the paradox is sitting by a screen to look for- and pull together some help with screen-addiction.
open diary
(piefed.social)
I've gone multiple days before when I am out camping (unless you count an e-ink e-reader, but I don't). Being out in the wilderness is really something that calms me and grounds me. I live and work in a medium sized city in a very densely populated area, so I am constantly surrounded by stimuli. There are a few places near my work where if I am having a bad day, I will head there after work and bring one of the hammocks I always keep in my trunk, and the e-reader I always keep on me, and read in the woods for a few hours.
De-smarting my phone made an IMMEDIATE improvement on my morning routine. No longer can I lay and scroll... I silence my alarm, check the weather for the day, see if any of the emails I got look important, then get up.
The home screen launcher I use on my phone (Olauncher) includes a screen-time counter prominently on the home-screen, so you can immediately see how long you've been on your phone that day. I've gotten down to less than 45 minutes a day, for the most part. Most days is less than 15 minutes, especially after I broke up with my girlfriend recently, she texted SO much...
The Piefed web interface also has a time counter. If you scroll to the bottom of any page, there is a time listed. That's the amount of time you've spent on Piefed on that specific device (It doesn't count between devices. Like I'm on my work laptop, which is where I have the hardest time avoiding scrolling). I've spent a hair under 14 hours this month... Which feels like a lot, but then looking at the date, it's only a little over an hour a day, which is WAY less than I used to browse Reddit at work. My laptop at home is under 2 hours, I don't have trouble keeping offline at home, I have so many hobbies and things to do.
I think I am down around the 2-hour screen-time for personal things every day, maybe closer to 3... but to me it still feels like too much, I think because I do a lot of WORK on a screen. Between 4 to 8 hours of my day (sometimes less depending on which machines broke) is spent behind a computer, and that's something that I can't control.