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Ask HN: Who is working on solutions to reduce phone usage?

2 pointsby pelarioabout 1 year ago
Is anyone working on something related to decreasing&#x2F;controlling the amount of time people use their phones?<p>I&#x27;m aware of the CPH Foundation, but I&#x27;m wondering if there are more ambitious efforts underway.<p>E.g., I want to believe that there&#x27;s a market opportunity here: if there were an alternative to Android&#x2F;iPhone that would only have &quot;non-addictive apps,&quot; I would definitely choose that brand for my kids&#x27; phones.<p>Another less ambitious idea: create a certification&#x2F;standard, kind of equivalent to &quot;Fair Trade,&quot; for &quot;non-addictive,&quot; or &quot;ethical towards the user,&quot; that would apply to apps that fulfill certain minimum requirements.

2 comments

meristohmabout 1 year ago
Feels like a bandage rather than treating the cause, but we&#x27;re collectively injured so some care is important along with prevention. I miss being bored. I have to make an effort to be bored now. When I go outside I usually don&#x27;t bring my phone, but increasingly I listen audiobooks instead of read, and when I walk and listen and my mind wanders I realize it&#x27;s time to pause the story, stop the influx, and let my mind synthesize, or at least relax.<p>Tech solutions to a tech problem just add more cost. We need better guidance from birth- funding early childhood education for all parents would be a huge step towards reducing all sort of adverse and traumatic experiences so that it&#x27;s easier to know who and why we are- a sense of meaning and purpose, and thereby less liable to get sucked into videogames with their built-in purpose (that hardly transfers into meatspace, speaking from experience) and phone diversions.<p>Now that I&#x27;ve embraced parenthood my apps on this six year old iOS device have reached a steady state: rarely do I install anything new, and then it&#x27;s just a tool (Bitwarden, to learn about it before I suggest it to my coworkers), except for a dalliance with Slay the Spire last fall- unistalled twice within a week :)<p>I&#x27;m even conflicted about HN; I learn from you all, but time here is time not listening to books, etc., and often my motivation is for the dopamine hit of seeing what&#x27;s new.
reifyabout 1 year ago
Currently Russia and Israel.<p>Thermo-nuclear war is another great idea to reduce phone usage.