My go to “get off my phone” tip is opening my camera/snapchat app when I’m locking it, so when I unlock my phone, I jump scare myself with my face and it sometimes makes me self aware enough to put my phone down

I once thought “but I want to do things, not watch people do things” and tbh that was the kick in the [redacted] I needed. I’m still an absolute sucker for those anti-doomscrolling videos though

We need to have more compassion for each other and realise we're all being kept addicted to our phones, and to detox from our phones is imperfect and difficult and sometimes you need to watch someone else do it before you can do it yourself. And also remember that they are designed specifically to become as seamless as possible, so anytime you notice your phone and put it down and do something else, you just beat an entire global monopoly that has made it incredibly difficult for you to do that, and you did it anyway.

"if you dont want to be the bird flying into the glass, you have to be aware of the glass, instead of only seeing the world beyond it" was an insanely powerful statement

clicked so fast, because YES omg how is anti-doomscrolling an entire doomscrolling genre? ITS ALL STILL ON THE INTERNET 🧍🏻‍♀️
youtube is the only social media i have and i still see it posted relentlessly, let alone all of the other platforms? it’s crazy business!

the screen blindness thing for me was really obvious with the 'clean girl' trend. Dozens of videos about having a 'quiet morning', enjoying your own solitude and peace. AND YET, if you think about the camera being there is shatters the whole thing. you are not having a peaceful, mindful morning in solitude you are actively broadcasting it to an audience and spending your morning setting up a camera to catch you drinking your "solitary" morning coffee just right. they'd also talk about  not 'wasting your life' by being tired and hungover from going out, but I'd say waking up in the morning to set up cameras to act superior about how you're not "wasting your life" in comparison to people who actually did do something offline out the house the night before is sort extremely antisocial and bizarre rather than wholesome/wellness

I strongly dislike how dirty that article made going offline and then coming back online, feel. I have not once looked at people who do these doomscrolling videos and thought they are being performative or hypocritical, instead all I see is a worldwide struggle with an addiction that we're only now starting to take notice of. And the "struggle" part of it is intense. That excerpt of the article almost seems to villainize the people who are trying to get offline, which is ironic considering that article was also probably published online.

As a person who lipsyncs and dances to my songs as I walk, no one really cares. I did have a guy once smile and copy my moves for a second when I walked past him, but no one else notices. Have fun when you walk, you will want to walk more.

There's a really popular saying in tech that everyone eventually retires to become a goose farmer (an ex Microsoft employee literally did this) or live in a cabin in the woods. The longer I stay in tech, and the more I actually understand how and why these systems are in place, the more I get why. There will always be good that tech can do but technocapitalism is not the way it will happen.

On a personal note, I recently moved from being an AI Engineer in Corporate World to an engineer in Tech For Good. It's not complete trajectory change, but I feel so much better about the way I am contributing to our shared world.

I live in Russia, and while I do notice doomscrolling affecting my attention span, this whole “be offline!” thing hits different when the government is making it an uphill battle to **be online**. And the “well, you shouldn’t be on your phone so much anyway” rhetoric is sometimes used to tell us that we shouldn’t want unrestricted access to social media

I felt this way about my hobbies. I’m a very creative person that was in a huge rut for years and I realized I was getting a cheap dopamine hit off watching other people do my hobbies instead of doing them myself. Once I forced myself to get rid of Instagram and TikTok I noticed so much of my creative energy come back. I thought I was being inspired by that content but it was actually a detriment to my own innate creativity.

omg i do the same when im in a reading slump and want reading motivation but then i just end up watching videos of people reading and not actually reading

Something I've noticed is that brands/phones/streaming services/etc WILL provide options on how to reduce your screentime. But it's not actually because they want to help. They designed the phones and services to be addictive, they did this on purpose. They have those "options" as a way to cover their own butts and be able to go "I mean you have the options! It's your fault, not mine!!"

I have deleted instagram and other social media apps and reddit, and the first few days I had genuine withdrawal sympthoms. But afterwards, I realised how much time it slorped, and how much it influenced my life.
I only kept youtube, one online forum, and one discord group because I felt those do enrich my life. And I think that is the standard to have; "Does this make my life better?"

I've lately been working on my social anxiety! I went to the cinema alone and danced to the music from my headphones while waiting on my bus. They're small things but they feel so freeing and amazing!

I think your thesis about screen blindness is well supported by the way physical tech has gotten thinner and thinner. Mobile phones became literally lighter (less weight to feel in your pocket) and the hardware became invisible, with fewer tactile UX features; buttons disappear; it unlocks with just your face; bezels are being literally pushed out of existence in favor of edge to edge designs.

AI is a great example that you mentioned, and Siri was an early prototype for what a consumer product could look like — the promise being that you don't even have to TOUCH your tools anymore to issue a command.

An additional example I'll mention is AR and VR. You touched on this when you talked about headsets. AR in particular is overlaying screen functionality onto our environment in a way that is literally invisible to anyone except the user, and for the user, it's designed to become indispensable.

I'm going to be thinking about this for a long time. Thanks for making and congrats on 20k and reaching the end of season 1 :)

i am one of those offline people you don't hear about anymore!! (well, almost offline, i still use goodreads and youtube) it can feel a little lonely and i still get those impulses to share whatever is going through my head and sometimes i do cave and watch a few shorts here on youtube or head over to reddit for a doomscroll but at least i'm not "screen blind" anymore, i feel like i live more intentionally

Just want to add another perspective: I'm a new mom and I watch these videos when I breastfeed my baby or before sleep since right now I have zero time for my hobbies and interests. I do live through those people and videos but I am very aware. I miss being creative and being outside but that's not my priority right now, so I use (long-form) videos as a little outlet. Reading is the only thing I still do though.

I noticed an improvement when I tried to differenciate 'active' and 'passive' screen use. Like, writing something or playing a video game is being active. Scrolling is definitely passive. Listening to a podcast is not passive consumption if I think about what I hear. I also try to ask myself beforehand - 'what am I unlocking my phone for?' If I don't have a clear goal, it's a recipe for doomscrolling if only because of the habit.

If we’re honest we’re not even truly watching people being off their phone or offline since they’re in a headspace of recording and sharing it 🤣