In terms of solutions on an individual-level: after a lot of trial and error I feel like what works for me is an absolutist cold-turkey-approach. I've pretty much banned all consumptive screen-time except some things like Hacker News, LinkedIn, YouTube (only existing subscriptions, no recommendations or shorts etc). Things I know I won't spend more than 15-20 minutes on and are not highly stimulating and made to high-jack your brain. Initially, I used to allow myself some leeway as in screen-time i.e. should be less than X duration, but it never worked.
The withdrawal-symptoms of going cold-turkey are intense but you get over them eventually and then once you've powered through a few weeks, and you try and go back and look at any type of "content" you see how much trash it all is. Even the "good ones" or things you tell yourself is "educational". Another important note is to have some replacements in place so that when you start seeing that new void of so much time on your hands, you don't feel empty/hollow but as a reminder to yourself that you had so many cool things to do.
I managed to give up Reddit (still have other attention consuming vices) and temporarily checked in to see the reactions to Arsenal finally winning the Premier League...and was repulsed by just how MEAN that site is. Discussing something as innocuous as sporting events instantly devolves into cruel, personal attacks and pulls in every topic under the sun.
It's not just Reddit that's like that, but it was especially striking after having been away for a while.
There is clear irony in the statement "... an absolutist cold-turkey-approach." ... "except some things like Hacker News, LinkedIn, YouTube." That sounds closer to the opposite end of the extreme.
I knew someone would nitpick on that. Could've worded it better. But like I expanded later in the para, an absolute for platforms where I feel my brain hijacked. To make clearer, 0 minutes for those things (example-Reddit, IG, etc.). Instead of something like X minutes of screen time where I'm allowed anything. Because for the things I allow, like LinkedIn, I don't find myself using them much at all even though I have full freedom, but the utility at that point crosses whatever time is spent on cringe posts.
And allow me to return the nitpickiness as well. "That sounds closer to the opposite end of the extreme." - I don't see how that's closer to the opposite end of the extreme? Are you saying only watching YouTube channels which you've subscribe to (despite being subscribed to dozens I only see maybe one new video pop up every few days) and spending some time on TWO work-related social-media is the opposite end of the EXTREME? How?
No offense intended by my initial reply, I understand how I may have came off in that way however.
On the 'extreme' bit, this might certainly be along the lines of personal experience- but I find LinkedIn, HN, and Reddit to be among the worst offenders in the basket of attention hogs / dopamine sinks.
My reasoning there is mainly rooted in the fact that these platforms all present a couple dozen or so items that are one click away from soaking your brain (whether that be comment sections, or the parent item itself.)
Social media being work related doesn't necessarily mean that the platform lies on either end of the spectrum here, to me. I work on AI things, and work related social media is certainly an avenue thats detrimental to me- in the fact that the aforementioned platforms produce more content that I can reasonably say I have the ability to consume in a healthy manner.
Again, your experience may be different; but I wouldnt put those platforms anywhere near what cold turkey might mean for me. For me, still consuming relevant work stuff while dialing down away from the extreme would probably be sticking to one or two newsletters, which post ~monthly or so.
I think if the platform is designed in such a way that the goal of the average post is aligned with whats detrimental to attention/focus/dopamine-response, then it can't possibly be used in a straightforwardly healthy manner.
Thanks for the perspective. Yea you're right, I think different platforms have different effects on people. As an example quitting TV shows was difficult for me, whereas most people I've talked to don't even think of TV shows as a necessary bad thing.
On HN/LI, at least for me I really don't find them disruptive or time sinks. LinkedIn seems boring, HN doesn't have infinite scroll, and again most articles don't really interest me that much.
I don't use Reddit exactly because I feel the posts evoke an emotional response from me and I tend to stay there. Haven't used it in a long time, same with other infinite popular scrollers.
Anyway, my core point being for the platforms that do trouble me in my experience going all-out helped. If I set a time limit or time window or use grayscale or all those hacks it doesn't work. All those are more like gateway drugs. So if HN/LI does truly provide more noise than signal I would personally cut it out but that's not the case for me at the moment.
Yeah I’ve gone through varying degrees of cold turkey too. These social media / infinite scroll platforms are not all ‘bad’, but some are ‘worse’ than others. Unfortunately heavy platform usage is so widespread + people staying at home as a result, such that it’s harder to obtain ‘proper’ interaction and stimulation when stepping out IRL, so I think some controlled platform usage can be beneficial for filling the void. My ultimate conclusion / main point is that balance is key, as per usual. I maintain limited Reddit, hacker news, LinkedIn, YouTube usage, and have Facebook because my distant family uses that a lot. That’s all though. And I’ve tried all sorts of methodologies…making devices grayscale, timer locking my phone in a box, putting devices in faraday bag when not using as like a mental block, etc. I remain out of the loop on some shared cultural fabric that comes with being chronically online and tapped into the global town square, and that manifests in IRL experiences / feeling excluded at times, but in exchange I get more peace and a greater focus on the present, which has felt ‘better’ and more ‘natural’ anecdotally speaking.
But LinkedIn has become one of the worst kinds of social media. I mean, it's full of AI grifters, people starting posts with 'I wasn't going to post this but [continues with a dumb post]' and lately even a lot of obituaries. Everybody on LinekdIn is either "very successful" or has learned a lesson by some fck up that didn't even happen. I just saw a post of a guy who pretends to be successful, rents a Porsche and then post a photo of sitting inside the rental with the caption 'Fck the haters'. Yeah, all that on the professional networking internet website called LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a shitshow.
Yea exactly. That's why I allow it. Because apart from the obvious networking benefit and a few sane people I follow who post good stuff every now and then, I basically don't doom-scroll it. So the utility at that point crosses whatever 5-10 minutes of cringe AI slop I quickly scroll past.