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Comment by FoundAnotherOne | Hacker News Reader

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I did not claim I quit it all, just the majority and said I was struggling with this topic. Not sure if you are trying to help or are just mean.

Might be nit-picking but forum != social media (to me).

Aye, but it's also possible to waste an incredible amount of time on HN. I'd call it my main internet vice after lichess. Both are outwardly better than say, TikTok or Reddit, but if you're spending hours a day flitting unstructured between content, you're subject to both the fragmentation and time sink problems. Same as someone who spends the same amount of time caning TikTok. A little healthier (maybe not lichess) and less intense, but I'd argue also damaging.

lichess and HN are definitely on my "wasting time online" list. HN totally is social media. It has an "algorithm" it has gamification (upvotes/downvotes/flag/vouch/karma). It feeds you endless content which is mostly of questionable quality. It interacts with the same systems giving you dopamine highs and lows and chasing the next little boost.

When I'm traveling and I'm less online I don't miss either. Life feels simpler.

One thing I try to do more on lichess is to just do puzzles so I don't really get the same dopamine hit of games. I guess very long time controls might be better as well. I do make the excuse that it's at least using my brain and I have gotten much better at chess.

YouTube is really the other big problem. There is a lot of actually great content and then there's a lot of garbage. I don't do Reddit or TikTok at all.

It’s my most used website according to Apple Screentime. So you’re probably right (daily average around 30 min).

I'd say the algorithm makes the difference, and HN has one, based on voting.

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