I uninstalled Tik Tok almost 2 years ago and have heavily restricted my other social media usage since. Programming.dev (and the extended Lemmyverse) is the biggest cheat I permit myself. I do still waste more time scrolling than I want, but through it, I’ve been exposed to things that I feel make my life richer. And it is a lot less soul-crushing than commercial platforms that are jam packed with AI slop and are designed to be addicting.

That said, with I no longer have a way to keep up with trends and my main source of news is my wife, who is still plugged into TikTok. And honestly, I think I’m better off that way. I have way more time to read (and engage in other long-form content) and spend with my kids. I’m exposed to way less propaganda and outrage content. Looking back on days with 9+ hours spent on TikTok, it feels like I was part of a hive mind. I like being an individual again.

After reading a bunch of books about our relationship with technology, I concluded it’s probably best that I greatly reduce my reliance on my phone. A big part of how I accomplish that is just by using my laptop for things that I can’t cut out entirely, like banking, email, web browsing, etc.

Most of the time, my phone’s browser is disabled. It keeps me from using my phone too much. I understand not everyone is in a position where they can do that though.