Comment by user2722 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by user2722 | Hacker News Reader

But solutions? Here's my take, will gladly take input (Android):

Two profiles: profile 1 has no notifications, reading apps (ebooks) and shouldn't have a browser (mine does and shouldn't); profile 2 has all apps, inclusively all of profile 1 apps. Idea: have an "offline" phone. Good for battery. Whenever I need IoT or something else, I shrug and change profile.

Use desktop apps/desktop browser: should work. Doesn't much. When I'm on laptop I tend to do terminal stuff, social apps feel like wasting time, do it fast and multitasking mode. Multitasking is not really what I want to train my attention span. Sometimes I turn on notifications but put system notifications in DnD so I can check what's notificated every half an hour or so.

Use Waydroid to have social apps: should work, never worked.

Special profiles on social apps: my current social apps have only institutional accounts being followed. Some decorum is kept, and with it, sanity. Exceptions: Facebook, Bluesky, Mastodon, Linkedin, where I follow regular people. But I really should implement something similar for my LinkedIn account.

Alternate sites/apps/mode of usage: use WhatsApp/Telegram to interact, say hi to some people online on Facebook Messenger, install Discourse; on group chats avoid links or include a short summary written by an human of why people should open your link and a quick "what's on the link" description.

These are my takes to extract some humanness from my machine mobile phone.

If this works for you, then great, do it as long as it works. But for me this will never work. What actually has worked though, is being in an enjoyable environment (surrounded by friends and family, lab / hobby equipment, quality books and poetry, or just spending a couple of hours outside) that can grab my attention better than those social media apps. Also, I regularly delete and recreate my social media accounts.

Additionally, a very effective way of becoming less attached to the phone is to occasionally "forget" to bring it out with you, but that only works if you for example don't need maps or aren't expected to take a phone call. The key-point here is the irregularity, because then over time you will get used to replacing smartphone usage with some other joyful (or idle) activities instead of just moving the dopamine rush hour around. Furthermore I believe that embracing boredom is a must, and I just accept that sometimes I will be bored with nothing to do for a couple of hours and that's when I get most creative.

I've been dreaming for years of some kind of "two ways to unlock your phone" mode.

Mode 1: I'm bored, show me something interesting, all notifications are available

Mode 2: I want to do something specific, don't show me anything but a tool for selecting an app / task (list of apps, search box, whatever).

Have you explored Focus modes on iPhone? You could place a button for a Shortcut on the lock screen to toggle Focus modes that change which apps show on the Home screen, and which notifications to show (while the others go to Notification center). Could use the Action button or Back Tap to change Focus mode before even seeing the lock screen.

I think that's basically the concept of Fairphone's "Moments" mode, which it even has a physical switch for: https://shop.fairphone.com/the-fairphone-gen-6#moments

Fairphone (with Fairphone Moments) has a focus mode [1]. I should write a bit about it here instead of merely linking to it, but I do not have the Fairphone 6 with this mode so I feel like I cannot comment on it the way I'd like to (I've owned Fairphone 2, 3, 4, 5). They're not the first though, see e.g. Lightphone [2].

What I want (and I suppose this is kind of possible with Island or equivalent application) is a guest mode for my kids. So I can give them my smartphone without my notifications popping up between a game or movie.

[1] https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/268869393266...

[2] https://www.thelightphone.com

FairPhone Moments looks like a good idea. But why does it require a mechanical switch? I am not going to upgrade my FP4 just for that, but might be willing to install an app that does the same kind of thing

Why on earth are you using crapbook, whatscrap and linkedshit?

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