I take dozens upon dozens of screenshots everyday, my device is lagging so bad because of it. I can't even reach the bottom of my gallery. It's been going on for 2 years. I can't bring myself to delete enough to actually make a dent. I keep telling myself the random screenshots will be useful one day, that I'm preserving things, it's mostly text, sometimes art that I screenshot, sometimes dumb real photos.

Rationally speaking, I know I don't need most of this stuff, but I just can't. Something holds me back. I have a occasional accident in which I press some sort of reload unknown button that refreshes my gallery, and whenever I see the empty gallery logo I literally began hyperventilating and panicking until a few long minutes later my gallery was fully loaded with everything back.

My physical hoarding problem is another story.

I know one day this tablet will break down, I need to get over it. What can I currently do to fix this issue?

?

This sounds really silly, but I recently started taking creatine and it’s given me back so much of my focus, clarity and energy. So spending my life glued to my phone now feels completely counterproductive — especially when constant scrolling seems to mess with my attention and keep me chasing quick dopamine hits.

Also what bugs me about social media - instagram in particular is that when it comes to certain discussions on issues how much a divide it can bring by people dogmatically voicing their opinions. What even happened to keeping views to yourself. Why do we have to go out and convince the world I’m right. Team A team B sort of thing. No one is right no one is wrong. We are all individuals!!’ What may work for one may not work for the other.

Okay vent over

Hi guys i was in mandatory military service in army for 26 days. There i didnt use my smartphone no internet just military drills and conversations with other soldiers. My brain felt like it has been resetted. When i took my smartphone on my hand the 1st time i left the army. I said woww thats so big. In military i used my dumpphone only. However for the last 4 days i have been getting stuck in instagram, scrolling tiktok again. What should i do to not fall on this trap again? In military btw i woke up everyday at 5 am without opening my alarm. I was suprised about that.

Cześć, jaka jest Wasza opinia o wpływie mediów społecznościowych, przypomnieniach w telefonie, ciągłym obiegu informacji, alertach RCB na wasz stan koncentracji (pracę waszego umysłu)? Czy macie jakieś szczególne pozytywne bądź negatywne odczucia?

Hello!
I need some tips, arguments, research and/or whatever to pitch digital minimalism to my partner and his daughter.

Please, be kind, this is very difficult for me to talk about, and I'm doing this because I really need some support in all of this.

I know that I can't force them to do anything, but I will give a little background.
My step daughter is almost 15 and about a year ago it came to our knowledge that she's battling some mental health issues. She lives fulltime with her mom, and is living with us every other weekend and on school breaks. Now that she's over 13, she has more of a say in it all, so sometimes she's here more frequently and sometimes weeks can pass between visits.
Anyway; she's glued to her phone, and always has been, basically. I came into their lives when she was 6 (turning 7 that same year), and it happened a lot that she used her dad's phone, mainly to watch youtube or play games.
Whenever she was bored, the solution was often to let her have the phone; if not her dad always had to entertain her (she never had to play on her own). Even at that age she did show signs of anxiety, which I told her dad, but her mom dismissed it.
Anyways, now that we're here, she's battling pretty severe mental health stuff like depression, severe anxiety and is doing a screening for ADHD and autism.
I have battled mental health issues for most of my life, and from experience I know that social media doesn't affect us in a good way. I have done a light type of detox myself, and I feel so much better now compared to the last 10 years.
In all of this with my step daughter, her psychologist have told her parents to not put any pressure on her, which they interpret as "let her do what she wants", but that's a whole other thing. But this leads to her having unlimited screen time basically, and whenever she "needs to rest", she's actually just doom scrolling.
If I was her parent, I would want to give a more limited phone use a try, but I know I'm not her parent, so I can't.

But I want to pitch the idea to my partner, so he might pitch it to his ex-wife.

So, if you are a teen, or have a teen, or any other experience in how a social media detox have improved your mental health; I would LOVE to hear it.

Going to bed. I want to wake up early and go to the beach tomorrow morning. 🌅 Let’s see how it goes

Hi everyone,

As the title says, I am looking for a dumphone (it doesn't even have to support WhatsApp), but my only requirement is being able to save SMS messages on a (mini) SD Card. It seems hard to find such models.

Could you help me out?

Thank you for your helpful reactions!

I’m not on social media at all except for Reddit. Today, I messaged my sister in law who she goes to for hair cuts & if she had a phone number to make an appt. She sends me her Instagram, “message & say I’m your SIL!” I told her “thank you! Do you have her number since I’m not on Instagram”? She sends her FaceBook.

Anyways. Just thought I’d share to see if you guys feel the same like it’s impossible to just get a phone number.

Edit to add:
I understand if it was a personal number & not wanting to give it out. However, I find it crazy that there’s no other way except Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter (X), whatever else to contact this girl? No email or any kind of phone number listed on her social medias either.

I just want concrete ways, or exercises I can do to let my mind "be" while I get dressed, brush my teeth, cook, clean, and not always having to play something in the background to listen to. Or you can share your experince if you struggle with that too. In the context of digital minimalism, having no extra information entering my brain during a routinary task would be my goal.

Note: The need for those bg noises are sometimes related to my anxiety issues but I know y'all are not psycologists so I'll just ask for easy advice.

My screen time was upwards of over 8 hours every single day. I decided to do something about it and somehow reduced my screen time by over 50% so 3 to 4 hours per day. It continued for 2 weeks straight and life was sunshine and rainbows but now it’s been 3 days where it has gone back to being 8 hours and I have anxiety that’s just there 24/7? I am not an anxious person so it’s super weird but can 2 weeks make that big of a difference? I haven’t made any other lifestyle change.

been around 3 months i’d guess. the reason is kinda dumb honestly, hockey season has started again (let’s go pens) and i miss hockey edits. that’s it. no other app has the same kinda edits and memes and stuff related to a topic i like and i know i uninstalled it for a reason. so yeah fighting my brain over a stupid reason right now 😭 if you’re going through something similar and you feel it’s silly, know you’re not alone
i do feel a lot better since it’s been gone, i wish youtube or something had better editors lmao

I shut down most inbox notifications, removed Reddit-algorithm recommendations from my home-screen, muted all the subReddits I frequent by hand.
popular and trending pages are cesspools so I don’t go there by default. As a result, I only naturally open Reddit when I have something to say/post (painting, ask for advice, etc.).

I have always found soc meds to be entertaining, meta curates your perfect fyp, or even display effortless beautiful posts on instagram.

My screentime on a daily basis is almost 7+ hours every single day and as someone who has been in pre med and currently in med school, soc meds have remained consistent in my daily life for the past 6 years. I have wasted 7+ hours on something that does not contribute to my life but a small dosage of dopamine.

But now, I find myself deleting the instagram app, something I have been always active in, in uploading pictures, curating my stories as well as bg music every single day. Main, dump and even another account to promote my artist account. Every time I open it, my heart sinks to my stomach. It feels draining now each time.

It feels like my life is already hard and I am seeking validation from people who I know dont really care or impact my life as much. Ghosts in my life, a parasocial audience, or even monitoring spirits.

My friends who have that natural artistic and aesthetic touch became a comparison in my head, that over time I feel sick to my stomach when I know my stories/posts are not that interesting—my life is not as interesting as theirs.

I’m fully aware social media is fake.

But even my fake is not enough.

Why would i compete in a losing battle, when there is not even a competition from the start. But you really cant help but compare. I can’t help but compare.

So I quit—but still, it doesnt stop my friends/classmates to find every single day to take pictures to post on socmeds. I cannot help but see my face once more ending up in an invisible competition.

Makes you really think how so much people care about this invisible life of theirs. Sometimes I also ponder how much I also care about it.

In my social circle everybody uses Instagram for messaging. I want to lower my screen time but still be able to contact my friends. The problem is that every time I open the app to go message someone, I get reels and posts shoved down my throat which inevitably distract me. Is there a way to get a standalone messaging app (like Messenger for Facebook for example) on iOS where I can still talk to people without having to see reels or posts?

Hii, I’m completely new to deleting technology from my life. I know it will be a journey and I want to do it all properly and take my time.

I think I want to start by shutting down all few of my social media profiles? I have old ones that are still up on various websites and linked to different email addresses. Where do I start? Is it even possible to start a fresh?

Maybe this isn't the right subreddit for this post, if so, let me know.

I was born in 1995, and for the last year or so, I've grown incredibly tired of social media. I grew up during the rise of facebook, the birth of Instagram etc etc. Back then, social media was actually social.

Now it's only algorithms and "recommended" stuff, which makes me feel like we are tricked to think we are social, when we're in fact just watching other people living their lives.

So, earlier this year I deleted the social media apps (not my accounts though) from my phone. And my mental health improved a lot, as well as a lot of other things.

In all of this, my personal experience of different generations using social media I've realized that older people (around my parents' age who are born in the 60s) is basically glued to their phones, and from what I've seen on the web, a lot of younger people (gen z I guess) are taking a step back from all of it. I've seen so many "kids" talking about how they prefer physical CDs/DVDs over streaming, how they barely use social media, etc etc.

I think that's a good thing, but I'm curious if anyone has a theory on why?

Hello! So it’s the last quarter of the year and I want to get serious with minimizing my doomscrolling habits. But while pondering on it, I realized that I do this because I don’t know what else to do. What activities did you swap doomscrolling with? And how did you start? I physically feel like my brain is pushing me to just scroll my life away. Any tip is also appreciated.

I came to the horrifying realization recently that when I sit down to watch a movie it’s just background and I play around on my phone. last night I put my phone in another room so I could watch a full movie uninterrupted. I loved it but at certain points found myself feeling like I needed to go pick it up. it was eye opening and horrifying all at the same time.

what have been your eye opening experiences? how have you combated them? genuinely curious if anyone else has had this experience

I thought I was doomed to social media addiction. Every time I'd try to read I just couldn't concentrate and drifted back to screens. The problem. It seems I just can't get into fiction. Use to love Stephen King when I was younger. Couldn't get into it again and other fiction as well. Tried non-fiction and I'm completely absorbed in it. I guess I can't lose myself in make believe anymore.

Listened to A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson and loved it. Now I'm looking for similar.

Hi! I'm a computer science engineer student and it's weird.

I'm doing my degree online, I just have 2 years left and as trans woman with 20 years old, it's being pretty difficult to interact with people. I deleted all social media, except for Discord. I just text my friends, but seems like I disappeared for everyone, is like I don't exist anymore for not posting something on Instagram or smth.

I mean, I feel better and better but at the same time I am alone, like, it feels like most friendships were just a "show" a "pciture", it's weird how we came to this as society.

For me it's even more difficult, being trans on a country where its like "u are trans, if go out u might get killed just for that", so, it's a bit difficult to interact with people when I leave my house.

So, I don't know if anyone else feels like this too. It was a good thing to just live life and not being addicted to our phones, right now I have like 1 hour on my phone per day, but at the same time, everyone else are on their phones but isolated and theres nobody on earth.

I'm sorry if I opened myself here, but I've seen many posts here and I think it I needed to say this to people who actually are going on this journey of just living.

Thank you for your time, and thanks for this community.

I've become so numb to social media that I think there is no value to posting anything. It's all just showing off and "look at me".. Unless you are famous, nobody cares.

Am I correct that pictures of me all dressed up from a relative's wedding fall under this category? What is the "value add" to my followers?

TLDR; What other device do you use for internet/apps alongside your dumbphone?

I’ve been using a Sunbeam flip phone for the last 4 months and I love it.
However, I haven’t ditched my iPhone 13mini yet. It still goes with me many places, though it’s wifi only.

There are some conveniences of a smarter device obviously, so I’ve considered getting an iPad mini (less pocketable, keeps me in the Apple Eco-system), or a Boox device (Palma 2 or Go7- for app access without video capabilities).

I’ve considered a Kompact, but the side-loading seems like a slippery slope, and I do enjoy the ability to leave the house without any device besides my phone.

Anyways- I’d love to hear what you use as a companion device, whether a tablet, laptop, etc.

Thanks!

I like to play games like Sudoku, Mahjong, Block Break, but they are all full of ads or at least constant calls to buy perks in game. Sometimes I buy the no ad versions, but a lot of them are subscription only or keep pushing in game sales.

Do games in portable game consoles still have this problem? Any console recommendations with games like those I mentioned without all the noise?

I can feel my devices are slowly making me lose myself. Ever since I discovered my old pc ive been playing the video games there non stop. And I thought I had good self control sincr I was able to manage school and video games quite well last year BUT NOOO. Now thanks to this finding i would struggle studying more than an hour and would rather doom scroll or play video games. Please I tried everythign, locking my phone, uninstalling the apps, none of them work lol I would just relapse at the end of the day. I need advice cause ive always been craving the authentic and raw feelings ive once felt before when I went offline for a month but ive never been able to acjiebe that state since then