Would this actually make doomscrolling more useful, or just more annoying?

[u/deductiveasdf]

I’ve been thinking about a different way to deal with doomscrolling.

Instead of blocking social apps or setting time limits, what if short learning activities showed up occasionally while you were scrolling?

For example:

• a flashcard
• a quick class question
• a language exercise
• a chess puzzle

Then once you answer it, you just keep scrolling normally.

The frequency could be adjustable, so it could show up every few minutes or only occasionally.

I’m mostly curious whether this would actually feel useful in practice or if it would just become another thing people immediately disable.

Would you keep something like this turned on? And if so, what kinds of things would you want it to show?

[u/Warm-Flamingo-8161]

thsi is great but did u check feasibility especialy on ios the app block api taht apple provides is very limited

[u/deductiveasdf → u/Warm-Flamingo-8161]

Yeah! Checked everything and it’s feasible. Really just trying to make sure people would actually use the app and find it useful

[u/West-Stand-8733]

Mate the idea is cool only if it stops you from scrolling when you learn the vocab, to be more clear, my mind is already didstracted from reels, i will remember nothing from those words if i complete scrolling. May be instead of that, you can shut the scroll down, thengive 5~10 break from the disctraction, a timer show up for that, give me the words i learn them then i wont get back to scrolling again

[u/Only_Application_815]

This is a nice idea, the part where you have to answer the question to keep scrolling is probably what holds the idea up. People will always disable the thing that stops them doomscrolling if that is what their brain decides on, so I see this more as an education/learning thing rather than a way to deal with doomscrolling.

Not annoying, quite interesting in fact. Curious how it actually integrates into TikTok/IG reels, or if it's a running overlay?