[Sheel]

I try and use any social media on desktop, in-fact, I try to reply and read [especially travelogues] on the desktop.

I have no games or any app for watching web-series. I use WA but that is mostly for work or for friends, no stupid forwards.

Install a screen time management and watch it, feel guilty about it.

I browse/surf only when I have nothing to and I am waiting for someone. While traveling I prefer to look at views [the rare case when I am not driving], prefer to do some odd jobs at home [like cleaning my cars/bikes] or playing with my daughter, helping her in her homework or chatting up with mom/dad/wife.

Try to find a hobby or any other way to keep you engaged instead of spending time on the screen. I am off work for past 8-10 months and whenever I am free, I try to access any thing related to internet via the desktop.

Only thing I do via my mobile is streaming music.

[INJAXN]

Folks at home think, that I sped too much time with my Phone, but I like to think otherwise .
I had one addiction though, I use to check work related emails all the time and use to reply immediately.
But now I have controlled that, I occasionally check from phone and reply only during working hours.

Could you guys suggest a good screentime app for Android?

[krishsreedharan]

I got onto FB in 2007. Since 2008, I was a part of the Digital Marketing Industry and hence FaceBook was a must. However, as every year went past, I started seeing a trend of narcissm and self praise in FaceBook which I was not very comfortable with. The last straw in the camel's back for me was when something that I was discussing with a friend on WhatsApp was the subject of FaceBook ads in my Feed.

That was when I took the decision to get out of FaceBook and WhatsApp completely. I deleted my account after 12 years and likewise, my WhatsApp account as well.

I am currently very happy and peaceful without these two.

[alisajid]

Internet or no internet, its part of human psychology to run away from the reality. Any addiction is a manifestation of an underlying problem, the problem to run away from taking pressure or ownership of time and task.Its relentless struggle for all of us. Anything besides facing lets say in your case exam will be soothing but facing reality and working on it.

I suggest you start planning out little task on hourly basis and start doing it, trust me the gratification of completing your work as planned will itself motivate you and you will start being away from phone. Since only 50 days are left I request you to stop bothering about getting like minded people on board on T-Bhp or starting threads on anything. Please start dividing your tasks on hourly basis and start completing them, your own little accomplishments will motivate you.

[N33raj]

Originally Posted by boniver

Thank you for your kind words, N33raj Sir! First off, and I couldn't help saying this: I'm glad I found another person who uses BlackBerry devices in this day and age.

Thank you. And please do not address me as Sir; i am not that old yet!
On all things BlackBerry, let us discuss over PM as this is not the appropriate forum. I read your post; looks like you are into BB a lot. Fyi, i started with a 8700v then 8100 Pearl, 9500 Storm, 9550 Storm2, 9800 Torch, 9900 Bold4, Q10, Priv. Of these, i now have the Storms, Bold4 and Priv. The rest are gone.

[drive1987]

Hey Boniver - Brilliant article

I don't usually read long articles, but, I must admit that, this one did catch my attention. Because, I'm struggling with digital addiction and I've spent countless hours/days thinking a way to get rid of it. Till date, honestly, I haven't been able to find a permanent solution. I'm going to state my problems below:

My addiction is with this thing called "YouTube". I'm on it while on the commute to office and back home, at home, while on bed etc etc... the list is long...

What all I tired to get rid it this?

1. I tired to uninstall YouTube from my Android phone Android doesn't allow this, it just allows you to disable the YouTube App. You cannot permanently delete this App from your smart phone. Once disabled, the YouTube App won'e be visible to you, but at the back of your mind, it's always there, whenever you feel like watching it, just go to settings, enable the App and start wasting your time!

2. I also have got an iPhone6. I decided to ditch my Android phone and switch to iOS, as this doesn't come by default with YouTube. I decided that, whatever be it, I'm not gonna download YouTube to this phone. I used it for 2 weeks, but I didn't find the iOS ecosystem as user friendly as Androids. All the Apps which I was used to on my Android phones didn't work as expected on iOS (For e.g. I depend a lot on TrueCaller. This allows me to block all the Spam calls (I've a huge blocked spam list) and the best is, it identifies the Spam calls and gives you an option to just ignore it or reject it. During those two weeks when I used my iPhone, I used to answer all my calls and 3/4th of them used to be spams. (My observation is that TrueCaller doesn't work well with iPhones.) Hence, after getting frustrated with the spam calls, I decided to ditch my iPhone and move on with a new idea!

3. I switched over to a basic (non-smart) phone (Samsung Guru). This idea also didn't last long as, nowadays we are so used to the digital payments (Paytm, GooglePay, PhonePe etc. etc. which is really convenient) For making payments, I had to always carry another smart phone with me. And, even with this idea, I couldn't get be any far away from avoiding the spam calls.

So, finally, I'm back to my Android device. Though, I have consciously cut down on my YouTube time, but still I do spend a lot of time watching videos.

Few quick points here:
1. I cannot keep my phone out of my reach while sleeping as my job requires me to attend emergency calls.(So there is no question of keeping my phone in another room)

2. Is there a way, where I can get a duplicate sim for the same number? Use one sim in the smart phone and the other one in a basic phone. Once home from work, I can probably switch off the smart phone.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Arun

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by drive1987

Any suggestions?

Ya, turn off your data.

[landcruiser123]

Few things I've tried: (And had good success)
1. Use mobile websites instead of apps. Cut down big time on sports apps (espncricinfo etc)
2. Enable monochrome mode. I've set the triple-click on home button accessibility shortcut for this on my iPhone
3. Turn off useless notifications for apps (Twitter in my case)
4. Always keep the phone in Silent (not possible for everyone)
5. Leave WhatsApp groups with tons of forwards every day
6. Communicate more on email/google hangouts. Facebook messages are email notifications to me. I open them if I think it is important
7. Put your phone at least at near your foot if you can't keep it in another room
8. Live with as few devices as possible. I've sold my pixelbook. I've three devices which are absolutely necessary- Kindle, personal Laptop, and Phone.

[Slickshift99]

Hi there boniver, realised we are the same age. I too have been a victim of digital addiction, i got my facebook account made in 2009 when facebook was all the hype amongst my school and neighbor friends. I remember i tried using facebook in my mums sony ericson phone that had 3g and a front facing camera and i totally loved it. My mums cousin brother who was in his 20s used to live with us at that time and had got a preowned IBM laptop that i used all day-night for facebook and online games, even surfing on those fraudulent websites that claimed to hack any facebook account

Mom knew i was using facebook and playing games on her phone and similar story, i too had to crawl alongside the bed to get her phone while mom would have her afternoon nap. Almost felt like an spy/army mission to me.

facebook addiction grew on me so much that i even spent hours surfing it during my school exams. By then i had joined many automotive groups on facebook and 4x4 India being the largest one with some odd 80k members, i totally loved it, the admin Shibu Varghese even welcomed me on the group with a special post on the fact that i was the youngest member on-board

Class 11 comes and i had chose science as the choice of stream. I even failed my class tests and this was when i knew i had to giveup my smartphone. Got a keypad Nokia phone and lived with it for a year untill it stopped working somehow. As of today i do use snapchat instagram but only once a day , i rather spend my spare time on youtube, Teambhp or going for a ride on my access to satify the adrenaline in body(that is what happens when you watch motovlogs)

[boniver]

Originally Posted by Slickshift99

Hi there boniver, realised we are the same age. I too have been a victim of digital addiction, i got my facebook account made in 2009 when facebook was all the hype amongst my school and neighbor friends.

Welcome to the forum, buddy! Thank you for your post, I had almost forgotten that this thread existed
You don't have the PM option yet, and you seem to have turned off your emails. Please PM me when you cross 25 posts, would love to connect with you!

As of today i do use snapchat instagram but only once a day , i rather spend my spare time on Youtube, Teambhp or going for a ride on my access to satify the adrenaline in body(that is what happens when you watch motovlogs)

That's some serious progress you've made, man. I'm so happy for you!

Anyway, here's an update to my situation as of now:
My digital usage went down considerably after this thread kicked off and I received so many tips from the members who posted here. I got back to studying and doing other "meaningful" things in life.

Earlier this year though, I created a new Facebook account because I needed to get in touch with a few people. I log onto that account once or twice a day and spend less than a total of 5 minutes on it.

On 18th January, I impulsively went out and got myself a brand new bicycle. I picked up cycling as a hobby and covered close to 1200 kms on it before the lockdown got implemented in March. Needless to say, I spent most of my spare time and energy on my fitness and it has been a very rewarding experience. Like I (and many other BHPians) have highlighted previously, when you have something to do, you won't waste your time browsing mindlessly. Basically, you need one addiction to kill off another.

It's a different story during this lockdown though, but I'm not being hard on myself anymore since I myself don't have much to do now. I'm on my laptop all day browsing car stuff, watching movies or editing videos that I'm shooting around the house. I don't feel bad about using my phone anymore now, since I have nothing better to do (after finishing my chores, that is). I'm sure a lot of members too would report that their digital media usage/consumption has increased tenfolds due to the lockdown. It's nothing to be worried about, though. We're collectively going through a difficult time, and our behaviour is excused.

The main reason I put this thread up was to get a conversation going about an addiction that most people have, but don't realize. We shared tips and words of encouragement among ourselves here, and it has definitely helped me a lot. All said and done, I hope the information in this thread will some day be of help to someone else too.

[airguitar]

This isn't acutely about startups, but a sort mirror to how some companies come into being and what people do in the 'spare time' thus created. As the academic year at schools is about to start in a week, we had someone messaging in one of our social media groups asking if there was company that would do the 'brown paper coverings' for the new books of their children.

I was shocked to see such a request as it is something that we all do just once a year. What was more shocking is that there were people replying with names of companies/contacts that did this for a fee ( 10 rupees for a book ). Pickup/drops were supported. Covers could be ours' or theirs. Blah Blah. So clearly there is a 'demand' that drives this business.

Many households don't cook anymore - they order in or eat out. Those that do, employ a cook. Very few households where all meals are cooked at home I suppose. Most households have a live-in domestic help. Most households get professional services for "deep cleaning". Drivers for chaffeuring us to work. Car cleaners for cleaning cars. Administrators/assistants at work. Man Fridays for troubleshooting. Agents for getting stuff done. Tuitions for children. Coaches for kids' sporting skills. Startups for the simplest chores. Door delivery of grocery and restaurant food. Online courses for anything and everything. Companies that take care of your 'car servicing' and doing things like pickup/drop/'ensuring correct service bills'. Resume services for writing resumes. AI based tools shortly for helping you write a letter. Most of these are apps driven. Cross cut people at traffic to reach work 2 mins earlier. Hardly anyone I know has gotten more productive at work because of all this (don't know enough to comment on the personal life side). And I'm not talking about the super-rich here. It's how many upper middle class households and approaches are beginning to look like. I don't have any interest in what/how/why ( as I myself avail some of the above services).

While it's great that these enable us supposedly to focus on 'more important things' - my only question is what are most of us doing with the time thus saved by offloading mundane things of life ( are all of them mundane, really anyway?). Me time ? With Social Media?

Also, are we not losing life-skills by not doing many of these ? I'm seriously worried that I might lose the skill of counting money fast after UPI'ing stuff for years now, for example. Like how some of us cannot reverse a vehicle now without a reverse sensor or reverse cam.

Somehow the "minimum common denominator" in all these problems is causing new markets to come up and it becomes an all-pervading entity forcing all others to follow suit. A very popular messaging platform comes to mind - I have to use it even when I dont' want to because most people important to me prefer that route (recruiters, people that I do business with, family, friends, colleagues).

This is not a sarcastic post. I genuinely want to know, ideally if you have references to any data-backed articles around this topic. I have a suspicion if such 'saved time' is used for any good purpose other than scrolling through one's social media feeds (for the average person). Lastly, I have always maintained that one's laziness and one's emotions are the two primary 'market's for many businesses - many of the above examples seem to be in the same zone.

[comfortablynumb]

Originally Posted by airguitar

.....my only question is what are most of us doing with the time thus saved by offloading mundane things of life ( are all of them mundane, really anyway?). Me time ? With Social Media?

Good to see/read that there are like minded folks out there.

Your post reminded me of this clip by Jerry Seinfeld.

https://youtu.be/VEs69Q6GgBk?si=0VSGQDKhcmRdyFl3

I totally get where you are coming from, but I don't think the phenomenon of "offloading mundane things" is as widespread as you have described (even though it's growing day by day). Probably it is common (and expected, to keep up with the Jones's?) in the very well to do circles, but maybe not in the majority of the urban population (and definitely not in the rural/semi-urban). Time will tell if the situation stays the same or gets worse/better (depending on the pov).

Personally speaking, I still prefer shopping in brick and mortar stores, walking to my destination if it is within a 5-10 min distance, covering my kid's text and note books myself, paying bills and servicing my vehicles without a middleman, cooking and eating most meals at home etc. I know this is anecdotal evidence, but it's more or less the same for a large part of my friends'/acquaintance's circle.

Even if someone thinks we are old fashioned/anachronisms/misfits, who cares? Let's enjoy these simple pleasures, even if it's considered a waste of time by the efficiency & productivity Gurus. Assuming that we have a long lifetime ahead of us, it's not a big deal if we "waste" a little bit of it, right? Cliched it might be, but sometimes it IS more about the journey than the destination.

[airguitar]

Originally Posted by comfortablynumb

Good to see/read that there are like minded folks out there.

Totally good to see people that resonate. I'm generally regarded as a 'Dodo' in my circles for being old school.

Originally Posted by comfortablynumb

Your post reminded me of this clip by Jerry Seinfeld.
https://Youtu.be/VEs69Q6GgBk?si=0VSGQDKhcmRdyFl3

Good one!

Originally Posted by comfortablynumb

I totally get where you are coming from, but I don't think the phenomenon of "offloading mundane things" is as widespread as you have described

Agree this is majorly an urban phenomenon but not limited to the uber-rich. Most upper middle class are doing one or more of what I describe and continues to grow as you say.

Originally Posted by comfortablynumb

Even if someone thinks we are old fashioned/anachronisms/misfits, who cares? Cliched it might be, but sometimes it IS more about the journey than the destination.

Totally, that *IS* life. Trying to change the brake wires of your kid's bicycle, repairing a damaged spoke etc etc.

[jimmyjagga]

Hi,
I am trying to remove my distraction from smart phone. A noob question here is there a basic feature phone with WhatsApp only. I require WhatsApp since both office and family connects text on WhatsApp rather than sms.
I tried searching for such device but could not yield any results.

Regards

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by airguitar

This isn't acutely about startups, but a sort mirror to how some companies come into being and what people do in the 'spare time' thus created. As the academic year at schools is about to start in a week, we had someone messaging in one of our social media groups asking if there was company that would do the 'brown paper coverings' for the new books of their children.

.
.
.
.

Beautifully put across Sir. Your thoughts completely resonate what I have been thinking over the years. I thought I was the only one. Glad to know there are people like you whom I have the company of

In addition to what you have said, people who are barely financially stable are opting for these mentioned third party convenience services. Many people I know of raise eyebrows when I say we do most household chores ourselves. They perceive this as our inability to pay for the services. I prefer doing stuff hands on because it allows to connect with myself at a deeper level. I can know what I am capable of doing, where my limitations are and where I can improve. Added benefit is that I am away from my phone/digital content.

The basic life skills of most are dwindling and many people who avail these services for each and every aspect of their life perceive this as their improved social status. For example, the other day, one of my colleagues was saying that he orders chai from chai point over swiggy most days of the week in the morning. I wondered, how difficult is it make a cup of chai/coffee in the morning?! There is a sense of entitlement with many of the people whom I know of avail these services to get things done. They feel, if they have money, they can get anything done in their day-to-day life in isolation without the need to be dependent or be available for near and dear ones. I feel this is dangerous and is affecting the basic fabric of relationships as well.