There was an article a while back about a study someone did around willpower and self control. If I recall, their finding was not that the people who are better at delaying their gratification just have iron willpower and grind it out. Instead, they are smart enough to do things like remove themselves from temptation in order to make it take less willpower to accomplish their goals.

If the author if this article felt getting rid of their TV made it easier for them to live the life they want to live, I don't understand at all why so many people in this thread feel the need to criticize that.

Imagine an obese people wrote some blog post about throwing out all the cookies in their cabinet so they wouldn't be as tempted to eat them. We'd applaud that. Likewise, an alcoholic quitting their job bartending to get to a better environment.

But when it comes to media addiction, well... maybe it hits a little too close to home for many of us? Easier to criticize someone who tries to do better than to take an uncomfortable look in the mirror.

Making a steep change can be a good way to break into better self-control.

I loved not having a phone for a while, then used a tablet for a few things that were more convenient by app than website, in addition to a PAYG Nokia in case of emergency (in the car, or at home where I have no landline) and eventually bought a cheap smartphone in Amazon's prime day sale to combine those two functions.

But the result is that I use my 'phone' like a tabket: it's never in my pocket, and it functions as a phone only ICE. I'm not sure I'd have done that and stuck to it if the transition had been direct from daily 'normal' smartphone use. I was never 'addicted' any more than the average person, I've never been into Snapchat et al., but I suppose I was close enough to notice and harbour distaste for that trend.

It's "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" v2.0.1b5.