Comment by jajko | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jajko | Hacker News Reader

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A very effective partial solution - there is absolutely 0 reason to have any meta app cancers on phones/tablets. Just let them go, leave them for laptop/desktop and you are more than 50% there. This way they lose a lot of their instant addictivity.

Same goes for tiktok and similar other shit forming and then feeding on addictions. Everything becomes much easier afterwards, especially long term.

I removed FB apps quite some years ago when they were draining batteries of phones even when not used, a typical bad engineering that facebook seems to never get rid off (their web had always some issues, stuff doesn't work, feed doesn't load, comments fail or get posted 2x, albums don't upload all photos etc. with just ublock origin on firefox on fiber optic). I just don't need even their messenger, any worthy contacts can be migrated to other apps.

The exception to all above - whatsapp, simply too much used in Europe and literally everywhere else outside of US. But that's much better engineered product from start.

I've started dedicating Chrome profiles for the rare occasion I have to subject myself to Facebook (marketplace mostly).

There you go Meta, you can enjoy the 4 times a year I use your site (and no others).

No doubt they'll track me via many other means that ought to be illegal, but it feels like a good start.

If you get addicted to these feeds, you'll just find other ways to them once they're off your phone.

I take a hybrid approach - keep uninstalled by default most of the time, engage a browser extension for web to keep me in place, and failing all that use an app like this as well.

I actively log out of them on my main device and use a second device to access them that I like to use substantially less. The device sits next to me every day, and is accessible at any time.

It has substantially reduced my usage.

Enabling a second profile on my android phone and putting Facebook in there instead of in the browser on my primary profile led to an ~90% reduction on the time I spend on Facebook.

However, I do have to check it from time to time for one of my jobs (to monitor our Page and events, and respond to customers), and the occasions when I switch to the second profile can still hook me for 20 minutes of scrolling...

No I didn't find other ways, desktop is the only gateway for me even after maybe 6 years. I am generally not a very addictive personality generally (at least compared to many peers), don't have mental ticks, insecurities or mental issues that I feel I need to feed by instant dopamine kicks.

But it still saved me a lot of time in long run (and some phone battery too). I don't go to FB much, don't use instagram, tiktoks, tweeter and so on, and happy with that. Quality of actual real life and all that.

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