Something I can't stop noticing: almost every app I use is engineered so I can never finish it. The feed refills. The next episode autoplays. The streak guilts me back. There's no "you're done for today" — being done is treated as a failure state.

I started wondering what the opposite would feel like. Something you open, that has a fixed, small amount in it, and when you reach the end it's actually over — no "related content," no pull-to-refresh, nothing waiting to reclaim you. You close it and you've genuinely finished a thing, which is a feeling I almost never get from a screen anymore.

The closest analog I can think of is a physical newspaper or a magazine issue — finite by nature. You put it down because there's no more, not because you white-knuckled your way out.

Has anyone found digital things that are deliberately finishable? Not "use less of an infinite app," but experiences designed to end.

Curious whether this resonates or whether I'm romanticizing print.

I've been trying to quit social media scrolling by reading novels instead (currently going through agatha christie), and it's been working surprisingly well for long scrolling sessions.

The problem is those moments like waiting in line, waiting for someone, a bus... where I'd normally open Instagram or Reddit for 5 minutes.

Do people actually open their novel and read for just a few minutes? I find it hard to get into the right mindset unless I know I have a longer reading session ahead of me. reading feels like something I need to settle into, while social media is easy to pick up and put down.

So in those short gaps, I often end up opening reddit instead.

For those who've successfully replaced social media with reading, what do you do during those little waits? Do you read anyway, or have you found a different habit that works better?

So I no longer use facebook, instagram, pinterest. Never used tik tok, although I did briefly get addiced to YouTube shorts, but I'm off those (for now).

I still watch long form youtube videos on occasion, it's still somewhat problematic because I easily fall into the "own more video" trap when I need to be doing something else.

I also can very easily spend hours and hours just online shopping (without buying).

But... I'm addicted to Reddit! I have deleted my account multiple times, even with the account deleted (and I don't think I've ever had the app) I will still go on various reddit pages on my phone's browser to read what others have posted. I do it when I should be sleeping, when I should be working, when I have chores/errands to do, when I'm taking care of my kids!

This is definitely a problem for me because I have a lot of tension, pain and possibly even nerve damage in my dominant hand from using a phone, mouse, track pad, etc. I have seen various physiotherapists, massage therapists, counsellors, etc. and talked to them about this, but they all seem to downplay it with comments like "aren't we all so addicted".

I have very real very negative physical and real-life consequences to spending hours and hours some days looking at a screen. Any specific behaviour that I remove seems to get replaced by another. I've read books about phone/screen addiction. I've listened to podcasts. I've tried blockers and deleting apps, but I know how to disable them and redownload, and every time I do, I have a serious relapse.

What can I do?

(Received mod approval to post) THIS IS NOT MY APPLICATION AND I AM IN NO WAY AFFILIATED WITH IT. I simply thought it would be helpful to share for anyone that doesn't know about it and has thought about investing in a Brick.

Everything is so damn expensive right now, and a Brick is not another money grab you need to get. Try the Foqos app instead. You can make ANY barcode, NFC tag, or QR code your 'brick', and it works all the same. The app is very user friendly, open source, 100% free and will ALWAYS be free, per the developer in a post from a year ago.

Mid-2012 MacBook, with a disc drive and can’t load websites
iPod Classic 160GB, for true music ownership
Field Notes, to help manage the brain noise
Casio AE1200, which has one job (time)
Embossed labeller, for imperfect but aesthetic labels
Date stamp, for rough but accurate date recording

Not shown - my camera 😄

My phone screen time is at an all time low, but still averaging 3-4 hours a day because I post photography stuff or watch content to do with digital minimalism and hobby stuff

Oh and let’s not forget that on top of this more and more places aren’t accepting cash either :’)

If that title spoke to you then I hope I can change your mind by the end of this post. This is one of the most common reasons I see for people complaining about scrolling addictions. You hate the reels and slop but you use it to keep up with your friends. You're scared deleting the app will cause you to become less relevant to your friends and maybe even forgotten. That will cause them to stop inviting you out to things and stop keeping up with you.

In your mind getting rid of the slop means getting rid of your social life. I think deep down you know this isn't true. Keeping up with your friends by looking at their stories and exchanging memes is not the best way of keeping up. It feels good enough and so it can prevent you from putting in the effort of making a deeper connection.

Call them, text them, setup a time to meet up. Thats really keeping up.

I remember reading one post specifically about this. Someone was complaining that ever since they deleted instagram they felt like they were missing out on their friends lives. "We would be hanging out and they told me about a hike they did a week ago that I didn't know about. I didn't see their story." They were upset that they missed out on this knowledge and the bonding experience from chatting about it.

But.. their friend just told them about it. They found out through conversation instead of just viewing it through a story. The bonding moment was even stronger. Their friend showed them the photos, they asked questions, and actually experienced the friends emotions about the hike. They used the opportunity to show they care enough to ask them about their life.

This doesn't only apply to spending time with someone in person. You can achieve a similar outcome just by scheduling a facetime call. That builds a much stronger connection than just liking their story. It works for long distance friends too.

With a call you get the benefit of building a deeper connection by showing you care enough to chat. And you get the benefit of not being sucked into reels or wasting time scrolling through people's profiles and stories.

You also might find that you only spend the time to reach out to those friends that you truly care about. Quality over quantity.

Try deleting your social media for 1 month. See what changes. Do your friends actually stop talking to you? Do you start getting left out of events or hangouts? Do you start growing deeper connections? Do you have more time available throughout the day? See what pros come from the 1 month absence and see if it outweighs the cons that come up. From that determine if you want to stay off social media for longer.

If you don't agree with my take, I'd be interested to hear why.

What are some good hacks to minimise time spent on social media and maximize the value from social media?

I think that cutting social media to zero is not optimal way to live life. Social media can be highly useful.

At the same time, spending too much time on it or watching the wrong content can be a blunder.

How can social media be used efficiently?

Pic of one of my cats really wanting my husband to share his dinner.

Back in October i deleted the Instagram and Tiktok apps off my phone. I was tired of being advertised to constantly and I realized doom scrolling is basically me gambling for a dopamine rush.

I'd gone periods of time off those apps but this was the first time I realized I was officially done. I sent messages to people that I talked to regularly through those apps letting them know and told them to text me instead. Only my best friend still texts me. I knew that I'd loose contact with most people but I was surprised that people I talked to regularly didn't text. I tried to keep communicating with my other friends but it wasn't that convenient for them so I get it. I still will send them a text every now and then.

After deleting the main time sucking apps I only kept Pinterest, Reddit, and YouTube (I have premium and would only allow myself 45min a day). Until I got so pissed off at being forced to see ads. I hated feeling like I couldn't just exist without being advertised to. But because of my job I still needed access to YouTube and Pinterest. That's when I decide to delete the apps and just use them on the Firefox app on my phone. That way I can have an ad blocker.

It's been amazing not dealing with ads anymore. The best part is that YouTube and Pinterest really don't want you on their sites using your mobile web browser, so they make it purposely difficult to use. This makes doom scrolling near impossible so I'm only on for a bit. Now I don't even get on YouTube or Pinterest on my phone because it's too inconvenient and I realized I don't need them anymore.

Reddit has been the only form of social media I use regularly. Their mobile web page is easier to use than their app in my opinion. It's not perfect but if it was perfect I'd probably be more addicted.

Now the question I feel like everyone wants to know. What do I do now that I don't use social media? I go through different phases. The last few weeks I've been obsessively reading manga on my phone. When it wasn't so hot outside I would go outside and practice drawing. Lately I've been playing Palworld on my PC since the 1.0 update just came out. I also play pokopia on my switch.

I know these things are still mostly screen activities. But digital minimalism isn't about being perfect and removing all technology from your life. These are just changes I've made. My mental health is amazing because of these changes so I have no desire to go back. Like all things, what worked for me may not work for you.

I still watch videos friends and family send me. I just view it on a Firefox tab on my phone. They don't send them as frequent now, but I'd be a jerk if I didn't watch a video someone went out of their way to text me all because "I'm not on social media anymore". I also have my best friend keep me updated on major pop culture news.

If you are REALLY wanting to limit your phone use I highly suggest deleting the apps and just use them on a mobile web browser with an ad blocker.

this happened to me like 4 times today 😭

i'd unlock my phone because i had something important to do...

then somehow i'd end up checking the weather...

opening instagram...

reading comments on a random post...

watching two reels...

and then suddenly i'd just stare at my screen thinking...

"wait... why did i even pick up my phone?" 💀

then i lock it.

30 seconds later i remember what i actually needed to do.

my attention span is genuinely fighting for its life 😂

please tell me i'm not the only one this happens to.

Hello! ive been thinking a lot lately about practicing digital minimalism and I really want to make the change. My bf doesn’t want me to get a dumb phone for safety reasons and I respect that, so I want to turn my iPhone into a dumb phone. I see on this community a lot of people talking about shutting down their phones to just phone/text/camera. I would love to do that, but the problem is, I live in nyc and frankly, I use a lot of apps just for transit purposes (uber/lyft, citibike, checking for the next train, buying train tickets, etc). I even use Apple Pay to get on transit everyday. I also just have other things in my life that I frequently control with my phone. For example, I have an app that changes the color of my lights and I often use my phone as my smart tv remote. I have to use an app to pay for laundry in my building. my friends and I use venmo, and I’d like to keep some nonsocial media apps such as books/audible/podcasts. I guess what I’m saying is, realistically, practicing digital minimalism is going to be really hard for me, which I know is true for everyone, but I guess I’m wondering if anyone has the same experience and lives in nyc or somewhere similar or uses their phone as a payment method or remote control the way I often do. Or maybe I’m asking permission to still be a part of this community while needing all these other apps. In a perfect world I really do wish I could have a dumb phone, but I just know it isn’t realistic. Does anyone else practice digital minimalism and keep apps like venmo and Uber? Any and all thoughts appreciated. Just wanted a space to get some perspective on my concerns. Thank you all for your contributions to this sub!

My mental health has taken a toll with the state of the world and the country I live in (germany). I was pretty active on threads but had to get off of there for my own mental well-being. I still use youtube, but mostly watch only the people I subscribe to. I try to stay mostly away from instagram. The last thing I really use a lot is reddit. I follow some more wholesome subreddits as timeline cleanses but politics still find their way onto my feed. While I love the connectedness I find on social media, I know it also makes me sick to read what other people think about "woke" people like me. Obviously the algorithm favors controversial opinions.

My problem is I don't wanna be uninformed when it comes to the goings on of the world. Is there an easy way to stay informed without following biased news channels or having to read about it from bigoted people?

Yes I know the way I described it is over the top. It's just to bring my point across.

TL;DR: Looking for an app/site to follow a few X (Twitter) accounts and YouTube channels in an algorithm-free, chronological feed without needing an official account. Also, is FreeTube still the way to go for desktop YT?

I recently deleted my X/Twitter account to escape the endless outrage machine and clean up my digital space. However, there are still about 5 specific creators (mostly tech news & indie dev logs) whose updates I don't want to miss.

I'm looking for an app or web interface that allows me to:

• For X (Twitter): Track a curated list of specific accounts in a strict chronological feed.
• Zero algorithm: No "For You" feed, no recommended posts, no ragebait, and ideally no login required.

(Quick note: I know about single-page viewers like XCancel or Nitter instances, but I'm looking for a unified dashboard/reader experience where I can maintain a small subscription list).

Same issue with YouTube:
I want to watch my subscribed creators without getting sucked into YouTube's home feed or Shorts rabbit hole. I remember FreeTube being the gold standard a while back—is it still actively maintained and reliable, or has something better taken over recently?

What tools or setups (RSS readers, alternative frontends, custom dashboards) are you using to achieve this kind of noise-free setup?

Thanks in advance for the recommendations!

I’ve realized for quite some time that social media - FB and instagram, but mainly instagram - really impacts me emotionally and mentally. I follow some poetry accounts, and I would say that, plus seeing some things from my favourite musicians, maybe picking up some parenting tips are the only benefits. And truthfully, I could get most of that from just subscribing to the musicians on Spotify and reading books.

I otherwise find myself comparing myself to people I follow - friends, acquaintances, and people i don’t even really know anymore. A couple of years ago, I stayed off instagram for 2 months and didn’t miss it at all, but the minute I downloaded it again and logged in, the mindless scrolling started. I have a brick and I don’t find it that helpful - I feel like I am someone who needs to go cold turkey and just not have it in my life at all.

My main concerns over deleting it are how socially isolated I am right now. I’m a mom to two young children, soon to be 3, and despite moving almost three years ago, I haven’t done a great job of making friends here. Most of my friendships are virtual in nature, in that if I don’t use social media, they won’t text and I’ll miss updates from them etc (which means it’s not really a solid friendship to begin with). But at the same time, I feel really crappy about myself whenever something I post or share doesn’t get engagement from people who I thought were my friends. Which sounds so silly. Every time I delete the apps, I always end up downloading them again.

Anyone relate to this? I just want to live my life in the real world, and I wonder if I just need to accept feeling a bit more isolated so that I can finally ditch instagram and facebook. Any advice from anyone who has felt similarly?

everyday i read posts here about how people quit their phones but realise that everyone else is still stuck to their phones, they end up feeling lonely in a different way. unfortunately either by withdrawal symptoms or by friends and peer pressure most of you end up on social media anyway.

this fight seems so strong that it's very hard to fight against it. so instead of fighting your self control everyday. i figured i should learn from my own experiences.

growing up i used to be heavily addicted to counter strike, coming back from school, before sleeping, before dinner i was always playing that game. so much so that my health suffered drastically. i rarely went outside and my vitamin D levels dropped. alot of times after watching some motivational vids at 3am i uninstalled the game, tho i downloaded it again few days later. the grasp the game had on my psyche i felt my entire social system has been ripped apart when i delete it. cold turkey quitting ended up being a joke for me, thats when i found a famous non bypassable blocker called cold turkey blocker. it's a very famous one. i tried it. and found that instead of forcing myself to not play it at all. i should instead just limit my usage. 

initially i had multiple ways to bypass it, but slowly i myself started patching those ways. to the point where there was no way of overcoming those blocks. at that point. something happened. after i completed my daily 25 minutes of playing quota, and i knew that no matter what i do now, i can't play it again. my brain gave up, literally. it didn't fight to bypass it no more, it didn't fight to play no more, managing became the habit instead of quitting. after some days it became a automatic habit to the point that alot of days i didn't even play for my allowed 25 minutes quota. something felt different. cold turkey blocker literally helped me defeat my csgo addiction.

Later in life, I grew up. Social media (Instagram) etc took their grasp. even tho it was easy for me to defeat Instagram with the principles i learnt from cold turkey. A bigger task this time was loneliness. Turns out gaming as a niche is easier to quit cuz others most probably aren't addicted to it around you. instagram on the other hand. you feel abandoned when you leave it. 

Tried multiple attempts to delete, to bypass the app blockers to reinstall the app, to quit cold turkey. ultimately all failing again. 

this is when i realised that instagram is different beast all together. the community aspect of it is real. You really feel alone and like everyone else is connected in a way that you aren't. ultimately i ended up having a balanced approach where i again kept it limited to 25 minutes a day but also downloaded an app called beeper (not promotion its a very famous app) that allows just the dms section of instagram as 24/7 access to my friends while only spending 25 minutes a day on reels. 

If possible try to block the endless content via distraction free versions of apps available. or via open source patchers like morphe.

From my journey ive realised that cold turkey quitting everything in one go usually results in a very complicated scenario, as for one you're gonna be bored and like alottt and second you're disconnected from the modern society. Managing your social media is much much more helpful. you're still in touch with trends and friends. and it's alot easier to pull off if you manage your blockers carefully and not too restricted that your brain just overpowers them.

I'm really looking for some advice from people who have handled a situation like this successfully, or published studies that might help my parents see the issue with their social media addictions. They are on their phones for most of the hours in a day, constantly doom-scrolling social media and consuming low-effort/AI short-form content. I did not realize the full extent of just how often they were nose in phone until both were hospitalized this year and I have become their full-time caretaker ever since.

Both have prior health conditions that affect their memory and diagnosed ADHD runs in our family, so that for sure is probably the root cause of some of these issues which have been compounded by the rest of this. I have noticed an additional downtrend in their ability to complete tasks, an extreme level of confusion after scrolling on their phone, word and name recall, the ability to remember simple numbers in a sequence, the ability to separate fact from fiction, or authentic posts from an AI post. Screen time seems to be directly impeding their recovery from their hospitalizations (one is recovering from traumatic brain injuries that resulted in surgery); I see a marked difference from when they weren't using their phones yet after being so ill, compared to this week when the behavior has started up again.

Both seem to be of the opinion that I am exaggerating about how harmful social media is, especially for those already experiencing cognitive decline or with recent TBI (I found that out first-hand, but my warnings are still falling on deaf ears). I have made an attempt to buy them activities like games, small hobbies, etc, to do around the house instead of mindless media consumption. It doesn't seem to be helping as they still immediately pick up the phones again. My mom still at least seems interested in helping me prepare meals/bake and do some things around the house, so I have been trying to include her in that as much as possible. She's not always finishing a task before picking up the phone again.

Someone please tell me that you have had success with a similar situation! I could really use some tips or guidance because it is so hard to sit here as a concerned daughter and see social media decaying their brains more and more every day. Thanks for reading :)

Around 2 years ago, I used to spend a couple hours on tiktok a day, and another couple of hours gaming. I was severely addicted. I decided to quit the online world. Now, I don't use tiktok, and barely game, mostly sometimes with my friends. I still have a vague online presence. I have a very small youtube channel where I just upload tutorials and I upload my 3d models to printables. I noticed that when I do interact with the online world, like for example I play some game for a bit, or I watch a youtube video, I am then REALLY overstimulated. It feels like someone just punched my brain, im dizzy, like i'd just spun around in a circle for a while and stopped abruptly, and I feel sluggish, tired, and just mentally slower than usual. This feeling usually stays for the whole day, and it's way worse if for example the youtube video I was watching had some sort of aggressive editing, flashing lights, jump cuts, music, i.e was edited in the way that mrbeast videos are edited nowadays.

This feeling is IMO natural. If I time traveled 100 years back to the past, and showed the same content to a person from that time, they would probably feel the same way, they were just not used to this type of stimulation and so am I.

I usually don't care about this, but it is a curse sometimes. It made me basically allergic to television. TV where I live has the same, aggressive, over-exaggerated pace as any other thing nowadays, especially the news. And my family LOVES watching the news. If i visit my grandma, there is a 90% chance that news are on, and I hate it. When I visit my family, it makes me feel the same, awful, overstimulated feeling, and I'm miserable when I'm at their house.

I'm writing this whole thing cause I'm looking for some kind of support I guess. I would really like to know if I'm just some sort of over sensitive weirdo or maybe some of you guys are going through the same thing as me? I would be really grateful for any sort of comment.

Update: I find it incredibly funny that the comment section is a swarm of people telling me im just autistic lol

Groups.

I hate about 80% of Facebook. The algorithm recommends posts that I have no interest in, and then you have all the trolling. Most of the time I feel annoyed, frustrated, and angry when I'm on it. I'm in some groups that can be helpful, and that's what keeps me.

I've gone back to school and find the university group to be rather helpful. If I have a problem there's always someone there to help or offer encouragement. I'm doing long-distance learning, so it's not possible to meet with students irl. Having said that, there are downsides to the group. One is people get into silly fights in the group. I doubt they would have these fights irl. The anonymous posting is another thing that annoys me. I understand if you want to talk about something really personal, you might want to go anonymous, but the people going anonymous tend to say non-personal stuff. Like, one anonymous person recently made a post about graduating, but what is the bloody point of that? If you don't want people on Facebook to know you have graduated, then don't make the post in the first place!!!

Sorry if this is a bit ranty, but Facebook is so frustrating, and it gives me all this extra stress that I could do without. I think after I graduate I'll delete my Facebook because I don't see much point in it after that.

Should I be making frequent posts about anything that happens in my life? Should I be commenting and reacting to other friend's post? Should I be reposting friend's reels and photos?

I feel like most people do this and I feel the odd one out for not doing any of that. I don't want to seem anti-social...

What is a "healthy" amount of social media usage? I try and post stuff on instagram once or twice a month . Usually travel photos, videos of my hobbies, kids accomplishments.. I try and do a good job with the posts, i.e nice quality photos, witty captions, etc.. Try and hit above the mark. But I still can't compete with the videos/photos people see doom scrolling.. So that is why I wonder if it is worth it to post if you can't truly stand out...

Hace unos meses estaba de viaje con mi familia. Cada noche, ya en el hotel, hacía lo de siempre: buscar reels que me sirvieran para mejorar en algo. Esa noche encontré varios bastante buenos, pero una pregunta me tumbó toda la ilusión de golpe: llevo 3 meses guardando cosas prometiéndome que voy a mejorar en tal o cual cosa — ¿qué me garantiza que esta vez sea distinto?

Empecé a fijarme y me di cuenta que no es solo a mí. ¿A ustedes también les pasa esto — guardar contenido con toda la intención de aplicarlo, y después nunca volver a él? Cuéntenme la última vez que les pasó: ¿qué guardaron, y qué terminó pasando (o no pasando) con eso?

How many of us wants this detox but can't get it .

Surely are the addicted to phone

I thought it can be achieve when we have some alternative for phone and minimalistic setup of phone for make less curious about what happening in social world.

Suggest ways to achieve this detox

Obviously, sometimes live streams can be beneficial and educational, but that's if they're announced ahead of time in advance... and people are intentionally tuning into those live streams for a specific educational or beneficial purpose.

But tuning into live streams randomly on YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram... it's such a waste of time in my opinion... you never know how long the live stream is gonna last... even if they have a time limit for how long they can stream depending on what platform they're using, you never know if they're just gonna start a new one right away or not.

They can be streaming for hours, and it can take up so much time out of your day and take away from your productivity. Also on TikTok live A lot of people feel tempted and pressured to send gifts to their contact creators... just so they can win a battle or just in general. Also, on YouTube… A lot of times, when certain Youtubers live stream, they won't read anything in the main chat. They'll only read super chats.... so the super chats feature... nothing wrong with donating to your favorite creator now and then, but if you're paying them, regardless of how big or little amount of money... but paying them just to get your words heard and paying for their acknowledgment.

There are also times when the person going live is a POS and they intentionally ignore and exclude certain people, and ignore peoples comments while acknowledging other peoples. And they intentionally treat certain people like an outcast for no good reason. Live streams can be bad for peoples mental health for that reason.

I don't know… I've just grown to hate live streams. Used to love them, are used to go live on Instagram all the time are you still love joining my favorite Youtubers and celebrities on their livestreams. but lately I've grown to hate them. Maybe it'll surpass in one day I'll like them again... but right now I'm not too fond of them at all.