Weirdly, Instagram never hooked me. I guess I only followed people that didn't post, ha ha.
As per boredom (I'm 60, so, yeah, grew up without smart phones), best thing that can happen to your creativity. All my good ideas come from stretches of boredom (driving long distances for example). I love boredom.
When computers came firmly into my life, it was solitaire games I had to actively delete from my machine. So many wasted hours (I thought).
Note: we 60 year olds wasted plenty of time watching shit television content long before smart phones (and computer solitaire) came to be.
I have only just slightly made a little peace with this time-wasting habit. I've come to see that there is time of decompression that I sort of seem to need in the evening. As I say, it used to be TV where I would find solace in "vegging out". Lately it's YouTube.
Perhaps we can accept this but find better ways to veg out? I personally think YouTube is superior to the crap TV (and, god, commercials) of old. But drumming, playing guitar, reading ... these are better still.
I found the stylistic choice to write in all lowercase so jarring that I could barely focus on the content of the article itself.
Now I realize I am going against HN Guidelines by focusing on style over substance, so to tie this into the content of the article:
The lack of capital letters makes me feel lost in a sea of stream-of-consciousness, much like an infinite stream of Instagram reels. Capitalization makes everything more readable. In contrast, social media doesn't want to be readable, it just wants to be absorbed.
Of course language is always evolving, and we are right to sometimes eschew outdated conventions. However, capitalization exists for a good reason. Capital letters mark the beginning of a sentence more clearly than a simple period. They stick out and give your eyes something to latch onto when scanning the page. In addition, capitalizing proper nouns sets them apart, drawing attention to non-standard words.
Capitalization smooths the reading experience with structure and boundaries...which it sounds like the author could use a bit more of in their life.
Reading is good for this.
Sit down with a novel and leave your phone on the other side of the room. Read. If you get distracted or lost in thought, that's fine—just don't stand up. Stay where you are. When you're done being distracted, go back to the book.
It really makes a difference.
It really is insane. I deleted Instagram too, but so many other apps have the exact same formula, like YouTube and Reddit. All you can do is repeatedly delete these apps, and journal or read to keep them at bay. I bought a notebook for tricky Spanish verbs, and I've got another one for Jazz music theory. I am terrible at Spanish AND Jazz, but it helps me stay off my phone, and when I am doomscrolling, I make an effort to change course, look up something I'm really curious about and write it down. Hope that helps literally anyone.
I used a “trick” to make YouTube work in my favour. For a few days I purposefully watched and liked/subscribed a bunch of videos about things that I think make me a better me (jazz piano lessons, philosophy conversations, math/physics/CS lectures, etc) until the feed only contains those. If I notice it drifting because sometimes it tries to pull something on you, I make sure I thumb down the new shit and retrain it a little. Has been working well so far!
What I find weird about social media is that using it never really "feels good". I can go back to when FB was the addictive app back in 2015 or Insta/Tiktoks now, you'll find something funny here and there but beyond that it leaves you feeling worse than when you started using it. It might also be a side effect of getting old but Twitter and LinkedIn feel particularly triggering with so much rage bait
I really think society is sleepwalking into a ton of problems with mass media consumption (mostly by the phone, and of which Instagram is one component). We are not supposed to be filling every gap in our lives with videos, games, music, and short-form content.
It is okay to be bored and let your mind wonder every now and again. It fosters boredom, which in turn fosters creativity. It also boosts the enjoyment of the (lower amount of) media you do consume and stops you becoming numb to it and seeking out more dopamine constantly.
It is clearly having an effect on people's attention span, stunting people's ability to focus, and affecting their performance, not just in work, but in many areas of their lives.
Maybe the city I live in is an isolated case, but most people walking from place to place are looking at their phone while doing it. I see people walking their dog or pushing their baby prams while staring at their phone (this is supposed to be bonding time). When I go to the gym, there's a whole column of people walking on treadmills (even on a sunny day) because this allows them to prop the phone up on the treadmill or hold the phone and watch videos. The 3-5 minute rest between sets on machines, benches and free weight areas is now a video watching period. Sometimes people are just doing a low-weight easy load with the phone resting on their crotch.
Even if people aren't looking at the screen, a lot of the time they have earbuds in listening to something. Is it a war on silence and letting the mind wander?
Why can people not unplug? Surely by now it's proven that short form video content is stunting people's attention span, making it hard for them to read even a page of a book. How are these people going to competently hold down a job or pursue a hobby? What happens in 20 years when people have been conditioned like this for 2,3,4+ decades. Are we going to have a serious breakdown in mental health, early signs of dementia or Alzheimers?
Damn companies like Instagram for taking part in this, as Google, Meta, Reddit, Spotify and whoever else has. Their desire to occupy ever more of our attention and time is leading this charge.
I recently had a few nights where I stayed up way too late watching YouTube shorts, which are about 1 minute each, on my desktop. I'd notice that an hour had passed, tune back into YouTube, then another hour had passed.
Now that I've recognized the pattern, I've decided to stop scrolling through shorts; watching a short without scrolling is fine. I also setup a systemd service to pause media and lock my screen every 30 minutes after bedtime. The screen lock may be overkill, but I have a bad record of digging too deep into subjects at night, so I think it will still be beneficial.
I'm in my late 40s and have Instagram on desktop. I watch reels from time to time. The clips I watch are definitely >6 seconds (more like 30s to 1.5 minutes -- there are very few clips under 10 seconds on my feed). And agree with emily, Instagram on desktop isn't as addictive. I scroll for 10-15 minutes and I'm done.
Also, Instagram's Reels algorithm isn't that smart. I watch maybe 20% of reels to completion (I skip 80% of reels after 2 seconds). The Reels algorithm shows me a bunch of stuff that it thinks would interest me, but really don't. I don't understand why, because I do follow a lot of content creators. I'm also quite reptilian -- if I see a weird animal or a dam bursting or a powerwashing scene, I will watch it. But Instagram doesn't seem to pick up on that.
Now I've heard TikTok's algorithm is much smarter and thus more addictive than Instagram's. I promised myself that I will never be on TikTok.
YouTube subscriptions are my main form of entertainment. I justify it because I learn so much useful stuff from them.
YouTube Shorts? I don't bother at all -- despite my having curated my subscriptions carefully, the recommended shorts are so boring that I never click on them.
Instagram took the most addicting thing about facebook - the images and visuals - and it became an instant addiction for many people.
It also quantifies social status - more followers generally means more status.
It can be scary evil bc it brings out the worst in us.
This is the world we built, hope you all got your cut.
> in some future some laws might pass (in europe?) to force apps like instagram to give you an option to turn off reels
I'm convinced that laws like this will eventually exist.
More broadly, I think there should be laws that force social media apps to allow you to turn off 'algorithmic' recommendations in favor of basic recommendations like 'most recent posts' and 'most popular videos today'. LinkedIn actually has a setting like this and it has greatly improved its UX for me. And one of the reasons I like HN so much is specifically because it doesn't try to personalize my feed.
This addiction is real. I found it quite shameful that somehow with all the determination to be the best version I would like to be and do things of meaningful nature, I fall into the trap of scrolling through reels almost everyday.
Reading and writing has been a way to indulge myself meaningfully. I really don't know effective ways to remind myself that this consumption of useless content is a waste of time and creator of frustration. How do you all manage it?
For me, that was the YouTube recommendations. Between the clickbait and the algorithm just being good, it could suck hours of my life.
Thanks God I found out about unhook extension, i disable absolutely everything but the video, and I use freetube to monitor my subscribed channel, so that I don't even need a Google account and the only thing that appear in my 'feed' is video of channel i subscribed to.
And even then, freetube has a setting to remove clickbait title and thumbnail..
It's been years like that and it feel so much better.
I believe there are tools, extensions, to fight back against the addictiveness of these websites but the general population doesn't know about them and once you're hooked you don't even think about it.
Smartphone just make it even worst but it in no way enabled it.
I've had similar issues with Reddit and Youtube. I ended up building https://limitphone.com, it's a blocker for Android which uses MDM so it cannot be bypassed. It comes with a default blocklist to block social media, and uses a timer system to delay gratification.
It's been a game changer for me personally and has slashed my screentime.
After reading Cal Newports book on digital minimalism I've removed Instagram entirely cold turkey. It's been three years now and I occasionally use the desktop version to message some friends.
The great thing about it is that I've saved myself many hours. I use that time for reading and walking and a variety of other activities. Also my attention span and mental health improved drastically.
I genuinely must have a mental defect. I use these apps casually and I can't say I've ever had the urge to pick up my phone at 4am and watch 2 hours of instagram shorts. They're usually annoying and pushed in my face which invokes a strong backlash effect. I typically watch an hour or two of YouTube a night, but only on the TV.
Your mileage may vary. Here are a few ideas and ways to curb your “addiction”; they are my personal views and means, but I’ve heard enough people confirming that they work. See if you can structure your pattern and process to stay within your ways of consuming and using these mediums (YouTube, Instagram, etc.)
The first thing to do is turn off almost all notifications.[1] Even if you have Notifications ON for some critical app, Social Media Apps never need to be ON.
However, you will be tempted to open them up - this is where you delete from your phone, but use the desktop.[2] The desktop is more involved and not so casual that you whip up the App to start using it.
Try to use more physical Notebooks.[3] Using a To-Do, or a Note-Taking App on the phone will tempt you to wander off for just a few minutes of innocent and not-so-harmful distractions that balloon into hours of scrolls. A physical notebook and a pen deter you from straying to anything else.
As others have mentioned, try to resort to reading books as a replacement for these Apps.[4] For instance, have a book handy instead of reaching for Instagram.
It is also OK not to carry your phone 24/7. Walking in the park, reading time, talking to friends, dining with friends, etc., can be done without phones. If you must stay connected somehow, a Smartwatch can be a replacement.[5]
Find patterns that work for you. Keep trying and experimenting. Quite a few of these suggestions were a surprise for quite a lot of people, but have worked out brilliantly.
1. https://brajeshwar.com/2014/missing-step-productivity-activi...
2. https://brajeshwar.com/2024/phone/
3. https://brajeshwar.com/2025/notes/
I suggest installing a modded version of Instagram which disables the feed: https://distractionfreeapps.com/
Personally, I want to have the Instagram app on my phone so that I can send/receive dms to certain people
For Android there are patched Instagram apks with reels and feed hidden. Won't post any links, as the practice seems both shady and risky (in terms of privacy and security), do your own research.
Great if you wanna keep in touch with your friends but don't need any of Instagram's addictive
I feel very much the same way as the author about TikTok. I browse it far too often. I've implemented app based screen time limitations in iOS specifically for Reddit and TikTok but it's so easy to override. Deleting the apps for a few days works, but only for so long.
I really think the new AI panic is not as important as the original social media/algorithmic feed addiction panic. In fact some of the core problems with AI is that it’ll be used to generate slop for the algorithmic feed.
“The feed” is the tech world’s original sin, always will be. I wish there was someone around Mark Zuckerberg that would tell him that he needs to lead a movement to close the Pandora’s Box he’s opened. Be like Oppenheimer, Mark. You’ve become the destroyer of cognitive power worldwide, you should lead the movement to end it.
Everything else we’re trying is lipstick on a pig.
Every day I make a list of things I need to do. Once that list is completely, I shamelessly scroll whatever I want. This allows me to keep productivity on the level that I want, without sacrificing the pleasure of scrolling.
Lower-case addiction, amirite? The substance is very affected by this stylistic choice, for me. I just find that hard to read (as much as I appreciate someone talking honestly about these things).
> if any clock in your house was off by six seconds, you wouldn’t spend any amount of time thinking about that
Excuse-me.
I'm so glad I never got in to Instagram. And I'm grateful that YouTube Shorts show up as unique pages in your browser history. Every once in a rare while I'll be tempted there, and it's enough for me to see just how many videos I've just scrolled through to scare me off.
Imagine if Reels had a watched count at the bottom of the screen...
Yes, there should be an option to block certain apps from being downloaded again for account x hidden somewhere in the settings. Same with dating apps - anything that falls in the "fast food apps"-craving / instant gratification corner. People have these moments and Apple as one of the "more responsible" companies should simply make such a feature available. Instead "This app is not available in your region" make it "This app is not available for a meaningful reason - go out, touch grass!"
It's really annoying to read these articles that deliberately do not respect basic grammar rules. Is the purpose of it to make the reader dumber?
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Imagine if a person wrote a serious article on computer hardware but kept calling the RAM the hard drive and talking about the problem of bit decay without power in hard drives. That's how these articles sound when they keep misusing the word addiction in inapropriate contexts to emphasize their point. It really makes one wonder what else they're getting wrong. At best it's like the people who are "so OCD" because they do some completely normal thing. When a medical term is used inappropriately the framing can lead to even more dangerous outcomes than the social issue being addressed because medicalization of behavior leads to use of force.
Something that makes me lean anti-Google and anti-Meta is how they make it impossible to disable the addicting features like shorts and reels. This is inarguably an anti-user move because the only people who want to use such an option are those who recognize they have a problem wasting time on those features. In my own small sphere this is the most visible "evil" thing that these companies do.