I consider myself lucky. I never installed Instagram or TikTok, and never use YouTube Shorts. I knew the risks as a young teenager of the addictive aspects of social media and I avoided them all together. Or maybe it was because my mother never let me have a Facebook as a child which made me uninterested in all social media applications.

However, Reddit is the only one that I use. I have been using Reddit since 2017/2018 and it's pretty hard to quit. I don't even have the app on my phone but I just keep using it on my browser. The thing is that I use it mainly to see recent news and so what. Like there are some things are would never know about without going though reddit. But I want to quit nonetheless because most of it is a waste of my time. Any tips? I feel like it should be easier to quit than Instagram or TikTok since it's mostly text and image based. I have a lot of books on my phone and plan to read them when I'm bored.

Reddit is also oversimplistic about news and full of political bias. If someone could tell me how they get news without social media in today's world I would be glad. Especially from an unbiased source which seems so, so difficult to find today.

How do you make the most of cold turkey blocker? I'm willing to be as strict as possible and pay for the premium version if needed. Thanks

Do you know any? I have cold turkey on my pc and i blocked all of youtube except one youtuber noe i want to do the same on android but cold turkey doesn't have an app and all the blockers on play store don't have this feature or can't handle both commands all at once. Anyone have any solution?

I'm looking for a whitelist blocker app for my phone that can only be bypassed with a password. Any recommendations?

I made a sub yesterday asking if I should cut down Reddit and I realize I definitely need to, despite some of the benefits of reddit. A lot of miserable people spend way too much time on this site spreading all kinds of garbage ideas about life like , having kids is bad (I don't want kids but see why others do and should), men are out to hurt women and vice versa, relationships should be avoided, and a lot of subs that aren't necessarily political have turned political and spread all kinds of hate (look I am not a republican but I am tired of them being talked about in sooooo many subs). There are just not many parts of the site that I can go to and actually enjoy.

Does anybody get what I am saying? I feel like I have become bitter about life in part due to my overconsumption of Reddit.

I am 26 years old I am literally lonely like literally i didnt receive a single text from someone i know in real life for like 4 years even in Christmas or birthday i have zero friends not in a relationship my brother are outside of my country I tried to cope with my loneliness by joining discord i made alot of friends and joined alot of servers until every thing on discord became extremely toxic I hate living in this virtual toxic environment but also i am addicted to it i dont know what to do also I am making a career shift and studying 24/7 so i dont have time to go out and join new environments I am really tired of this virtual life but also addicted to it

Is the muscle memory in your fingers so trained that in a split second, without you noticing, you open a new tab and type one letter, triggering search suggestions, and then hit ENTER and all of a sudden you're in a feed?

Get Leechblock, block Reddit, but instead of blocking it, under How to Block, click Delaying Page, and delay access to sites by 3 seconds

Cured!

Tired idk I keep thinking ppl are messaging me or something will happen I may delete it though

My karma :(

I'm looking for an app for my pc that make my internet time like a stamina bar, so when i use my internet it would go down, and when i don't use it, it would go up.

Something like that.

Theres no way out of it. If you want to block your phone and go do your thing this is it right here. This app will stop you from using your phone. Whats your thoughts on it?

I love that app. Ive been consistently locking my phone everyday from 8PM till 9AM since 16 Jan 2025. In these past 2 weeks ive been getting 9-10 hours of sleep everyday.

I also lock my phone in 2-3 hour long bursts to get my work done early.

Just want to put in out there. Pretty great app. Its available on android as far as i know.

I heard an app that's like that, but i can't remember the name of it.

Like, let's say i don't use the internet on Monday through Friday, this app would add 120 hours to my internet time.

The title.

Deactivated all of my socials (hoping to do so for over a year - lifetime). However I still have Tik Tok… and while it has a lot of funny things that make me happy it is stressing me out because every video highlights recent tragedies, tariffs in the US, etc. I just want to be up to date with what’s going on (in the US primarily, and also the rest of the world) and go about my day. Any channels, websites, etc? Thank you.

Well, I've had Facebook for years and I've always only used the marketplace function, I don't consider myself addicted to it. However, after I deactivated the other networks, I realized that I have been scrolling through my Facebook feed a little too much.

While I think there may be some interesting groups about travel and hotels, I can find some good information here on reddit.

I'm looking to disable that app's filthy feed or some way to just use the marketplace.

Has anyone gone through this?

Looking for someone who's serious about getting offline as much adpossible, I already have a flip phone and no home internet but looking to still go further (still spending too much time on laptop/computer). Also working on consistent exercise and eating healthy as well as replacing screen use with playing sports and reading. I'm in the eastern time zone and looking for someone to do WhatsApp or voice calls, cutting down on texting as well.

I went back and unfollowed a bunch of a subs and added some more interesting ones. I only follow like 10 subs but some of them aren't small. I feel kinda bored looking at Reddit now, but don't want to completely quit it either. I deleted my tiktok so I have been using reddit more on my phone and laptop as a replacement. Should I just take an extended break from reddit? Will using reddit a lot still have a negative impact on my attention span like tiktok did?

It’s like I need constant stimulation. Without it the anxiety and dread seep in. I can’t be alone with myself and thoughts . I don’t know if I hate social media, but I just doom scroll mostly…except on TikTok . I think it gives my brain dopamine to doom scroll and be scared or angry

Hi, all, maybe you guys can give me some input: I'm wanting to move away from social media. The only socials I use are Facebook and reddit. I am just about DONE with the bullshit I see on my Facebook because it is constantly making me mad in some way or another. It is easy to say "ahh, fuck you" to a comment on a post (not actually commenting that ocf) and leaving the thread. I mainly follow local pages for news and stuff. I've tried muting them and unfollowing, but I find myself, after a month or two, going back to find out what's going on in the community. I have wanted to go away from FB for a while, but get sucked back in because my husband uses it more than he will admit, we watch funny reels together a lot, it's also how I keep up with my family who are an hour away, and like I said, I need to know what's going on in the community. I am a photographer so, I like to share my photos and just small things in life (like how good a pizza joint was or something). And I'm there for the memes, because who doesn't love a great meme? I am rarely on reddit, and when I am, I'm here for advice or news that I can't find elsewhere.

Do you guys have any suggestions on how to "slowly" move from FB?

Today is the first time in a couple weeks that I doom scrolled for a few hours straight. I was doing so well. I feel guilty and I’m mad at myself for wasting hours of my life today.

I have been off of social media, aside reddit, for a while. Decided to dip my toe back into it with bluesky; I lasted less than 3 days on it. I really enjoy connecting with fellow geeks in my field and staying up to date and sharing etc... but I realized I just cannot deal with social media as-is right now. I wasted at least 2hrs in the past two days on that app following people and setting it up; it felt like a massive waste of time and stress elevator. My work has been going very well, I love it, love my collaborators ams all of the sudden I felt like I jumped into a massive popularity contest again on bluesky. Going to keep up my Git and personal website and check on those I follows blogs / personal sites and then otherwise publications, but only that. I feel like I'm done with all current social media. I don't want bluesky, I don't want another mirror of am old platform; I want a paradigm shift in connecting using the internet that's less toxic. I don't have a clear vision for it, but I know things can be better.

I downloaded the MacOS version of ScreenZen and I'm having a few issues. Does anyone have any solutions?

1. I've set the timer for 20 minutes on each website I've blocked on Chrome (Reddit, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter), but every time I open it, it defaults to 7 minutes. I've restarted my Macbook, quit and reopened ScreenZen, reset the timers, added and removed the websites, etc., but it keeps locking me out after 7 minutes which is super annoying. I'm trying to work my way down from 20 but if it keeps starting at 7 then I don't know what to do.
2. The pause countdown only works if you're on the tab. If you switch tabs or even switch screens onto a different application, then the countdown stops and just resets. I've also noticed that say I used it'll say that I used one of the unlocking sessions (e. going from 1/3 to 2/3) if I leave the screen, even if I didn't actually open the website. Can't tell if this is intentional but it gets kinda annoying.
3. ScreenZen is a little weird on different applications,, mainly the two games I put them on (Roblox & EA). It works fine however it can get a bit laggy and confusing. Not that big of a gripe though.

Overall, the timer one is the most annoying. Do I have to flat-out remove the entire group and add everything again for the timer to work? I only have 4 apps however I'd like to know if there's a way to fix these issues while modifying just the group settings, because I've arranged my groups in a specific order and I want to maintain it. Very specific, I apologize.

Obviously if that's the only way then I'm fine with making a new group however I'd like to know if there's another way to do things. Thank you!

So, after giving myself two weeks, and giving myself some time to do scientific research, reading books and educating myself, that i no longer want to use Meta or other brolarchy related apps. I finally went through with it today, it feels very strange. It feels very radical to do this. I want to also get rid off whatsapp now, considering it is owned by meta, but the social ties i have there feel very strong. I am in the EU and everyone uses whatsapp here. It feels kind of useless to remove my facebook and instagram if i do not remove it, yet it feels like i'd give myself social pariah status if i would remove whatsapp. Please, if you can help me weigh rationally and scientifically based, the pro's and cons of taking this step, it would help me.

Alright, this is another one of those "buhbye" posts. I've taken a lot of steps and now I'll say goodbye to lurking on Reddit, TwiX, and anything else that I was still doomscrolling. For me, getting rid of internet at home, getting a dumbphone, and using those timer boxes on my tablet was really key. Ready for next step.

Rather than say forever, I'll say one year, Ground Hog's Day. Maybe I'll return and let you know how it went. Thanks for the ideas, in this ironic sub.

Adios.

for the past couple years, my screentime would hover around 8-12 hours. i mainly use twitter. i plan to leave it by the end of the month. i want my attention span back so bad! i live in a remote area, and i have pretty niche interests in music and film, so twitter gave a chance to connect with others and discuss our interests in a way i can't access irl. so i thought of setting up a wordpress blog and letting my closest followers online know of it. it seems like a much healthier, less time-consuming way to communicate. would this be a good idea?

I’ve enjoyed using ScreenZen as a way to cutback on social media usage. But its becoming apparent that I’ve been abusing the Quick Disable feature.

Is there a way to just out right turn it off?

As is far too common nowaday, I spend too much time on my phone or my iPad. The excuses I tend to give myself are that I’ve got nothing going on in my life right now, unable to leave the house alone at times due to my health, and even just the act of being in my house makes me loose any motivation most days. So I‘ll feel like if I don’t follow my regular schedule of staring at my phone and the TV or playing video games all day, I’ll be super bored.

And I needed a new phone last year, stupidly chose the iPhone 16 Pro, so now I‘ll use the excuse that I’ve wasted my money if I don’t use it.

I’m just sick of being in a loop. Deleting loads of apps, trying to use my phone less, then within days I’m back to my old habits.

I HATE how Instagram has become, crappy algorithms and I don't know where people have gone to. In used to be super active, signed up within the first few months of it being launched. I have people on there that have been me move country, get married, and vice versa - it's been a lot of years. Lately I just don't seem to see them post anything though; every timer I log on it's spam, friend requests from Indian men, and a lot of politics.

I really don't know where people have gone; are they not posting anymore or is it the algorithm? I have downloaded everything from Instagram, but being an introvert, I will probably never speak to any of these people again. I moved abroad a few years ago but just haven't really found a group here despite trying hard. Instagram has somewhat become a comfort. I love sharing photos, seeing what people are doing, none of that is stressful to me, but it's not what it once was. I have created an account on Pixelfed but it's not like I know anyone there. Are there alternatives? I want to feel connected.

(not an ad, lol)

I recently installed a chrome extension called Shut Up (comment blocker) which blocks comment sections on all sites, and suddenly the internet has become far less depressing.

It's easy to think that the people in toxic comment sections represent humanity at large but that's definitely not true. Even if you are aware of this, reading mean and vindictive comments all day undoubtedly colours your view of the world.

Delete the apps from your phone, use browser versions only, and block comments. Your brain will thank you.

I made an exception for YouTube, where I instead used my adblocker to block Comment Replies, and that turned YouTube comments into a pretty welcoming space (and I don't see any argument threads or bot replies)

Just a showerthought I had. Without the internet (and in more general terms, quick pleasures) we'd be so bored out of our minds that we'd actually do the stuff we now think is boring, just to be occupied with anything.

If I think about it, my past 13 years have only been mostly about wasting time on the internet (in the form of youtube, porn, or anything). It is a pretty damn useful thing, which everyone nowadays needs for work at least, but it's so tempting to distract yourself with it, because its just so super easy.

I honestly think we would achieve way more without the internet at all. As an example, take studying. Would you rather successfully study with only a textbook and paper, or would you successfully study with only a computer and some free lecture notes? You may think that with the internet, you have more options available, so you can be more productive, but in the end you end up doing nothing really. While with the textbook, not only will you acknowledge the value of a textbook, but you will at least do something with it. That's how I feel at least about all of that

I'm 28 now, basically fcked up my life so far because since I was around 15 (when social media started to become mainstream), I chose brainrot comfort instead of productive boredom. I guess it's time to go back to old-school, analog ways of life, to embrace the value things like a textbook or a music CD have.

This is also what ive noticed. Nowadays, we take it for granted that there are free textbooks online, music available on youtube, porn to find everywhere. Thus, we don't value the "original form" anymore, like textbooks, music CDs, dating. There is something disposable about the nature of things nowadays. Back then, you were lucky to find a textbook in a store or library on a specific thing (I still remember those times!). Now, there are hundreds of free textbooks online available, so they're replaceable and disposable. Same goes for music, you'd be lucky to find a band from your favorite genre in a music store, now you just go to youtube and find hundreds of bands in that genre. I guess you see the pattern, and its no wonder that people are more and more depressed and nihilistic nowadays, as things literally dont have value for them anymore.

tl;dr: due to basically unlimited availability of things online, we dont value them anymore, creating a depressed, nihilistic and bored mindset within us which leads to seeking short-term-pleasure online to distract oneself