touchgrass.now
the app is built in swiftui, uses the screen time apis provided by apple and google vision to recognise grass or not
i'd love to get your thoughts on the concept.
I used to have a similar issue with hiding inside all the time (during Covid times, of course) and to motivate myself to go outside, I started an Instagram of tiny little plants growing in cracks in the pavement. I tried to add a new tiny plant every day or two, which meant that I had to wander further and further afield to find a suitable specimen. It wasn't perfect, but was quite motivating.
With Instagram they see their friends doing things and it’s a reminder that going outside and/or spending time with friends is fun. There’s a lot of pearl clutching about people getting jealous about other people’s vacation pictures, but on the whole the active Instagram users I know are much more social and likely to spend time outside the house than the gamers or Redditors. By a wide margin.
Now it’s a meme-shorts first platform that constantly suggests content outside of your follows and non-chronologically. You can’t opt out of “suggested content” pictures or videos in your feed for more than 30 days at a time and there is no option to permanently opt out. It’s not possible to opt out of shorts (reels) suggestions in your feed. It’s not possible to opt out of meta “threads” suggestions in your feed. I just opened the app and 5 of the first 11 items in my feed were sponsored ads, and 1 of the 11 was suggested “threads”.
Not so much a stereotype as a reflection of the real people I know.
I think we used to see much more content from friends, I think the feed is now mostly content creators/ads/tiktokified, no?
That's just reflective of how the world has always worked. Most people are passive.
The point being made, I think, is that Instagram is a greater source of motivation to interact with the outside world than Reddit/Gaming is.
It sounds plausible enough to me but who knows?
- The plant - The location (sidewalk, park, etc) - Native vs non-native? - Seen as a weed or flower/desirable plant? - Who pollinates it.
I just subscribed.
I also enjoy watching construction - I feel like in a different country and different life, I would have been an 'Umarell' (an elderly Italian man who stands watching construction sites)
I am always astounded how hard it can be to break doom scrolling as a habit DESPITE knowing how much better I feel when I can't / don't do it.
When I don't do it, I will often spend my time doing something personally productive, but even if I do nothing at all instead, it's still better – my head is clearer, I can think so much better; I feel more content and optimistic about life in general; time goes slower.
I couldn’t justify the yearly developer fee though, so the app has been removed from the App Store a few years later :(
Some people have the luxury of being able to step around that mindset, even if only for a little bit, but there is less and less space for just existing.
Unfortunately money is useful, even if the game of chasing it is stupid and can be doomingly addictive. Looking after it for retirement is hell and trains one to be tight or a gambler.
The worst part is that we all know other things are more important than money: most people seem to choose jobs for their invisible benefits rather than financial outcomes. Our world runs because of our internal goals rather than money. The teacher that wants to help their students. The taxi driver that just likes to meet people. The engineer that strives for perfection. Does Matt Levine write for money?
The social incentives are whacko, and the government incentives are often insane. I have some admiration for those that find a way to get the benefits of society at the lowest time costs to themselves.
We fear we live in a purely capitalist world - yet the invisible incentives (economic surplus) are what makes everything work. The danger of seeing everyone else as a money grubber, while knowing that we ourselves are driven by better motivations.
Now that costs $14.99/mo, but if you upgrade to the Pro Plus package for $23.95/mo, you get not only the fart feature, and the flame feature, but you get the flaming fart feature. Requires annual prepayment, otherwise price is $39.64/mo, excluding taxes and cost recovery fees.
https://sol.vandenoever.info/?lang=en,nl&uids=119845,135774,...
I prefer to access things through a web browser.
1. Touch snow
2. See the sun while outdoors.
3. Say hi to someone in person.
4. Text a friend or family member.
5. Touch a tree.
I think touch a tree would be the most direct substitution. Something to be said for a social substitution too though, but it probably doesn't match the initial intent of touching grass.
Then again maybe that would be a good thing.
You'll never use social media again.
Touch snow.
:)
sincerely, Lorax
Also it would be better if you kept Instagram uninstalled... I see it installing on the screenshot!
"We need more apps!"
Can we just sit and mediate and listen to ourselves grasping?
Location: Used solely to determine local sunset times; location data is not stored or transmittedBut I think the OP's app is using the location data to ensure you walked a few meters to touch grass and not just have a patch of grass at your desk.
AI is undeniably empowering and accelerating almost everything—faster, faster, faster. But what comes next for us, as regular human beings?
Still, grounding ourselves in nature—touching grass, watching sunsets, hiking, cycling—remains essential to our well-being.
But knowing myself, I'll probably just end up buying a plant and put it next to my table and end up using it
(please sign up to my onlygrass page)
Seriously this is really cool!
- Do a quick mindfulness/breathing exercise.
- Answer a quick quiz question related to something you're learning.
- Remind you of pending to-dos
Anyone know of an app like this?
Clearspace does exactly this:
https://www.getclearspace.com/#how-it-works
I've been using it for a month or two, with good results. Good luck!
The concept of having to interact with the natural world before being allowed to interact with the social media world is interesting and this is perhaps the most interesting implementation of that.
Personally I find it's rewarding to flex the "self restraint muscle" by stopping myself from doomscrolling rather than relying on technology to do that for me.
If we all acknowledge that nature is an antidote to anxiety, why not consider moving out of the city?
I recently added all of my most distracting apps to the Hidden section on iPhone. It requires a FaceID check to even see the apps, and blocks all notifications from them. It has helped me cut down on the scroll-time significantly.
I didn't realize there was a screen time api! I was waiting on Apple to do it, now I'll have to do it and wait for Apple to commit an antitrust violation and do it after it gains traction!
Anybody here know an Android equivalent of this?
Never worry, it will melt when the scorched-earth tactics are used...
/s
It's engineer logic 101, when technically true does not mean ontologically true.
But then, the purpose is less about going out and touching grass physically, and more about being aware of what you're spending your time on. A moment of self-reflection, if you will, and whether that's you going outside to find some grass or finding where you put your colour picture of grass and turning the lights on to get a good picture of it is by the by.
Well done.
Please detect dog droppings near hand, for a wash hand notification.
Android port? I'd pay you €0.99 at least!
How does it handle -20ºC in snow-covered Northern Canada? :-) Can I touch fake indoor grass?
https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/1bt7aid/streamer_sp...
Mind if I ask what stack you used for this?
i'm not going to see any grass for another few months, unless i travel somewhere warmer, though
I think (hope) that 20wenty was being cheeky and playing along the all-too-common vibe that every project presented on HN needs to become financially successful or else it's a waste of time.
Or, "Don't touch the glass!"