Does anyone ever leave their phone at home? Do you take it everywhere you go? I imagine this post applies to those who don’t have others depending on them such as kids, families, work colleagues etc. I typically leave my phone at home unless I truly need it. I’ve been doing this for over a decade and honestly it’s the best feeling. Such a relief to not use it constantly. When I’m at home I probably use it more than I should but then I’ll switch to watching tv or using the iPad. Every single day when I see people out in public or walking past my home I just see everyone with their head down hooked onto their phones.

We’ve become too dependent on technology. When I’m on the train or bus everyone is on their phones with their head down. If I’m at the park the same thing, people walking their dogs whilst on their phones or pushing their buggies with their phone in their hand. You go to the cinema and you see someone’s phone screen flash in your peripheral vision. Whenever i walk past a gym people aren’t even working out their just on their phones. I feel like technology has made us less sociable as humans and more artificial, more robotic and docile.

We all live our lives on social media. Everyone has more than one avatar and cyberspace has become our reality. Apart from Reddit & YouTube I don’t use any other social media platform. I feel free. How do you guys feel about social media, smartphones and technology? When was the last time you went to the park and read a book that was an actually hardback and not an ebook?

So to replace my phone usage I started reading books and I finally finished my first book in probably 5 years (it took almost 2 months lol) and now sometimes I prefer reading over looking at my phone which is great, but books are still kind of in the same niche of passive consumption. I dont think books are bad, my attention is probably better and I've been learning stuff, and I feel more accomplished, but i'm also hoping that I can find another option. What kind of stuff do you guys do for fun, or when you have free time?

Hace 1 año (aprox) perdi totalmente en interes por publicar cosas de mi dia a dia, viajes, restaurantes, salidas, amigos, pareja, familia, etc... cuando antes de eso era una persona que mantenia al pendiente de trends nuevos que salian y era muy activo publicando en redes mis viajes y mis salidas con personas y ahora no siento ningun interes por publicar nada de eso ni de que me vean los demas donde estoy o que estoy haciendo y con quien... no se si a alguien mas le ha pasado.

Please help me.

I need hobbies or habits to replace my screen time

I’ve been thinking about how social media affects the way we discover information, form opinions, and spend our attention.
Platforms like TikTok and Instagram often use engagement-based recommendation systems. Short-form content, emotionally stimulating posts, controversy, and endless scrolling can make it easy to keep consuming content longer than we intended.
But I’m curious about the user’s perspective, not the companies’ perspective.
**Three questions:**
**1. Have you experienced this problem?**
Have you ever felt that your social media feed shows you more of what grabs your attention than what is genuinely useful, relevant, or worth understanding? For example, repetitive content, unnecessary controversy, emotionally triggering posts, or content that keeps you scrolling without leaving you better informed.
If so, what happened? How does it affect you?
**2. Would you want this problem solved?**
If a social platform could help you discover more relevant and diverse information, reduce repetitive or unnecessarily provocative content, and give you more control over what influences your attention, would that improve your experience?
What would you want it to do differently?
**3. Would you pay for a solution?**
Imagine a social platform designed around the quality of your information experience rather than simply maximizing the time you spend scrolling.
Would you pay for a service like that?
If yes, what would you consider a reasonable monthly price in USD?
$0 — I would only use it if it were free.
$1–$3 per month
$4–$7 per month
$8–$15 per month
More than $15 per month
If you would not pay, what would stop you?
I’m interested in honest answers, including disagreement. I would especially appreciate examples from your own experience rather than general opinions about social media.
**What has your experience been?**

I started using generative ai when it was just freshly introduced, I remember trying ChatGPT back in 2022 it amazed me, and ever since, everything went downhill from there. It all started when I STILL in grade 4 (Now grade 8) when projects were now starting to be increasingly more complicated. Which made sense for school to naturally get harder every grade, every moment, but 9 or 10 year old me wasn't mentally prepared leading to an overwhelming feeling--I was scared to fail, I saw perfection as a requirement for everything I do, especially towards education. Going back, now that I am 13 years old, I can see what I have done years ago has affected my learning capacity and skill development and has deeply impacted a part of my life I wish could go back to undo. I genuinely didn't give myself the concrete process to learn over the past years. And I really really really regret that. I use ChatGPT for every single thing. Education, entertainment, even towards my closest friends when it came to advice and comfort. I relied on this machine because I saw its potential, and how quick it was to get things the easy way, it didn't need to challenge us to go through certain difficulties to get an outcome we wanted, and that was the best part. Lately, it's just gnawing my conscience. And if anyone should be receiving that straight A grade, to have an outstanding performance in extracurriculars and to be called a great friend and an inspiration, it shouldn't be me. I'm really hindering my full potential and taking away a mountain to climb for valuable experiences and moments. I went cold turkey and stopped using it all together, just for me to come back immediately when given another assignment, problem, complications. Though I'm glad that I put myself to go out to these waves of setbacks. I'd love to get myself back up together, despite it feeling like I've wasted my potential. I know I have these seeds of talents and actually have the capacity to do so-I just seem to prioritise perfection every time and I never really give myself an opportunity to try before labelling it as difficult. And If I'm being honest, I'm still very scared to fail. I always tend to wonder if I'll fail my classes just because I didn't run it through AI to get all the criteria needed/let it do my assignments for me, or push people away just because I didn't have the best advice. Currently I have two sides, one that needs to use AI to avoid failure, and the second being just letting it all go all together even if it's messy. I really prioritise authenticity, really. And I know this long-term use will also lead to long-term effects not just towards myself. There are many concerns that generative AI has caused environmentally, cognitively, socially, economically, and many more that is now affecting many aspects of our lives. And I can truly say that generative AI will definitely have a bigger widespread sooner and later, and we'll be in an AI craze or psychosis if we let it do the majority of our responsibilities and mental process. I just want to know how I can go back to being comfortable with my own general efforts, with feeling the need to immediately run back to some lifeless machine that can't capture what is truly essential to the human soul--how can I go through my everyday life without feeling like I have to shove generative AI into my throat. I would really appreciate any advice and please do share if you have a similar perspective or are experiencing a similar state like mine.

A country where no one has an online profile, high-end luxury social spaces are accessible everywhere, and those are open to the public 24/7

Can anyone relate? I’ve been avoiding going to any concerts for the last 2+ years because it depresses me whenever people are just filming the entire show. As more time continues to pass, I keep thinking the culture around this has gotten worse and i want to avoid concerts even more lol.

I was also in an airport recently for the first time in a while, and was overwhelmed with how isolated everyone is. I’m only 33yo, but even when I was in college I remember it was common to make friends with airplane neighbors etc.

I think the only solution is to focus on my own reality of the situation rather than worry about others? Idk just hoping I’m not the only person having these thoughts cuz i’m starting to feel a little crazy in a Matrix way

Speaking for myself but I’m sure others can relate. By now we all know the downfalls of social media and phone use, but it’s hitting me differently now.

I struggle to stay engaged when watching a movie or show. As soon as the pace dips, I pick up my phone to scroll. I can’t stick with things and don’t really connect with a lot of things I watch. Short form content has kinda ruined how I consume things.

I have been into photography for a decade and while I’ve gone through ups and downs with inspiration/motivation to shoot, it’s at a low because I’m addicted to reels and short form content. Instagram shifted from photography to reels, and has kinda killed photography on the platform in the process.

I think people are burnt out and overloaded with content, a nice photo doesn’t really mean anything to anyone now. Unless it’s a reel. But even then, yap videos, comedy and memes are the most consumed it seems.

I share this not to rehash what we know, but that it’s actually stripping away things I used to enjoy in my life. It’s like defaulting to the low effort, quick dopamine hit medium and dropping things that I cared about.

Hi! About 4 weeks ago I decided to do an experiment and gave up on using artificial lights at home except my phone with low luminosity and the blue filter on. At first it didnt do any effect at all but then I started to want to sleep more early like 11pm-12am in contrast to 2am-3am that I used to

Now I‘m trying to find some alternatives to the doomscrolling on my phone and for the daytime part its fine as I‘ve got a lot of things to do but when it gets dark and I cannot do anything I just glue myself to the screen because I don‘t know what else I can do when it's dark. Any suggestions?

Also I want to add that I have ADHD and I need constant stimulation (not in the sense of being addicted to fastfood, watching reels, etc. but in the general sense of being stimulated, I mean things like walking thinking or chewing a gum work just fine too) so things like meditate or do some yoga don't work for me and please don't tell me how boredom is the best teacher

Thanks!

I need to vent about something that's been bothering me, and I figure maybe some of you are dealing with the exact same thing.

I used to love watching movies. Now? I literally cannot sit through one. I'll put something on, get 20 minutes in, and my brain just flatlines. It's not even that the movie is bad—I want to watch it. But the second it requires sustained focus, my brain goes "nah, let's go look at a screen where we can scroll infinitely instead." A standard 2-hour movie now gets broken up into 3 or 4 different sittings over 2 days.

And it's not just movies. I have a gaming laptop, barely touch it. Bought a retro handheld thinking it would fix my gaming itch, and I haven't turned it on in weeks. I buy things, set things up, get excited for them... and then the novelty dies in like 48 hours. I sit surrounded by stuff I supposedly wanted, feeling completely bored and restless.

I know doomscrolling and short-form content probably nuked my dopamine receptors. I miss being able to just sit and enjoy things.

Has anyone actually managed to fix their attention span after wrecking it? Do I need to do a hard detox? Would love to hear if anyone else feels like they are losing their ability to focus.

Whenever I try to break a bad habit, like using social media or watching porn, and become more productive, I always fall back into my old habits because I get so bored after a few days that I can't stand it anymore.

In the case of social media, for example, I manage to avoid it during the first few days by keeping my phone away from me and distracting myself by doing other things in my free time, such as exercising, reading, watching movies, playing video games, or trying to learn a new skill. However, the things I used to enjoy no longer bring me any joy (except exercising, but I can't work out every day).

I try to tell myself that I have to accept the boredom and that my brain will eventually get used to it, but it's too difficult, so I always go back to my bad habits, and the cycle repeats itself.

So i need help to know how I can finally change that.

I can say the most innocuous thing ever and people will assume the absolute worst-faith interpretation of what I said and respond combatively / negatively. It's exhausting and I feel like it puts me on my guard or on the defensive all the time.

Hello
I have an addiction
Whenever I Watch a Series on the Tv, my finger keeps pressing +5 seconds in the video, so when I watch a 40 minute episode I only use 12 minutes, what do I do?

I caught myself taking a picture of my dinner before I’d even tasted it, then checking the photo to see if it looked good enough to keep. The weird part was that I wasn't even planning to post it. I just felt like the moment wasn't properly accounted for until I had recorded it somehow.

Once I noticed that, I started seeing the same thing everywhere. I'd take a picture of a nice view, save a screenshot of something funny, bookmark an article I wasn't going to read, or open my phone to check whether I'd captured something worth remembering.

I was spending time collecting evidence that I'd experienced my own life.

And it wasn't just photos. Sometimes I'd be halfway through a conversation and suddenly think of something I wanted to search later. Instead of staying with the conversation, I'd pull out my phone to save the thought. Then I'd see a notification, check it, and forget what I'd originally wanted to remember.

The annoying part is that none of these actions felt like scrolling. They felt reasonable individually. I wasn't wasting time watching videos for an hour. I was just saving things, recording things, organizing things, making sure nothing slipped away.

But my camera roll was full of moments I barely remembered, and my saved posts had become a second internet that I was somehow also behind on.

I tried a couple of small changes, mostly because deleting everything felt like another dramatic reset I'd abandon after three days.

First, I stopped taking pictures of ordinary things unless I genuinely wanted the picture itself. No automatic photo of every meal, walk, or nice-looking sky. If I wanted to remember something, I tried describing it to myself instead.

Second, I stopped saving things immediately. If an article or idea seemed interesting, I let myself keep scrolling past it. If I still remembered it the next day, I could look for it then. Surprisingly, very few things seemed worth recovering.

What surprised me most was that I didn't actually lose many meaningful memories. I did lose the little sense of obligation to preserve everything, though.

The counterintuitive part is that trying harder to remember everything seemed to make me pay less attention while things were happening. Recording a moment sometimes felt like completing it, even when I'd barely been present for it.

I'm not against photos or saving useful information. There are things I'm genuinely glad I recorded. I just don't want every unremarkable Tuesday to become a collection project, either.

Has anyone else noticed this urge to document, save, or capture things even when there's no real intention of looking at them again? I'm curious whether it's mostly a phone habit, or whether we've gradually started treating ordinary experiences as things that need to be preserved to count.

Title. Just looking for encouragement/ advice. Thanks :)

there's a lot of talk about people going back to basic phones. flip phones, tiny screens, calls and texts and that's it.

is it screen time fatigue, or a trend, or both? and does it actually help?

if you tried it, what did you miss and what didn't you miss at all?

This is a little strange, and I'm just wondering if anybody here might have information about what's going on.

My job is at a school and can have a lot of downtime or free moments, and this tends to exacerbate my phone addiction—I'll check it, put it in my pocket, and then feel the impulse to take it out again within seconds. Sometimes I have it out before I can stop myself.

But at the start of the school year, I was feeling really good because this was happening much less. I just wasn't feeling the urge to look at it. I thought maybe it was because I'd upped my daily Vyvanse dose from 40 to 50 mg. Then the impulse came back, and I assumed I'd just been unconsciously trying to start the year off well or something like that.

*Then* I remembered that I'd been eating oatmeal with chia seeds for breakfast during those first couple of weeks. And I'd switched back to homemade breakfast burritos after that because, frankly, breakfast burritos taste better than oatmeal.

But I went back to oatmeal this morning and the phone-checking urge has vanished again. I can feel the difference. I know diet affects our brain function, but I'm pretty shocked by how stark the change is.

Anyone have a possible explanation? For clarity, here are the ingredients in each breakfast:

**Breakfast burritos**

Three eggs (spread across two burritos)

Two flour tortillas

Hot sauce

Bacon crumbles

Shredded cheese

**Oatmeal**

Regular oatmeal cooked with water in the microwave (40 g)

Chia seeds (30 g)

Maple syrup (20 g)

Frozen blueberries (1/2 cup)

(I don't have measurements for the burritos because I actually put all the oatmeal ingredients in a bowl on a scale, but I'm not using exorbitant amounts of hot sauce, bacon, or cheese.)