The computer + the internet is the worlds greatest fidget spinner. How many times have you wanted to "quickly" check Wikipedia, e.g. reading up on a random town then find yourself down a 2 hour deep wikihole reading about plants, plate tectonics, and slavery. Hours and days lost to it.

What people need to do is plan out their time usage better, especially neurodivergent people who fall into these traps much easier (Hi.) I used to wake up on weekends, sit at my computer and burn down my morning and afternoon on it. I would regret it at times so I changed the habit: no computer in the morning. Make my bed. Put on coffee. Feed the cat. Eat something. Shower and groom. Get dressed and maybe go for a walk around the block. At that point I have little desire to burn a day looking at a screen.

Make a new morning routine. Start by making your bed (it's a building block, wax on/wax off.) If I want to use the computer I make a time slot and set a timer so I don't get lost. I then set other goals including going for walks, do some shopping. Exercise is another step, just basic stuff you can do at home in addition to walking like push-ups, sit-ups and so on. You can even buy a set of dumbbells/kettle-bells and make a little workout routine. Not to get swole but fit and energetic. That helps a lot as being sedentary leaves you with little energy and isn't good for your mental health either.

We cant avoid all the capitalistic push but we can avoid it as much as possible. Build new habits. Make new plans. Set new goals to curb screen time. It's easier than you think as you don't need to do everything at once, maybe just start making your bed and set an internet timer. Go for a short walk around the block or whatever. If you fail to do your new routine, relax, just try again tomorrow. Baby steps. Rome wasn't built in a day.

I feel like self-hosted voice and chat assistants - assuming we can get them to be good enough - can help fight this:

> The computer + the internet is the worlds greatest fidget spinner. How many times have you wanted to "quickly" check Wikipedia, e.g. reading up on a random town then find yourself down a 2 hour deep wikihole reading about plants, plate tectonics, and slavery. Hours and days lost to it.

If you want to know a thing, we should be able to have our computers fulfill that request without any extra drama or engagement bait. Self-host voice assistants require quite a bit of assembly, self-host chat assistants a bit less. We're moving in that direction.