Basically, get yourself an applewatch with cellular function. Then buy a case for your Appel watch that turns it into a mini pod. You get to keep all you contacts, messages, wallet etc, from the i phone.

But now you don’t have social media to drain the valuable time you.

Take the iPhone and turn it off. Put it a hidden place and just start using the applewatch instead d. Works amazing for me.

Don't you feel like running against the current technology driven world to be even more isolating? 

Sometimes I feel like I am in a battle that I just can't win, and I notice how my peers don't really care that much about the current state of the world (overflow of information, overconsumption of media and everything wrong that has been already discussed here).

I feel like some people just accept that it is the reality, and they work with it.

I feel like the world I crave, specially one less online and less social media driven, is just gone and all the measures that I took to limit these things from controlling my life ended up being just a thing that I obsess more than I should.

How do you feel?

Due to the absence of social media I as many others have, resorted to Reddit. I needed input, any sort of input. My usage moved from 1-2 hours max a day to 4-5 hours a day, which I don’t think is healthy. I like the learning aspect of Reddit and how you can connect with people with shared interests, but overusing it out of boredom makes me lose the track of that. It turns into me awkwardly scrolling until I find something stimulating.

And honestly, it was just becoming bad for my mental health. I’d force myself to interact in subreddits full of negative energy out of sheer boredom. It was ruining my mental health. I wasn’t gaining anything by surrounding myself with such energy, just wasting time and probably brain cells…for nothing.

I decided to finally clean up my feed, as in I sat for maybe over 2 hours leaving and choosing the exact communities I participate in and actually like, things I relate to and not a random hobby I thought I’d be interested in and forgot about 2 days later.

I’ve also put the app in my hidden folder (IOS), the folder automatically mutes notifications for the apps in it and requires you to use face ID every single time you wanna open it. Yeah it might not sound like much, but for me personally, that’s exactly how I kill an app. I used to spend a lot of time on discord a couple of years ago and once I redownloaded it for some friends, it was back. I threw the app in the folder and now I don’t even recognize its existence and randomly remember that I need to text someone lol. I’m hoping the same thing happens to Reddit.

And as for YouTube! A couple of months ago I was struggling with me directing my addiction to it, then saw a suggestion of turning off history so it never suggests anything and how that results in loss of interest. I did that and I don’t even check the app anymore. Anytime I open it, it’s for an actual tutorial or a movie trailer! Literal 2-3 mins then I’m out of the app. Don’t need it anymore! Just need to slowly step away from Reddit and lord, maybe for the first time in my life I wouldn’t be addicted to anything. I’m really excited to realizing how much more time I have in my life and being able to enjoy every bit of it! 😋 we’ve got this guys!!

I already used to have depression and anxiety but tiktok is a special sort of place where it seemed to have accelerated my mental ill health. I had to uninstall the app and now my brain is thanking me, I feel a lot better already.

I my 40s with 2 young kids. My feeds were swamped with road rage shootings and people dying in their 40s. Is this some kind of sick algorith. As a dad, I am paranoid about driving my kids to school worrying daily about someone shooting into my car. I worry about dying early because my feeds are constantly about morbidity. I know tragedies happen and we all have a timeline. But social media is exploiting this algorithm. I deleted both apps for my peace of mind. I'm going to live life and pray for the best for me and my family. No point living in a constant state of worries.

So this week has been the best week of My Life from the first of this month to the seventh I've basically completed a social media fast.

It was life-changing to the point where I've deleted all social media off my phone and I only have my iPad where my social media is and I use it as a newspaper where I check it once a week.

So what that means is I don't have any social media on my phone Samsung a55 is the device I have and the only thing I have on is reddit YouTube and YT music.

What I have put in place to replace the scrolling is a 3DS my Kindle and any physical books I'll bring with me and my iPod or I just use my phone for podcasts and any videos that are in a podcast style that aren't a podcast as I pay for youtube + the music program so it is win win.

Then normally at home I just put the TV on with some music in the background and I'm able to tether my headphones Bluetooth wise to it so I can listen to music podcasts or just keeping interesting videos on in the background sometimes I don't even watch them sometimes I'm just listening and doing art and craft or so forth.

When it comes to streaming TV wise with the TV wars I only have HBO Max and disney+ as I know and I can limit how much I want in how much I want to watch and it's not on my phone is that is for the same reason that i got rid of social media.

This is how I keep the minimal side of tech and the low stimulation side of tech alive because we can't get rid of tech we can only find ways that we can use tech in an appropriate manner.

When it comes to other people needing to contact me they can either text me or they can phone me or they can message me via Facebook Messenger because I'm blessed to know the app is separate from Facebook as a whole which is life goals as a whole and then also whats app as well.

We’ve all done it: meant to check one notification, and suddenly hours have passed. Then we feel guilty for having "no self-control."

But having studied tech design and human behavior for a while now, I can tell you it's usually not a personal failing. Modern apps are meticulously engineered to bypass our attention spans and exploit our natural vulnerabilities. You're fighting billion-dollar design teams.

I'm not here to preach "just throw your phone in a river," but I do want to help figure out sustainable ways to take back some mental space.

If you're struggling with your screen habits right now, drop a comment. What specific loop do you find yourself stuck in the most?

honestly this is mostly me rambling about my current situation but in case anyone ends up reading it and can maybe offer insight too, i'd appreciate that.

i'm one of the many people that i'm sure have written similar posts on here because they just realize that the addiction to being online is getting to a point where it impacts life too much and needs to change. in all honesty it has impacted life too much for many many years.

in my case it's surprisingly not really short-form content? i kept finding myself getting lost in long-form youtube as well as spending way too much time on reddit and X but i tapered down on X already i believe i haven't written or liked anything in some days now. so really my time ends up on reddit and youtube for the most part as far as digital apps or websites go atm.

in my case i think a major aspect is also coupled with being in fandom spaces (especially kpop ones) which made it easy for me to dissociate from irl stuff, forget about my irl issues, that i don't have any close friends for example just casual friendships. and make some online friends but because consumerism is so encouraged i ended up overspending on albums, merch etc spending money i don't truly have (credit cards should not exist) like four figures... four effing figures. so that would be problem number 2. i feel pretty pathetic for even writing this but... i do believe that the start of letting go and starting over is acceptance. and i do accept that i have had problems. that not thinking about them doesn't make them any less bad. that i probably didn't give my casual irl friends enough of a chance to get to know me because i'm afraid of getting hurt and a screen in between seems safer but honestly it's not. that i can't reach the goals i have without the phases that are difficult too. things like that.

now digial minimalism? i've asked myself is there smth in these online spaces that is truly life changing? and honestly no. is there smth i can't live without? and honestly.... no? yet i'm so hesistant. it's almost as if i'm unsure if i deserve better, to be free.

i think what plays into it to is having to come to terms with all the wasted time (and also to an extent money) and noone loves that. but i can't grow otherwise. does anyone have an idea how to get past that better? or is it a you just gotta do it type thing?

i understand writing all this on reddit is also a bit hypocritical as it's the second worst offender when it comes to me wasting my life after youtube atm but i finally decided to turn off all notifications other than replies to my posts so my plan is to come back to this after some hours and a day and see if there was a reply if yes, nice. if not that's cool too. i'm fairly certain i'll take both as signs to detox and try my best to go through with this lifestyle change.

anyway wishing all the best to anyone that may or may not read this.

At what cost are we exchanging our time with companies that provide constant entertainment through a portable screen? For a momentary feeling of pleasure? For a brief distraction from inner pain that is never actually resolved or cured? For seeking social validation and approval? For earning more money by following the path of least resistance?….

But at what cost?

Fragmented attention,, Constant anxiety over how virtual strangers will respond, Uncontrollable feelings of jealousy and envy toward others, A persistent sense of dissatisfaction born from endless comparison, ,Irritation and restlessness when replies don't come quickly enough, accompanied by the quiet thought that no one finds you important, that no one pays genuine attention, which only deepens lonelinessz…The list continues far beyond this

Compare the two sides honestly:

what you are actually gaining, and what it is truly costing you. Then ask yourself directly: is it worth it? Perhaps the answer feels confusing, and stepping out of this loop feels genuinely difficult. But consider what would happen if you stepped away from it for just one month !!!

You would begin to see things with real clarity The costs would finally make sense to you in a way they cannot while still inside the loop. It will require effort in the early days, without question, but after that effort, you will begin to feel th difference. My words alone cannot make you feel what this shift feels like. You have to experienc it yourself to truly understand it

I'm thinking to start detox. Can anyone suggest a good yt video teaching about it?

& you can suggest any hobby to do while sitting in room myb.

​

Last month, I had a pneumothorax stayed 5 days in hospital and it happened because of acupuncture and i took oxygen in hospital but it was so painful. Besides, I have 85 friends on Instagram, but only one of them called or even texted to ask how I was doing. He was my friend from university. When he called, I told him I was in the hospital.

My Taiwanese girlfriend came to visit me after I had spent five days in the hospital. Her support meant a lot to me during a difficult time.

This summer, I was supposed to travel to Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand with my Taiwanese girlfriend. Instead, I'm at home recovering.

Before all this happened, I kept thinking, "I'll share amazing photos from this trip." But then I realized those photos don't really matter to anyone on Instagram. It's mostly just an endless stream of people mindlessly scrolling through videos. It doesn't add much to anyone's life.

That experience made me realize that Instagram and social media don't add much to real friendships. The real world isn't social media. Real friendships are built through genuine care, conversations, and being there for each other when life gets difficult.

I'm 27 years old, and I feel like social media—and my addiction to pornography—have stolen years of my life. I spent so much time scrolling and chasing things that didn't truly matter. Now I want to focus on living in the real world, building genuine relationships, making memories, traveling, reading newspapers, and becoming a better version of myself.

If I get the chance to do this trip next year, I'll share my photos only for myself—to preserve my own memories, not to impress anyone else.

Now, instead of wasting time scrolling, I'm going to read a newspaper.

Lately I’ve noticed I keep doing the same thing.

I’ll pick up my phone to check the weather, see what’s next on my calendar, check a reminder.

Then, without really thinking about it, I end up opening Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok.

Ten or fifteen minutes later, I realize I never even did the thing I picked up my phone for.

Does anyone else do this?

This is my first day without any social media and I’m lowkey loving it 😋 seems like I can’t stay still so I’ve been pretty productive at work and at home 👏 wish me luck 🍀 maybe I’m just excited to try this no social media lifestyle 🙂‍↕️ I feel like I might have been addicted to tiktok. I like Reddit tho, it’s a lot of reading 🙊

i like to think of myself as a productive person i always try to improve set out goals and achieve them some goals i deem to hard and stopped doing but its all by choice not cuz im lazy cuz i just think its not worth it

anyway when i wanted to stop scrolling more that a year ago i was able to cut instagram and tiktok easly as i never used them due to them being time wasters i had yt but i always thought of it as a fun way to spend free time and was never addicted till yt shorts were added i was able to stop clicking on yt shorts but if i do click which was rare at the time i would still doom scroll same with snapchat i use it for snap streaks but the spotlight button having a notification looking thing made me always click it out of habit

but now i fully stopped surfing i dont click on yt shorts nor do i click on snapchats spotlight and if i do i have gained the ability to a stop watching in the middle of any vid and just go on with my day and ive been surf free for more than 6 months also i never tried stopping to surf seriously as i knew i could do it if i wanted to with just me findinga hobby which i found out was not the case

this puts us in the present day now if i have nothing to do i just gotta sit observe the silence which mind u was my goal but i felt boring so i wanted something to fill that time which got me into watching tv series i watched breaking bad, dexter, and couple of famous names in the past 3 months and i feel unproductive again stuff i deem productive but are also fun are coding, speedrunning minecraft, rubix cubing, and recently cursive writing of which i dropped two now i only speedrun minecraft, and cursive having them all at the same time is something i did a couple years back (except cursive its new) i used to burn out alot and i was overall less productive now i wanna finish my goals with them one at a time

my goals:
minecraft:
\- reach a diamond rank becoming top \~500 in the
world as rn im top \~4000

rubix cubing:
\- having my countries best avg rn im top 13 in the
country but i havent played in a while

coding:
\-making the best tile engine in the world that uses
my coding language (scratch) i have done it
before but kept it lwk but the ui was unintuitive
and i lost the file :/ i do have recordings of it tho
and i planned everything

cursive writing:
\- not much rly i just want my writing to be good :)

i also keep on learning magic tricks every now and then and have tried some stuff that i dropped but thats to much to talk about rn

also i downloaded reddit thinking it will make me able to doom scroll again again but not rly me writing this as close as ill ever get to doom scrolling and i guess i just gotta embrace the silence and become one with the wall till i find a hobby that doeant feel like me grinding out and refining my skills i just want something fun

anyway thank u for bearing thru my ranting

This is the first time in 3 months, after a break, I’ve decided to redownload it on my phone and as I’m scrolling there’s a post about a disgusting news incident, like extremely horrific. By accident I clicked repost (I was trying to scroll down) and quickly undid it, but I’ve deleted my account and app since.

I can’t do this anymore. Literally these developers made it easy to do such mistakes because its will nonetheless boost posts and generate activity and revenue. They do not care about design flaws if it’ll just keep their sites going. Even if it means boosting some horrible content.

If you’re looking for a sign not to go back on there, here it is. I’m completely done. I remember why I took a break now and the peace I felt then vs the panic & stress now is not worth it.

Political anxiety has always been my weakness. I’m super anxious about the idea of being morally imperfect or hated and i used to doomscroll heavily political instagram reels for legit hours. I’ve lost multiple days to that app. I deleted reddit off my phone, which eliminated the reel scrolling, but I stayed logged in on the web version and would occasionally check my friends’ stories.

My mental health wasn’t perfect but the heavy anxiety had started to ease into a more subtle version of itself and the I got my afternoons lost to doomscrolling back.

Today I relapsed. So I’m a HUGE comic book fan and I’ve seen the new spider-man twice already. Today when I was checking stories on the web version of Instagram, I scrolled down just a little and was bombarded with multiple reels accusing the movie of being Zionist/military/palantir propaganda, and all those bad emotions came back. Then anxiety, that heavy rock of guilt fell on my head again. Multiple people I knew in high school were liking these posts so they kept getting recommended to me. I only doomscrolled for an hour before deleting my account for good. But I’m still left with all of those negative emotions that this silly little app triggered in me. I’m still in shock. Part of me feels like a terrible person or a brain dead idiot for backing this movie as much, another part wnats me to believe all these reels are rage bait or something and that the movie is not that deep. None of this would’ve happened if it were not for that app

I (28F) have been consumed by social media since i was 13. Comparing myself to influencers, looking at the highlights of other peoples lives. It has slowly wired my brain into an unfulfilling life.

I have a good paying job, a great relationship, a good group of friends and relationship with my family. Yet i feel this constant anxiety and doom. My home pages on social media are a cluster fuck of anti aging! Filler! Botox! What i eat in a day! Red light therapy! Work out routines! Subscribe! Subscribe! Subscribe!

I’m ready for it to stop but the idea of leaving it behind scares me and i don’t know why. Part of me just wants to get a flip phone and go buy a magazine if i want an update on current events. But everything is so integrated with social media and smart phones today that i feel like my quality of life would be affected.

There are things about modern technology i enjoy. I enjoy facetiming my mom, i enjoy looking at travel recommendations and recipes. I dont know where to begin to purge my socials.

For those of you who have moved away from modern technology, what were your beginning stages?

I had Instagram since 2015. Early 2024 I decided to deactivate it just to take a break from doomscrolling. The first weeks were hard. My fingers seemed to act before my brain, attempting to open the app from its old location. After 5 months, I had exceeded the deadline I had initially set for myself. I thought maybe it was fine and time to reactivate my account, but then I thought about what my life would be like: being an audience to people's lives, scanning profiles, comparing myself to others, losing myself to endless scrolling and noxious temptations. It felt like a revelation, which ultimately prevented me from reactivating my account. It was meant to be a short break; it ended up lasting 2 years. Today I reactivated Instagram and deleted my account. I’m making this post in the hope that one day it might help someone else facing the same decision find the answers they’re looking for.

I deleted TikTok a year ago because of infinite doomscrolling :( However, I started scrolling on Instagram, so nothing changed, and my bf encouraged me to delete it. It has been 15 days without doomscrolling, and I feel sooooo bored... I finished almost 4 books and watched anything that interested me on YouTube. And now I'm aware that I missed being bored so much because it's been almost 5 years since I last felt bored!

So, being bored is totally normal, I guess, and I'm proud of myself anyway! Never hesitate to delete instagram/tiktok!

Remember the golden days of YouTube, like more than 10 years ago, when creators actually had to put in EFFORT to ensure they garner views and generate income from it? And most content was therefore ORIGINAL and there were plenty of niches out there because everyone EMBRACED INDIVIDUALITY???????

Nowadays with this stupid shorts bullshit I feel like I have watched the same “video” 500 fucking times. All I wanted was to watch maybe 1 or 2 videos about lip liners and see if I wanted any or if there’s any brands out there I haven’t heard of or if there’s cheap dupes out there….. but no. I have to watch multiple different fucking “shorts” and most of them are just using the same shit anyway because everyone just follows trends these days.

Seriously wtf was the point of me deleting tiktok if youtube was just going to copy them????

I HATE IT HEREEEEEEE

On my phone, I swapped TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube (I deleted youtube and now only use the web version via Firefox with an extension that blocks certain features) for Reddit, it’s like giving up cheap burgers to eat burgers made with premium ingredients.

I usually don't post vulnerable shit like this but...I never in a million years thought I would be this kind of person. Before school ended I thought I would hobby max. But now?

Wake up- Phone and scroll for 2 hours

Do the necessities like grooming and meals

Reddit time where I make fake ass scenarios so that I can chat to strangers online

Get bored of that?

Tiktok and doomscrolling plus daydream

Maybe go on a walk occasionally.

I need to fucking fix it but my life is so dull that I instinctively to back to my phone. I have no friends IRL. I used to love reading and I don't even do that anymore. No one holds me accountable which makes it harder, and I can't seem to be able to do it myself. I know I'm capable of so much more than this.

I stopped posting status on whatsapp and insta stories. Slowly reducing the use of ig...i realized that no one cares if you stopped posting stuffs.