![]() You come up with a rule for yourself that adds a small upfront cost to surfing. I've been trying out a technique for a few weeks that has been working great for me. StayFocusd is my website blocker, could not function without it. Sounds cheesy but it hijacks your monkey-brain and gives you a dopamine reward for being off your phone. Forest is a fun app which gets you off your phone: you plant a tree in the app for a certain amount of time, if you go off the app the tree dies, if you don't the tree grows, you get coins and can buy different species of trees. Moment allows you to see how much time you've spent on your phone and allows you to see how long you've spent on certain apps (think ios 12 now has this feature?) Latitude is a great chrome extension which simplifies your social media and removes the elements that encourage you to surf. I still have Facebook and Instagram on my phone but I've turned the notifications off. This means that I rush through the latest updates, don't get any pleasure from it and feel no urge to continue doing it. I can still go on social media on my computer but my website blocker only gives me 20 minutes a day. I'm still working on that but not having subscriptions leads you to watch shitty trending videos which means that your recommended is way less appealing. Youtube is tricky because even if you don't have an account you can still watch videos. I logged out of my original Instagram, Twitter and Youtube on my phone. It allows you to use the dopamine of social media to develop hobbies and interests to replace surfing. This means that when I get the surfing itch, I can still satisfy it BUT by doing so I am reminded of what I actually want to be doing (running/writing/watching movies). I joined social medias that are based around activities: Strava (social media for running), Goodreads (social media for books) and Letterboxd (social media for films). I made a new Instagram account dedicated to writing and followed similar accounts. I only follow subreddits around my interests and hobbies. Orientate your social media around your hobbies and interests. You have to make an active decision to look things up rather than passively scrolling through or clicking on a profile out of curiosity. This limits the information in your feed and means that what you see is what you want to see - your friends, your groups, events. Every month I re-evaluate my Youtube subscriptions and consider whether they are actually relevant and enjoyable or just a method through which I waste time. Twitter and Instagram have features where you can mute people that you follow. Facebook has a feature where you can unfollow people, you remain friends with them but none of their posts show up in your feed. It's the most liberating and empowering feeling, highly recommend. Think about it like the Konmari method of tidying: if it doesn't spark joy, get rid of it. I unfollow or mute immediately if something is irrelevant to my life or if it makes me feel bad. However my goal is still to limit surfing and use the internet to serve specific ends. As such, I can still surf but I have structures in place to discourage me from surfing. I've found being too restrictive is counter-productive. I've found this to be more effective and more positive. I decided that rather than going cold turkey I would take a 'weaning' approach. This means that as soon as you have a bad day or are tired you just go back to your old habit of surfing because that's what you know. Furthermore, you cut out the habit without taking time to build any alternative habits. Information and communication is sometimes only possible through social media. It's not possible to cut out social media/the internet forever because it's so embedded in society. I found that going cold turkey was not sustainable for me. Feel free to share your thoughts and ideas below. I wanted to share alternative ways to improve internet habits without going cold turkey.
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