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I log out of every social media website/app because the act of logging in is just enough friction for me to be mindful: do I really want to do this?

The sense of slowness creates the conditions for pausing and being mindful of what you're doing.

In spirit, this reminds me of the return to slow/analog: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48084980

Consider it the no- or low-alcohol alternative to full speed. https://www.paulgraham.com/addiction.html

3 comments

At work I curbed most of my internet wandering by turning off all the autocomplete and history of the browser. When I close the browser, everything is wiped. This way I have to explicitly type in the site url instead of an autocomplete in the url bar or history suggestion. I don't do anything personal on a work computer anyway so I don't need to log into anything.

On my phones it's even easier: no apps save for absolutely necessary. If I need an app while traveling or whatever, I install it only for the necessary duration then uninstall it when done.

I edit my /etc/hosts file and send domains that I've realized I'm addicted to (ahem, lichess) to 0.0.0.1

This gives enough friction to the point, when I muscle-memory type the URL in a browser, and get an unreachable error... after a while I learn to just... break the habit.

I like the idea of increasing friction, but I also found https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-control to be useful.

If we are talking about increase friction to avoid something, unfortunately self control is way past us.