How Do We Stop Doomscrolling?

Have you ever picked up your phone with the intention of checking something really specific, like a confirmation number or the weather, and then just fallen into a 45 minute doom scrolling for a text? Of course you have. That was a rhetorical question. But what options do we have to avoid this trap? That's the better question and the one I wanna map out right now for collective benefit. I'm gonna plot this out on a spectrum because there are extremes and everything in between. At one end we have throw your phone off a cliff, which is effective but unrealistic for the majority of us. At the other end is wholeheartedly embrace our 10 hour a day screen time and may chronically align our entire personality. That also feels deeply unsatisfying, like pledging allegiance to the tech overlords. What most of us have is this messy middle. What most of us have is this middle zone and within it we have tools like Brick, Opal or native screen time apps, alternatives like Area, Arena or even Substack with less addictive algorithms and tactics. Like making your home screen grayscale or only using the browser version of popular social apps. If I were to do a quick personal assessment using this framework, I would say for tools I really haven't tested these enough. So they represent an area of opportunity for me. Alternative app scrolling has truthfully changed my life. Replacing more addictive apps with less addictive has led to better retention of the content that I consume and way less guilt. Though probably not less screen time. And then for tactics, there's this home screen change I've been trailing for a little while with surprisingly good results. So more on that soon. I would love if you did this 1, 2, 3 assessment too and tell me where you land with alternatives and tactics that help you reduce your doomscrolling. I'm not asking for a friend.