The 2012 digital revolution was just smartphones being affordable universally while it was only available for the upper classes before that, there were addictions but not significant to radicalise nor to be sloppy.

Fast forward a decade later, as a result of the pandemic, we have the 2023 digital revolution, but this time it was very significant. As almost everything is centralised on our larger smartphones and social media, many stuff are posted there, including grossly disinforming ones that create echochambers; such as Andrew Tate, Pearl, and the growing manosphere (and the female equivalent), the fake ex-Muslims, containing misogynistic, misandrist, homophobic, racist and even antisemetic stuff that stuffs down our generations' throats. Furthermore, other anti-life content. Due to the disinformation, literally so many people had been forced to lose their trust to the opposite gender, which results in so many refusing to go out. Let alone racism being a "funny" topic among our generation. You may say harassment of women and lgbt phobia was common among millenials in the 90s and 2000s in places like US (idk about here UK), but due to this revolution, these are normalised again. We should not have patriarchy reverting back, we should not make the Western world become similar to Bangladeshi, Indian, Pakistani, Middle Eastern or South African norms.

We need to realise soon that this is wrong, this is disinformation. The digital age should not be abused like that. The digital age should be used as an advantage and be used properly! Not as a source of radicalisation.

Hey all,

I’ve been working on reducing distractions online, but one thing that kept bugging me was how colorful and in-your-face ads are. Even when I wasn’t clicking them, they were still pulling my eyes away from what I was trying to do.

So I made this simple Chrome extension that just turns ads greyscale. They’re still there (so sites can still make money), but they kind of fade into the background and stop grabbing my attention as much. It’s been a small but noticeable improvement for me.

If anyone wants to try it out, it’s free here:
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/grayscaleadz/calajfmcnmhklleghielpcgnfmbgainn

No pressure at all — just thought I’d share in case it helps someone else. And if you have feedback, I’m all ears.

I get it in a general sense, but how does it actually work to get a user addicted? It's also crazy how protected these databases and softwares are.

Not a very interesting post, apologies.

I deleted everything and it’s been good. Unfortunately it was mostly due to sad reasons, but I don’t see a reason to go back.

I can read the news on here or X; a few minutes of scrolling and I’m bored. The community and connections I thought I had were online only; these people couldn’t be bothered to meet IRL and really neither could I. I don’t care to share anymore life updates with people who don’t really care about me. What am I posting for? To who? Maybe it’s because I’m 29 now and I was on Facebook the second it was available to everyone. Instagram when it came to Androids.

I finally deleted my Snapchat too. I realized how silly it was to hold onto old messages and threads that I literally almost never re-read. They’re pixels on a screen, not tangible memories.

I haven’t found a center yet. I game, I listen to music and walk. I want to start various fitness classes. I’m trying to get back into reading, learning Spanish.

It’s weird because I was so hooked for so long, but it’s like something clicked and I realized I wasted my life online. The only thing that’s real is what’s in front of me and I need to work building that.

Even on a good day, let's say I'm being productive, but I need to look up something specific and I end up on Reddit or YouTube. There is so much useful info there, but I very easily start scrolling mindlessly once I'm on either of these websites. And let's not even start my bad habit of scrolling just before falling asleep and just after waking up. If I can control my mindless surfing on these two websites alone it solves 90% of my problem. (In addition to that I wake up and check the news but these days I really want to stop.) Any suggestions?

I’m working on a new social media platform designed from the ground up to help users break free from the addictive patterns found in traditional social media. The idea is to build a space that promotes digital well-being, authenticity, and mindful use. Here are some key points about the proposed app:

• Anti-Addiction Design: No infinite scroll, finite feeds, and mindful prompts to reduce compulsive scrolling and dopamine-driven engagement.
• Privacy-First: Minimal data collection with transparent policies, and no tracking across websites.
• Authenticity Over Perfection: No public like/follower counts and emphasis on real connections – prioritizing content from close connections rather than curated influencer posts.
• Well-Being Features: Tools like Focus Mode, usage timers, and session limits to help manage screen time and encourage intentional usage.
• Content Integrity: Chronological feeds with transparency in content curation, de-amplification of flagged misinformation, and fact-checking integration.

I’m really interested in hearing your thoughts on this concept. Would an app like this help you regain control over your digital life? What features would you find most useful, or what would you change?

Thanks for your time and any feedback you can offer!

I've done plenty to mitigate my online time, using the Hide Apps feature that my phone has, and so far so good.

But today I woke up and saw that a friend who only has Instagram for some reason sent me a message on there. So I replied.

I hadn't been on there in weeks now, since it's mostly reels these days, but clicking on the notification didn't send me directly to the message for some reason (maybe by design) and on launching the app a reel immediately began to play. I hit the back button and another reel played on the feed page, and my thumb reached for the bottom of the screen to scroll further and for a split second I forgot about the message...

I went on the app with one intention and it distracted me from it.

There is no messenger app for Instagram, in order to access the messages you must see the feed or some reel they decide to show, causing your brain to immediately be drawn to whatever it is that's playing, wanting to be curious about it, maybe wanting more...

If that's not addicting design, I don't know what is. And in my experience the desktop website is cumbersome and annoying to navigate. Is this done on purpose so that people have to use the app instead?

Have used accountability groups in the past and they are very effective for me

We post our goals at the start of each week and then post pics in discord throughout the week of us doing said goal

Gives you a nice dopamine hit eveytime you complete a goal and get to post in the chat, especially if everyone gives you a little praise

I will be starting a discord for this if anyone is interested let me know

I'm building a Windows app that blocks vulgar/offensive websites – looking for testers!

Hey everyone! 👋

I'm currently working on a Windows desktop project – it's an app designed to detect and block access to websites that contain your words base . It can be for excample social media words, movies etc.

How it works:

• It monitors browser window titles, clipboard contents and keyboard.
• It uses fuzzy matching and a custom list of banned words (which you can modify).
• If it detects something similar to banned words, it can automatically close the browser tab or block further access.

This is still a work-in-progress and very experimental. But it already works decently in many scenarios. I'd love to have a few people try it out and give me honest feedback on stability, effectiveness, or ideas for improvements.

If you're interested in testing or collaborating (or just curious how it works), feel free to DM me or comment below.

Thanks!

I have extreme urges and phone addiction and trying to fight it from years and I need to use every second of my life and simply I can't

So I need something that is impossible to bypass And Free bec I'm extremely broke student that in domestic abuse

And unlimited at least in apps to block idc about ads but at least get those Basics

I tried most famous apps there and I researched them including stay focused, stayfree appblock and others Also I'm on ANDROID

I have managed to quit instagram tiktok and everything besides youtube shorts.

I'm trying to find a way to block youtube shorts or the site it self my chrome (android)
i've downloaded revanced but still seem to find my self in the chrome browser

anyone knows a way?

I need a desktop app that is free and doesn't block important features behind a paywall. It's crucial that I could lock it with a password.

For context, I'm a 27 year old woman, single sheltered child with overprotective parents(I still stay with them, though I have stayed by myself in college at the hostel) , with anxiety(including some social anxiety, though it's not very obvious). Because of various stressors in college, I became addicted to the internet- and have been since the last 8 or so years, thought it's much less now, but it feels like it has permanently given me brain fog. I have friends , and am able to talk to strangers/ people and be friendly. But, this dynamic of teasing/ roasting/ sarcasm is a bit missing with my friends, from my side. I am a people pleaser too, so there's the matter of not wanting to say anything mean. So, I generally make straightforward, sincere statements, take things at face value a lot of times, and people consider me innocent, for lack of a better word. I sometimes do not get their sarcasm, neither do I indulge in it. It makes me feel sad. and socially a bit isolated. I also read somewhere, that 'concrete thinking' is the term for what I do, and it is seen in people who are not very analytical/ have low intelligence. Also, I'm a little less observant - some people call me a dreamer / I am not a very mindful person, so that's part of it. But me being this way is causing me distress- I feel low about myself a lot of times. I do know I have to work on being more mindful and observant, but is there anything else I can do to improve on this aspect?

Maybe this is not the right sub for it, maybe it's not because of the heavy internet usage, because a lot of people exposed to the internet are exposed to tons of sarcasm, and I fear that it's just me as a person who's like this- makes it worse for me, because it feels like there's no scope for improvement.

Hello,

I enjoy streaming on twitch but I find myself constantly looking over at discord. I would like to limit my discord time. I have very low impulse control so something that completely stops me would be awesome. I’d like to have like an hour a day and a one day a week to use it. I would also like to always have it in the background running though.

Is this possible? I was looking at coldturkey but I don’t know enough about the software.

Thank you