> Yesterday I spent 9h 31m on my phone (according to the built-in screen time tracker on my iPhone). It doesn't make me happy, but I can't stop scrolling. I think I have an issue.

What are you scrolling, which app has that hold?

I'm not the person you replied to. However, when I used to browse reddit - my phone logged an unhealthy amount of time spent on that app (in roughly the same ballpark).

I don't use an app to browse reddit, so it usually went like this: close reddit tab. Open new tab. Automatically type in reddit.com.

And I'm sure, 100% sure, that I'm not the only one with that problem...

You know I've had times in my life where I've had this issue as well. I personally think our inability to turn off the deluge of pixels is a real problem. But I want data to back up the thought. In 2017 Youtube users watched a billion hours of video a day. [1] Some rough numbers show that in 2018 Facebook users spent about a billion hours on facebook every day [2].

Multiply these numbers across reddit, tiktok, the various international social media giants. Are the >2 billion hours a day people spend glued to their screen limiting social progress? Is it fear mongering and ignorant to even ask? One thing I know for certain is there will be a growing group of people seeking help to limit their watch time on these services. The algorithms are simply too addictive.

[1]: https://youtube.googleblog.com/2017/02/you-know-whats-cool-b...

[2]: https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/02/06/people-still-spend...

Same here.

I've found many tricks that help. For example, erasing some urls from autocompletion (fn mayus backspace for chrome in mac) helps fight against the muscle memory, when you have to type the whole thing. There are also extensions like stayfocusd that help. In a smartphone, switching the icons (for example putting ibooks or spottify in place of the broweser) helps.

It's basically a reverse UX problem: you try to create as much friction as possible.

My problem is that it works for a few weeks or so. Then for whatever reason I get to a point where reddit is super useful (like buying a specialized products, where the communities can help get somewhat unbiased opinions and reviews) and I'm back to square one.

This site produces the same effect btw. It's just that the content is at least somewhat limited to a point where checking more than once or twice a day isn't worth it.

I stopped reddit cold turkey 6 years ago for that reason. I’m sure there is a healthy way to use that site but I don’t want any parts of it. Its ability to provide fresh content every second of every day is not good for me.

The time in itself is not bad. It could have been 10 hours of important reading for your study or whatever. So do not get hung up on numbers, that will only lead to negative double-bashing of yourself. I observed myself trying to avoid using the phone for obvious things like navigation and weather forecasts because I wanted by all means to reduce the screen time. That is as irrational as anything.

Focus on what you want to do instead and use the time on that. Start reading books, go for walks, dance, play an instrument whatever it is. Focus on that instead of narrow focus on screen time.

While I just had to check if there was such a "time tracker" on my iPhone. Yes there is and I had not activated it.

Why do you keep scrolling on the phone instead of a proper PC with a bigger monitor? (or at least a laptop)

I am in a similar boat. I am a software engineer and I can't ditch it.