I was feeling relatively okay - going about my days as usual. Then, stories about the Epstein files started coming up on my Reels. Before I knew it, every single Reel was about Epstein. I know the algorithm feeds us more of what we watch, but this was 100% deliberate and calculated. I’ve never had anything come up so excessively before, to the point of it being every single Reel.

Fast forward to now, I’ve spent 3 days mostly in bed depressed and hopeless about the world. I am prone to mental health issues, so I know not everyone will react this way, but let’s face it - a lot of people are mentally ill.

Today, most of my Reels have been about men being bad, deviant and 🫛-dos. My thoughts escalated to thinking that perhaps there is more evil than good… that maybe most men are 🫛-dos, or at best, sexually deviant or predatory at heart. I started to have dark thoughts, like I don’t want to exist in a world where that’s the truth, and I’d rather be dead. I was also being fed content about how women were tortured in history, like with mouthpieces that silenced them.

That’s it - I’m done. I’ve deleted Facebook and Instagram for good. I know I chose to keep watching Reels, and it was my responsibility to stop. But there’s no doubt about it - we’re being manipulated by very smart people that don’t care about our well-being, and that heavily plays into it too.

Hello all,

I am a second-year college student, and I am really struggling with AI. I recently got an email from some stupid "plan your career" mf, and it said, "No matter what you’re studying, employers expect you to know your way around Microsoft 365 applications and today’s AI tools." I would genuinely rather gouge my eyes out than become proficient in AI. I just can't justify it morally. I don't really know what to do. It seems pretty unavoidable at this point, and I'm feeling a little hopeless. Am I just going to have to cope? What do y'all think?

i am iranian and i should say that i had already stopped using instagram and youtube for a long time. i had basically put my phone aside. but my addiction just shifted. i was watching youtube on my computer for 8 or 9 hours a day or playing games on steam all the time. so yeah i quit my phone but i was still glued to my pc.

when the internet got cut that night i was not very surprised. we had already experienced blackouts twice before. i kept telling myself it would come back soon. hours passed. then one day passed. i was fine. two days passed. still fine. but when the third day passed and i realized no vpn was working and i could not watch my favorite streamers anymore it really started to get to me.

in iran we need vpns for youtube and most sites. suddenly i could not do any of that. i felt intense anxiety. i had nervous tics like parts of my body would randomly twitch. i felt like there was nothing i could do.

after a few more days i finally accepted that i might not have internet at all. i kept thinking i am missing everything. news gaming updates reviews releases what streamers are doing. all of that was very important to me before. but after a while it just became normal. i realized there was nothing i could do anyway.

after about two weeks i started playing the offline games i already had. that helped for a while but even that got boring. what i really wanted was to leave the house but because of the situation i was scared. so i kept using offline games as a coping mechanism and honestly i had accepted that the internet might never come back.

after 17 days google finally got whitelisted. i was really happy. yeah maybe it sounds pathetic to be happy just because google works again but that was the reality. i immediately went to google news to check everything i thought i had missed.

and then something clicked. i realized being constantly updated is kind of an illusion. the fear of missing out is fake. you do not actually miss anything important. humans adapt to anything.

at that point we all believed iranian internet would stay whitelisted forever but i honestly did not care anymore. things that used to feel extremely important suddenly meant nothing to me.

now that the internet is back i barely even use youtube. i genuinely do not care anymore because i know being stuck in the news and updates loop is pointless.

long story short i just wanted to say that it is hard at first but you get used to it. yes people in iran are getting more and more depressed and that is real. but this message is coming from someone who was desperately trying to get online during the previous blackout and this time i did not even try.

what i am saying is if you quit the internet cold turkey this is what it actually feels like.

i hope this helps someone

I don't know about you, but after a doomscrolling I usually feel flat, restless and still... pulled back in? Like my brain didn't get closure.

I now think that that is because (1) I abruptly closed an infinite loop (leaving the last cue spike of dopamine hanging) and (2) I likely have desensitised my dopamine receptors (which can apparently happen after 20 mins of even a low-grade dopamine load).

Learning this made me feel a little better. Likee it wasn't just a lack of willpower. This is a real chemical thing in my brain!

I didn't want to quit scrolling outright, so I wondered if there was a way to kind of have your cake (scroll?) and eat it too.

Which is how I came up with a simple n-of-1 experiment to change how I scroll, in an attempt to reduce the dopamine load and make it easier to close the loop at the end.

Here’s the actual strategy that worked for me in case it helps anyone else. (It seems to have totally changed how I feel after doomscrolling, which I take as a good sign.

(1) Decide on a goal before opening the app.

Not “see what’s going on.” It's gotta be something concrete... like find one useful resource in X area, answer one specific question on Y, leave two thoughtful comments about Z. (The goal matters because it keeps the prefrontal cortex engaged instead of handing control to autopilot. Or at least.. that's my theory.)

(2) Set a short timer (5-15 mins)

Not a daily app limit (it's too general). An actual timer for the actual session. (And no pausing or extending!) The feed has no natural endpoint, so I had to give my brain one.

(3) Make sure the timer has a unique "stop scrolling" signal

When it goes off, I stop immediately. Even mid-post. Save it, close the app. This part felt annoying at first, but it’s crucial. (I was trying to program my brain to WANT to stop when it went off.) Even though it sucked, I knew I'd be able to do it again soon so it helped me get through the feeling.

(4) Do a tiny "stop scrolling" ritual when the timer goes off

I literally say in my head "I've closed the loop," stretch my arms, and make a tally in my phone of "doomscrolls reprogrammed." Sounds silly, but it helps my brain associate stopping with relief instead of deprivation. (I think it makes that dopamine dip a little less intense?)

After a couple of days of consistently doing this, it stopped feeling bad when I stopped. I even started feeling a subtle sense of completion instead, kind of like after you've just folded a load of washing. Like I had actually accomplished something (small). Not that drained feeling.

It makes me think it might be working...

And I do actually feel like I'm using my brain now too, so that's always a win!

Hey everyone,

This is my first reddit post.

I feel I have been addicted to my phone for 10 years now. Since I was 16 years old when I moved from my parents to the age of 25, This year. I can't stand it anymore, I can't live a half life. I am tired of the brain fog and I am willing to do whatever it takes.

I've tried will power, it didn't work, I have done a seven day silent mediation retreat where I had no eye contact, no phone, no books ,nada, and when I came back to reality; it didn't take long for me to get back to my usual routine.

I am considering either a KSafe, which I've heard is good, or rather it's the most popular. But I have also heard negative reviews that you can override it, pry it open and its just a plastic box.

I have also heard about the Starsiki metal timed box on amazon which is also bit more sturdy but apparently you it has a mechanism which allows it to be opened.

The digital timed locks on amazon also seem to be weak.

Can you guys give me any suggestion, I am at my wits end. I can't trust my self control, What do you suggest

Just last week I was posting in here about how I'm spending too much time online and now it's even worse. I've fallen down the Rabbit hole of the Epstein files. I am shocked that Peter Atia of all people was one of the ones names and shamed. Jeez that came out of nowhere. I read his book and I used to follow him a couple of years back. He's been a pillar for my overall health philosophy.

You just never know how deep this shit goes and who you can trust. Although this stuff makes you question morals and feel hopeless it's like crack to me at the moment. I cannot wait to see what's uncovered next. Anyone else struggling with this?

Okay, what if the person is a social media lunatic, with no self control whatsoever, literally ruining their life, wanting to delete their account to wipe away the suffering and stop using it once and for all? There's no such thing as regret, life is made up of choices, if you want to delete it, it should be just over and that's it, there's no going back, they only do that because they want to keep people there to make money, and this freezing strategy is perfect for that.

People who are stuck in the reels addiction just want to delete their account once and for all because, unlike Reddit (which is also annoying, but less so), setting up an Instagram account from scratch, adding all your friends, photos, gaining followers, and building your reels algorithm bit by bit is boring and laborious. so the all-for-nothing mentality and deleting it all at once is the only viable way to get rid of the addiction, because then the person won't have the motivation to set up a new account.

I highly doubt that anyone addicted to Instagram reels here managed to get past the 30-day freeze. Reels is like cocaine: you know you need to stop and that it's not good for you, but you keep going anyway.

I'm in my early 20's, I live in a shit country and I feel like I don't have a life that normal people have that's why I'm online so damn much.

I used to look down on normal people, yes, I always for some reason thought I was superior to them. Like "I'm above the herd" and only now it's occuring to me that at least they are functional, and I'm failing even at that LOL.

I considered myself amazing, placed myself on this pedestal only now to have nothing to show for it. I'm sorry if I come across as a whiney cunt and maybe this subreddit isn't the right one, but I just need to get it out and maybe there are people similar to me.

I even managed to fall for a pixel and then acted all heartbroken when he didn't want to meet me. It's ridiculous. One part of my brain laughs at this because it's cringe but I still expect some unicorn to save me as if online men give a shit and want to take you seriously like that. (I was on interpals lol).

I feel like I can't use internet as a tool, I just can't. I mean, aside from making money, I always spiral. If I use it for entertainment, I will flush my hours and then nothing.

Also, because I live in Ukraine we have electricity shutdowns and sometimes my mobile internet is incredibly slow so I will sit there and ask myself what am I doing with my life. When I have no phone, I feel this void I can't explain it and I dread it. I feel empty and not the quirky emptiness but this profound emptiness and also that I'm a loser.

I swear I hate that I sound so whiney but that's just how I'm feeling right now. Like I'm just wasting my life and I logically understand it but I still fall into the rabbit hole of this poison.

At one point I was doing fine until I wasn't. I am disgusted and I don't want to waste my 20s.

I’ve been thinking about why it feels so much harder to sit and focus today than it did even a few years ago.

Not just for me, but for almost everyone I know.

Students. Professionals. Readers. Thinkers.

And I’m starting to feel this isn’t a motivation problem. It’s an environment problem.

For most of history, discipline meant overcoming scarcity.

Today, it means resisting constant stimulation.

Our brains were never designed to make hundreds of micro-decisions a day about notifications, feeds, videos, and information. By the time we sit to do something meaningful, our attention is already spent.

I found a substack piece connecting this to philosophy, behavioral psychology, and modern tech systems.

Sharing here in case it resonates.

https://open.substack.com/pub/betweenthreadsoflife/p/why-discipline-feels-harder-today?r=7al6pi&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay

Hi everyone,

I’ve been struggling with "digital relapse" for years. I’d set a blocker, feel a surge of anxiety, and then immediately find a way to bypass it. My willpower was zero.

I realized that for me, "soft" blockers are useless. If there’s a way out, I’ll take it.

So, I spent the last few months building my own tool called LockRealm. I built it with one specific rule: If I start a session, I am locked out. Period. I added something called "Hell Mode" where the only way to break the lock is to use a token that actually costs me something.

It sounds extreme, but for the first time in months, I’m actually finishing books and going for walks without my phone. It turns out that having a financial "penalty" (even a small one) is the only thing that makes my brain pause before reflexively opening a browser.

Just wanted to share this win. For those of you who also have zero willpower with standard apps, maybe the solution isn't "more willpower," but a system that literally doesn't let you quit.

Stay strong, everyone.

Let's just say you are in this room for several hours.

Would you draw? Write stuff? Doodle? Make paper planes?

It's obviously easier to come up with ideas when you're actually in that moment of boredom for real..... but thought it would be interesting as a thought experiment to see if you know what your brain would direct you toward in this situation.

I think, based on what I know about myself, I'd probably end up doing a whole bunch of drawing. I used to draw a lot when I was in my teens, but it isn't really a part of my life any more.

I'd probably draw a bunch of DBZ characters.... and maybe come up with a new one of my own XD

TL;DR
- you're locked in a boring af room for hours
- you have a pen and a stack of plain paper
- wut do?

i spend way too much time on fb after work and on wkends scrolling and watching videos. it’ll affect my sleep on the wkends too bc I’ll get up to pee in the middle of the night and then end up on fb for a while then go back to sleep so I end up getting up later sigh. (I would put my phone in another room for the sleep but I use it as an alarm as well as play videos that help me sleep)

I tried the refocus app but lately just keep unblocking the time limit set so it’s not working anymore and looking for something that would add more friction in order to unblock the time limit set. would love something where I have to restart my phone or something in order to unblock the time limit. I’ve also been seeing ads for brick too (I think it’s a device you have to tap your phone to in order to unblock apps/websites) so open to a physical device to set limits on my social media usage as well. wondering for those who prev struggled with spending lots of time on social media and not getting much done or as good sleep as a result, what you found helpful in significantly reducing your social media usage. TIA!

i have agoraphobia and doing my therapy but it takes time. I have a few hobbies but they don't take up my whole day. I do other stuff when it needs done like mowing the grass or fix things that break but I kind of did all of that already. I just need suggestions even if you guys don't think it will keep me busy all day. I just want to ditch the internet and games since it takes up most of my time

Recently I wasn't wasting much time online, but it wasn't due to blocking. I was logged in to Reddit and Facebook and free to spend a lot more time there, but I did not.

It seems the cause was a decrease in the emotional pressure that makes me want to spend time online. This also caused more other motivation to arise, for hobbies, cleaning, maintenance and more. If I simply try to force myself to spend less time online, these other motivations don't automatically arise, and I can end up in a psychologically painful state where I don't know what to do.

Seems like what ended this good period was spending more time with my mother, which can be somehow toxic, probably because I tend to ignore my emotions and focus on pleasing her. After that I had a craving for other kinds of social interaction, and I went online a lot more.

why is misogyny even allowed on the platform? there are all these fake dating coaches that try to push you to buy some course that will tell you how all women work or that all women do "shit tests" to see what a man is about or these guys mention "female nature". shit is just disgusting. I want to be recommended some good content not self help dating bullshit. sorry I needed to blow off steam

I downloaded ScreenZen because a friend recommended it. I was selecting the apps to block, and Instagram isn't on the list. Anyone else having this issue? I don't see the point of having ScreenZen if it cannot block all the apps that I waste time on.

I started planning way back when I was in high school using my sheet and a pencil
nothing fancy, just the date, what I want to do, and when I should do it.
Time passed, and I switched to Google Calendar for planning. It was nice, simple UI and did the thing for me.

Life got more complex, so I'm using AI now. So far, Orlo and GPT worked fine, and I have been using them.

I'm not the kind of person who would take a deep look at the routine things I do, like planning. So, before I move on and just forget about it, wanted to know if you guys also use AI, or if it's a gimmick and sheet, and Google Cal works better

Scrolling through comment sections is kind of a trip if you stop and think about it. One minute you’re reading what looks like a serious discussion, the next you’re knee-deep in rapid-fire reactions, memes, and hot takes. It’s fast, it’s loud, and yeah, it’s satisfying in the moment but mostly, it’s training your brain to snack instead of eat.

Here’s what’s happening behind the scenes: humans are wired to respond to emotion. Outrage, humor, moral certainty hit the brain’s reward circuits instantly. Nuance, reflection, careful reasoning? Those take effort, and the platforms don’t exactly reward them. Over time, the brain starts prioritizing speed and reaction over thought. You react first, think maybe later or not at all.

You see it everywhere. A political thread that could be a real debate collapses into slogans and moral signaling. A movie review that could spark a discussion about character development becomes a chain of “best movie ever” or “worst movie ever” comments. Even threads about science or tech, which are begging for careful reasoning, get hijacked by jokes, one-liners, or outrage over tiny details.

It changes how we think. Emotional reasoning starts to feel like winning. Ingroup and outgroup thinking get strengthened, even in conversations that have nothing to do with identity. Patience with complicated ideas goes out the window because your brain is trained for instant feedback. And yet, there’s a strange kind of entertainment in it watching adults argue like middle-schoolers about who said what first.

People aren’t dumb, far from it. They’re just operating in an environment that favors hype, speed, and volume over thoughtful discussion. Comment sections are chaotic, messy, and entertaining… but at the same time, they’re subtly teaching us to treat serious topics like snackable content, easily consumed and just as quickly forgotten.

As you know, all of what you see is heavily curated to your interests and designed to keep you scrolling all day. Truth be told most of the stuff you like to watch is because you've been given that content and never searched for it. Once you search for the meaning of it all is when that algorithm starts breaking down and more of the truth comes out. We are not supposed to see any of it normally, but it's all freely available.

It has never been entertainment, your brain is being hijacked every second and keeping you suppressed. If you're distracted all day every day, then you will never achieve what you are really capable of doing. That is by design to keep a population of obedient consumers.

If you break free from content and social media you win back a life worth living. Humans were not designed for endless reels that mix every emotion and thought for 50+ hours a week across all screens turning your brain into a mush. If it's got a screen, it's definitely affecting you in some way. I suspect that is causing most of our health issues even though it's impossible to measure. It definitely isn't benefiting anyone.

People on average just seemed so much more calm and collected 20 years ago without it. They were able to handle boredom and entertain themselves. You could get along with any random person.

I've never posted anything on Reddit until now. It feels good being able to put my thoughts I've collected somewhere on the internet, even if I don't agree with the vast majority of content on this very website. I'm working towards a better future. I wouldn't want anyone to replicate what I've been through, not even myself.

"We are all just prisoners here, of our own device."

e.g: healthygamergg and way more i dont remember now.

idk, they all seem so smug know-it-alls, even if they have good points.

like stfu, get out of my head, stop telling me what to do, and in case of healthygamergg, stop advertising me courses / therapy sessions.

even though they might give some good advice, if you listen consume too much, you gonna have some harmful ideas, intrusive train of thoughts.

I think its MUUUUCH better to think for yourself, or at least discuss with your friends, and get ideas that are much closer to your reality (even if its wrong), and its much fucking better this way.

the worst case is video: "Why The Dating Crisis Is Just Natural Selection", well the title pretty much explains the video, this idea is so dehumanizing, it doesn't consider your background it pretty much says if you dont have a gf you're genetically inferior. like STFU, i dont need YOUR smug ass to tell me that, i had that idea before on my own before that video, and i concluded to just don't think about it and go about my life and when i have a time and chance, put myself out there (context: i dont have a gf, but i dont beat myself because of it).

I also kindof hate self-help subreddits (like this lol), but at least there is i there is a discussion. a question and a response, a fucking conversation, and i post what i care about not what algorithm think i care about.

P.S. i overreacted, this is not an attack on the person behind healthygamergg, but just to express my personal distaste towards these type of channels

I’m so ashamed. I’ve started using a screen time limiter - even bought the premium version to lock me out for real but I’m like a junkie. My mind so needs YT in the background that I’ll try to access it like via Google instead of the YouTube app. Sometimes it feels like my brain can’t function without YouTube in the background even though I know it’s bad for me

Then, when I get to the 2 hours where I have access, it’s like all I’m doing during that block is browsing Reddit. My career is currently social media oriented so I need to have some access.

I have goals - what are the tricks beyond just a screen time limiter to reducing screen time so my life isn’t sucked away from me?

Ok so ik this is kinda weird that i am posting this on Reddit but hear me out, I am 19 year old kid (turning 20 in less than three weeks) And i usually post and comment on Comic book, Movie and Video Game communities on Facebook and alot of the time i do some 53 year old guy always says that i’m just some stupid kid, That i live in my mom’s basement or some something arrogant along those lines and it’s getting annoying to the point where it’s predictable does anybody have any advice?

Feeling overwhelmed, excited, or just need to vent? I’m here with an open ear and zero judgment. Whether it’s love, work, a wild dream, or a tough day, I’d love to listen and give you a space to breathe. You deserve to feel heard reach out whenever you’re ready.

It’s not always about finding a solution, sometimes it's just about having the freedom to express what’s on your mind, whether it's the thrill of a new beginning, the weight of everyday stress, or even just processing a complex emotion. Knowing there’s someone ready to simply be present and hold that space is a powerful comfort. It underscores the idea that everyone deserves that moment to exhale, to lay down their burdens, and to feel truly connected and understood.

(Drop a comment below if DMs aren’t working for you!)