And yet…
Just choose to read a book. Drop Facebook. Stop reading Twitter and scrolling through TikTok. I’ve come to believe it’s really that simple.
Or don’t. Totally up to you.
But the idea that something is being done to you is both seductive and lazy. Take responsibility, act intentionally and don’t worry about it.
It's really not though. These apps are addictive! There's a real effort required to drop them and many(most?) people don't have what it takes to kick the habit.
I installed TikTok a few months ago to see what all the fuss was about. That shit is ADDICTIVE man. Even to me, a middle aged grump, who doesn't use any social media.
I had to uninstall the app a month later as I felt I was being dragged down into a endless scrolling coma.
Regardless, it's in your best interest to work towards a resistance. These kinds of businesses aren't going to change things until they're forced to, and no matter what that'll take time, and they'll probably just come back in new and exciting ways eventually.
Uninstalling the app was a 100% effective solution.
No it isn't. For instance I recently tried to uninstall YouTube and my Android phone wouldn't let me (I know that I could move to a different distribution, but this is not high on my priorities list or something I want to mess with when I'm trying to relax, and many people wouldn't know where to begin). I've had periods where I uninstall and reinstall Twitter several times in a day.
It's helpful but it is not a panacea
To anyone reading this wanting to switch their habits, find some “booktubers” who have recommendations you like, follow them, and try to train your phones algorithms to show you that content. Try some of their recs. I can almost guarantee there are books out there that will grab your attention and be far more memorable than any TikTok videos
A book which withholds information for the purpose of suspense, without it being natural for the story, is just a bad book.
How can you fight a problem that you don't think of as a problem
We are not perfect rational agents. Our attention span is hackable. If you find yourself largely immune to this, you have my congratulations, but your experience is not the only one.
Automated recommendation algorithms really have a lot to answer for. The humans running the tool need to have the output shoved back in their faces - "you are suggesting that people should watch this?"
Twitter's "For You" tab shows me something I hate every time I forget and go to that tab, regardless of whether I've muted those words or not.
(Also, it's entertainingly stupid how many youtube shorts and instagram reels have the TikTok watermark on)
(And, yes, I'd count this kind of stuff at least partly as a safety issue, given how endlessly training people to constantly look at their phones has affected the rate of vehicle collisions over the past decade.)
It's akin to saying "Just choose to read a book. Drop heroin".
We'd like to think we have such control, but the fact is that these things are addictive and one can't simply "just stop" without a process and a culture that promotes these processes.
There are definitely ways to prepare and change a behavior with intention
- limit time per day. if you find yourself going over, thats ok, note it, and put the phone down.
- try uninstalling the app entirely -- make it harder for yourself to get the fix
- schedule other activities that require you to be in the moment
- give yourself positive reinforcement when you succeed. don't beat yourself up if you don't.
- set very small goals, when you meet them, set some more very small goals
> It's akin to saying "Just choose to read a book. Drop heroin".
Sans the physical addition of heroin. You wont die from not getting to tweet at other twits. You wont die from binging after trying to stop tweeting, either.
For anyone that has beaten addiction, it is this kind of thinking one eventually takes on. For all the help that you can make to make the leap easier - eventually you have to take that mental leap for change. At no point is it easy, especially with chemical addiction, but it is the step than needs to happen.