"I tried the usual tricks: switching off notifications, deleting addictive apps, moving icons around, greyscale mode. None of it worked. Without notifications, I just checked more to see if something had happened. When I deleted apps, I used the browser instead. And when I deleted that I would eventually reinstall everything in a weak moment. (Which usually meant spending even more time on my phone as I had to log in everywhere again.)"
"It slowly dawned on me that, vis-a-vis the smartphone, we cannot pretend to be fully rational adults with free will. I was addicted, of course. And if a system is designed to hijack your attention, the solution isn't more heroic self-discipline. Ideally, big tech would be regulated: dopamine taxes, limits on algorithmic addictiveness, the whole package. But until that world exists, I needed a personal version of structural change: parental controls."
Attempts to self-regulate smartphone use with notification switches, app deletions, icon rearrangement, and greyscale failed because the platform design hijacks attention. Deleting apps led to using the browser and eventually reinstalling apps, increasing time spent. Structural change was necessary, so parental controls were used: addictive apps and the browser were blocked while useful non-addictive apps remained. The blockage produced a strong sense of liberation, habit-driven urges weakened over time, and relapses occurred only when blocks were temporarily removed. Outsourcing willpower to external controls is offered as a practical interim measure until tech regulation arrives.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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