At some point I started spending more time on my computer to reduce my phone screen time.

And the worst part is that that made sense to me for a few days.

Big screen = professional tech person. Small screen = phone addicted loser.

HN tabs open on both.

The addictive substance is the network,not the phone. Nobody gets addicted to any phone disconnected from the internet. OTOH, as you experienced it's easy to spend just as much time on the laptop or desktop when that has a persistent internet connection.

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lrvick 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

First thing I did to beat my addiction was keep my phone in airplane mode at all times, and just rely on wifi. After porting my number to a voip provider, i just canceled my cell phone subscription and then the device was no longer a phone, but a wifi tablet. a boring tool i could easily leave at home most of the time until I never took it with me again.

	▲	rkomorn 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		I often leave my phone in a different room, and that's pretty effective, too. I've started leaving my phone at home when my wife and I go places together. It's not a problem without solutions, of course. It just takes an amount of discipline that feels unreasonably burdensome to me (as in "ugh why is this so hard?!").

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adolph 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

> Nobody gets addicted to any phone disconnected from the internet.

I'm not certain about that. I remember spending enough breakout time on my iPod that I had to replace the battery.

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teekert 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think it is the same as with food, we just have to not get tempted. It probably would take something as radical as getting a dumbphone, DNS blocking additive sites, ditching the toilet-scroller. I'm on a website before I realize it.

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majormajor 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Computers still have a lot of pre-24/7-internet applications and patterns compared to phones. You can get all the brain-killing stuff on them, but you also have more options for doing interesting stuff.

(Most HN use arguing with strangers is not that. Clearly I'm guilty too.)

Ironically for the "you'll rot your brain" panic of the eighties and nineties, a lot of video games are similarly better. Invest 60 hours into a complicated game and you've worked your brain out MASSIVELY more than 60 hours scrolling or watching tiktok.

Hell, at this point making it through a pre-2000s TV show or movie can be an attention-span challenge. Where's the constant payoff every 30 seconds like with memes??

	▲	rkomorn 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		May I introduce you to Factorio or Satisfactory, for example? :D But yes, I agree. A regular computer offers more "productive" options than a phone. It's just that in my case, I'm an alt-tab away from going back to brain rot, and I am very good at hitting alt-tab.