social media feeds etc, unless I specifically go change the settings to bring them back. And I've managed to avoid doing that. So in total over the last three months I've spent about 10 minutes watching the horrible short videos (when some slipped through the cracks) compared to before where I often found myself stuck there for an hour or two. I do still waste time on the internet often, but it's usually in a specific online community that's stuff I want to read and not random crap the algorithm gives me. I think it's like trying to quit a sugar addiction while having a donut strapped to your hand at all times. It really makes it easier if you can get rid of the donut. But when the donut is tied to your work or hobbies and there's no way to do the work or hobbies without the donut being there, it's hard. It can be done, and many people do it, but there are also many people who would choose to never see the donut if that option was easily available, but it's not.