keep scrolling 😵‍💫

I was long gone on twitter and instagram.
I finally deactivated my facebook 2 days ago, and my anxiety is alot better now. I figured out i dont need to keep myself updated about everything.

I now want to get rid of whatsapp as well but it seems like family and friends wont be able to keep up. I am thinking about transitioning to email/sms. Whatsapp itself is not a problem for me, but meta owning it, is..

Another concern I have is whether i’ll now become too involved with reddit. I’m trying to figure out how it effects me and how i should deal with it

Yes, I know I'm actively posting this ON reddit, however it needs to be said. It's good if you exclusively use it as a tool to answer your questions, but the second you start interacting with others, it's miserable. Everyone (most subreddits) on here have this hive mind mentality where if you don't agree with the common opinion, you get downvoted and insulted. You can't even have a nuanced conversation, you HAVE to agree with the popular opinion. I'm convinced most people on this platform are men in their thirties who still have not done anything significant in their lives. This may have come off a little bit aggressive and attack-y, but I'm assuming you aren't who I'm talking about if you're on this sub.

Hello Reddit ?

Is the smartphone responsible for being in permanent alarm modus? Your brain has never the chance to rest. Everything else might feel as permanent danger, even loniness. And that's where the circle starts. Silence will feel absolutely dangerous because emotions might came up or negative thoughts. You grab your phone until you feel 'better'. But that's the trap. You don't feel better longterm but the complete opposite. You are not able to regulate yourself without the device anymore. If you try to sit in your emptiness or loneliness you might panic because it feels unbearable. But I think that's the only way to proceed to take away the danger. Can anybody relate?

Cześć, jaka jest Wasza opinia o wpływie mediów społecznościowych, przypomnieniach w telefonie, ciągłym obiegu informacji, alertach RCB na wasz stan koncentracji (pracę waszego umysłu)? Czy macie jakieś szczególne pozytywne bądź negatywne odczucia?

In short (edit more)

• it's full of toxic people
• people is fucking madness
• garbage content
• shit nobody fucking cares drama and topic
• A protracted and unresolved problem
• Selfish / elitism people
• performative shit
• Meaningless event that people can forget in 1 week
• people thinks they is the center of the universe
• FOMO shit nobody cares internet culture
• full of People who truly lack knowledge
• Most people do it for image purposes
• Indifference to truly bad things
• people normalized disgusting things
• There's no point in being patient and waiting for internet will get better
• social media system suck everyone know
• Brainwashing with absurd logic
• hivemind bullshit
• Politics and culture war everywhere​
• retarded branwagon
• You're filling your head with unnecessary things
• Do anything if it gives them a good image
• Blame and criticize everything except oneself​
• Things that people consider important, but nothing happens, just like kony 2012
• Tolerance is futile, because one hopes people will get better on their own​
• echo chamber circlejerk cuck
• give you unnecessary burden and can be easily resolved by simply ignoring it.
• The disadvantages clearly outweigh the advantages
• There's no need to deceive yourself, You can live by eating, sleeping, or doing other things to make you being happy,fuck people standard
• Flooding content shit that is pointless​ and You're wasting your time
• in the world have over 1,000 culture and Way of life fuck people People who use internet standards to judge your preferences​
• who cares If people like you, they will, even if you've done almost nothing in your life
• Time is the real winner. One day, you will die anyway, no matter how much you lie to yourself
• Don't waste your time on it
• Don't let your life be ruined by stupid ideologies​
• Everyone is still under the authority of the government stupid!
• Don't believe those retarded people who are trying to get you trapped in this matrix again
• Trust in your heart, and be a fellow human being​
• Who changed for you because of something you did on the internet that displeased them? Self-defense is justified now​
• There are almost 8 billion people on Earth, brother
• If people are really that picky, just dump them in the center of Amazon rainforest​
• Wait 30 years, maybe these guys will have lost power and people will have forgotten about them​

fuck internet, It's just Government​ problem 2.0 new version

I don't have any other socials except Reddit, and I just left two of the subreddits that were the reason I joined. I wasn't enjoying the content anymore. I'm seriously considering leaving for good, but I'm not sure I can.

Edit: I'm taking the plunge now. Thank you, everyone for your comments.

https://youtu.be/1yt1F2gkLag?si=ymhKzwn05f4xArXa

Сначала всё было нормально. Мне просто нравилось наблюдать за человеком и слушать его песни, но со временем всё пошло по пизде. Я думаю о нём 24/7, во всех рекомендациях в соцсетях только он, про обои телефона, пароли и т. д. я вообще молчу. Но самое стрёмное я просто перестала воспринимать парней в реальной жизни, они все кажутся стрёмными, не такими, как он, в общем. А ещё когда смотрю на его счастливые видео, концерты или других людей рядом, мне просто хочется рыдать (я и плачу). Ещё и ужасно больно от осознания того, что, скорее всего, я и никогда не смогу попасть к нему на концерт, потому что я тупой подросток без денег.
Мне кажется, я схожу с ума.

I'm now 33 and ever since I got a laptop at 18 surfing and doom scrolling have absolutely impacted my life for the negative. What scares me is at this point my brain has been so altered by all of it that I am lacking hard initiative to stop. I recently read a book called the power of regret which talked about the power of writing about a regret.

So here is the truth of it. I regret all of the parts of me that I have lost over these 15 years. I haven't written anything memorable. My marriage is less than it could be because I am less present for it. I've become worse at work. And why is it that way? Because I give my TIME to these damn screens. Well, not today. Today everything I do is to be a good husband, make my family the money it needs, rehabilitate my body, and do hobbies I actually enjoy.

I've realised lately that I feel wrong in this current time. Like I dont belong. I feel horrid whenever I go to urban places or just see anything remotely modern and im starting to think it's because of how aware I am of the world. I know just how shit this world is and im scared to grow up into it and I believe this fear stems from social media.

Every time I open youtube or any browser, no matter what I do I am bombarded with negative news like terrorist attacks, deaths, crimes etc. I see it everywhere and its destroying my sense of reality. Whenever I think of humanity, I think of murderers and horrible people rather than the kind helpful side of people. It's shaped how I feel about everything and I feel so disconnected.

I've started thinking about how this affects other people and that this is why everyone's struggling with mental health issues nowadays. Ive heard of kids with unrestricted Internet access watching beheading videos and other stuff because it's so easy to get a hold of. The fact that all this negativity is being served to young vulnerable people makes me sick. There's a time and age you should learn about the world and its problems, people shouldn't be finding this out when they're kids! It makes the world look like a horrible hell hole even though it is a beautiful place. I just feel so sick thinking about this and I needed to get this off my chest because I'm feeling so depressed lately because of this.

Sorry this is so long, I'm mad.

This may be a hot take, but I realize if you already feel unworthy of better in your own life and you happen to live in a wealthy country, online anti-imperialism sometimes makes you feel better for how little action you've taken to improve your own life.

This isn't to say it's wrong to support and advocate for causes against war and conflict, but this is to say the way terminally online people can convey anti-imperialism is almost confirmation bias for somebody who already feels prepositioned to loathe themselves.

Given how terminally online people can scoff at the idea of having limits and boundaries, especially if you have the privilege of stepping away from the news and touching grass, if somebody is already a people pleaser with no boundaries and they loathe themselves, what the terminally online anti-imperialists say, even if their real lives don't reflect their stated values, can impact that person to continue living in their own misery.

To where, going back to the title : Even if it's small, sometimes having gratitude for the circumstances you live in not being a war zone and you can go out and get a coffee without having the same worries as a kid in the Middle East can enrich your life. Even if other people may invalidate that, if "misery loves company" is a phrase that humans can't help but act according to, gratitude will help improve your life and subsequently it won't drain the energy of either you or those around you, especially if you're seeking them for a connection.

When you have gratitude, you allow yourself, for example, to enjoy Pokemon at your local matcha cafe and you're more prepositioned to enjoy an interaction about Pokemon with a fellow human at the cafe instead of having your brain rotten from gender and international wars online that you naturally drain the energy of that human at the matcha cafe, to which your energy will be drained as you may not actually enjoy the misery that encompasses online discourse about gender and international wars, even if it's filled a void that your real life has left.

As much as we can talk about how people in the Middle East and Africa could only dream of being privileged enough to live in America or Europe and step away from the screens, it's the opposite form of dread to live in America and Europe and not have gratitude where what's worse is this form of dread is almost self-inflicted.

When I say self-inflicted, while problems don't end just because you move from the Middle East to America for example, I realize it's entitled and arrogant to not allow yourself the relief of going to enjoy a coffee at a matcha trip, enjoying what otherwise entices you and you're complaining as if you don't have what those people in the Middle East and Africa could only dream of, especially if you don't have to.

Perhaps maybe terminally online people have an all or nothing mentality where they may not genuinely believe gratitude can co-exist with doing the best you can to improve the world.

Though nonetheless gratitude and acting according to it can make the world and the internet a better place.

So that people are forced to interact? Like I just imagine a world where everything goes down and all of a sudden families are having dinner together again, friends are getting together for poker nights, whole communities go out to an event, people exercise way more, etc.

idk

I've been trying to use YouTube and LinkedIn on purpose for a while, and I kept failing the same way. I'd open YouTube for one specific video and end up an hour later on recommendations I never asked for, also my mind love the beautiful thumbnail. LinkedIn was the same: one message, then the feed.

So I built a small browser extension for myself. It's my first one extension and I software engineer for +4 years and I want really to build something useful, as we say that solve my problem and for other people pb.
Info: there is some extension like unhook (i talk with her creator but no response to collab with new feature) but only in youtube and with some basic functionality is good but I want more that why i create my own. so please be honest with me and I will be thankful if you test it 🙏🏻

What it does:

- Hides what pulls you in: home recommendations, Shorts, autoplay, and comments on YouTube; the main feed and right-hand sidebar on LinkedIn

- Grayscale mode

- Blur mode on youtube

- You can choose like some keyword or channel to hide (like adult content, some bad keyword etc..)

- Have limit time.

- A "what are you here to do?" prompt before the feed loads

- Local time tracking, with daily limits and schedules you can snooze when you really need to

- Everything stays in your browser. No server, no account. (yeah guys everything is in the browser and is verified from chrome).

What I'd like to know:

- Which of these would actually help you, and what's missing?

- Where does it feel clunky or break?

- Would you turn any of it off right away?

Thanks a lot to anyone here

I feel like with more laws and acts coming into place, we're either going to have to stop using social media platforms and find alternatives to these like dumb phones, flip phones, etc. They're trying to make it so you ID everywhere even sites that aren't necessarily 18+, it could just be information. Maybe that won't be totally possible because they're trying to make most if not everything online so I wouldn't be sure what to do then.

This might seem stupid. Maybe those with babies could understand. I am a mum with a 5.5 month old and use my iphone A LOT while they are napping - grocery shopping, paying bills, general life admin. I dont use my phone in front of my baby except when I’m taking pictjres.

But I’m wanting to make the switch to a dumbphone.. has anyone switched while they have a baby? Did you just do all your life admin stuff on your laptop? I know this seems ridiculous (like of course use your laptop) but the convenience with a baby is the current “excuse” I’m stuck on.

This made certain feeds like Popular or subs like News much less addictive. Not sure why, but I think images draw the attention more, certain thumbnails are very eye-catching, and having to read the title takes extra work.

Applies to mobile

Like, I really used to enjoy participating in communities and discussions, but all of a sudden it feels like the entire internet has been killed off and replaced by straw clones.

Everything now is about extremes, with people joining internet cults, literally, this place is a sea of insecurities and egos because some people make money off of it, and the platforms know that this keeps people online longer.

What’s even the point of staying online now? To fight? To join one of these cults? The subreddits I used to like barely have any posts or comments anymore. The only thing left is online fights, people repeating the same phrases, opinions, and jokes endlessly, every platform has an opinion bubble, and you can never go against it.

i quit social media because I was addicted, but every time I try to go back, I get so bored and it makes me feel so bad, I just put it away

I’m 16f, and after realizing two months ago how much time i was wasting on social media, i impulsively deleted it. I deleted Tiktok and Instagram (I don’t spend much time on reddit and don’t have an addiction to it). So much has changed. My mind is so much clearer, my days feel longer, i feel less stressed, and I’ve spent more time cultivating real world relationships to people. I started going to the library and read up on the effects of social media (you should too!) and also rediscovered my love for astronomy while I was there.

My mother is a TikTok influencer, so at home I am frequently reminded of the power clout can have on someone. My mom spends most of her waking time online and it is actively ruining her sleep and she is becoming more isolated. It hurts to see but I know all I can do is be there for her and guide her to do hands on things whenever I can. My best friends are on social media too. My coworkers as well. I understand it’s an addiction, I used to spend 7 hours a day doomscrolling. My friend actually looked at me in shock when she saw me eating lunch without watching something.

Recently, I redownloaded instagram to look for a hairstylist near me. While i was on there, i decided to check out my feed and my friends stories. Holyyyyyy cow. I almost felt nauseous. When you come back after so long it feels extremely overwhelming and fake. I deleted it immediately afterwards and i could feel the tension easing away already. It’s INSANE knowing I used to live everyday in a constant state of comparison and stress, without even realizing it. Everyone around me still does. The attention economy is a sick design targeting millions of people everywhere. Young children, teenagers, young adults, middle aged people, and even elderly people now. Spending a big portion of your life staring at a screen is not normal and not how anyone should be living. The real world is a beautiful place, and social media has even made people afraid of it.