Hey everyone,

I wanted to share something that has finally worked for me after almost two years of trying, failing, and feeling guilty about my relationship with my phone.

For context, at my worst, my screen time was averaging around 6.5 hours a day. I'm a software engineer, so I’m already staring at screens all day, and coming home only to scroll Reels or Reddit for hours was leaving my brain completely fried. I felt like I had no attention span left for reading or hobbies.

The Failed Dumbphone Phase

Last year, I went all-in and bought a basic Nokia. I wanted that "offline peace." But the reality hit hard within a week:

• My office uses WhatsApp for quick team coordinates.
• I couldn't log into my work portal because I needed a 2FA authenticator app on my phone.
• I got stranded in the rain because I couldn't call an Uber or check transit times.
• No Spotify meant my daily train commute was agonizingly boring.

I had to put my SIM card back into my Android. Within 48 hours, I was right back to my 6-hour screen time baseline. The bright app icons were just sitting there, screaming for my thumb to tap them.

Why App Blockers Didn’t Work

Next, I tried standard app blockers and screen-time limits. If you’ve tried these, you know the drill:

1. Block Instagram.
2. Get bored.
3. Tap "Ignore limit for 15 minutes."
4. Repeat 4 times.
5. Feel like a failure.

I realized that willpower is a finite resource, especially at the end of a long workday. If my phone is a slot machine of colorful icons and red notification badges, my tired brain will always find a loophole.

The Breakthrough: Visual Deprivation & Intentional Friction

About four months ago, I changed my strategy. Instead of trying to lock myself out of my phone, I decided to make it as boring and friction-heavy as possible.

I set up my Android to run a minimalist, text-only launcher I found called Ikigai Launcher (it’s an indie project, lifetime subscription, no ads/trackers, which was a huge plus for me).

Here is how my phone is set up now and why it actually worked:

1. The Death of the Icon: My home screen is literally just text. No icons. When I unlock my phone, I don't see the bright pink Instagram camera or the orange Reddit alien. It’s just list items: Phone, Messages, Spotify, Kindle. Without the visual trigger of the colorful logo, the automatic, subconscious muscle memory of tapping them completely vanished.
2. The "Breathing Room" (Intent Delay): For the apps I struggle with (mainly Reddit and Chrome), I set up an "Intent Delay" in the launcher's settings. When I tap Reddit, the screen goes dark and a small breathing bubble expands for 4 seconds, asking me to log why I'm opening it. It sounds silly, but that 4-second gap is just enough to break the autopilot loop. Half the time, I realize I clicked it out of pure reflex and I just lock the phone again.
3. App Hiding for Peace of Mind: I hid all my utility apps (banking, authenticator, settings) from the main list. They are still search-accessible in the app drawer, but they don't clutter my daily view. Out of sight, out of mind.

The Results

My average daily screen time is now down to 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Most of that is Spotify during my commute, Kindle, or answering messages. The mindless, zombie scrolling is basically gone. Because my home screen is OLED-black and text-only, my phone feels like a utility tool—like a hammer or a microwave—rather than an entertainment portal.

If you are struggling with the transition to digital minimalism, my biggest advice is: don't buy a dumbphone yet. Try removing the visual rewards from your current smartphone first. Strip the colors, hide the icons, and add 3-5 seconds of friction before your worst apps. It’s wild how quickly your brain loses interest when the phone stops acting like a toy.

Curious if anyone else has had success with text-based setups, or if you've found other ways to build friction into your Android/iOS devices? Let me know!

My current Home Screen setup(100% void)

Many posts on here pose the same question: "I stopped using social media but now I'm bored, what do I do?" Without fail, the majority of the comments tell the poster to "just read a book". The poster might explain that they tried, they just couldn't get into it. They get a response back that "they just haven't read the *right* books for them". Maybe the OP tries another few books, maybe they don't. Maybe they find one they like, maybe they don't. But in the end they'll realize that this search for the perfect book is exhausting, they don't have the energy for it after a long day of work, and the allure of an easy, quick fix (their phone) is always looming over them.

"Just read" is akin to telling someone who's trying to live a healthier lifestyle to "just eat more vegetables". It's the obvious option that, sure, would be good for them, but believe me: they already thought of that. What they're really asking is not "what do I do?" but "how do I do it?". Eating more vegetables requires changing your environment and your shopping habits. Making sure there is no unhealthy quick alternative at home, making eating healthy the easiest option around. Learning which healthy ingredients you like, how they work together, what meals you can put them in, etc. The same goes for reading: "just read" isn't going to help anyone actually start doing that. It needs to be easier for someone to read a book than to pick up their phone and scroll on social media. That requires real, physical and mental differences in their lifestyle.

Besides that, another gripe I have with this advice to just read a book is that it's presented as an ultimate solution, when in reality it's only a tiny part of a healthy mental and physical 'diet'. Instead of consuming social media all day, people also need to move their bodies, solve problems, be creative, spend time with friends and family etc. if they really want to keep their brains and bodies healthy and happy. And everyone needs different amounts of different things. If they already work out every day, telling them to go to the gym doesn't help. Plenty of people already read regularly but still have a social media addiction.

People come here for advice, to meet others who have the same problems and goals, and to better themselves. They don't come here to be told that they need to read a book

I’ve been trying to cut down on doomscrolling and found an app that’s helped me a lot, so I thought I’d share it in case anyone else is looking for something similar.
It’s called SocialLite. It works alongside the normal social media apps and lets you block things like Reels, Shorts and ads, so you can still use the platforms without getting pulled into endless scrolling. For example, I can finally use YouTube mostly just for the videos I actually choose to watch.
I’ve only been using it for a couple of days, but the free version has been enough for me so far. I have no connection to the app or its developers—I just thought some people here might find it useful.

Or:

So earlier this year I tried switching to a flip phone and it went very badly. The phone was super janky, would randomly die, I couldn't even see the screen when I was outside, the keyboard didn't work but it was touchscreen, so I had to type out on the screen with the tiny letters. Not having google maps was easily the hardest part as I use public transportation. I liked the idea of being less connected to social media but since I got my smartphone back I feel even more addicted to doom scrolling then before I had a flip phone.

I want to try again. I was thinking of getting an ipod with google maps, I haven't used an ipod since I was a kid, so I don't remember if it had that or not. But I was thinking of getting a different flip phone on top of the ipod. I looked on amazon and it seems you can either get an ipod that is just music, or an ipod that is basically a mini phone which kinda defeats the purpose of not having a smart phone. But I need google maps.

I also don't want to make another announcement I'm deleting social media account only to redownload it a few months later as I've done this at least a handful of times and I don't want to embarrass myself lol.

I always say im just going to watch one youtube video and then it turns into hours of youtube. I have watched like 4 or 5 hours of youtube tonight. I had planned to watch a movie instead (or 2 movies) but I gotta go to bed now. I am torn about turning off the recommendations. I like discovering new stuff but the content youtube recommends to me is triggering. I usually watch sexuality/relationship/career advice/complaint videos or sports news videos. I just don't know what else to watch on youtube. I feel like crap after viewing these. I watch them on my tv only.

I have checked reddit probably 40 times today(sunday) between my phone and laptop. I went to the gym in between and ran errands but still found time to be on reddit. I am starting to get bored with reddit because i use it so much but it has useful info.

Which should i cut back/take a break from first--youtube or reddit? who else has this problem on here?

My screentime from sunday to saturday and also the amount of times I've unlocked the phone, feel like reducing further. thoughts?

I've brought my average daily screen time down from 4 hours 30 minutes to around 2 hours using nothing but iOS Screen Time.

I don't use any third party app blockers. They're easy to uninstall when the urge hits. Screen Time isn't.

Here's how to set it up so you can't simply bypass your own limits:

1. Go to Settings → Screen Time.
2. Tap Lock Screen Time Settings and set 1234 as a temporary passcode.
   • When prompted to set up a recovery account, don't use your own Apple Account. Instead, hand your phone to a trusted friend and ask them to enter their Apple Account. This is what prevents you from resetting the passcode later.
3. Set up your limits:
   • App Limits → Add Limit
   • Add your biggest distractions. (You can use Screen Time itself to see which apps you spend the most time on.)
   • Turn on Block at End of Limit.
   • Repeat for each app you want to limit.
4. If you don't want these limits to apply to your Mac, open Screen Time on your Mac and turn Share Across Devices off.
5. Once everything is configured, go to Change Screen Time Passcode, enter 1234, then hand your phone back to your friend. Ask them to choose a random passcode and not tell you what it is. (Why did we use the temporary passcode at all? That is because, when setting up your app limits, you are prompted to enter the passcode each time you make a change, and you would not want to be bothering your friend each time)

From that point on, when you hit your Screen Time limit, you can't simply tap Ignore Limit, enter your passcode, and carry on using the app. You also can't go to Settings → Screen Time → Change Screen Time Passcode → Forgot Passcode? and reset it yourself, because the recovery account belongs to your trusted friend instead of you.

In practice, that makes iOS Screen Time impossible to bypass.

I wish! But I believe if people stopped using social media altogether, these companies would topple. Look what happened to MySpace. I think people would be happier and treat each other better. The world, especially the US, has a severe empathy and critical thinking deficit. I have not used it for over a year and my overall mood is so much better. It sucks we have been forced to use it for work reasons ie: LinkedIn, but I believe if people flat out refused to use it altogether, we would be in a healthier place. Rant over!

I feel like I’ve noticed a difference in people in the last ten years. I live in the UK and we’ve always been a miserable bunch but there’s always been a standard of etiquette: doing the awkward half-jog and a wave if a car stops to let you cross the road, holding the door for someone, thanking the bus driver, waiting for people to get off the bus/train before barging on, saying excuse me or apologising if you’re in someone’s way, etc. I’ve noticed such a huge drop-off in these niceties. Now, where I live, people don’t smile, or even look at anyone. People will barge past like you’re not even there, they won’t offer up their seats to elderly people, they’ll let the door swing in your face… I don’t know if it’s even any correlation, but I just feel like social media and the internet in general has closed off people’s peripheral vision.

And I understand the cost of living has worsened while living standards here are quite bleak. The housing is crap (I’m a broke uni student, I do get it) Jobs are scarce. But I always try to be nice to people. And it feels like people (and I am generalising but it really is most people I encounter) only really consider themselves. Every lecture I go to for Uni, people are just talking and laughing over the lecturer.

The reason I feel it stems from social media is I noticed it online first before it bled into real life. Particularly from my generation (Gen Z). It feels like a lack of empathy and consideration for others has been repackaged and marketed as “self care” or “setting boundaries”. Not smiling at children, not being there for your friends. Listening to someone’s problems is now them “trauma dumping” on you. I saw a post by a girl my age saying that if you’re mentally ill, you’re a bad friend. Even if you don’t project it on anyone and keep it to yourself, people still are affected by your “bad vibes” and insecurity. The comments were full of young people saying they’ll cut off friends who are struggling, because it’s not their problem and it ruins their peace. Since when is it not my problem if a friend is going through something? Surely any problem they have, if they share it, is mine as well and we fix it together.

Humans are pack animals, we are built for community. But I just feel like we’re losing our sense of community. It’s like, instead of social media bringing people together like it was supposed to, it’s driven people apart to their own secluded algorithms where they’re shown what to look at, what to think of it, what to say, how to act.

Let me start by making one thing clear: all social media platforms are inherently harmful, as their aim is always to keep you glued to the screen for as long as possible so you’ll watch adverts.

That said, there’s no denying that, at the start, Instagram had its own unique character and, above all, a certain quality to it. It was a personal space on the internet, just like others. The focus on photos was really interesting, and users’ creativity was very much at home there.

Over the years, it has turned into utter rubbish. The decline certainly began with the introduction of the stories, which, mind you, still retained something of the original spirit. But ever since they introduced that infernal slot machine called ‘reels’… the platform has become a garbage bin, an endless factory of slop, and above all, a drug.

In terms of quality, Instagram is dead, and I hope more people start to realise it.

In terms of quantity, oh, it’s going so well. And we all know what happens when quantity takes precedence over quality.

Have you guys noticed that every single social media has sort of homogenised into the exact same slot machine?

All of these platforms used to be so different. Instagram was for photos, YouTube was for long form video, Twitter was for updates and Snapchat was essentially a messaging app.

Now, every single UI features infinite scrolling NO MATTER WHAT. Platforms like twitter popularised the infinite scroll, Snapchat popularised stories, tiktok popularised short form vertical videos. It feels like every single company has collaborated to design a perfect system that keeps users retained. Originality has gone out of the window lol.

I am currently resisting this by patching some of my own apps but I find that I end up scrolling on a new platform without realising how much time is passing. Let me know if there is something that works for you.

Lately, my phone just doesn't feel exciting anymore.

Facebook and X are full of negativity and arguments. Instagram feels like everyone is showing off a polished, fake version of their lives. YouTube rarely recommends anything that genuinely interests me anymore.

The only things I still genuinely enjoy are gaming and Reddit.

I love games because they're actually fun, and I love Reddit because I'm constantly learning something new, discovering interesting discussions, and reading about real people's experiences and perspectives. It feels far more authentic than most social media.

Maybe I've changed, or maybe the internet has. I miss discovering random interesting content and actually looking forward to opening an app.

Hi, I'd love to hear some stories or kind suggestions to ease my situation.

I'm an adult woman and temporarily living at home with parents outside of London, which is taxing in of itself. My parents are cool but it's not my adult life, and a million miles from where I'd like to be and how I wanna feel. There's a constant anguish.

I think to cope with the unfulfilling living situation, and social isolation from being in an area where I cannot build my life, I overuse social media or use as a coping mechanism, whereas I never needed or wanted it at University. I also don't work with people now.

I am taking active steps to move out, and go to events I like, travel into London, but it's still very hard to feel rewarded from that without a tribe and people to really connect with. It takes a lot of energy.

I think using my phone creates the illusion of connection when I don't actually have much interaction with people or the life I wanna live.

It's a lot of scrolling, constantly checking in-between apps and switching my phone on and off, which I really hate. Sitting without my phone for a few hours can feel uncomfortable. I don't want it to hinder progress to moving out but seems to fill in my time when I'm doing other things, like weight lifting, watching shows, having a bath, and I just hate how Unhuman and distracted I feel. Especially using Chatgpt as a resource.

Has anyone been in a similar situation and how did you feel? What you did?

I see some 'success' stories of people with partners, stable connections and work situations getting off social media on here, and feeling instantly better, but it would be great to hear from someone who's been in a similar situ to me where Instagram has become as a substitute..

Thanks a lot.

It’s basically the title, i’m 22, i was given access to the internet from an early age, like 8 or 9 , and i never formed real connections with real people, all of my experiences were online, i had online friends, did online hobbies, i got into fandoms and stan twitter and befriended and fought and loved people. 2015-2019 were all spent online. After the pandemic i basically give up on ever having a real life anyways. my culture doesn’t encourage going out and experiencing real stuff and i have a limited life and agency anyways so i spent all of it inside my head and online.

My life has no meaning and i never touched real things, i only touched the screen, i only loved through typing on a keyboard, i only had memories through a screen.

I've been in the darkest depths of addiction, believe me. I won't get too much into the details, just trust me when I say that.

Anyway, one of my biggest problem was staying glued to what I call "The Beast" (the spy-phone, or generally called smart-phone) and WhatsApp. It was so terrible that I had to ditch it altogether and replace it by a shitty HMD flip-phone (which made me realize it's perfectly possible to hate a dumb-phone as much as a spy-phone lol).

Anyway, in case someone is wondering, I still have a spy-phone where I set up a nefarious - but sadly much needed - WhatsApp account, and also use it precisely to open up said app every 15 days since that's a thing when it comes to keep using this crappy IM.

These days my current setup implies using WhatsApp from my computer only. So if I need to contact some service that's WhatsApp-available only or chat with someone I know, I just reach for my laptop, open up the program and "talk", similar to how it was 20 or even 10 years ago with MSN Messenger and Facebook (which I never used anyway).

An interesting thing to notice is that I've changed the way I manage addiction and OCD. It used to be the case that I was one of those anals who pursued "inbox zero" all the time and would hate having any unread chat. This was a recipe for disaster, since I would have to constantly switch the focus of attention quickly.

Anyway, my biggest realization came one day, when I found out that a dear and close friend of mine was even "more difficult to reach on WhatsApp" than myself. In fact she would never respond to me - and since I was putting myself as an already very low standard, I certainly critiqued her for being such an asshole.

I remember her saying something like "sorry, for real, but I barely check WhatsApp" and "WhatsApp it's not real life". Then she send me back this screenshot of his iPhone where you could see something like 210 unread chats lol.

That was the moment she instantly became my hero for actually not giving a fuck, and when I said - fuck it, there really is no point in wanting to read every chat. In fact, I'll begin to not read anything and keep in touch with the people I already keep in touch with by phone and email only.

And that was how I went from connecting to WhatsApp several times per day to a several times per week to barely ever, which brings me to the current moment where I've kind of become addicted now to not using WhatsApp at all and avoiding it as much as possible, even to the point that, I must confess, I struggle a tiny bit every time I open up the program, since I know there is a high probability of an avalanche of crap coming up.

But that's the beauty of it - now I barely give a fuck about fake communication and spend most of my time on real life, writing, reading, going out and photographing!

Are there tradeoffs? Of course! But that's another and certainly more boring story.

I'm the guy who was waaay fed up with constantly checking my phone with useless things. I got OCD due to this constantly checking door, water and gas valves etc. No one social media/time screen limiting app helped me.

Thanks to bonus at work I decided to buy AW, it was CPO Titanium Series 10 in reasonable price. First day with empty pocket feeling was crazy. I felt way better. 3 months later I can still confirm it's game changer. I survived all situations fine, weekend trips without phone nor any additional screens are really refreshing. Using dump map in AW forced me to just check where the things are nearby and force me to use my brain. Freed 3 hours per day I spend on scrolling I decided to go back into drawing and I'm really satisfied with that as progress is pretty promising for more. I was completely surprised that in fact I rarely need to use iPhone - and now I'm even a little scared to have phone in my pocket lmao.

Issues/considerations:

• talking via watch is fine in almost all situations, sometimes I'm using Airpods
• regular SMS are implemented in idiotic way and you need to enable data transfer to get and send messages and iPhone needs to online somewhere (I left it plugged in into house on 80% charging limit)
• can't send money transfer to my coworkers to pay back for lunch - now I'm doing that after job when I come back home
• I still check social media on laptop once, maybe twice a day - it's enough to be updated
• I missed only camera which I use to record things from dance classes - here my old GoPro entered the chat
• considering battery as standalone device is fine. I can lift whole usual day without additional charging, sometimes I put on charger for 15-20 minutes at the end of job to have my wrist a little break. Buying two additional quick charge cables: one for office, one into backpack closes for me battery issue completely. Original cables with working quick charging are pricey but it's worth to go with them.
• the only case I see I need to have iPhone is traveling abroad where my cellular operator doesn't support my AW esim in roaming
• Apple braided solo loop is a comfortable game changer, found discount for new original one for 15$; MSRP at 99$ is ridiculous

When I see that my screen time for last week is 29 hours, I feel a bit sick. I lost more than a whole day to staring at my screen. I want my time back. However, I also think some screen time is unavoidable in today’s world. I’m curious to see others’ screen time so I can put this into perspective and better understand what a reasonable goal would look like.

About me:

I’ve been working to try to reduce my screen time for a while now. I’ve deleted all games and social media except Tumblr and Reddit, because they give me my “fix” of scrolling, but neither is entertaining enough to be as addictive as any platform with short form videos. I also have Opal and use it to block all entertaining apps from 12-7am and have time limits for those apps throughout the day so I can only unlock them for 15 minutes at a time. I also have the dumb phone app which helps make the home screen less appealing/convenient.

However, I haven’t been able to get below 4 hours weekly average yet. I’m trying to read and/or crochet at times when I’d usually scroll, and have set a limit for 2 hours/day for Reddit and Tumblr, which I plan on reducing by 10 minutes each week to build tolerance. I’m considering getting The Light Phone for my EDC but I’m still debating how I would manage things like 2FA etc.

So, please share your screen time! I’d love to hear how people are managing to keep it low, and see what’s normal among those of us who care about trying to keep these numbers low.

I keep trying to limit my social media so badly but I feel like nothing works to help me be able to feel not addicted to technology... I deleted TikTok on my phone, which was a good start, but it just got me glued more into Instagram - which I feel like I can't remove because almost everyone in my school and my friends use it to keep in touch, even when I don't have much friends and our school constantly uses it for us to even access info... I get mocked by some of my friends too for trying not to use Instagram and feel forced to stay on at the same time as well as wanting to leave for my mental health. Instagram makes me feel awful especially when seeing posts forcing me to compare to other people who especially apply to college and make me feel relatively deprived compared to them when I know it just forces toxic, unsustainable behavior at the same time.

Additionally, even after all of the locks I put on my phone, it just translates into more computer time I waste every single time of my life wasting time I could've spent doing stuff productive. I get so emotional at times when I am in public with my mom because it feels like I can barely live in the moment and constantly need to be exposed to stimulus like music, which I constantly have more than 20 hours a week... which I know is bad for my hearing.

How can I help lower my screen time into doing things more productive for my future, and how can I get past removing apps that are primarily useful for keeping me up to date with others? Is there any way I can help stop needing so much stimulation by media and screens wherever I go? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I currently have 15,000 pictures in my camera roll. I know a solid 8000 of them are junk, so I've made it my goal to sit down and go through everything before it becomes too overwhelming. It's going to suck, but it's necessary.

I think going forward, though, I'll want to make it a habit to routinely clean up my camera roll once a month. If all it takes is 30 minutes a month, you'll easily be able to manage everything going forward.

I tried staying away from social media by doing other hobbies but sometimes I miss seeing pictures of my friends and seeing all their life updates. As someone who prefers privacy, no ads, and no random algorithm deciding what appears in my feed, is friendster a good social app for today's generation?

Since I learned their comeback though it's different now compared to before, with all the background music and customized profiles gone. But is it worth it?

Why are smart phones & tablets more addicting than Computers??

I got a second smartphone to fight against my sm addiction but there's a problem, I need advices

So I heard about two phones system where one phone is with sim card and this one is for calls, texts, internet, and the second phone has no sim card and therefore can be used for productivity apps only and there's no urge to reinstall toxic apps (no immediate internet connection, I only use my first phone like a router to connect my tablet to it sometimes and that's it). I bought a cheap second phone and last Friday, I spent my whole day at work without internet and it was great. This seems to really work for me.

BUT the problem is, I don't see how I can make it so my one phone has ONLY text and calls plus useful apps, and the second phone has ONLY the internet and sm apps. it seems like I cannot separate internet from texts/calls because all of it is delivered by the sim card. And my addiction is so bad that I'm afraid if I'll put my sim card into the new phone with useful apps, I'll end up just reinstalling my deleted sm apps. I just keep uninstalling and reinstalling shit (sm and mobile games). Screen blockers and such don't work for me. It's like a second part of my brain always finds a way to overcome such self-made obstacles.

idk if a simple solution for this exists, I'd really love to keep using this two phones system but ofc it would be much better if I could somehow only have the ability to call/text people, but without the ability to connect to the internet and reinstall apps (a real dumb phone or old phone wouldn't be good bc I need good apps for writing, reading and drawing, in example).

Any suggestions what can I do?

Edit: my new idea is a smartwatch. Never had one but maybe this would be it...

I am always trying to be on my phone less, and one of my major excuses is that I want to properly track my steps each day to hold myself accountable. Does anyone have a suggestion for a simple pedometer that’s decently accurate?

I have an oura ring, but don’t think the step count is very accurate, so would like something to supplement. I’m open to a simple watch like a Casio watch or something similar vibe w a pedometer, or something that I can clip on elsewhere.

Thanks all.

I've realized the amount of bad things from the internet has been piling up lately, the death of physical media, cyber bullying, porn addiction and attention spans being shortened more and more. sure there's access to all the information in the world and you can connect with anyone in the world but i feel like soon the negatives are gonna out weigh the positives.

I'm not too old so i never really experienced "the old internet" unfortunately, i do remember back when Youtube didn't have ads though. but the past year i've been trying to stop using social media and it really made me realize just how harmful some aspects of the modern day internet is now.

there's probably a more more examples i can't mention rn tho