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Smartphone+Internet Addiction, How to Fix?

5 points by shivajikobardan ↗ HN
I quit internet in my smartphone. I still use smartphone for making calls and other offline activities. But I don't use internet in my smartphone. (MAC blocked). I still use that in my laptop. The level of addictiveness in smartphone is different compared to laptop.

It's been 3 days and I've felt so many times urges to go back and start using it. The funny thing is whatever I can do in smartphone, I can do that in laptop. But still I'm feeling that urge to use. Why? The problem that this cause is I'm not able to focus and do something in my laptop either. I need smartphone mindless scrolling to cause myself work hard again.

Smartphone for me is all about mindless scrolling.

The reason why I'm doing it is because I've came to a late late realization. Realization that my whole career is being done because of smartphone addiction.

I'm spending 14 hrs per day in smartphone. The solution is to get a job but the problem is I'm not getting any decent jobs with this habit. After quitting internet, I'm using smartphone for less than 6hrs. Most of those hours are just playing videos while doing something else. No mindless scrolling.

I tried Black and white screen. It also causes the same effect to me.

It's not notifications for me because I don't use apps that gives notifications, I just block notifications if anyone sends it. I do everything on chrome on smartphone.

I tried time limiting but I really didn't find any good apps that can do it. I could do that in firefox using extension in smartphone but I could still go back to chrome. That seemed like it would work but due to lack of GOOD free apps, I failed there. (I can pay if the app costs <5$ and allows me to try the app at first).

People seem to say "you're addicted because you've some problem". I don't think that's true. You don't need any problem always to be addicted.

How do i pass through this phase? Why am I feeling urge to use internet? Mostly my urges are when I'm eating food, I can't take my laptop with me at that time.

8 comments

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shivajikobardan
edit: but that's a lie. For 10hrs of scrolling, maybe I do 1hr of good work
wsc981
Just use a Nokia-branded feature phone, produced by HMD. The internet connectivity on those devices is not a great experience (often quite slow), so you'll be less tempted to use it. The screen ain't great to look at either (at least on my Nokia 2720 Flip - perhaps it's improved a bit now)

https://www.nokia.com/phones/en_int/feature-phones

shivajikobardan
The problem is different. It's the feeling of getting urge to use the phone again. How does this help to cure it?
wsc981
Just that the experience is not that great, your urge will disappear. At least I don't have the urge to use this phone as much as my iPhone when I take it with me.

Internet browsing on a small 2.4" or 2.8" screen (with low resolution) ain't fun. It's something you will only use out of necessity.

You say you look a lot of videos. I don't think these Nokia feature phones are great for that purpose, I doubt it's enjoyable if it's even possible :)

eimrine
What are you doing on your internet sessions? If reading and learning, keep doing that. If chatting, get an extrovert job. If watching some video and gaming, you are doomed.
shivajikobardan
scrolling mindlessly. without watching any thing completely. hoping that I get some great fresh content.
eimrine
That's a new plague of our times. Most smartphone people I have observed use to consume content created in the last 24 hours. You are ignoring thousands of years where human culture use to exist and suppose any great things are going to be fresh. Those recommendation algos you are relying to were not really designed to provide you a content from them, their goal are to provide them your attention. You think your smartphone is an instrument in your hands for becoming better person but in reality you are an instrument of your smartphone for becoming them richer.
m1gu3l
Asking internet strangers isn’t the best way to solve this problem. This one is going to be on you and maybe the help of a professional that is experienced in treating addiction.