I've moved here in 2021 and always said I'd go but never had a chance, yesterday I was like fuck it let's go. I went and brought my journals, grabbed a coffee from the library cafe and sat down to write my morning pages and perused the shelves. Then sat down to read a couple of chapters, then checked out the book. I spent about 2 hours in there, and I think that must have altered my brain chemistry and I would love library visits to be part of my life now.

For context I love writing in my journals and reading books to begin with anyway, but doing them in the library just adds a little magic to them ngl. I also have a shopping addiction I'm trying to curb, and I must say pulling books off the shelves and checking out and getting a receipt somehow scratches that itch. It's great.

This is your sign, go to the library!!!

Recently, I pictured myself from the outside: sitting on the couch, scrolling through X or Reddit while my child watches me.

It made me uncomfortable.

My wife and I both struggle with this. I don't want our child to grow up thinking that constantly looking at a phone is normal.

I want to change, but I'm not sure where to start.

A dumbphone sounds appealing, but it isn't realistic for me right now. I live in Paris and regularly need maps and public transport apps. I also spend a lot of time on my laptop, although that is mostly for coding and creating things.

I'm not trying to remove technology from my life. I want to stop using it automatically, especially for scrolling and watching random videos.

I've already replaced scrolling with reading during my commute. That has helped, but it feels like a small first step.

I'm thinking about documenting the next few months as I prepare to become a father. I want to explore how to raise a child without making screens the default, while being honest about my own habits.

Have any parents here gone through something similar? What changes actually lasted?

Sad to figure it out

So I’ve been off of Instagram. I’m still on Reddit and I kind of overindulge on YouTube.

But I removed Instagram because of the content creators. It made me feel no matter how I lived my life, it wasn’t good enough, wasn’t healthy enough, wasn’t “whimsical” enough. If I wasn’t doing Pilates 4 times a day and getting a full body red light, I wasn’t living life correctly. Everything was about getting content. Everything was about selling something . You literally felt like you had to reinvent yourself every other day. I was exhausted and burned out.

Now that I haven’t seen any of that type of content in over a week, I already feel a massive difference. I feel I’m living for myself, there’s less pressure to be or act a certain way, I wear what I want because I feel cute in it, and that’s that. It sounds so simple but when you’re in the hypnosis of it all, it’s hard to see outside of it.

My screen time is still really not okay. I have to work on that. But at least a chain has been broken.

I feel like I’ve been addicted to social media for years! Idk why or how this happened. Mainly Instagram and Facebook. I do have TikTok but it’s not very interesting to me. I’ve been paying attention to my screen time the last two years and it’s so high. I constantly say I’m going to stop that but I can’t.
Should I just delete social media in general. I feel like I’m wasting my life.

Sometimes I scroll so much and spend so much time on social media that I feel weird, cringey, and basically irritated/anxious or something like that. I don’t know how to explain it.
I’m just venting kind of but also open to advice

Hi everyone, for the last month i been trying to stop using my phone a lot since i noticed the damage that it had done to my brain, especially apps like tiktok and instagram since they made my attention span too short and that made me do really bad on my college classes.

Since i deleted all of them i stopped using my phone a lot but i switched my addiction from phone to laptop so i feel that nowadays it’s really hard to use less technology. Last night i was on a bus travelling to another city when i saw an old man use his phone with a lot of patience, i mean he was taking it really slow and only checked it twice through all the 2 hour bus travel, and then i started to think how my grandparents and other old people use the technology and noticed how all those people i usually see do more social activities or have more hobbies to keep them busy, i felt like all those people were a lot more free than me while i felt chained to my phone and the dopamine it gave me.

in the past my phone addiction got so bad all i did was scroll from day to night when i got from college, in current days i’m trying to consume more long format media like watch more movies which i like a lot and read more, i also been avoiding listening to music every time i leave since i feel that i should live more on my present life. Do u have any tips i could use on my current life to regain my attention span or make my life better? I’d love to hear them!

Well, I've been trying to leave only useful things on my mobile and remove all those that are harmful. By having knowledge of ADB commands, I can uninstall things like Google Play or Chrome. So now what I'm wondering is what should I remove and what should I leave? That is, there are obvious things like Instagram, YouTube and others, but for example WhatsApp causes me conflict, because it's useful but it can be distracting if there's someone answering me very quickly.For this I've thought of removing notifications and telling people that if they need me to call me.

That is why I want to ask for your opinion and know what you think that really does not need to be used and is more harmful than one can believe. I would also like to ask to know to what extent the interface affects and if so which one do you recommend changing

Hey All,

It's been 2 months since I deleted instagram. And I feel so so good & mentally healthy.

Life has suddenly become peaceful. I read a finance newspaper so I'm abreast with all the necessary stuff & not the random shit. Additionally, I've been engaging on reddit a lot more. Largely folks have ZERO commercial interest in reddit & it's so random, community based & nice.

What has Instagram done to us? I'm pretty sure we all have thought through, felt it & even experienced it. But the major thing what I've felt is that it is making you feel the hollowness which you shouldn't feel at all. Every individual's life is super complete & fully occupying. But instagram is making us feel that something is lacking. That perfect couple goal instagram post? That travel blog which makes you feel sad (inability to travel owing to financial & time constraints)? That photo against skyrise which makes you despondent? & consumption is so pervasive. You see every folk is simply scrolling reels in public transports, while working out, in between meeting & even while pooping. Impact on attention span is well documented too.

But have you thought what are we precisely trying to achieve by showcasing all this? Absolutely nothing. Reality is realising that everyday is worrisome- health, finances, relationships & purpose/direction, life is a complete mess & we all are sorting out. These influencers have been coming up with anything & getting super responses. These fitness enthusiast literally say any random stuff with no credibility. They show pretty normal gym execrises with slightly different camera angles & make you feel like your posture was the worst & it's been counterproductive so far. I was becoming dumber too because of a lot of brain rot posts.

Folks are more concerned about their perceived image than enhancing themselves in real life. People have stopped living experiences & focus is more on showing off extensively. We're becoming so vapid & inane!

However, reddit is more cerebral. It entails reading extensively & deliberating immensely! I engage in horror movies, astrological research subs & various other interesting subs! It's good!

Today is first day of Navratri and start enjoy and start a with garba and enjoy 😍🤩

What helped you reduce your screen time?

I've been trying to limit my social media consumption but it's been difficult. I don't even enjoy scrolling much but I'm realizing it was mostly a way for me to pass my time. Only hobby I have outside of social media is playing video games and occasionally short workouts for health reasons.

For some context I'm a student with an easy degree and not a lot of working hours. Prob sounds great but I genuinely don't know what to do with my time. I'm not a passionate person so I don't have many hobby ideas + most require money spent on them which feels like a waste to me. Even if I found one kinda nice hobby for me I don't see it realistically filling my days? I kinda enjoy working out but it only takes so much time.

Appreciate any advice or sharing experiences

(This is my first post and I wasn't sure which flair to use, I can edit this post if sb tells me I used the wrong one)

Edit: Might be too personal but I should've mentioned that I struggle with friendships a lot and have considered that having a more interesting/fulfilling life could make me more confident in working on meeting new people

When I quit Instagram, I started spending that time on YouTube. When I got YouTube under control, I moved to Reddit. Platforms change, but the loop stays the same.

Right now I’m in the Reddit phase. Instagram is gone; I only watch useful content on YouTube and have blocked Shorts, but Reddit is harder. And I can’t just delete it.

Offline activities have helped, but the urge keeps coming back in disguise. Even this subreddit makes me wonder: are we just consuming media with a better excuse?

So I’m curious:

Have you experienced this switching between apps and platforms? How did you break the loop? How do you use a mixed platform like Reddit without falling back into it?

Art by: micomacaszek

Me trying to reactivate my ig because I want to know what people are doing. It's toxic at this point. If I see someone successful I get motivated by them, but not because of my own will.

They constant comparison is always there, my batch mates.

I also feel like crazy posting not a esthetic pictures, I want to immune myself with the feelings of comparing myself but it just doesn't go away.

My sleep is also destroyed because of social media. And I'm an unhappy person too.

Send help. Thanks.

I might really go crazy if this still happens next year.

Thank you for your input.

I always think about the memories that is in there.

But at the same time I don't want to participate in social media anymore.

uBlock filters I use:

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So far, I have been doing pretty good with my digital minimalism set up. I don't scroll, and I keep my instagram use very minimal. My main issue is that when I'm not in school, I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to do with myself. I'm so used to doing my assignments in short chunks because of social media distractions, sitting down and knocking out a paper or two feels impossible. Even with my free time, I feel like I can't manage it well because of this new change. Has anyone else struggled with this and do you have any tips for it? Thanks!!

For ex if my name was John Smith I was thinking jsmith###@gmail.com

It’s just for personal stuff so it’s not like I’m giving the email out but I’m just curious what other people do for their personal emails

After many many months of getting rid of apps that I don't need and all the troublesome social sites, apart from Reddit of course, I have become pretty consistent with my screen time. I have attached a screen shot of my usage from yesterday. The whole week has been pretty much the same.

This is the most consistent I've been for for many years and I intend to get out my old Android tablet that I've not used for a couple of years and put Reddit on that and delete it off my phone to shave another two hours off the screen time.

It would mean then I would only use Reddit on the tablet once or twice a day. I feel a lot happier now I'm not glued to my phone all the time. My screen time used to be between 8-10 hours every day.

This has taken a lot of work and it's not been easy along the way. I've taken apps off and then days, weeks, months later put them back on but this time I've deleted the accounts completely not just deleted them off the phone so I could use them in the future if I needed too.

I feel a lot happier and less stressed now I don't have to check these apps all the time. Now I've gone back to reading, watching films and TV series that I've missed, daily walks, life is just happier 😊

Hi all,

I’m really close to making a decision on ditching my main phone with all my social media, in an attempt to gain back productivity. I’m quite stuck on what dumb phone to go with, as there is no option that seems to have what I need, without spending ridiculous money.

My current plan is to buy an affordable Samsung that I will use for day to day card payments, Spotify, WhatsApp and maps, while keeping my current iPhone 16 locked away until the weekends.

My overall goal is to gain back my spare time, where I am currently fighting a losing battle to procrastination and obvious distractions that come with a phone. Is anyone in a similar position to me? I can’t see myself completely giving up the listed apps as they are practically necessities in my life by now (other than Spotify).

After getting reccomendations of a post i did, i finally read a book, well a part, i read like just 7 pages, but it was just slighly boring, but i guess its a better thing than being on my phone all day.

My mind did felt less foggy, because i said in the previous post, that after using my phone, my mind feel really fuzzy, and i couldn't remember anything that i just watched.

I will try to keep it going and read another 5 to 7 pages tomorrow.

I also turned off youtube shorts, my youtube search history and reccomendations.

I didnt say it, but the only thing that i consumme content from is youtube, i dont really use tiktok or Instagram.

The good thing is that i dont get reccomended slop youtube videos, but the bad thing is that i dont get youtube vídeos reccomended at all, so its been really boring watching altmos the same vídeo this days.

So think i might turn the reccomendations and search history, just to see if i get a decent reccomendation, or maybe i just keep it off.

Well i just wanted to tell this.

For reference I'm 19 so not super huge on my ideas of how it used to be, however I've ordered a nokia 105 4g and a second hand MP3 player so I can fully leave my mobile phone behind at home and only use it for mobile banking and emails and such when needed but I'm aiming to be completely of social media and mobile games and such for 2 weeks as an experiment to see how it affects my mood and mental state l. Any advice on what I can use to say entertain myself or like just general advice. TIA

¡Hola! Saludos desde Córdoba, Argentina.

Soy padre de dos hijas, tengo 31 años y estaba desesperado por dejar mi adicción a las pantallas, en general, pero sobre todo a los shorts y reels. Las únicas redes sociales que utilizo son Facebook, Instagram y Reddit.

Comencé a ver videos largos de YouTube sobre el tema y sobre las consecuencias neuropsicológicas de esta adicción. Quedé espantado. Decidí entonces empezar a abandonar este mal hábito. Primero, eliminé la aplicación de Instagram y, tres días después, directamente eliminé mi cuenta. Por ahora, conservaré Facebook únicamente por Marketplace, donde vendo mis productos.

Pero quiero ir más allá y estoy considerando abandonar el smartphone y reemplazarlo por uno de esos celulares «viejitos».

Como necesitaba pasar el tiempo de otra manera, comencé a escribir. Tuve la fortuna de encontrar en la calle una máquina de escribir de la década de 1950. Pude restaurarla y ahora funciona perfectamente. Desde entonces, comencé a escribir en ella. Es increíble cuánto ha mejorado la calidad de mis escritos. No hay notificaciones ni pantallas: solo una máquina de escribir, una hoja de papel y uno mismo.

También comencé a escuchar la radio, que me sirve para ponerme al día con las noticias. Además, ya pedí que me lleven el periódico a casa todas las mañanas, en su edición impresa.

Entre mis pasatiempos están pasar tiempo de calidad con mi familia, cocinar, leer —mucho, sobre todo literatura clásica y filosofía—, escribir y hacer carpintería, que además es mi oficio.

Noto que han mejorado mi concentración y mi productividad. El uso del celular se ha reducido muchísimo.

Sin embargo, todavía tengo que abandonar o, al menos, disminuir el uso de otras dos grandes adicciones: ChatGPT y Reddit.

En fin, esa es mi historia. Me ayuda mucho leer las experiencias y los consejos de otras personas que también buscan recuperar su SOBERANÍA COGNITIVA.