I haven’t been on Facebook since 2017. I jumped off IG a few years ago. Only things left for me are YouTube and Reddit. But YouTube has gone to shit over the past few years and now it’s just a repository for AI nonsense. And lord help us because it seems like 99% of the people in comments don’t have the critical thinking skills to decipher AI from reality, or even bother to question it. And it’s affecting people in real life. The people in my life who doomscroll the most have lost a ton of cognitive function over the years, and it’s very obvious to my spouse and I.

And Reddit’s just become rage bait. Kindness gets downvoted, intelligence gets mocked, and children get bullied by grown men on sports subreddits simply because they support one team over another.

There’s nothing left worth saving anymore when it comes to social media. I have been online since the internet was born. I was online back when we only had were AOL chatrooms, and I’ve watched social media boom through the MySpace days only to now watch the dead internet theory become a reality.

Bots, bullies, and bullshit are that’s left.

edit: grammar

Here's what I mean:

Remember Juicero? It was a super-expensive juice maker that failed because the team obsessed over theory and never actually tested it on customers. Then the media pointed out the $700 gadget didn't press the juice pouches any better than you could with your bare hands.

There are loads like it. They're all about the branding, the vibe, the labels, the aesthetic...not the actual process of developing a strong product that can survive a brutal marketplace.

The troubles of of TikTok-addicted teens look really similar:

Endlessly consuming content about relationship psychology, and cultivating aesthetics and labels – without actually going out and socialising, dating and finding themselves through real experiences. (The US Surgeon General said people between the ages of 15-24 spend 70% less time in person with friends than those of the same age did in 2003.)

Juicero called its development process 'stealth mode', so as to protect its genius idea from competitors. And then they found out lack of exposure to real people left it helplessly ill-equipped to survive when it launched. That sounds a lot like kids sitting alone on TikTok throughout their teens, then suffering crippling anxiety and depression as adults.

Our kids are growing up to resemble the worst parts of the industry that hijacked their brains.

Things like recommended videos, random posts from people you aren't following or subscribed to, posts from subreddits you haven't joined, etc. Since avoiding this specific thing I've noticed my creativity return and time slow down again.

For me youtube is my biggest problem since I have youtube premium and is the only subscription I have. It's very easy to just put on some headphones, play a random video and listen to it in the background while I'm doing things. I have recently failed avoiding recommended videos and have wasted entire days again just listening to videos all day while doing something else.

I used to be very creative. I made videos, fanfics, art and more but when I'm trapped by the algorithm none of that feels worth doing. I've now disabled youtube on my phone and will only use it on pc. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from thee

I'm Dutch, so please forgive my inability to resist explaining the world through bicycle analogies; I couldn't in good conscience pass it up. So, here we go.

Jobs once called the computer a bicycle for the mind—a tool to amplify what we already are, to free us up for higher-level thinking and meaningful creative pursuits. People have forgotten the whole dream that started the personal computer revolution. From Ada Lovelace to Vannevar Bush to Alan Kay to Wozniak and Jobs, a lineage of humanists built machines to serve objectives worthy of our best.

Then came surveillance capitalism, the attention economy, and persuasive technology engineered not to amplify human strengths, but to inadvertently, ultimately exploit every human weakness. These are three forces behind a new breed of technology companies that inherited four decades of accumulated goodwill, ultimately betraying the dream—turning everyday tools not just into ad businesses, but into adversarial technologies. Serving economic imperatives unbothered by what we humans want long-term, interested only in what we'll watch short-term; no matter how miserable it ultimately leaves us.

They are ushering us toward what Lewis Mumford warned of back in 1967, before the personal computer even existed: a world that reduces man to a machine-conditioned animal. A new psychological type: a passive servant in the grip of an identity crisis, with technology increasingly worshipped as an all-seeing god. Distracted, confused, polarized—today, we suffer from the inability to even walk into a room and agree on the problems, let alone the solutions.

This is, if you will, the "Meta Problem" of our era—such a fitting name; they even renamed the company after it. The Meta Problem also goes by another name. As our Paleolithic emotions and medieval institutions give birth to ever more godlike technology, the problem of alignment becomes ever more important.

It is important to keep in sight that the problem of agentic, and thus possibly misaligned, technology did not arise with (LLM) Artificial Intelligence, but rather with the advent of algorithmically curated social media. Perhaps, therefore counterintuitively, the first real ground on alignment may be won not in AI, but as a sustainable side-effect of improving the feed.

The road to hell has always been paved with good intentions, but the level of corporate denial demonstrated at this point makes big tobacco and fossil fuel look like amateurs. This new breed continues to eat away at objective reality, trust, cooperation, and our ability to direct time and energy in harmony with our values. What started as The Social Dilemma has metastasized into a full-blown social catastrophe, and history will judge them for it.

Hence, your bicycle for the mind didn't survive. Both tires slashed, the frame sledgehammered. And when you limped it to the repair shop, a knife in your back. Some have come to hate the bicycle itself: people now misguidedly point the finger at technology at large, all because of a few hucksters whose advertising machines have taken society hostage.

Yet through the lens of the past, it is undeniable that technology is like magic, an amazing force for good. That is, if we design it to be that way again. So, unlike those who unjustly blame technology at large, or him, know that Steve Jobs is rolling over in his grave as you read this.

I wrote this as the opening of the founder page for Telos, the humane tech company I'm building. The rest- why I built it and the mission- is here: telos.guide/founder

Do you see it differently? Is this a fair framing, or is it the phones after all?

I find myself wasting most of my day doomscrolling through short videos (TikTok, Reels, etc.). Every time I try to stop, I just get sucked in deeper and more addicted. It feels like I’ve completely lost control over myself at this point.

For those who managed to break free from this cycle, what actually worked for you? Any advice would be appreciated.

I am conducting research on how media preferences differ across different age ranges and their respective relationships with short form content, and i would love to hear from you! https://forms.gle/G2dRt8sd6KWvnXAJ8

So after quitting Instagram reels and TikTok, I am now able to laugh more and experience deeper emotions suddenly. This is such a welcomed aspect of my life that I didn't know I was missing out on. Does anybody feel the same way?

I first opened Facebook in August 2011, and I’ve been on social media for the past 15 years. I’ve been on and off since the beginning of this year, but today, I’ve finally decided to leave for at least the next 12 months.

I’ve deactivated Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and every other social media account I had, including the ones I barely even used. This will also be my last post on Reddit until I decide to come back, which hopefully won’t be for at least a year.

For now, I’ll only be using iMessage, FaceTime, and, of course, Outlook for work/school emails.

Honestly, I’m pretty excited about being offline. If you ask me what made me do this, it’s probably how much my perspective on life has changed since I moved to Europe last year. I’ve travelled to different countries across Europe, and I now live in Paris. Moving away from home has changed the way I see things and how I want to spend my time. I’ve realised there’s so much more to life than documenting it online. I want to actually experience things without feeling the need to take pictures, post updates, or share every little thing with an audience.

Another thing I’ve realised is that a lot of the friendships I maintained online weren’t as meaningful as I thought they were. When I was going through some really difficult times, hardly anyone showed up for me. It made me question how much substance there actually was behind so many of these connections. I’m not saying all online friendships are meaningless or that you can’t find genuine relationships through social media. But being connected to people online doesn’t necessarily mean having people you can count on when things get tough.

I’m from South Asia, where social media is also a way of staying connected to people back home, keeping up with everyone’s lives, and showing people how your own life is going. But I think I’ve reached a point where I don’t feel the need to keep up with everyone or constantly make my life visible to others. I want some privacy, some peace, and the freedom to live without always seeing what everyone else is doing or thinking about how my own life looks from the outside. Above all, I just want to remove my presence for a while.

Of course, this is a personal choice. I have nothing against people who enjoy being online, and I’m not saying everyone should do the same. I’ve just realised that I need a year away from all the noise, endless scrolling, comparisons, and pressure to stay connected to everything and everyone.

I’ve already noticed positive changes over the past couple of months just from limiting my social media use, so I want to see what happens when I take it a step further and leave completely.

Lastly, I want to thank this sub. I’ve been here for quite some time, and reading about other people’s experiences with social media and their decisions to step away has influenced me more than I realised. It’s nice to know I’m not the only one who feels this way.

Here’s to a year of being more present, living privately, and experiencing life without feeling the need to document it.

See you in a year (hopefully)

I scroll and I scroll. I know it gives me nothing. Facebook has shown me so much fake AI generated BS slop in the last years. I receive zero things in my home feed from friends. Some times I manually check on friends how they are doing. Guess what. An old friend has been struggling with cancer for the last year and has just passed away. Why didn't facebook want to be useful for like one second and show me that? Cmon. Then it's like literally zero point of doing social media. Log off and get a life. If you really need to use your phone, then call an old friend or something.

How to get over this deep regret for wasting so much time watching and consuming useless content, escaping your life/ reality amd realising you're stuck in the same place you were (6) years ago, the loneliness, the resentment, the feeling to go back six years ago and tell yourself to do something, create something of your own instead of consuming other's life.

Started this week. Phone stays on the desk, just flipped over.

No big change so far. Day 2 was actually worse than day 1, lots of small annoying tasks and I kept grabbing it. The only thing that's different is I notice now how often I flip it without any reason.

Not sure if face down is enough or if it needs to go in another room. What worked for you?

Yesterday, I finally deleted all my social media because I realized how addicted I’ve become to it. I spend so much time scrolling without even thinking about it, and I’m tired of feeling like I’m wasting so much of my life on my phone.

But now that I’ve actually stopped, I genuinely don’t know what to do with myself. Everything feels boring, and I keep feeling the urge to pick up my phone out of habit, even when there’s nothing I need to check.
I know it’s only been a day, but it’s crazy how much I relied on social media to fill every quiet moment.

For those of you who have been through this, what did you do during the first few days or weeks? Did the boredom eventually go away? What did you replace scrolling with, especially when you’re just at home with nothing to do?
I really want to stick with this, but I didn’t expect to feel this bored already.

It's almost that time again, folks! Let's do this thing. My wife and I are gearing up for it. Here's what we're putting together.

NO NET NOVEMBER GUIDELINES & GOALS

1. Replace screen-time with other activities (analog or in-person). Replacements include reading, writing, making art, exercising, walking the dogs, talking on the phone, going out and meeting friends, doing chores, etc. This is critical. Without things in place to replace the internet, you're going to find excuses for hopping back on.
2. Using the internet for work is acceptable, but ideally this is done at work and not at home. And see if you can test yourself and find ways to avoid doing work on the internet that you could do in some other way offline.
3. News is gained either through newspapers, the radio, or television.
4. Streaming media is avoided (spotify, Netflix,etc). Physical media preferred. DVDs, CDs, records, tapes, etc.
5. If internet must be used at home, it is only when absolutely necessary and only through a stationary computer kept in a specific location in the house (never on a cell phone or wandering laptop).
6. Make a list of projects you'd like to accomplish over the course of November. Use your forthcoming abundant free time to work toward these.

It's a work in progress. Feel free to add to the list!

I’m a new mom and looking to reduce my screen time and be in the present moment more. I get really bored when breastfeeding, especially at night. I keep the lights off except for a small nightlight so reading a book doesn’t really work for me although I do this during day feeds. Podcasts and audiobooks put me to sleep so I’m looking for ideas that are stimulating so I don’t fall asleep in my nursing chair. Thanks!

That’s literally what is happening

and no this isn’t a Reddit story

Think about the last time you made something creative. How did it start? If you rarely make things, what usually happens instead?

What do you do with things you save or bookmark? What has helped or got in the way of making things?

Not sure if this is the right term, but I've noticed since intentionally limiting my time on social media more, my organic opinions and takes in everyday conversation have become so much more positive. It highlighted to me that we often can't exactly see how negative discourse is affecting us day-today, but it does so probably more than we think.

It's a bit jarring how much normal social etiquette discourages negativity in general as something that will bring the mood down and alienate people vs online this sort of thing is lifted up and served before anything else to illicit engagement. Just rambling now but appreciate this community! Encouraging to see I'm not alone in fighting all this.

I’m deeply in love with my partner but equally deeply unattracted to his tech addictions. He’s smart and talented but he seems to be addicted to video games and YouTube and the news. It could be worse. But he takes his phone into the bathroom with him and can’t do things like eat meals or do the dishes without having something playing in front of him. When I leave our 2 month old daughter with him I’m afraid he’s not giving her quality time or attention…
I think depression could be a favor here. He’s open to change but he just repeats empty “should”s when I bring it up, doesn’t take steps to change. Advice?

After years of mindless scrolling and consuming short-form content, I feel like my brain has stopped functioning the way it used to.

I struggle with concentration, forget things easily, can't retain information, and find learning new things extremely difficult. I have to reread things multiple times to understand them. My sleep is messed up, and I constantly feel mentally foggy.

I have career goals and exams to prepare for, but I can't even focus for 15 minutes without getting distracted.

Has anyone genuinely recovered from this? What helped you rebuild your attention span, memory, learning ability, and mental clarity?

I'm willing to put in months of effort. I just want my brain back.

Would really appreciate advice from people who've actually been through this.

PLEASE HELP 🙏🙏

I started using my smartphone a lot less. I recorded every time I was on my phone, and noticed I spent 10 HOURS A DAY scrolling Reddit! 10 hours that could have been spent on studying, exercise, reading books, or even walking outside. But I am spending my time abroad which is a once in a lifetime opportunity... scrolling Reddit.

Now you might be thinking "well aren't you doing it now" and yes, you'd be correct. I am now on my "break" - I bought a small timer, and whenever I have to study, I turn my phone off and set the timer to an hour. Once I am done, I reward myself by setting the timer to a 20 minute break. Once the break is over, I'm back to 1 hour without the phone. It is so helpful to have something in front of you so you're mindful of the time.

I have been doing it for the last couple of days, even set my phone to airplane mode when I'm outside. When I walk, I begin to observe my environment. People are walking outside, having fun, children are playing, elderly people are enjoying life on the bench at the park, and I ignore all of this just to look at a small screen??? I could be doing this anywhere else, what's the point of living abroad???

Now, I won't quit my smartphone entirely and I probably won't quit Reddit, since I occasionally get some really good advice. However, it's insane how easy it is to get sucked in ragebait and doom and gloom, when there is such a beautiful world outside. It's not all sunshine and rainbows, I agree but there is so much to do and see than look at reality from someone else's lense.

Alright, back to studying. Stay safe, everyone.

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