A couple weeks ago, I deleted social media off my phone. Insta and reddit was all that was left, but I noticed how much of a useless time sink they were becoming. My daily mood has also improved.
Now, I’ve been reading manga and playing chess online to fill the gap. But I’m still looking for suggestions on what else there is to do besides doom scroll. It’s not like I’m outlawing the internet entirely, I still have interests and hobbies etc, but I’m open to just about anything.
I decided to subscribe to digital accessible news papers with proper articles, a left-leaning, center and a right-leaning. While articles from public domains and opinions from online forums can at times give an idea about what goes on, a well researched and well expressed article by a paid media is very well worth the money spend.
So I dropped social media from my idle-time and and now read interesting articles and feel I have a much more in-depth knowledge on current important topics and less directed by sudden breaking news opinionated clickbait titles.
My battery usage says I spend around half my time on TikTok. I also spend some considerable time here on Lemmy and chatting on Discord, Signal, etc. The third place is for reading. Sadly, I spend more time than I would like on shopping apps, and the rest are usually in the ‘< 1%’ (phone settings, e-mails, etc.).
I guess the only healthy suggestion is reading.
Reading articles and books
RSS feeds, Gemini and Gopher. Always good stuff there, and feels cosier than social media!
I second this! Hunting, curating, and organizing rss feeds are the best!
Lemmy (Summit) Open Sudoku
MTGA. Lots of fun.
Sir, please stop recommending crack to cure OP’s smoking addiction.
Reading a paper book, playing balatro on mobile. I’m not using my phone as much, not with the current events happening.
Check if my apps are up to date. Then remind myself fun is in real life not my phone. I’m not being pedantic it just helps to focus on my real happiness and keeping my hands busy than not and dooming in my phone.
I have some novels on royal road i keep up with. But after than i enjoy the tranquility
In terms of chances:
- 90% Tiktok
- 8% Lemmy
- 2% YouTube
When I’m actively doing something (not just on my phone):
- 70% YouTube
- 10% Crunchyroll
- 5% Friends jellyfin servers
- 5% Netflix
- 10% Browser / Chatgpt / Termux / any other tool
I read lots of books. Libby is an app to electronically check out books from your local library for free. You can also read lots of amateur stories online on various sites. Royal Road has been one of my favorite sites for regular stories that you can read in public.
+1 for Libby. Also shout out to Z-Library, Library Genesis, and the Internet Archive for all the book epubs and pdfs you can find there
Nothing. I only use a gaming PC to go online, draw, and play games on. I rarely even use my phone…
I have miniflux setup for RSS feeds, and I’ll doom scroll lemmy. For games I emulate old pokemon games. You can also just get lost in your thoughts for a bit too. It can really be good for your brain to just sit with your thoughts for a while.
Lately it’s been sifting through IMDB collections to find movies to watch.
That or I check the groups I’m in to see what I’m late to the party on now.
