I made my phone slow on purpose

I made my phone slow on purpose(vinewallapp.com)

25 points by gcampos 3 days ago | 18 comments

herbertl 27 minutes ago |

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

p0358 37 minutes ago |

As someone who used to have actually slow phones before: this will not help your doom-scrolling. You will still doom-scroll, but you'll just be frustrated and miserable due to the lags. You're welcome.

fhdkweig 19 minutes ago | |

My solution to doom scrolling on the desktop was to edit my /etc/hosts file to disallow me from going to the offending sites. After a few weeks, the habit was broken and I didn't even miss them anymore.

p0358 4 minutes ago | | |

I did have something similar, but in my case it was an involuntary favor from Meta, as they presented a blocking screen asking whether I agree to use my personal information for targeted ads. The options were I agree or I pay. So I just wouldn't click either and hence I just couldn't access their sites anymore lol. (yeah well, I didn't give up that easily originally, as funnily enough you could find methods to bypass the screens and the APIs in apps would still fully work and let you use it, but it was more trouble than worth it eventually)

There was also Twitter, which had also solved the problem by itself. After the take-over, the quality of content rapidly plummeted so hard, at certain point I just didn't feel like ever visiting the site again.

So I'm almost thankful to these companies for actively pushing people out like that, y'know? I'm just sorry for people still stuck in there, it must be even more miserable presently...

gaiagraphia 5 minutes ago | | |

For those who don't use it already, the following is a great compilation of curated block lists you can put into your etc/hosts file to block traffic :)

https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts

Insanity 13 minutes ago | | |

Ha, I did the same about 15 years ago. Nowadays don’t need the file anymore but it was a good way to get rid of that initial automated behaviour.

d1str0 24 minutes ago | |

I think it’s a valiant effort. Sometimes having multiple influences can make it easier to change behavior.

fsflover 6 minutes ago | |

Have you tried using NoScript? Works for me (except HN).

frangonf 19 minutes ago |

Having grown up with an unreliable sluggish gsm dial up connection when the web was already getting heavier payloads, and forced to have developed the virtue of patience and love of progress bars, I think this might work with latency intransigent people, but I know I will blank stare into the load spinner to get my doom ration.

Hard blocks (gotta re enable noprocrast here asap) and behavioral nudges like keeping an ebook with page open positioned inconveniently close and my phone out of reach work better for me.

chis 24 minutes ago |

I think this is a great idea. Wouldn't have guessed this would be possible so I looked into how it'd actually be implemented.

I guess this is done on the device as a VPN via Apple's NetworkExtension config. But instead of a normal VPN where traffic goes through a server, the app just locally applies rules based on the app the packet came from and then routes them normally to their destination.

stronglikedan 25 minutes ago |

HN hug so I can't read it right now, but this approach doesn't really work for most people. The problem with these types of approaches is that anything done can be undone. And if you have the willpower to not undo it, then you have the willpower to not need to have done it in the first place. Now, buying a slow phone on purpose may work, but that's a different approach.

d1str0 22 minutes ago | |

By that logic, buying a slow phone can also just be undone.

A perfect solution that works 100% is not the goal. Small influences that can help you change behavior can still be beneficial. Maybe they doom scroll 5% less because of this tweak? Still a positive change.

andai 56 minutes ago |

Brilliant. Too bad there's apparently no built in way to do it.

I was reminded of when Apple started slowing down the CPUs on older phones. Would be nice if you could just configure that on first run. "How addictive would you like your phone to be, sir?"

gepeto42 43 minutes ago | |

I feel like my phone is so sluggish when in low power mode (even a 17 Pro), that it could work for this.

Insanity 13 minutes ago | | |

This might say more about the quality of modern apps than the power of the iPhone lol.

w4der 38 minutes ago | |

On android you can do so from developer mode, but it's a blanket throttle for the whole device. I've been using mine with a 5mbps cap for a few years now.

thatguymike 41 minutes ago |

I love the concept - blocking apps are often too restrictive which makes me disable them. Slowing could be a nice alternative.

This probably uses a vpn? It’s important to think about how to stop me disabling it casually. I use Opal which blocks my settings page too. Which works great but frustratingly it blocks my legitimate needs very often too!

drchaim 35 minutes ago |

Actually seems like a good idea. It's like when I use a 2012 laptop. I can't last more than 30 minutes on it. Probably a LAN proxy that throttles the network for some devices...

paul_knoxops 20 minutes ago |

That’s a great idea. Waiting for a video to load for a few dozen seconds makes me lose all interest in scrolling further.

thatmf 19 minutes ago |

another good technique is to use boomer mode- make the fonts as large as possible, which has the side effect of making instagram (for instance) practically unusable and all of it just generally unpleasant. you're welcome.

rapnie 33 minutes ago |

I hate typing on a smartphone. Thick fingers, I guess. So I turned off word completion, and it works perfectly to stay off messenger apps while real life passes by around me. Avoids becoming a phone zombie. I love to chat with others online, but do it on a keyboard on my laptop at home.