How to curb Internet addiction?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=930686

by rwhitman • 17 years ago

19 17 17 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Sometimes I feel like my job is akin to being a professional Crack tester. I clearly have an addiction to FB, Twitter, Email, RSS etc but they are all absolutely crucial to my work. Its affecting my productivity bigtime. What can I do?

kalendae• 17 years ago

how about using something like http://www.slifeweb.com/ I am quite curious to hear about whether these tools help or not and maybe ways of using it that I haven't thought of.

rwhitman3• 17 years ago

I've been using www.rescuetime.com it is absolutely amazing but its not helping... maybe even making it worse. the stats are addictive

almightyon• 17 years ago

I'm a student having a hard time having to study 6+ hours a day on the 8 hour free time I have, trying to enter the university I aim for (I'm Brazilian). When I started this regime, the hardest habit to drop was the internet, of course ;) My solution was radical. I gave myself a fixed (and limited) time frame where I could browse, check on email, update social network profiles, etc. I've been studying programming for a long time also, and there's a proper time frame for that too.

However I acknowledge it may be harder if you're in between: trying to control yourself but having it crucial to your job. As hard as t may be, I could only recommend my own strategy: trying to organize your time properly, and stick to it.

whimsy• 17 years ago

I like the LeechBlock firefox plugin.

lemming• 17 years ago

I use this, and only allow HN and Google Reader during my lunch break. It works pretty well.

goodside2• 17 years ago

It's odd to me that nobody ever makes a connection between social media addiction and more traditional problems with repetitive checking. If the people who checked their Facebook feeds 500 times a day were checking anything more mundane like whether they turned off their ovens or locked their car doors (either of which is more important), it would instantly be recognized as OCD.

This doesn't imply that people who are addicted to social media actually have OCD, rather that social media is a sort of supernormal stimulus for "checkability", in the same class as slot machines and chocolate chip cookies. Regardless, it should suggest the hypothesis that SSRIs, which help eliminate the compulsions of OCD, might also reduce the Internet-based compulsions the negative impact the lives of normal people. Anecdotally, taking SSRIs has helped my Internet addiction immensely, though the usual caveats of n=1 studies apply.

FreeRadical• 17 years ago

But the state (status) of car doors are ovens aren't likely to change often where facebook feeds may change 20 times a day.

goodside2• 17 years ago

A slot machine's payout changes all the time, but it's still not worth it to feed it quarters. If it paid out the probability-weighted average of what you would expect it to pay out every time (that is, slightly less than you put in), nobody would play. Introducing randomness makes it highly attractive despite still being a terrible deal.

Like car doors and ovens, there's rarely any marginal benefit from checking Facebook fifty times a day instead of twice a day, or at least no benefit that outweighs the opportunity cost of constant checking. It's a slot machine that you play with attention instead of money, which is just as bad if you assign any reasonable financial value to your time.

andrewf• 17 years ago

As I understand it, people with OCD are checking to subdue an anxiety. They fear that the oven is still on and can't convince themselves otherwise - but checking it over and over helps.

Repetitive Facebook checking is supposedly more like an addiction - people are chasing the endorphin rush that comes with finding a new message (or winning at the table) rather than trying to chase away anxiety.

turtle4• 17 years ago

From people I've observed, I would say that at least half are attempting to subdue the anxiety that they are somehow missing out on something that is going on. As if they couldn't be the 10th person to accept a party invite, or couldn't bear to not be the first to know that somebody is pregnant or getting married or breaking up, or whatever. I think the OCD comparison is accurate. Not for everyone, but for a substantial subset.

rwhitman3• 17 years ago

Here is a great article on this and the behavior of "Seeking" which is our natural mammal inclination to learn things which gets amplified by Facebook: http://www.slate.com/id/2224932/pagenum/all/

adamcrowe• 17 years ago

http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/

jrnkntl• 17 years ago

Here is the accompanying Mac app: http://pomodoro.ugolandini.com/

peregrine• 17 years ago

Air App - http://www.focusboosterapp.com/

rwhitman3• 17 years ago

Interesting

baroova• 17 years ago

I was addicted to news feeds so I used a filter to block myself ( Procon Latte, a firefox plugin). I am clean for more than a month now.

For increasing productivity, use pomodoro or similiar simple/simpler techniques. Its all about creating a habit.

klon• 17 years ago

This tool could be helpful if you are on OS X: http://visitsteve.com/work/selfcontrol/

Page also contains links to other useful apps. I really like Spirited Away.

After rereading the post, maybe not applicable if the sites are crucial to get work done.

How to curb Internet addiction?

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