7 ms·

On a personal level I have become more anxious and it has become more difficult to deal with my tendency to procrastinate the more screen time I have and the mo

On a personal level I have become more anxious and it has become more difficult to deal with my tendency to procrastinate the more screen time I have and the more I am exposed to social media. I have in essence deleted the vast majority of my social media accounts years ago, but stayed a passive and rather anonymous consumer on Reddit, X and YouTube. A few weeks ago I blocked them too. I would say in totality I read more than I read growing up, but it was usually in the form of short content. Same goes for watching things. Unlimited access to short form content of any form has made my monkey brain feel a resistance to longer form content and that annoys and scares me. It’s like having free hyper palatable but unhealthy food in front of you at all times while you know that there are fresh ingredients for a proper healthy meal in the fridge. And as absurd as it sounds as a 30 something year old, I am now actively working on getting into the habit of reading books again and watching movies in one go to work on that specific problem. And talking ti my friends and family it looks like many of them struggle with similar problems. I am less worried about the classics or the depth of wisdom that I miss. I am worried about the addiction that is dangled in front of my face and normalised completely now. As for society, I think this is an uphill battle that I don’t see a real and lasting solution for it - and by “it” I mean us fellow humans in aggregate escaping this vortex of what I feel is ultimately self-harming behaviour. I hope for better regulation. I hope for better education. I hope for people realizing how harming it all is and turning around but my sense is that the shape of the world right now will make that so difficult in practice that it won’t happen.

Sparkle101 6d ago
[flagged]
pj_mukh 10d ago
One of the most insidious realities of the introduction of AI is that we've taken our eye off of tech's original sin - the algorithmic feed forensically designed to hijack the brain. I don't see how it's any different than opium and why the regulations should be any different. Even the problem of "AI slop" is mostly that it invades the algorithms, weaponizing them even more. I'm not a huge fan of heavy-handed regulation, but some clinical regulation like making "Explore" tabs or feeds irrelevant to your social networks, opt-in by default would have such a Pareto improvement to all our brains. Instead we are getting endless whinging over water usage in data centers ironically flooding our algorithmic feeds.
- Aurornis 10d ago
  > I don't see how it's any different than opium During the marijuana prohibition days the resounding chorus in the discourse was that marijuana was not physically addictive like other drugs, and therefore we must treat it differently. There were problems with that argument if you got into the details, but it did establish the idea that not all drugs are equally harmful and therefore treating them all equally was not logical. It’s funny now to see these equivalencies where we’re supposed to believe that social media is no different than extremely powerful drugs that have severe withdrawal syndromes and wreak havoc on their user’s bodies. The equivalence is obviously false to anyone who has been in the sad position of knowing an opioid addict. It’s possible to make arguments about social media that don’t depend on obviously false equivalence to powerful drugs.
  - pj_mukh 10d ago
    I'm comparing to Opium not for exact chemical effect equivalence but for the level of Government urgency required. There's been a fair bit of work down now to identify clear physiological withdrawal symptoms too[1]. The main damage though is on cognitive strengths (far more pronounced than Marijuana). [1]: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10339588/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10339588/
  - customguy 10d ago
    A long time ago on the forum I hang out with, I said something like "this is amazing, this is like heroin!" about whatever (not even a substance, probably something silly like a song or a video game). A guy who I knew as nothing but laid back and gracious scolded me in a way I remember to this day... not the exact words, but part of it was that he knew a couple who just handed off their new born baby for adoption to get their next shot. And I could tell there was a lot unsaid, too. Sorry for the tangent, but I guess, fuck heroin etc., and all the power to anyone struggling with it, things like it, or has loved ones or friends that do.
    - mitxela 10d ago
      Do you think anyone does that for social media? Or would if it wasn't free?
Aurornis 10d ago
> I have in essence deleted the vast majority of my social media accounts years ago, but stayed a passive and rather anonymous consumer on Reddit, X and YouTube Most of the people I’ve known who struggled with doomscrolling had established a similar set of social media sites at their worst point. I think we’ve seen so many articles about how social media is bad that reference mainstream sites like Facebook and Instagram that it feels safer to retreat to sites like Reddit Yet the most doomer, anxious, and cynical people I’ve known who got stuck in social media doom spirals were getting it primarily from Reddit, often with a helping of YouTube, X, or Twitch streamers on the side. They would be convinced that they were “off of social media” because they didn’t consider those sites among the bad ones, but they’d open their phones or laptops and feed streams of doom straight into their brains for hours every day. Cutting the cord on those sites was a good move if you realized you were having problems with social media. They’re not typically grouped into “social media” by people who create narrow definitions of what that means (profile picture, real names, etc) but those distinctions mean nothing for doom scrolling. When it comes to the doom part of doom scrolling, Reddit especially can be even worse than traditional social media. The content popular on that site is almost designed to fill you with dread and doom and depression.
- weird-eye-issue 10d ago
  X is honestly among the worst of the worst. People give purposefully bad takes just for the engagement and it's overall super toxic Reddit is awful too, completely accurate things can get downvoted to oblivion because of the hive mind YouTube is still overall decent but mostly brainrot I habitually watch/listen to in the background to such a high degree it's hard to even imagine completely cutting it out of my life
  - esskay 10d ago
    I'm mostly passive on reddit these days but really struggle to leave it as I do enjoy seeing things like cool projects people are making on /r/selfhosting and such. Every time I think of leaving it I just think well I cant because where will i find out about cool new projects now.
somenameforme 10d ago
There was a time, not that long ago, when cocaine was 100% normalized. It was a regular ingredient used in everything from basic OTC remedies to, most famously Coca Cola which was Cocaine + Kola nut. And Coca Cola itself was based on Vin Mariani, a wine mixed with cocaine that was drunk or endorsed by everybody from Popes to Thomas Edison and Ulysses S Grant. It was also regularly offered for free to laborers by employers because it was seen to observe productivity, and all other sorts of stuff. So we were pretty much a nation of coke heads. It's probably much more difficult to see the harm in things when its so normalized. But of course people did and so the tide gradually shifted against it. We're already seeing the exact same process play out with social media and, more generally, digital addictions. But it's a relatively unprecedented technology in that it's essentially a digital drug that can't be especially well defined. But I expect these things are well on there way out. The age restrictions will likely come with broader prohibitions if they are positive outcomes from such, and we're already seeing exactly that in places like Australia. Government and intelligence agencies desire to use it for mind control or whatever will probably quickly fade once they realize the same concept (which I think is quite frankly absurd - hence my sardonic term) could just as well be used against them, were it possible.
- DystopiaNow 10d ago
  [dead]
- pjc50 10d ago
  You can actually see this phenomenon happening now with alcohol consumption, which is in a long decline .. replaced by social media addiction.
  - hirvi74 10d ago
    Don't forget vaping and nicotine pouch addiction too.
- teiferer 10d ago
  > most famously Coca Cola which was Cocaine + Kola nut. That's a common misleading myth. Early coca cola was coca leaves and kola nut. Yes, the former contained cocaine alkaloids. But it's different from saying you take a soda and mix it with cocaine. The dosage wasn't comparable to a snorted line today.
FoundAnotherOne 10d ago
[flagged]
- Escapado 10d ago
  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.
- Insanity 10d ago
  Might be nit-picking but forum != social media (to me).
  - specproc 10d ago
    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.
    - Insanity 10d ago
      It’s my most used website according to Apple Screentime. So you’re probably right (daily average around 30 min).
    - YZF 10d ago
      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.
chistev 10d ago
One problem for me about leaving social media is that it limits my chances of getting updates about jobs, and if I start a business, social media is a good way of promoting the business. I wish I was in a financial position where I didn't have to bother about this. I've been limiting my use of social media (aside Reddit and HN) for almost two weeks now and I've been reading books and doing other things with my time rather than consuming content that isn't beneficial to me. Check out the Wikipedia article - The Shallows """ The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. The book claims research shows "online reading" yields lower comprehension than reading a printed page. The Shallows was a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. """ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shallows_(book) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shallows_(book)
- Marsymars 10d ago
  > if I start a business, social media is a good way of promoting the business. I've had the thought that if I were to start a business, social media manager (or a comparable outsourced gig) would be one of my first hires. Like I'd far rather deal with tax minutia and skip on hiring an accountant in favour of being able to outsource social media use.
  - chistev 10d ago
    Sounds cool.
javier2 10d ago
Yeah, I have stopped basically all consumption except from youtube, which itself also has a tendency to expand to fill all available time. I dont use shorts that much, but there is just much good content being released as well.
TexanFeller 10d ago
One of my problems with blocking things like YouTube is that there’s so much outstanding long form content that’s not always available elsewhere. I love watching semi popularized physics lectures like from Sean Carroll but I can’t help but click on the mindless content next to it after, or even during, my wholesome viewing.
- Sparkle101 6d ago
  [flagged]
- Barrin92 10d ago
  the semi popularized physics lectures are also mindless content. It's infotainment, it might be worse than junk because it disguises itself as learning. People will consume thousands of hours of that stuff and not be able to solve one physics problem. Endless exercise and fitness science videos and still be out of shape. Watch language learning content and never speak another language. Endless programming tutorials without ever being able to program. As the author of the article points out, Neil Postman correctly observed that the Sesame Street didn't teach people anything but how to watch television. People watch "education YouTube" but don't get a tangible education, they learn how to watch YouTube.
  - SirHumphrey 10d ago
    3blue1brown helped me quite a bit when I needed to learn calculus ahead of school curriculum, the same could be said for circuit design and a few other things. In general most that an edutainment can give you is awareness that something exists and a bit of motivation to get you going and there is some value in that. Whether on the whole it’s a positive thing is a bit harder to say.
  - TexanFeller 10d ago
    There are degrees of mindless! I know one can't substitute watching lectures for serious study, but it's a great substitute for the far more mindless and addictive content I would be tempted by otherwise. There are lots of interesting topics in the foundations of physics and areas of mathematics my undergrad didn't cover that came to my attention this way. I enjoy getting a sampler now while I don't have the time/energy after work to study them for real, and they will inform what I study when I get and/or make time for them in my life soon.
originalvichy 10d ago
It’s quite infuriating that all those sites you mention have gone with the race to the bottom to just hook in users with garbage content. Just last week, Youtube took even more steps in hiding your subscriptions homepage on iOS, and on desktop the shorts (content made for phones in portrait mode) is front and centre.
phyzix5761 10d ago
Reddit and X are highly toxic environments that exploit people with mental health issues.
talon8635 10d ago
Reddit might be the worst doom scrolling service out there
- raffraffraff 10d ago
  Especially now that old.reddit.com requires a login. That's me done with Reddit!
  - nerdyadventurer 10d ago
    I also noticed this, login prompt seems to have added recently. Also you cannot anonymously scroll on mobile browser for long, prompts to install the app.
ikr678 10d ago
How much caffiene do you consume? I had just been prescribed a script for an ssri for generalised anxiety, was scared of the side effects, decided to try cutting out coffee instead. Anxiety gone. I was only having 2-3 filter cups a day, probably less mg than a single large energy drink but that was enough.
- eastbound 10d ago
  Coffee is also a temporary antidepressant, so I personally couldn't cut that.
- Felger 10d ago
  How much time did it take since you completely cut off caffeine for the anxiety to settle down ?
  - ikr678 10d ago
    Took a few weeks off, couldnt deal with the headaches, went back to one cup every 2-3 days of measured espresso. No more getting anxious and worked up about small things and picking fights with my partner. When you are trying to have none, it's suddenly everywhere and in your face without realising it.
    - thorin 9d ago
      This is interesting? Do you have any other sources of caffeine in your diet? For instance I would have a regular can of coke maybe once a week and English breakfast tea at least once a day. Only coffee seems to really affect me though. I don't really need the affect but I do like the taste and now probably have 3 or 4 coffees a week rather than 2 a day and it seems to be helping.
kurthr 10d ago
For those who would minimize the effects of social media on teens, I would highly recommend looking at this report of Meta's own research on the matter, published after it was revealed in discovery by States AGs. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6069268 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6069268 Or listen to just a few minutes of Patrick Boyle talking about them. https://youtu.be/IUMUJgjDvU0?list=TLPQMDYwOTIwMjbX3y5H-uRecw&t=621 https://youtu.be/IUMUJgjDvU0?list=TLPQMDYwOTIwMjbX3y5H-uRecw...
outside1234 10d ago
The thing to realize is that you aren't alone in this feeling. I feel exactly the same as you. Has anyone found a way to reduce this addiction?
- Sparkle101 6d ago
  [flagged]
- adolfojp 8d ago
  The proliferation of AI content is making these platforms so disgusting to me that I'm actually quitting, and for real this time. I guess it works like putting bitterant in cans of compressed air to stop people from huffing them. It started as you expect, with more and more bot accounts pretending to be real people to either act as sleeper agents for future causes or to actively promote politics and products, except they're now interactive so you're tricked into engaging with them. But the tipping point for me was when real people started using AI to write their posts and comments for them. And I'm not just talking about randos but about real people you follow who have written tech books and such. I've seen a few of them admit to this when confronted and they use the same excuse, that these are their thoughts and they stand by them, they're just improved by AI. And I'm not just talking about long posts or comments. You see it with one liner responses which leads me to think that their reddit experience has now been automated and that at the most they hit approve on a queue. So I've become cynical, almost in a state of solipsism, about every post and comment that I see, assuming everything is AI by default until I've checked which is now almost impossible with the private history. And at that point being on reddit is just like chatting with an LLM but with extra deception, so why even try.
OroPla 9d ago
It's how our brain works. I don't think anyone can see long term success cutting out things that stimulate our brain in just the right way. If you cut a few out, you'll just discover some others. Things were a lot better for the brain when information wasn't coming in as an unending stream that even sometimes responds to what you have to say.
cromka 8d ago
I personally really badly hope that the ongoing revival of 90s lifestyle will also bring back printed press.

Sparkle101 6d ago

[flagged]

pj_mukh 10d ago

One of the most insidious realities of the introduction of AI is that we've taken our eye off of tech's original sin - the algorithmic feed forensically designed to hijack the brain. I don't see how it's any different than opium and why the regulations should be any different. Even the problem of "AI slop" is mostly that it invades the algorithms, weaponizing them even more. I'm not a huge fan of heavy-handed regulation, but some clinical regulation like making "Explore" tabs or feeds irrelevant to your social networks, opt-in by default would have such a Pareto improvement to all our brains. Instead we are getting endless whinging over water usage in data centers ironically flooding our algorithmic feeds.

Aurornis 10d ago
> I don't see how it's any different than opium During the marijuana prohibition days the resounding chorus in the discourse was that marijuana was not physically addictive like other drugs, and therefore we must treat it differently. There were problems with that argument if you got into the details, but it did establish the idea that not all drugs are equally harmful and therefore treating them all equally was not logical. It’s funny now to see these equivalencies where we’re supposed to believe that social media is no different than extremely powerful drugs that have severe withdrawal syndromes and wreak havoc on their user’s bodies. The equivalence is obviously false to anyone who has been in the sad position of knowing an opioid addict. It’s possible to make arguments about social media that don’t depend on obviously false equivalence to powerful drugs.
- pj_mukh 10d ago
  I'm comparing to Opium not for exact chemical effect equivalence but for the level of Government urgency required. There's been a fair bit of work down now to identify clear physiological withdrawal symptoms too[1]. The main damage though is on cognitive strengths (far more pronounced than Marijuana). [1]: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10339588/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10339588/
- customguy 10d ago
  A long time ago on the forum I hang out with, I said something like "this is amazing, this is like heroin!" about whatever (not even a substance, probably something silly like a song or a video game). A guy who I knew as nothing but laid back and gracious scolded me in a way I remember to this day... not the exact words, but part of it was that he knew a couple who just handed off their new born baby for adoption to get their next shot. And I could tell there was a lot unsaid, too. Sorry for the tangent, but I guess, fuck heroin etc., and all the power to anyone struggling with it, things like it, or has loved ones or friends that do.
  - mitxela 10d ago
    Do you think anyone does that for social media? Or would if it wasn't free?

Aurornis 10d ago

> I have in essence deleted the vast majority of my social media accounts years ago, but stayed a passive and rather anonymous consumer on Reddit, X and YouTube Most of the people I’ve known who struggled with doomscrolling had established a similar set of social media sites at their worst point. I think we’ve seen so many articles about how social media is bad that reference mainstream sites like Facebook and Instagram that it feels safer to retreat to sites like Reddit Yet the most doomer, anxious, and cynical people I’ve known who got stuck in social media doom spirals were getting it primarily from Reddit, often with a helping of YouTube, X, or Twitch streamers on the side. They would be convinced that they were “off of social media” because they didn’t consider those sites among the bad ones, but they’d open their phones or laptops and feed streams of doom straight into their brains for hours every day. Cutting the cord on those sites was a good move if you realized you were having problems with social media. They’re not typically grouped into “social media” by people who create narrow definitions of what that means (profile picture, real names, etc) but those distinctions mean nothing for doom scrolling. When it comes to the doom part of doom scrolling, Reddit especially can be even worse than traditional social media. The content popular on that site is almost designed to fill you with dread and doom and depression.

weird-eye-issue 10d ago
X is honestly among the worst of the worst. People give purposefully bad takes just for the engagement and it's overall super toxic Reddit is awful too, completely accurate things can get downvoted to oblivion because of the hive mind YouTube is still overall decent but mostly brainrot I habitually watch/listen to in the background to such a high degree it's hard to even imagine completely cutting it out of my life
- esskay 10d ago
  I'm mostly passive on reddit these days but really struggle to leave it as I do enjoy seeing things like cool projects people are making on /r/selfhosting and such. Every time I think of leaving it I just think well I cant because where will i find out about cool new projects now.

somenameforme 10d ago

There was a time, not that long ago, when cocaine was 100% normalized. It was a regular ingredient used in everything from basic OTC remedies to, most famously Coca Cola which was Cocaine + Kola nut. And Coca Cola itself was based on Vin Mariani, a wine mixed with cocaine that was drunk or endorsed by everybody from Popes to Thomas Edison and Ulysses S Grant. It was also regularly offered for free to laborers by employers because it was seen to observe productivity, and all other sorts of stuff. So we were pretty much a nation of coke heads. It's probably much more difficult to see the harm in things when its so normalized. But of course people did and so the tide gradually shifted against it. We're already seeing the exact same process play out with social media and, more generally, digital addictions. But it's a relatively unprecedented technology in that it's essentially a digital drug that can't be especially well defined. But I expect these things are well on there way out. The age restrictions will likely come with broader prohibitions if they are positive outcomes from such, and we're already seeing exactly that in places like Australia. Government and intelligence agencies desire to use it for mind control or whatever will probably quickly fade once they realize the same concept (which I think is quite frankly absurd - hence my sardonic term) could just as well be used against them, were it possible.

DystopiaNow 10d ago
[dead]
pjc50 10d ago
You can actually see this phenomenon happening now with alcohol consumption, which is in a long decline .. replaced by social media addiction.
- hirvi74 10d ago
  Don't forget vaping and nicotine pouch addiction too.
teiferer 10d ago
> most famously Coca Cola which was Cocaine + Kola nut. That's a common misleading myth. Early coca cola was coca leaves and kola nut. Yes, the former contained cocaine alkaloids. But it's different from saying you take a soda and mix it with cocaine. The dosage wasn't comparable to a snorted line today.

FoundAnotherOne 10d ago

[flagged]

Escapado 10d ago
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.
Insanity 10d ago
Might be nit-picking but forum != social media (to me).
- specproc 10d ago
  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.
  - Insanity 10d ago
    It’s my most used website according to Apple Screentime. So you’re probably right (daily average around 30 min).
  - YZF 10d ago
    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.

chistev 10d ago

One problem for me about leaving social media is that it limits my chances of getting updates about jobs, and if I start a business, social media is a good way of promoting the business. I wish I was in a financial position where I didn't have to bother about this. I've been limiting my use of social media (aside Reddit and HN) for almost two weeks now and I've been reading books and doing other things with my time rather than consuming content that isn't beneficial to me. Check out the Wikipedia article - The Shallows """ The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. The book claims research shows "online reading" yields lower comprehension than reading a printed page. The Shallows was a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. """ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shallows_(book) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shallows_(book)

Marsymars 10d ago
> if I start a business, social media is a good way of promoting the business. I've had the thought that if I were to start a business, social media manager (or a comparable outsourced gig) would be one of my first hires. Like I'd far rather deal with tax minutia and skip on hiring an accountant in favour of being able to outsource social media use.
- chistev 10d ago
  Sounds cool.

javier2 10d ago

Yeah, I have stopped basically all consumption except from youtube, which itself also has a tendency to expand to fill all available time. I dont use shorts that much, but there is just much good content being released as well.

TexanFeller 10d ago

One of my problems with blocking things like YouTube is that there’s so much outstanding long form content that’s not always available elsewhere. I love watching semi popularized physics lectures like from Sean Carroll but I can’t help but click on the mindless content next to it after, or even during, my wholesome viewing.

Sparkle101 6d ago
[flagged]
Barrin92 10d ago
the semi popularized physics lectures are also mindless content. It's infotainment, it might be worse than junk because it disguises itself as learning. People will consume thousands of hours of that stuff and not be able to solve one physics problem. Endless exercise and fitness science videos and still be out of shape. Watch language learning content and never speak another language. Endless programming tutorials without ever being able to program. As the author of the article points out, Neil Postman correctly observed that the Sesame Street didn't teach people anything but how to watch television. People watch "education YouTube" but don't get a tangible education, they learn how to watch YouTube.
- SirHumphrey 10d ago
  3blue1brown helped me quite a bit when I needed to learn calculus ahead of school curriculum, the same could be said for circuit design and a few other things. In general most that an edutainment can give you is awareness that something exists and a bit of motivation to get you going and there is some value in that. Whether on the whole it’s a positive thing is a bit harder to say.
- TexanFeller 10d ago
  There are degrees of mindless! I know one can't substitute watching lectures for serious study, but it's a great substitute for the far more mindless and addictive content I would be tempted by otherwise. There are lots of interesting topics in the foundations of physics and areas of mathematics my undergrad didn't cover that came to my attention this way. I enjoy getting a sampler now while I don't have the time/energy after work to study them for real, and they will inform what I study when I get and/or make time for them in my life soon.

originalvichy 10d ago

It’s quite infuriating that all those sites you mention have gone with the race to the bottom to just hook in users with garbage content. Just last week, Youtube took even more steps in hiding your subscriptions homepage on iOS, and on desktop the shorts (content made for phones in portrait mode) is front and centre.

phyzix5761 10d ago

Reddit and X are highly toxic environments that exploit people with mental health issues.

talon8635 10d ago

Reddit might be the worst doom scrolling service out there

raffraffraff 10d ago
Especially now that old.reddit.com requires a login. That's me done with Reddit!
- nerdyadventurer 10d ago
  I also noticed this, login prompt seems to have added recently. Also you cannot anonymously scroll on mobile browser for long, prompts to install the app.

ikr678 10d ago

How much caffiene do you consume? I had just been prescribed a script for an ssri for generalised anxiety, was scared of the side effects, decided to try cutting out coffee instead. Anxiety gone. I was only having 2-3 filter cups a day, probably less mg than a single large energy drink but that was enough.

eastbound 10d ago
Coffee is also a temporary antidepressant, so I personally couldn't cut that.
Felger 10d ago
How much time did it take since you completely cut off caffeine for the anxiety to settle down ?
- ikr678 10d ago
  Took a few weeks off, couldnt deal with the headaches, went back to one cup every 2-3 days of measured espresso. No more getting anxious and worked up about small things and picking fights with my partner. When you are trying to have none, it's suddenly everywhere and in your face without realising it.
  - thorin 9d ago
    This is interesting? Do you have any other sources of caffeine in your diet? For instance I would have a regular can of coke maybe once a week and English breakfast tea at least once a day. Only coffee seems to really affect me though. I don't really need the affect but I do like the taste and now probably have 3 or 4 coffees a week rather than 2 a day and it seems to be helping.

kurthr 10d ago

For those who would minimize the effects of social media on teens, I would highly recommend looking at this report of Meta's own research on the matter, published after it was revealed in discovery by States AGs. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6069268 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6069268 Or listen to just a few minutes of Patrick Boyle talking about them. https://youtu.be/IUMUJgjDvU0?list=TLPQMDYwOTIwMjbX3y5H-uRecw&t=621 https://youtu.be/IUMUJgjDvU0?list=TLPQMDYwOTIwMjbX3y5H-uRecw...

outside1234 10d ago

The thing to realize is that you aren't alone in this feeling. I feel exactly the same as you. Has anyone found a way to reduce this addiction?

Sparkle101 6d ago
[flagged]
adolfojp 8d ago
The proliferation of AI content is making these platforms so disgusting to me that I'm actually quitting, and for real this time. I guess it works like putting bitterant in cans of compressed air to stop people from huffing them. It started as you expect, with more and more bot accounts pretending to be real people to either act as sleeper agents for future causes or to actively promote politics and products, except they're now interactive so you're tricked into engaging with them. But the tipping point for me was when real people started using AI to write their posts and comments for them. And I'm not just talking about randos but about real people you follow who have written tech books and such. I've seen a few of them admit to this when confronted and they use the same excuse, that these are their thoughts and they stand by them, they're just improved by AI. And I'm not just talking about long posts or comments. You see it with one liner responses which leads me to think that their reddit experience has now been automated and that at the most they hit approve on a queue. So I've become cynical, almost in a state of solipsism, about every post and comment that I see, assuming everything is AI by default until I've checked which is now almost impossible with the private history. And at that point being on reddit is just like chatting with an LLM but with extra deception, so why even try.

OroPla 9d ago

It's how our brain works. I don't think anyone can see long term success cutting out things that stimulate our brain in just the right way. If you cut a few out, you'll just discover some others. Things were a lot better for the brain when information wasn't coming in as an unending stream that even sometimes responds to what you have to say.

cromka 8d ago

I personally really badly hope that the ongoing revival of 90s lifestyle will also bring back printed press.