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Comment by sidcool | Hacker News Reader

What's the solution to internet addiction? It's only seeming to get worse.

I definitely recommend checking out your local public library, or going for a long walk in a nearby park. Don't take your phone. Allow yourself to be bored. Let your mind wander. Once you get over the weird feeling, and the anxiousness of not knowing what's been happening, you'll likely find that your mind amuses itself.

I have a sneaky suspicion that relaxing in this way and encouraging that mental wandering grants some sort of benefit, though I can't put my finger on what exactly. When I come home I'm always refreshed, and the next day often eager to get started on some idea I had while out and about. If I take a news feed with me, I miss out on this experience and, over time, seem to find myself drained of energy. Same if I compulsively check that feed the moment I get back home. A proper disconnect once in a while seems to work wonders. It's like... being constantly connected all the time is over stimulating somehow, without realizing it in the moment.

Your advice to the comment, sadly, amounts to someone telling a drug addict to "just not use drugs", or a depressed person to "just go outside".

Cold turkey is a legitimate addiction strategy. Not successful for everyone though, and basically impossible for most people with the internet.

Ah, perhaps it has been misinterpreted. That was not my intent. "Take occasional breaks, they seem to help" was the goal, not "stop entirely and never start again."

Taking occasional breaks may be worse from an addiction point of view.

Relevant Sapolsky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2muJ0e9bvcI

It might also be that we're both interpreting "internet addiction" with different severities, which would lead to different suggestions.

The same way you solve "car addiction", you don't. The internet is such a convenient way to get information and media that it outcompeted a lot of other old activities. Sure convenience has issues, like "car addiction" tend to create obesity, since you no longer train the skills dealing with inconvenience, but the convenience itself isn't a problem.

Rather just like we realized people need exercise, you just need to exercise the parts that you no longer need thanks to the internet.

Car addiction is a real problem, though. Pollution (air and noise), lost use of streets by people walking, chatting, cycling, etc. - increased social isolation, increased cost of living, 40,000 dead people a year, far less freedom for people who can't drive (especially kids), land being reallocated to car infrastructure, legal changes preventing the construction of walkable communities in the name of more convenient motoring, etc.

Similarly, the internet has had a lot of externalities we may not have addressed.

Someone recently bought me a copy of Dopamine Detox via my Amazon Wishlist. It's an easy read and gives some suggestions for how to start reclaiming your attention and have purpose in your days. I'd recommend it.

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