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Comment by pb7 | Hacker News Reader

If you're struggling with social media addiction, I would recommend deleting the native apps off your phone. The better, smoother UX and faster response time reduces any and all friction. I find that when I have to use the mobile sites, I can't stand them so I naturally want to leave. Reddit's mobile site is a dumpster fire so it's perfect for wanting to keep your sessions short. Instagram's is similar. Sadly, Twitter's is pretty good so that won't work there. Another thing is to turn off all notifications (for the apps that do remain).

This has been massively effective for me for weaning off Reddit and Instagram. My phone usage (basically perfectly correlated with all non-productive screen time) has dropped by a solid 50% and has remained that way for 2+ years now.

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Crazy thing I find is how even with apps off, how quickly you will subconsciously type in “Reddit” or something into google.

I haven’t used social media in years, but I remember when I quit it how I would sometimes be on my laptop doing something and almost out of habit hit “Ctrl + T” for a new tab and type the first few letters of Reddit or instagram.

Used to happen to me with some sites, what I did was 1) remove all the history of that domain so typing re<enter> would google "re" instead of autocompleting to reddit.com and 2) adding reddit.com to my ad blocker so I couldn't visit it at all.

Regarding apps, just delete them.

If you keep your phone's browser on private mode, this becomes a lot easier! (Long as you don't have any old bookmarks for that site.)

Combined with DuckDuckGo's !bang notation—since you no longer have autocomplete for visited sites—you can still get to useful places like wikipedia quickly.

Unfortunate side-effect is that by staying logged out everywhere, with no cookies, means you'll see every single "log in with gmail!", "use the app for a better experience" dark pattern popup, unless your adblocker covers annoyances.

HN is still social media. Not as heavy as others on the one hand but It’s also not free from all issues other forms of social media have. I just engaged with you and you might feel compelled to engage back. You might see yourself get downvoted for odd reasons and spend time wondering why or being emotionally effected by it. Rinse, repeat, etc.

news.ycombinator.com might as well be /r/hackernews.

The nice thing is the votes/points are much less prominent on this site, to the point I rarely even notice them. It also helps that whatever feature progression system there is... it's not highly advertised, nor are there fancy badges like "ten year club" that attach even more status to pointless internet points.

You got me there

> Crazy thing I find is how even with apps off, how quickly you will subconsciously type in “Reddit” or something into google.

Oh I'm relieved to hear that I'm not the only one.

Is there a browser plugin that only lets you visit a site once every N hours? I'd prefer this to electroshock punishment.

I am another person that still have problems opening up a tab, and trying to access social media, even though I know it is blocked on my computer.

My solution involves a Pi-hole. You can set a cron job to enable or disable rules.

Other solution I hear people doing is using OpenDNS.

I did that (removed the app) but I got used to the browser. So I added a block on NextDNS that I can turn on if I need to (eg: to ask a stupid question and get low-grade semi-official support for some thing - though I actually find that I'm the one answering questions)

I do occasionally forget to block it after using it, and within a week I'm doom-scrolling again. But I eventually have a moment of clarity and block it, and I'm back to normal again.

I don't think people ever completely give things up unless they have one of those addictive personalities and find themselves tipsy on Monday morning, or completely plastered every night at 9pm. I don't have an addictive personality because I have this voice that tells me "you're doing this again,stop!" And that tends to work. So I treat Reddit like beer or chocolate. I self-moderate my intake. A blocker is enough. It's the equivalent of NEVER having a stash of beer or chocolate in the house. I actually need to plan my intake by explicitly adding them to a shopping list, and even then I just buy 2 small cans of some weird hazy IPA or a small-but-ridiculously-expensive chocolate. That way I can occasionally treat myself without falling off the wagon.

Turning off infinite scroll dramatically reduced my reddit usage (on RIF). Infinite scroll is a nice feature for keeping you locked in for the next dopamine hit but if you want to just learn a few things and keep abreast of news and then get on with your life you're better off without it.

+1 to getting rid of native apps.

I use Brave for any social media apps on the phone, or just don't use them except at home.

As a bonus, you're much less likely to be walking the streets like a zombie staring at your phone.

Also after deleting Reddit the battery on my new iPhone lasts the whole day even while I still watch unhealthy amounts of Russian tanks burning on Telegram and sometimes visit reddit web interface too.

There, I said and admitted it: it is unhealthy. Now off to write down and delete more Telegram channels. (I already quit Twitter cold turkey back in February, Telegram is a bit more complicated since all my friends use it and only it so I need to wean myself off just the addictive parts of it.)

>The better, smoother UX and faster response time reduces any and all friction

It's funny cause old reddit simply in the mobile browser itself is 100% better than any mobile app

I disagree. Apollo on iOS is the most potent drug I've ever consumed. It's a wonderful app (kudos to Christian, it's rare for a one-man show to take the throne in the days of companies giving themselves preferential treatment) but I can't have it installed because I'll go back to binging Reddit.

I agree. I actually deleted Apollo just an hour ago for this reason, quite a coincidence. I love it because it’s such a well made app which is too rare these days, and I hate it for the same reason.

This does not work for me because I despise how mobile apps can't have multiple tabs open so I never use native apps.

Ironically, I actually also use HN's mobile site not because I'm trying to break my usage of it but because I like opening multiple stories/comments sections in new tabs throughout the day and slowly reading through them when I have time.

twitter removing third-party client access sure did kill it on mobile for me though. i can't be arsed to load the mobile web UI, it lacks the features i liked in my chosen third-party client, and it was easy enough to just wait around for when im back at a desktop

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