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Comment by gernb | Hacker News Reader

I spend was too much time on the internet too like right now checking hn

but for me I chalk it up to lack of other things to do. I don't have a lot of friends, it's hard to make new ones, covid doesn't help, at the moment I've got no personal projects except maybe trying new recipes now and then.

that said, if I do find other activities I have no trouble doing them. I'm taking a class for example, meet the friends I do have when they are available, etc

so I doesn't feel like an addiction in my case even though I fully feel I spent way too much time on the internet

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> I chalk it up to lack of other things to do

In my case, I don't have other things to do because I'm on the internet. When I manage to turn off the internet (HN, Youtube, podcasts, Twitter, LinkedIn, reading up on random, pretty useless stuff), suddenly I get pretty good ideas on what to do.

Oh, I wanted to learn finally that language. I wanted to clean up in the kitchen cabinet. I wanted to meet up with a friend. I wanted to sign up for swimming class. I wanted to go to a restaurant with my wife. I wanted to call my brother and sister. I wanted to code up an open source package...

The list of fun things to do is endless, but somehow consuming content on the internet trumps everything if you are not careful (ymmw).

Social media gives you that dopamine fix quicker than your other options. It quickly becomes a habit if you've been doing it for long enough.

I'm sure if you tried to make doing other things a habit, it would come easier to you over time. Then there's less reliance on willpower required.

If you put a block in the calendar at the same time each week, you will feel more obligated to do it.

I've done this with all kinds of things like socialising, couch25k, flossing. It really helped me when covid restrictions first hit and it was too easy to just lay about all day.

My only solution for that is to get a pet and live in the moment a little so you have that time to think.

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