Ask HN: How to deal with internet addiction?

Try going on a "trip" away from the internet, while staying at home. I mean turning it off for a while, and making a little kind of ceremony about it. It's almost like meditation.

In fact I think temporary internet deprivation is a decent way to describe meditation to most people in this era. But it's not just a deprivation because you'll probably find it quite interesting.

Maybe you'll feel a bit restless, but then remember you're on a trip, it's like you're camping, you need to amuse yourself. Maybe have a bath. Tidy a bit. Maybe even clean your downloads folder. Light a candle. Sit on the floor for a while. See what happens.

Offline life is a pretty good place to enjoy some coziness. The internet usually isn't very cozy. And coziness is nice. It's not like without internet you'll be actually suffering. It's kinda nice.

And then it's "just" a matter of habits. Getting acquainted with the niceness of offline life seems like a necessary first step to start forming any kind of offline habit.

I had the same issue. Being able to recognise it's a problem is already a big achievement, acting on it only follows naturally once you've realised how much time you waste.

For social networks, I blocked them at the DNS level in /etc/hosts (along with other annoyances) [1]. I've had the muscle memory to CMD+T , 'F', Enter for a few weeks after quitting cold turkey, but seeing the "Could not connect to host" message on the browser reminded me of why I did that.

A few months down the line, I don't regret my choice. Sure it's harder to keep up with friends, but it's a small step in making them realise what a social hazard those platforms are.

[1] https://gist.github.com/franky47/6835b4a7ca5c072e4b75efa08bc...

I remove bookmarks, and obfuscate where things are on my phone to keep me from mindlessly opening another thing.

Altering a habit by means of will-force is not easy.

One simple route can be to make checking some sites more difficult, so that you need to make an effort to log into e.g. Facebook.

For example, you can use Temporary Containers [1] so that all cookies are deleted when you close a tab. Hence, every time you open a new tab and go to facebook.com you will need to make the effort to log in. As a side effect, this approach reduces tracking by third parties.

[1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/temporary-con...

What worked for me: find things to do where you can't be on your phone / laptop, such as running (track your progress with a sports watch and get addicted to something worthwhile). Or find a job in Finland where it's mandatory to have sauna's.

I block websites I deem to be a waste of time during my automated Pomodoro sessions with Focus app. Works beautifully for me.

https://wiki.nikitavoloboev.xyz/focusing

Like all addictions you should look at the underlying causes for your behaviour. Are you procrastinating? Anxious? Compensating for something else?

I had same problem few years ago but after installing StayFocusd[1] plugin in chrome I solved this issue. I set allowed time per day to 40 minutes to visit such websites as: reddit, fb, 9gag, youtube. If I need to watch video related to work/studies I use viewpure[2] that way I only watch only that particular video and don't lose my binge time. I also communicate with my friends a lot using fb so I just use messenger website instead of having fb opened directly.

[1] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stayfocusd/laankej... [2] http://viewpure.com/

>> Reloads "How to deal with internet addiction?" story repeatedly to read new posts. <<

I have the same issue. I’ve installed a browser extension that allows me to set redirects for any url. I’ve setup Facebook to go to khanacademy.org (I’m trying to learn more about linear algebra/calc) and reddit to go to wikiroulette.co

So far it’s been working to stop my sub-awareness level typing of these URLs and wasting time.

Another approach would be to look into mindfulness so that you become more aware of your actions/habits.

As an aside, if interested in the topic of awareness/attention, I was just listening to a great podcast that’s sort of related to your question:

https://smartdrugsmarts.com/episodes/episode-123-consciousne...

My guess is that you're not busy enough or that you're not busy enough with rewarding work. Believe it or not, being happy and engaged is a lot of work. Write down a list of things you want to learn, try and/or do and just start doing them. Take a sailing class, get your motorcycle license, learn a new technology, build a workbench, start running. You don't have to have a hobby but the more things you try the more likely you are to find something you enjoy more than watching the world burn online. Building lego sets takes a ridiculous amount of time but the tactile response I get from putting blocks together is pretty fulfilling, more than sitting at a computer.

I am also a developer and I've found one thing that I've enjoyed recently is revisiting old projects where the client and I disagreed on the execution and building it out the way I wanted to. It's fun to test your assumptions and also gives you more perspective when you build things in the future.

If you use AWS, sign up to acloud.guru for a couple of months and get an AWS certification.

Bottom line is that change isn't easy. Just make a list, get dressed, leave the house and go do something. Eventually you'll see wasting time online as exactly that, wasting time.

I occasionally temporarily redirect certain sites (twitter, HN, reddit) to 127.0.0.1 via /etc/hosts.

This is helpful, though occasionally it creates conflicts when there's a mixup between "lazy pages" and things I want to get done (e.g. sometimes twitter DMs are the way I reach people).

For people who use YouTube and would like to remove distractions, I use the simple CSS script below along with the CSS styler extension Stylus to remove distractions and stop me from jumping mindlessly from video to video.

  /* Hide the Distracting Comments */
  #comments {
    display: none;
  }

  /* Hide Livestream Comments */
  #chat {
    display: none;
  }

  /* Hide Related Videos */
  #related {
    display: none;
  }

You'll quit Reddit when you begin getting annoyed with how predictable and repetitive it is.

I'm not kidding. People who got addicted to World of Warcraft and then quit it, recommend migrating to another server. It gets boring to grind again (or whatever happens, I'm not a player).

Back in mid-October I needed to make a drastic change in my life. I spent a lot of time doing the following:

  - Mindlessly browsing the internet (FB, YT, HN, Reddit)
  - Dating apps
  - Nintendo Switch online

My wake up call happened when a few recruiters from big companies, that I'd love to work for, reached out to me about interviewing. It was then I realized how undisciplined I had been. I had no chance at either of these companies because I constantly wasted my free time instead of working on coding projects or bettering myself. So I made a change:

  - Added the Stayfocused browser extension and limited my internet wasting time to 30 min a day on weekdays
  - Deleted all my dating apps (this by far gave me the most sense of freedom and clarity which surprised me)
  - Stopped playing Switch altogether

That's it! My goal was not "go to the gym", "journal", "go on walks", "read more books"...but guess what...that's what happened! When I stopped/limited doing all of these time wasting activities I created a new void in my life. I suddenly had a lot more free time every day. My natural reaction was to go waste it, but now I could not...so I started going on walks instead. I started doing coding challenges and reading coding books on topics I knew I was weak in. I started journaling more and went to the gym 4 times a week.

Let me tell you, it has been an absolutely AMAZING life change. I highly recommend everyone take up this challenge for a month or two and see the difference in your life. If you're like me you'll never want to go back! Good luck out there!

PS. In case it helps motivate anyone, one of those companies was Google. I passed the phone screen :). I know that may be easy for some people here but I was completely unprepared when I was approached and I know this life change 3 months ago made the difference.

Like any addiction it might be a signal of deeper underlying problems - lack of meaning in your work, lack of feeling that it matters, general dissatisfaction with how your life is going.

One way to approach it could be a slow morning, as discussed on hn a few weeks ago - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18857090 - take your time to arrive in the day, to remember what is important to you, and then do the most important things. If browsing the web is important to you, reserve a certain amount of time to do just that and stop once the time is up.

Environment plays a huge and under appreciated role in addiction. Try changing up your physical space: go to a coffee shop, a friend's house, the library, etc. and just observe if the same desires arise.

Also, it might help to know that your body is craving the immediate dopamine rush it gets from Facebook or news. The trick is to find something more rewarding and that usually comes from starting as small as possible. Try doing 1 pushup, reading 1 page of a book, taking a 5 min walk, etc. Sometimes these little pattern disruptions can be the spark that lights the fire.

It's not easy to change our behavior, but it is possible if you want to and it sounds like you do.

Here are some resources I found useful:

Wait But Why - https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-procrasti...

(visuals / cartoons)

Stoic Philosophy - https://youtube.com/watch?v=A0XxceO4qX0

(step by step process)

I employ various hacks:

- I permanently deleted my Facebook account

- I block certain sites in /etc/hosts. My /etc/hosts file also blocks several hundred Facebook tracking urls, and I scatter the “tempting” sites randomly throughout these so that unblocking them requires more than muscle memory

- I change the passwords on the tempting sites to random strings but don't save them so the only way in is to do a password reset

- I use content blockers

- I excoriate myself in a journal entry each day (this hasn't worked yet, but I keep on doing it)

These things sorta slightly work in that they slow me down for a second and give me a chance to consider whether I really want to visit [website]. However, my lizard brain tends to adapt pretty quickly, and disabling the blocks gets incorporated into muscle memory as well.

So I think my solution will have to involve zen-like self-discipline as opposed to hacks. I keep telling myself I want to give it all up for good, to become a person who makes things instead of a person who consumes things, who reads books instead of surfing the internet. My solution will have to be simply deciding to change.

Procrastination may be symptom of some deeper problem with motivation and planning. Maybe your tasks are too chunky, boring or too much undefined?

Also to spoil a procrastiation pattern a bit I use Leechblock NG on FF. Sure you can unlock pages pretty easily but that one obstacle makes you remind your resolution.

I share the same problem. I use SelfControl on MacOS to block all the distracting sites. I've configured my computer at work to start SelfControl on a schedule (9:00-18:00) so I have no choice over the block.

Still though, there are a lot of distracting ideas that come up as I work: what should I do for dinner? What's my routine for the gym tonight? What's the weather? How's the stock market today? I've started using a pomodoro app to make me psychologically less inclined to paying attention to distracting ideas as I work. Admittedly, depending on the difficulty of the task, it works more or less.

Part of the problem comes from not being completely motivated about my work. It's an issue that is hard to address, so I try to cope by increasing discipline.

Seconding all the call outs about focusing on changing environment rather than relying on will power. In general, I think people have a tendency to expect to much on simply "willing" themselves into doing something, then feel guilty when it doesn't work, which erodes the willpower they stared out with -- recurse down to giving up.

The specific thing I'd add to the comments already here is four things that have worked for me. These are more about phones specifically than internet addiction in general, but I think they help with that larger topic too:

1. I bought a travel alarm clock. At night, I leave my phone downstairs. Having an alarm clock means I can no longer use the excuse "I just need the alarm function on my phone." This also helps in the morning as I literally can't just wake up and go online.

2. I removed Facebook from my phone. If I were on twitter, etc I'd remove those too. Communication is better from a keyboard anyway -- I'm on social media less frequently, and when I'm on I have an input device that actually supports writing full thoughts and sentences.

3. For web sites, I stay logged off on my phone. Similar to above, though less drastic than making those sites completely inaccessible on my phone. I still browse, say, Hacker News, but there's now often a forced wait between reading and replying.

4. I have a small phone (iPhone SE). It feels "cozy" (to one commentor's point about making the internet a more cozy place) since it actually fits nicely in my hand and pockets.

I guess I'll throw in another point too -- I experiment with different ways to change my environment. I think that's the real trick, more so than even the above -- I came to those through trial and error. Try changing something, and use the results of that to inform what you try next. Recurse to improvement. Good luck.

If you work in an office, try to sit somewhere that others can see your screen(s). Knowing that my boss or co-worker will see me constantly re-opening obviously distracting sites is a big deterrent. This works better than blocking sites or using productivity apps personally, but others swear by them. You just have to find what works for you.

I find a simple interim/transition trick is to say: If I do x,y,z tasks then I can do web browsing (any habit). Just make those other tasks things you want to work on and the web stuff a reward for working on it.