My one weird trick for managing my internet addiction

Scott Rogowski

Writing<br>Projects<br>Instagram --><br>Twitter -->

Scott Rogowski

Writing<br>Projects<br>Instagram --><br>Twitter -->

My one weird trick for managing my internet addiction

The secret is a small amount of physical friction.

There is a good chance you are a digital addict of some kind. So am I. Before I or my parents knew the damaging effects of too much screen time, I had a computer in my childhood bedroom. On it, I used to play computer games for hours. From there came the internet, and then laptops, and then social media, and then smart phones. Much has been written about how damaging technological addiction is. This post is about a trick that works for me to manage this addiction.

I carry around a scrap of paper with a password on it. I have my phone and laptop configured to require this password to access addictive websites. That’s it.1 This little piece of paper is the best trick I have discovered for controlling my internet addiction. With it, my screen time, or at least the screen time I regret, has all but vanished.

Fake example password for illustrative purposes

Your first reaction to this might be concern. After all, everyone knows that writing down a password and carrying it around with you is a Really Dumb Idea™️. Even worse, I work as a software engineer. I think about security on a daily basis. I should know better. In some ways, this is not as bad as it looks. In other ways, it is a lot worse. Allow me to explain...

Why am I doing this?

Per the American Society of Addiction Medicine, “People with addiction use substances or engage in behaviors that become compulsive and often continue despite harmful consequences”. And I think that captures my behavior. Left uncontrolled, I will mindlessly scroll the internet for hours on end - sometimes for an entire day - not going outside, not texting anyone, sometimes not even showering. In fact, before discovering this trick, I was averaging ~5 hours of screen time per day on my phone. With 8 hours working, 8 hours sleeping, and the rest of the time devoted to all other life necessities, my day was spoken for. And for what? What value did I gain from those daily 5 hours apart from a couple of dopamine hits, some useless trivia, and a simmering outrage over things I can’t control?

If you are skeptical about the need to solve this problem, I would encourage you to measure your own screen time. Most devices have the ability to do this now but you usually need to explicitly activate it. I guarantee you it will be more than you think it is.

How this trick works on my phone

I use Android2. On my phone, I have an app called LockMeOut, which blocks websites and apps. Currently, I have 52 different websites blocked. These are mostly news and social media. Once you enter a "focus time" (which I keep on permanently) those websites and apps are blocked. They make a few options available if you want to end the lockout early to access the websites you crave. The two main ones are:

Pay LockMeOut $4.99

Enter a password

This is where my scrap of paper comes in. The password unlocks LockMeOut, allowing me to temporarily access a website if needed.3

Why is this effective? The secret is physical friction. And just a little friction goes a long way. Believe it or not, the process of putting down my phone, finding my scrap of paper, and entering the password into LockMeOut feels deeply cumbersome in the moment - so cumbersome that I generally choose not to do it. As it turns out, my internet addiction crumbles at the insurmountable challenge of standing up. If you take nothing else away from this article, take this away:<br>Introducing trivial physical friction can make a major dent in your internet addiction.

But why have a password at all? Once you’ve realized that a site is addictive, why not block it permanently? It is because, in our modern world, there are times when you actually do require the internet. Often, you’ll need to open Facebook to get details on the party you are attending or Reddit for an honest opinion on the skis you are considering purchasing. There are legitimate needs for most of the addictive sites on the internet. But, for every time you need to access an addictive site for legitimate reasons, there are 10 times when you are just mindlessly trying to bury a micro-boredom.

There are a few more details that make this work. First, I regularly change my password to avoid memorizing it. In practice, as long as your password is randomly generated you only need to do this once every few months. Second, I actually keep 1-2 backup copies of the same password at home in case I lose one. The password is not stored anywhere digitally. This forces me to engage in physical movement any time I need to access anything.

How this trick works on my laptop

I apply the same trick to my personal laptop. Unfortunately, the trick is both far more technical and far more stupid as far as security is...