Comment by mxschumacher | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mxschumacher | Hacker News Reader

Here's how I protect myself from addictive sites:

I have a (fairly bad) smartphone and no data plan (just a small 200mb/mo emergency contingent). I have deleted all social media apps (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Messenger, all Games). On the go, I use apps with offline capabilities. Pocket Casts for Podcasts, the Kindle app for my books, Spotify for music. Those get synced on Wifi

If I use any apps of this kind, I do so on my Laptop:

Here, I have more control by using three Chrome extensions:

- Stay Focused (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stayfocusd/laankej...) which gives me a few minutes per day on a set of blacklisted sites.

- Newsfeed Eradicator ( https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/news-feed-eradicat... ) - does exactly what the name suggests. Still possible to use Facebook for events and to talk to friends

- Distraction Free Youtube (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/df-youtube-distrac... ) deactivates the features that suck you down the Youtube rabbit whole of by clicking on recommended videos.

On top of that, I use uBlock which blocks all the ads that I would have to endure on my phone.

A little lower level, I have a modified hosts file which blocks social media sites: https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts

Obviously it is possible to circumvent all of these self-imposed obstacles, but taking a couple of seconds to "take the safety off" is often enough to remind me why I have blocked those pages in the first place. It is enough time to let my prefrontal cortex reign in my dopamine seeking reptile brain.

Taking these measures has allowed me to drastically reduce my time spent on distracting sites.

Do you also use a shitty computer just to protect yourself from addictive video games?

I honestly don't get it when people have to do all that stuff to "protect" themselves instead of just... not going on Facebook 15 times a day? I consider myself like an easy target for addictive services but, I don't know, I guess I just have better things to do.

Once you develop a habit of doing something, it can be tough to drop the habit without something to interrupt your thought process.

For instance, I noticed myself picking up my phone and browsing certain websites (dopamine sources) whenever my thoughts wandered into a topic I find distressing -- instead of confronting those thoughts and thinking them through. For me, Facebook happens not to be addictive, but other sites are (for instance, Quora). I was wasting hours on those sites instead of doing productive things.

Setting up a content blocker to make me think twice before visiting them has helped. So has adding an app that I can set to block using my phone for a given period of time, forcing me to put it down and do other things.

Is addiction a completely foreign concept to you?

>Do you also use a shitty computer just to protect yourself from addictive video games?

I've given serious consideration to limiting myself to mobile versions of the game I'm addicted to, but I can't answer 'yes' yet!

I can also vouch for the effectiveness of this strategy based on slow motion Street Fighter 4 on a machine with an integrated graphics card.

Everyone has better things to do. You are not addicted because you did not use them like they are supposed to.

Addiction is built-in in these apps from every possible way. There are lots of information on how they do that. Your comment is like saying, why don't people just stop taking narcotics, there are better things to do.

Here's another idea: change your profile pic to a banner saying you're quitting social media. The social pressure against being called out for breaking your pledge will help make it stick. You'll be less able to silently return (like you can if you "disable" your account), and you can still use your account in limited, less addictive ways (e.g. logins, messaging with people who don't have other contact info, etc).

I tried these approaches, but it never worked for me. I find the best way to kill these things is by breaking the things that make them addictive. E.g. I unfollowed (not de-friended) everyone on Facebook. I can still use it to send/receive private messages and organise events, but my newsfeed is totally blank. I now never go on Facebook unless I have something to do there. After a month or so the stimulus-reward loop was removed from my brain.

I use browser extensions to block the tracking side of things, uninstalled the apps from my phone, and I'm now pretty happy with my relationship with Facebook and the impact it has on my life (~0).

Same here. Also use tampermonkey where ublock origin's picker is not enough.

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