Taking a break from social media makes you happier and less anxious

Re:Taking a break from social media makes you happier and le... by eligro91 on Tuesday May 17, 2022 @02:47AM (#31406826)

I'm using 2 useful apps to avoid social media on my smartphone:

- Minimalist phone:

Gives you full control on your home screen, and which apps you want to hide.

- lock me out:

Useful apps and sites blocking. You must pay in-app-purchase to break out your rules.

And for my mac I'm using static /etc/hosts file and simply putting hosts that I don't want to access hundreds of times.

it looks like that:

127.0.0.1 news.google.com

127.0.0.1 www.youtube.com

127.0.0.1 www.facebook.com

127.0.0.1 twitter.com ...

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Re:Taking a break from social media makes you happier and le... by Markstar on Tuesday May 17, 2022 @03:09AM (#31406971)

Interesting. The latter reminds me of a book ("Drop Dead Healthy"), where the author tests a similar technique to incentivize productive behavior. There it goes a step further, though: If you miss a deadline, break a promise, etc., you must donate a specific amount to a cause that you despise.

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Re:Taking a break from social media makes you happier and le... by bishopsmother on Tuesday May 17, 2022 @04:25AM (#31407478)

I'm building SocialsDetox ( https://socialsdetox.com/r/sdh ) along similar lines, to provide an easy way to block/timeout from Social Media (and/or other categories that may be detrimental to well-being). Unfortunately I suspect not many people would opt for the "donation to a cause they despised" feature (before being allowed to re-enable their access); will look at adding it as an option and report on the take-up.

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Re:Taking a break from social media makes you happier and le... by eligro91 on Tuesday May 17, 2022 @03:54AM (#31407288)

there is https://www.beeminder.com/home

which is doing pretty much what you've described here.

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