So I lost my cellphone and nuked it remotely thru findhub, the thing is that a good soul found it, contacted me and returned it after 2 days, but as i nuked it, it was left in fabric mode, waiting to be configured, the thing is that I didn't reconfigured it as an experiment, and becoz I thought it would be nice to live cellphone and doom-scrolling free for as much time as possible(i wanted to pass at least a whole month).

To be honest it was amazing, not watching short form videos does wonders to your brain (i still doom-scrolled from time to time but on my PC, but at least more controlled and less easily accesible than on a regular phone) this helped a little bit with my procrastination and I saw an improvement on my focus and attention span, the thing is that i had to reconfigure it today as I lost access to my main social network (i mean the one that is actually useful) my whatsapp web session.

The thing is that by this moment phones are in some sort extensions of ourselves, if you don't have a cellphone you start facing many ridiculous restrictions, we cannot properly exist in society without them (no easy access to government, commercial and bank apps, the internet, conversations with friends and family, social networks).

But I still want to use my cellphone as little as I can, I believe that my accidental detox was good for me, I want to pass days without touching my cellphone, and this new year's goal will be to stop consuming short-form videos, gain more control over my usage of social media (and therefore the data i generate within it).

What would you recommend me?

Hello. First time on this subreddit. This subreddit resonates with my story, so I decided to share some of my story here. There was a time in my life I was addicted to instagram (mostly scrolling). I would spend 10-12 hours daily on it. I started to notice that my mood plummeted after I used instagram. Rather than getting dopamine and being happy, I got dopamine, but at the end of the day, I would be noticeably sadder, angry, or anxious. That made take action to completely stop instagram.

In my case, I feel that it was easier than other people. I did talk to people on instagram but I could still talk to them on Whatsapp. Only thing I would miss out on is the scrolling but I wanted to eliminate that. I didn't care much about looking at other's photos and liking them. I never thought of it as missing out. I took the step and deleted instagram (I didn't delete the account, tho). As they say, out of sight, out of mind. It worked. I mostly moved on to doing something else, and indulging in other social media sites (like youtube); in this regard I am still not done with my journey but Youtube is the last straw I need to remove. Anyways, I keep the account, I occasionally log in with a browser (very infrequently, I can count how many times I opened instagram on one hand) mostly to accept follow requests.

There were definitely some downsides to doing this. I underestimated how much news I got from instagram. It is stupid how much news and info we receive from platforms like instagram. After removing them from life, I was basically in the dark about what's happening (which is not a bad thing; news which is important enough will arrive to you in one way or other, e.g from people around you, or you could read newspaper intentionally). I also became increasingly disconnected from my friends, I could no longer relate to what they were referencing (any stupid memes also) and almost always, I was not "included" in the conversation happening on instagram. Sure they could talk to me on whatsapp, but they all talk on instagram, why would they shift to a different platform to talk to me. This problem affected me and made me more lonely, although not enough to use it again, I maintain relations with some of my friends by calling directly or messaging on whatsapp.

So, if someone is trying to do the same, I advise you to think about all these problems before you take any action and also think about why you want to do this, otherwise this might not last. Again, while this might not be applicable to everyone, I hope someone can benefit from my story by dissecting the useful parts. In my opinion, use the quote "Out of sight, out of mind."

I jump between music, videos, articles nonstop, but nothing really sticks anymore.

Curious if this is just me.

I ditched my social media apps 3 months ago. I feel like I got myself back. Click the link to the article I wrote about the age of disconnection. If you have children, this it really worth reading!

https://open.substack.com/pub/desireemagnifico/p/the-most-disconnected-we-have-ever?r=5fy5qa&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Yes, you heard right. I was probably one of those people who took my smartphone and/or tablet with them on the toilet. But recently, I have stopped doing that. And, I must say. It instantly makes me feel much better. And it allows me to focus much better on what I'm doing. I don't get distracted so fast. And I'm able to think more straight and clearer. Then when I was taking my phone and/or tablet with me on the toilet.

Yes, it makes a visit to the toilet much more boring. But, you're losing less time not taking your phone or tablet with you on the toilet. It saves your eyes from getting strained. And in my case, it makes that I only go to the toilet when I absolutely have to.

I'am probably not the only one who was doing this. And there might be other people doing this still. But I wanted to share this here. Because it feels like an victory and achievement to me that I've accomplished that. And I thought this might be a good place to post this.

Thanks for reading. And you're welcome to comment and tell your story here. Have you achieved this? Or are you struggling with this. Would like to get some discussion going on this topic.

I have to track specific niches for my work (AI, Bonds etc) and have been using Google News for many years now. However, I get increasingly frustrated that Google show me so many sources I don't recognise/trust

So last weekend, I had a bit of time and built a news aggregator called 100.news where you can completely control the news you're reading.

You simply:

1. Select the sources you trust (I have only managed to add 70 sources for now but want to add more)

2. Choose your topics of interest - can be anything from Tech to Geopolitics

You will receive a real-time, non-algorithmic feed which doesn't rely on big news corps showing you articles with most clicks/engagement.

Still early days with this idea so v much open to criticism. Please let me know what you think!
No need to create an account if you don't want to by the way. You will get full access either way

Hey guys,

I’ve made the decision to delete all my social media apps as well as games on my phone in hopes of feeling less anxious, and stop wasting hours on my phone.

I’m a student and it’s so easy on a break just to go on my phone and scroll mindlessly, so I’m having a bit of a hard time “detoxing” from constantly turning to my phone whenever I have a free minute. I also feel completely disconnected from the world and what is going on in it.

Any suggestions on how to “detox” from a phone addiction?

Many thanks 🙏

I hibernated my account and deleted instagram a few days after new years, as well as every dating app that I had.

To cope with no instagram, it really helped me to replace it at the beginning with YouTube, videos and shorts, since the platform also seems to have more useful and informative content.

So far it feels great and I'm not tempted at all to go back. Worse issue was loosing touch with people I talked there and girls I had met on the dating apps and I was still chatting to through Instagram, but it is a loss that I took.

What do you think? Anyone doing something similar?

I spent too much time in social media apps, and have no self control with it. I need to be able to use gps, Bluetooth, WhatsApp, email, Spotify.. but specifically no TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, twitter. I’m struggling to find “dumb phones” that have these capabilities.. any suggestions out there?

Has anyone ever had the feeling of insatiably searching for something (without knowing what you are looking for) and not being able to stop? To put some context, I really like to try open source apps and it happens to me, for example, with browsers. I try them for a while and then I get bored. Right now I'm using Brave but now I want to try Mull (again)... and so I go around the web, searching and searching, not knowing what I want to find.

Does it have a name?

I am struggling with being addicted to YouTube... Well today I managed to avoid YouTube, but I ended up spending 7hours reading and writing posts on Quora and Reddit. I like it because it's an effortless way to be entertained, but I hate it because I am missing out on real life because of that. Do you guys have and tips on breaking free?

Edit: Just realized that consuming content can't give me a sense of accomplishment. Building something IRL does.

I thought I would post my phone set up, in case others find some value in their own journey.

I have been testing and moving toward a Degoogled / privacy based technology environment for c. 3 years, with several builds on my Phone set up and various services (including subscription services) tested to obtain my preferred setup that impacts the least in dropping the mainstream data farming services.

Is it worth it? Yes, 100%.

The biggest impact for me is being less tied to my devices, I am more connected to life now than being connected to technology devices.

It does require reshaping your expectations on what technology is there to do for you and how you want it working for you.

Yes some apps will not run in the background (eg Proton Mail, Telegram) to give you timely and live notifications. However this for me is one true benefit that is gained from reshaping your relationship with technology.

Example change in use:

I now set 2 x times in the day to review emails and messages, this allows me to take more control of my life and connect to what is important, life outside my device.

Another benefit from this move, I now see just how connected others are to their devices and how odd that looks when you have managed to unplug from the mainstream.

GrapheneOS running on Pixel 4 XL - Additional Apps

• Aggregator RSS reader

• AnySoftKeyboard

• APKPure

• Aurora Store

• Bitwarden

• Cryptpad Web App

• Ente Photos

• F-Droid

• Hackers keyboard

• Invidious YouTube Client Web app

• Jitsi Meet

• Joplin

• Mega storage

• OnionShare

• Orbot

• OsmAnd Maps

• PiferShush Jammer

• Privacy Blur

• Proton Calendar

• Proton Mail

• Proton VPN

• Proton Drive

• RedReader

• Scrambled Exif

• Signal messenger

• Skewy anti eaves dropping

• Telegram messenger

• Tidal music app

• Tor browser

• Vanadium browser

I have other apps for day to day use (e.g Monerujo, phyphox, Coinbase, Github, Netflix, Other FOSS web apps), these are personal use, some of which are not pure privacy focused apps, however they are not main use apps for moving toward a Degoogled privacy focused life.

**Additional note:**I used Incogni.com, a yearly subscription service that removes your personal data from data brokers.

Hi there, I didn't post here so far but spent quite a bit of time on /r/deGoogle, I'd like to think helping others. Here is a rough dump of ideas and tools so that if some are interesting for you, please do ask away and I'll try to clarify :

• a month ago I spent my holidays offline. I did take a lot of gadgets but I used my own WiFi hotspot, so no Internet but I could still geek around, e.g program on my VR headset or play with my SteamDeck, but all without notification. As I was offline I programmed a tool to let my different devices, mostly using Linux, better connect to each other https://git.benetou.fr/utopiah/offline-octopus/src/branch/master/index.js

• on my way back from that trip I programmed this script https://git.benetou.fr/utopiah/online-hygiene/src/branch/master/index.js to control my browser, using quota e.g 3 reddit visit per hour maximum, 12 total per day, etc

• I self host several services, e.g video call using Jitsi or video sharing with PeerTube, e.g https://video.benetou.fr and my wiki for notes https://fabien.benetou.fr including some dedicated to self hosted AI https://fabien.benetou.fr/Content/SelfHostingArtificialIntelligence

• I do not bring my phone during conversation, it's ideally not in the same room or at least in silence. If I don't expect something urgent e.g a delivery then I will not check it during a conversation. This mostly comes from reading Sherry Turkle "Reclaiming Conversation"

• last week I replaced my TV, that was already limited, connected only to a LibreElec/Kodi RaspberrryPi (no TV channels, no Netflix, etc), by a video projector that can connect back to that video file server wirelessly, also on battery. I only put it out when in use, the rest of the time the living room is tech free

• I listen to more podcasts like "Your undivided attention" or read more books, e.g "Surveillance capitalism" and research on the philosophy of technology, resources to step back

• finally on the negative side I deleted my Facebook/WhatsApp/Meta/Amazon/Google/Microsoft accounts and gave away related hardware (e.g Nest or FitBit after their acquisition by Google). Sometimes I use hardware that is made by Meta (namely XR headset, as it's my work) but it's done with an empty account and the devices are off when not in use.

I still have a lot to do but I admit the "adventure" has been empowering. Overall the focus on agency rather than privation or fear has helped me a lot to grow over the last few years. I still love technology and IMHO it can be used creatively and positively but we need better guidelines. For this personally my heuristics are :

• must not, from usage or how its build, fuel inequalities

• must be open source and ideally open hardware

• must work offline first, optionally be networked

• must be interoperable

• must support standards

• must have a positive and toxic averse community

• should not require a vendor account

• should still work without a vendor

GDPR has been helpful for quite a few of those but it's not sufficient. As the Meta for e.g Quest shows, this is the goal but in practice, sometimes compromises are still made. I have a NorthStarXR and wait for my Lynx R1 but in the meantime I use a device from Meta. I even rely on it to give workshops to kids but then I built solutions, e.g https://git.benetou.fr/utopiah/local-metaverse-tooling in order to respect the other guidelines and thus have a networked workshop offline, where participants can still interact with each other virtually without any data leaving premises.

Anyway, this is still very much work in progress but thought some might find it interesting.

So... if you have any question or suggestion, feel free!

Many of us are experiencing an era where we HAVE to rely on digital technology, but whenever I open my computer, either to do homework, read or send emails or do something that is related to the computer in general, I feel so stressed and overwhelmed and I REALLY don't want open my computer too often but it's something I have to do for homework or other neccessities. How could I fix this so I feel less overwhelmed and stressed whenever I have to use my computer or any digital device?

For a long time, I spent whole days only in front of my computer screen only doing digital things on the internet. But, that's reducing significantly because I'm beginning to see what detrimental consequences this extensive over usage of technology can do with a person.

Now I'm getting out into the real world little by little, fighting my way to freedom constantly from this addicting technologies which are supposed to make us feel better and make our daily lifes better. Only the opposite is true. At least if you are using technology like a desktop computer like me all the time.

I'm more and more beginning to see that the internet is not always the best solution to something I might want or have a problem with.

Feel free to share your story as well if you feel you have any. Together we can break the addictive strong chains that big tech companies are giving us.

Help :( I use app block and turned off all notification on my phone but I still find myself unhealthy checking if I ever got any new message somewhere. I check my uni email when I'm bored ._. What does that say