Thanks so much.
What I mean is that I get the distinct feeling that you know what to do, you say you like to be informed but you are getting an overload of info. It is so extremely easy to conclude you should reduce the amount of information you consume that you already know that. So why don't you do it? Because you don't know how. I'm saying it will take a lot of work indeed, and a lot of willpower. There is no other way than to indeed just stop reading reddit.
Imo, what you need (and me too) is more time to let your thoughts wander, to let your brain connect dots on its own without distraction, to let your brain relax. So you reduce the amount of info. Why is this hard? Because you seek immediate satisfaction, that is what you get from all that information. But all this info is not satisfactory in the long run, hence your cry out to HN. The process of undoing these tendencies is not rewarding at all in the short term, but it will be in the long run. That is why it is hard, especially for someone like you (and me.) Hard problems require focused willpower, not changing /etc/hosts, you'll find something else to distract you.
This experience is always eye opening. It always makes me wonder what the hell I was doing with that smart phone all the time. I just got it back (!after 7 weeks!) and I do 3 days on a battery because I hardly check it. I lost the habbit. I feel much better, when I bike to work I don't have a podcast playing (Twit, No Agenda, yes I miss it, I even burned two No Agendas to a CD for a long car ride, had to dig around the attic for burnable cds :)), I'm not whatsapping during work, not reading long posts on he toilet. I have time to think. Think about what to do, what to learn, how the day will look like. This alleviates a lot of stress, just having a clear and relaxed picture of what your day will look like.
In short: Just stop it. Just Stop overloading your brain. You know exactly what is wrong but you are too weak. Stare out the window, go on walks without your cell phone, quit facebook. The world will not miss you.
I have a very strong feeling that when we stopped being bored, stopped waiting, stopped doing nothing, stopped staring and replaced it with constant consuming of information, we lost something valuable. And indeed, those apps are shortcuts to dopamine release, it is hard to stop. I admit, getting my phone back was like getting a new gadget, but I try to restrain myself from using it. One small trick is to do most thing in the browser, it does not put notifications in your notification area.
By the way, you posted your question here to find an easy way out, to get a tip like: Scratch your left nut for 3 minutes once a day and feel better. But there is no such advice. There is no shortcut. You are going to have to do something radical if you really want change. If you really want change, delete all those accounts, get a dumb phone.
As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives. -Henry David Thoreau
It is hard work.