That’s not the main difference. There are enough lurkers on any forum, including this one. IMHO, the fundamental difference is size. A social media pretends to be the whole world and people willingly or unwillingly fall for it.

While most of the comments discuss various less technological devices, I’d like to join the thread about meditation and digital detox as a practice.

I did two 5-day silent retreats (aka Vipassana, though there are minor differences) this year and it’s been the best thing I’ve ever done as far as the baseline dopamine reset.

Once back, I’ve had zero urge to interact with any tech unintentionally. Meaning, every time I picked up the phone or sat in front of my computer, I couldn’t help but have a strong intention to do something specific. Otherwise, the whole idea of using the device seemed silly.

I’m using the past tense because that state does wane. I’m having mixed results day to day trying to maintain it, but it requires 30+ minute meditation sessions.

While I might get upset about not having such state 24/7, that deep practice has shown me that such state is possible to begin with, and that achieving it is a trainable skill. That’s more than enough for me to keep practicing.

That whole experience made me think that the problem isn’t the devices but my relationship with them, or more broadly, the extent to which I crave a quick dopamine hit. Which makes me think that, unless I address the dopamine problem first, all other solutions are kinda backward. In a similar way to how an unhealthy person spends hours researching and ordering supplements while happily overlooking sleep and exercise.

Full support. Bad health did that to me, it forced me to prioritise very aggressively. I always loved just tinkering but at one point I realised I was just toiling meaninglessly on the computer because I did not want to do other things (more important ones at the time).

After that clicked, the rest followed almost instantaneously: I don’t sit at the computer or even look at my phone if I don’t have an idea what to do. I give myself a budget of 30-60 minutes a day of idle scrolling through memes – but news are heavily curated and time-boxed, and YouTube is a conscious decision to take time out of my day for education.

Exactly, and I said so in a previous comment upthread. Smartphones might be megaphones for amplifying bad habits but it’s all on the human: we can and must tame their usage. My smartphone and computers are tangibly useful and a net positive in my life.

Of course others are free to make the Buddhist decision to refuse a battle that they feel they cannot win. I however stayed, fought and won.

Glad to read about your experience!

I think this problem is somewhat similar to my other addictions in the sense that there are many paths to the other side.

Some find healthier substitutions. Some do it by reducing the exposure to the trigger. Some do it with rehabs. And some are lucky to fight it through some form of reasoning and mindful effort like you did.

And all those methods probably have similar trade offs as if e.g. we were talking about alcoholism.

For example, it’s easy to start staring at your phone when everybody else does so at the restaurant table, just like rehabs don’t generally work if you get back to the same environment where drinking is the primary method of bonding and/or escaping reality.

Ultimately, again like with other addictions, the progress starts when one accepts that there is a problem and it ruins their lives.

Done

Since this is about developer health I think it warrants a dedicated thread, and the Dev Environment section seems like a good fit so have split your post here.

I’ll definitely come back to this topic when I’ve got five minutes! For now I will say I am pretty sure you’re not alone. Interested in hearing what others might add too..