itā€™s designed to be additive so donā€™t blame yourself, it doesnā€™t help. deleting instagram helped me. sometimes i go on the browser but itā€™s a less pleasant experience so less addictive. i redownload when i want to post and then delete again. annoying but worth it. my phone is getting old so my battery is going bad. this helps because iā€™m more inclined to only use my phone when i need it to keep it from dying. resist taking a charger every where you go if your phone is the same. been following this writer/artist/screen time activist (?) and she has some cool thoughts on the matter: https://augustlamm.substack.com/p/you-dont-need-a-smartphone
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Jul 25, 2024

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šŸ““
i have been on a journey to untangle my tasks from my iPhone. i'd be out in the world someplace, pull out my phone for something as menial as checking the time, or as well intentioned as capturing the moment in a pic, and immediately get sucked into texts and instagramā„¢ļø and all the virtual things happening in this tiny lil demon light box. the goal: pull my phone out of my bag ONLY for phone things. that's texting, calling, and apps that can't be replaced the solutions so far: šŸ•°ļø i started with a watch (shoutout Casio) and i wear it every day. once I broke the habit of checking my phone for the time, I felt legitimately freed from something Major šŸ“· I bought a small digital camera to leave in my bag. the pics look better and I donā€™t get distracted by the virtual world when I'm trying to capture something in the now šŸ“š I bought a kindle. It fits in my jacket pocket (literally) and gives me something to do when I'm on the train or waiting for an appointment that isn't scrolling I just realized so much of the time I spent on my phone was not intentional. It was a thing I was doing in between Other intentional moments. my screen time is still several hours a day (donā€™t get me wrong) but I think my brain has healed at least 3%. welcoming other ideas as wellšŸ’”
Sep 24, 2024
ā˜Žļø
For over a year I had the "world's tiniest ruggedized phone". I don't remember the brand but I bet you can google it. Regardless, I still found myself using Instagram and Facebook on the tiny little screen šŸ„². When they say social media is made to be addictive I fully believe it. App blockers, making my screen grey scale after 6pm, none of it works. I delete the settings, I remove the blocker. The best things I've done for myself that is SO much easier said than done is 1. remove the thing from your life that you're trying to avoid and/or 2. Embrace the thing you're trying to avoid. For me 1. Was a terrible job and 2. Was silence and boredom
šŸ”Œ
I like to let my phone dieā€” I often donā€™t charge it overnight, and try not to plug it in during the day. If youā€™re able to access work/school through only your laptop, let your phone die, or leave it on the plug in another room. I also delete most apps from my phone for periods of weeks, and minimally use social mediaā€” if this works for you, it can feel very liberating, and makes me feel much less constantly accessible (which I think is a good thing). Something that helps me is thinking about the flattening of correspondence; before social media, if you wanted to communicate to a friend, it was one-on-oneā€” you might write a letter, or call, or email, but what you were doing was conversational and relational. When we use social media, we flatten a lot of individual relationships into one relationship between us and our ā€œaudience.ā€ Instead of sharing a thought or comment intended for one person, and designed for them to reply and continue the correspondence, we put out press releases on our own lives: ā€œthis is what I had for breakfast,ā€ ā€œthis is a meme about my mental health,ā€ and we become part of a passive audience in our friendā€™s lives. We end up feeling like weā€™ve just seen our friends, because weā€™re ā€œviewingā€ their lives, but actually apps leave us feeling very isolated and anti-social. Try deleting your most used social media apps, and also schedule a walk/movie night/coffee with a friend. Outside of radical deletion, pick an audio book to listen to, and pair it with a hands on/tactile activity: you could load the dishwasher, or draw, or try embroidery.
Jul 29, 2024

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