How to stop Doomscrolling | Techcrunch

The world is sometimes bad, but it feels the worst if you cannot stop staring at the fully consuming an abyss is the 6 -inch screen of the smartphone, and follows you through the place and time. It makes fun of it with its light built -in construction, and it is small enough to slip into your pocket and take anywhere, and the call calls are so powerful that for some reason, we cannot sleep without our phone on our tables.

As we are weather Horror around usIt may happen to you that you will feel quieter, more attention and balanced if you don’t pick up dozens of times a day to Doomscroll. It is messing with our brains To communicate with our day with glimpses in the most extreme tiktoks, sharing, only to eliminate X or Bluesky and see overwhelming news headlines.

Like any bad habit, it is difficult to kick. But it is not hopeless. How do you stop getting rid of the disposal? We have some ideas on how to prepare yourself for success.

We understand that this is not your mistake

First of all, you are not the problem. The problem is that our life has become deeply intertwined with technology companies that are looking to capture as much time as possible. If you use Apple Watch to track the exercise, you will finish seeing text messages while trying to pick up my breath after running a very slope hill. If you go to Spotify to listen to a specific album, open the application and immediately see recommendations for podcasts and audio books that I do not usually care about. Or if you download Snapchat only for a group chat where my friends send pictures of their pets, then each of the image of a pet that comes with some ads, notifying the payment abroad, or the AR marketing candidate who has not registered. No wonder our phones make us feel crazy.

I don’t think Mark Zuckerberg sits in his hideout – perhaps inside “Metavers” – dreaming of ways to make my life worse in person. But the inherent nature of consumer technology companies is that our interest is what keeps them on its feet, and the more we care about it, the more the greater their investors, the higher stock prices, and so on. Even knowing how these companies work, it is still difficult to break our bad habits. I still open my Instagram account to find out what my friend sent me, just to recover my consciousness after 10 minutes after I saw dozens of rollers.

Prepare the limits of the screen time, and take it seriously

During the first few years after Apple provided the screen time feature on iPhone, I chose deliberately not running – I was afraid of what I might learn about myself. But this fear itself told me that I have a problem. Knowledge is strength, and if we know applications that absorb most of our time, we can limit the time we spend.

Here’s how to set time limits on the screen for specific applications on iOS:

• Open the settings app.
• Spread down to the screen time, which is referred to using the sandy watch icon.
• Here, you can see your average daily screen time and set your handrails to reduce this average.
• Under the maximum, there are some different ways in which you can reduce screen time: stops and borders.
  • Stopping It sets a schedule for the time when you can use certain applications. You may have broken the time for the hours you usually sleep, or you may create a more customized schedule. If you find yourself going on Instagram a lot, this may be a time to determine the limit.
    • Instead of choosing the applications that must be selected while stopping, you can set the applications you want Always allow,, Which can also be accessed under the limit use menu. If you have friends and family abroad, for example, you may want to make sure you can always reach WhatsApp. Or, if you are gay and sometimes you need to fall asleep the audio books, then it may allow the unlimited libby to reach.
  • The limits of the application It is where you can set the amount of time you want to spend on certain applications daily. You can set individual limits for specific applications, or you may collect a class of applications together (Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, Tiktok, X, etc.) and set a total time limit for these applications.

Effective Apple screen time tools, but they are easy to defraud a little; If you see the great Tiktok and become suddenly emerging, you can end your time, you can just click on a button to give yourself another 15 minutes … then do the same after another 15 minutes.

Some people choose to use third -party applications to stimulate them to reduce screen time, which can handle potential shutters for current Apple functions.

Here are some applications designed to reduce screen time:

• ScreenzenAvailable on iOS and Android, allows you to create pop -up windows that appear before opening certain applications. So, before opening Instagram, for example, you may see a 10 -second pop -up window read, “Is this important?” You can also ask the application to be deep breath before opening the applications, and leads to your success within its borders under time. My friend is currently working with a 144 -day chain, they refuse to sacrifice for a quick shock of unusual dopamine.
• opalAvailable on iOS, Android and Web, focusing more specifically on promoting productivity or at school. The app is more customized in reducing screen time of compact Apple features. You can focus not only at times, but also on the number of times you open an application (for example, you may just want to open Instagram three times a day).
• RootsAvailable on iOS, not only focuses on how much time you spend on your phone, but also on the quality of that time. Some users in particular love the “monk mode” in the application, which can be activated to make it impossible to exceed any of its application limits – even if you go to the point of deleting the application. But if you are really diligent with your borders, you can open “days of fraud”.
• Touch the grassAvailable on iOS, is what his name suggests: it makes you touch the grass. In order to use some prohibited applications, you should literally go out and take a picture of grass. No, home plants will not work. If you want to avoid going out, you can buy “skip” for a price set, up to 99 cents. Half of the revenues from Skips go to support re efforts.

We collected some material devices This can help you stop looking at the screens too.

So, you have opened Tiktok and your screen time deprives you of access, but now you don’t know what to do. You may stand in a line in the cafe and need distraction. Certainly, in an ideal world, we can simply feel bored without being bored automatically, but this is not an ideal world.

Here are some other things that you can do on your phone that does not include social media:

• Read a book. No, really. On applications such as Ibooks and kindleYou can change your settings so that you scroll to read a book, instead of stirring a page according to the page. You are passing literally, but instead, you’ll learn something.
  • Do you not want to buy books? Not for you! Libyan Contact your library card to allow you to access e -books and audio books from your phone.
  • I don’t know what to read? I am very sorry, but you may have to know that on Booktok.
• Play games. Games can certainly be addicted as well, but the games will not know that the world has exploded in a new and unexpected way. Every application copies each other applications, but in the case of games of size, once a day, this is a good thing.
  • the New York Times Games The app will allow you to play quick games like Wordle, Lrands and Mini Crossword, even if you are not subscribed. But Gray Lady games were so successful that other applications took the taste.
  • Listen to me. the games LinkedIn It is really really fun. Certainly, you may get a leap through a post from your bad old boss, but the tango in particular is worth the risk.