It should probably be treated similarly to a food addiction. Overeaters still need to eat something.
Yeah, I said the food addiction thing, up thread.
I don’t get the incessant scrolling and clicking.
I realize I’m late, relatively, to the Internet. But most of the junk I see online is so silly and repeated so often I get bored quickly. If I see another sad puppy found on the street and saved and is now the perfect pet in his forever home, I may just die.
I look for more interesting things and I find 12 in a row that are not what I wanted to see. So off I go to do my crossword.
My Dope looking and one game are about all I can stand for very long.
I really despise cel phones. I have to have one for many reasons. But boy they tick me off.
There are more extreme methods. Putting your phone in jail and locking it up - not so great in an emergency.
Buying an overpriced dumb minimalist phone. I looked at those, my main issue was losing navigation and my camera. Also my husband and I communicate mainly through Discord channels throughout the day, and it’s usually logistical stuff like trying to manage three schedules.
I’ve also learned through extensive experimentation that just cutting things out doesn’t work. Whatever I cut out, I will usually find some other way to waste time instead. It only works if I focus on the things I want to be doing.
Like right now. I want to be writing. I got here because I couldn’t think of the next sentence in my book.
this reminds me that years ago I read a self-help book about this, the idea was you fill up your time with what you want and crowd out the things you have decided you don’t want. so the focus is on positive rather than what you want to stop/limit.
Well, I thought I did very well today going into my Android settings and setting a 30 minute limit on Chrome, so as to not access the Straight Dope on my phone. But Discourse seems to be treated like its own separate thing and is not counting toward Chrome time. So here I am.
At least I disabled my Google News feed. Baby steps.
ETA: Aha! Straight Dope is its own app in Android and you can set the time limit. Check it out.
I think this might have possibly been mentioned already in this thread, but does anyone still remember the case of the widow who got done for criminal negligence because she was on a computer game all the time instead of looking after her kids? She never fed her dogs, apparently what happened was that one of her neighbours looked through the letter box and noticed the appalling state the house was in. They then alerted the police, who subsequently came to pay the family a visit. When they came, they smelt a horrible stench coming from the living room, which the mother tried her best to keep them out of. When she finally relented and let them in, they
ey were re in for quite a shock. The dead and decomposing bodies of two dogs were lying on the floor.
Widowed, retired, over 70, somewhat disabled, live in snow country (so I hate to drive). Family lives thousands of miles away. Friends dying, moving, finding better people to hang with. I basically have no life other than shopping, cooking, cleaning for myself. Reading, and I have my little hobbies, too… If I didn’t have my laptop, I really don’t know what I would do with myself. I spend hours reading and reading (like here at SD) and on FB. My ‘friends’ are all on FB. I don’t see it as a problem. If something needs to be done, if I have to go somewhere/do something, I do it. I only WISH I had a big loving family and a horde of jolly friends and busy social life. I have none of that. So, basically: I am NOT struggling with my internet addiction. It’s a good thing. For me.
Us, slightly shut-ins, with no employment, no obligation to children anymore can be comfortable with time spent on the internet.
I have pets and lots of busy people and grandkids. But they are not gonna sit in my room listening to me drone on about nothing. They basically orbit around me. Doing their thing. (Yep, I have a I’m the middle of the universe complex 
).
They’re here when I need them.
After I deal with my medications, dialysis and eating routine I have not much else to do but chat online or texting with a few folks, the Dope or the one game I do. So like you. I read, do puzzles, TV and spend time online. I try desperately not to shop too much online. But I do it some. Me walking around a mall or a big box store is outta my comfort zone so much, I can’t tell you how much it bothers me. I nearly have panic attacks. Those days are over for me.
I’ve walked out of many places.
It’s the way my life is. I wish, like you I could do more and get out of the house. No where to go. Nothing to do
I still hate cel phones. They drive me bonkers I have two. A dedicated one and a secret one. And then a tablet that weighs less than the laptop. So I use it more.
You gotta do what you gotta do in this here life.
A-MEN. I spent my whole life taking care of people and doing for others. I never really thought about what the last stretch of life was going to be like, and here it is. I never imagined I would end up alone. Introverted, depressed, lazy, or all three? Who’d have thought a lot of it would be spent online? So IMO it’s not a BAD thing. I do what I want to do now.
I’m on Day 24 of the Break Up With Your Phone text course. To tell you how it’s going… I haven’t touched my phone yet today (including to do Day 24’s activities) other than to answer a call from my boss. I keep my phone two rooms away during the work day and I’m notified of time-sensitive calls and messages via my Garmin watch. I think a general good rule of thumb is not checking my phone until after noon. I allow myself to listen to podcasts during my morning walk because it’s fucking cold out, and whatever gets me out the door is A-OK. But I don’t need to be messing around with text messages or blog comments until I have some productivity under my belt.
I also took my first digital Sabbath, 7pm Saturday to 7pm Sunday. It was a busy weekend so I’m not sure how bored I would have gotten otherwise. But I’m definitely going to keep doing it. I don’t know if my ADHD is getting worse or what, but I find myself absolutely overwhelmed and overloaded by technology so easily, it’s like I can’t even think.
Next step is cracking down on PC usage. I’ve got RescueTime set to block entertainment sites after one hour between work hours, but I probably shouldn’t even allow that much. This is going to sound ridiculous but I spend too much time on budgeting and financial stuff. It’s a bit of a compulsion. At least that one has a positive side effect.
We need to be friends. Do you have a cat?
Never been without one in all my years! 
We’re already besties then.
glad to have you around!!!
Thank you. I just wanted to give another opinion - there are two sides to every story.
I’m glad there are some people to whom it’s a benefit. However, just as an alcoholic would say to a wine afficionado - I am well aware of the harm it’s doing me, and I’m taking steps to mitigate that harm. I’m happy that you can enjoy it without consequences, but please be aware that it’s not the same for everyone.
And I’ve just read one more voice expressing my same concerns - The State of the Culture, 2024 - by Ted Gioia
I’m reading the book 24/6: The Power of Unplugging One Day a Week by Tiffany Shlain. In it, she points out that people now check their phones in the way people used to smoke - when they were bored, anxious, waiting in line, sitting in a restaurant waiting to order food, etc. For many people checking their phone is the new smoking. And at the time all the bad news about smoking came out – as we are just starting to get some data on smart phones – people could not conceive of not smoking because everybody did it. Well yes, we are all doing it. And I’m not denying the real benefits they have had for specific people in specific situations, that’s not really at issue (and is why they are a bit different than cigarettes.) But there have been a lot of people looking into the potential harms, and what they are finding is not great. For people like me, people who already struggle with executive dysfunction, this is throwing gasoline on a fire.
I seriously just pulled my husband out of his office and sat staring at the ceiling and asked him to help me reason through why this is happening to me. I struggle with tech use on the best day, but ever since I had COVID it’s all on overdrive, and technology overwhelms and confuses me. Beck is partly right: no solution can be technological right now. Ol’ Spice Weasel is going back to pen and paper until she gets her shit sorted.
I hope you have success. I tend towards overwhelming myself with most everything. So I’ve kept a tight rein on tech. I’m newer than most of you all online.
I can see where influencers can actually change your mind on issues. Good or bad, it’s scary that pixelated mouths wagging their opinions should matter to me at all. Nevermind, changing how I might think. I do not like that.
I purposely don’t watch those things. Man it’s hard. They come on soft and then slap you in the face.
I’ve also purposely not fell into reading books or news media online. I like paper books. And newspapers. I’ll stick as long as I can to that.
The young Moms here are stoically trying to keep the kids from too much screen time.
I want to see hands on play and outdoor activity when available. The school requires homework and reading lessons online. I know why this is done. Not sure I agree it’s all that necessary. But COVID sent them home and it was deemed so. And it stuck.
Anyway. A person has to determine what they can handle…without feeling out of touch or uninformed if they do. I’m sure life will go on if we didn’t have the internet. And yours will as well, @Spice_Weasel.
Good luck.
We’ll all be here when things calm enough you feel you can come back.
Yeah, this is definitely a problem for me. Also, I can tell I am much worse when I’m sick (and I’m always sick because the kids bring home everything) and have much less self-control, whereas when I’m totally healthy I can resist the siren call better.
The interesting thing is that when I was growing up it wasn’t phones (because we didn’t have them), it was books. I was the stereotypical kid who would walk around with my nose stuck in a book. I’m realizing that I used books then the same way I use a phone screen today, to sort of take my mind elsewhere while I’m doing something that’s not super interesting. And I use books like that now too when I’m trying to stay away from my phone.
So yeah, I think I might just have a problem. Though I guess books are better because they’re not quite as addictive as phones, and it’s probably better to show my kids their parent reading than phone-scrolling.
For my weekly Day of Presence, I still read my Kindle, but I find it’s much easier to put down a book than my phone.
Today I am doing better. I have orchestrated it so that the Doping comes after the work gets done. Just blocked all distracting sites on my PC until the afternoon. I had a productive day, even if a shortened one, but I just have to build my life around these afternoon slumps until they go away.