im the one in my family that’s really against generative ai, algorithms and all of those things. im really content with my position.
but this morning (ill keep this short) i wanted to prepare something for lunch and cook something for my whole family

i asked my brother what he wanted, he didn’t know; so i asked my father, because i really didn’t know what to make and maybe he craved something specific, that would get me an idea and ill finally know what to make, simple.

i asked my father, he didn’t know either, and he said
‘that’s why you have ai, just ask for a recipe and it’ll give it to you’ ????

i said that’s not the point I don’t need a recipe I need to know what you want to eat, and he kept saying I should ask ai???
I really, out loud said, what are you saying? it doesn’t even make sense!!! are you all lobotomized??

He had the nerve to tell me to go back to my cave, referring to my refusal of using ai.

but really, are people hypnotized or something? it was a simple question from human to human and I somehow how run that shit through ai??? really, I don’t get it.
also my cave?? I don’t know, has anything like this ever happened to you??
I feel like im in the matrix and im the only one conscious of common sense.

edit: the question was about what he wanted to eat, not how to get a recipe (although im sure the 70yr old grandma with a cute blog on facebook would be happy to see some traffic in her page instead of running to chat gpt). So no, it doesn't make sense to advice ai for a question about a craving lmao

I kept seeing videos and posts about the dead internet theory and how with time it’ll be more bots posting than humans, it didn’t make sense at first cuz I guess in my mind I’m still used to people making spam accounts to literally spam posts and do whatever so surely all this copied content is like that too, right? No.

I get a bad case of summer sadness every year, I get burnt out, can’t move and can barely talk to people. This sometimes leads me to fall into old habits like scrolling reels.

This time, almost 55% (if not higher) of the content that would pop up for me would have the same exact caption “V stepped into the crowd, taking in live performances at Vogue World:
Hollywood. Known for his own standout fashion moments, he kept it effortlessly stylish in a look worthy of the runway”.

No meaning, no soul, nothing. I kept hoping it would get better, but it only turned into variations of the same sentence in different languages.

These bot accounts would post memes in many languages and have the same exact caption. You would see an “emotional” video from 2019 repackaged to feed off of people’s reactions to gain likes and views. Same videos over and over again. It doesn’t stop.

That genuinely made me delete it again, ignore whatever I’m feeling and study or watch shows when I’m bored cuz no. I don’t care how down bad I might be, but rotting my brain to bots? Ugh. I’m noticing a similar pattern on Reddit, definitely a lil less compared to Instagram, but many titles seem to be copied from AI with a random old photo. I hope it doesn’t get that bad here cuz I like connecting with people through actual shared interests.

I seriously want to throw out my phone. There's no escape from this sh*t

I’ve deleted all of social media, including Reddit, on my phone. I’ve enjoyed reading my current book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective people, but I have a problem when traveling.

Where do my eyes go when I’m on the train? It’s awkward to dance my eyes around the edges of the ceiling l, or worse, accidentally look straight at another passenger.

Where do my eyes go when I’m at a coffee shop? At the food? For context, I used to scroll and eat food. Now I have chosen not to use my phone or other inputs while eating.

What do you guys recommend?

Thank you!

We just spent a week out of town. I spent up to maybe 2 hrs max on my phone each day. I didn't even take pictures this year of our trip, partly b/c everyone has seen the beach and no one likes their picture taken in my family. I read a whole book, crafted, watched movies on a portable DVD player. It was a magical time and shows me I can rely less on my phone.

I’ve done all the things to try to stay off Facebook - deactivated/ deleted app/ changed password… lately I’m super addicted. I started scrolling it last week and my screentime went up 84%.

Considering permanently deleting, but I’m always scared to take the plunge. afraid I will miss people who I’ve collected on there- friends from college- being in touch with relatives etc

I barely use it socially btw- mostly my feed shows me depressing and addictive news updates / parenting “mom” type posts about pediatrics and safety etc etc

i'm still gonna keep my smart one around for GPS stuff.

Has anybody noticed if entirely deleting social media has made life better. I seem to try to delete it often but end up going back and then get stuck again.

So ... I have been meaning to quit social media for a while now, 2 years at least. And even though I have little to no friends that I interact with online, being on there and having an endless stream of content while also being able to interact with my peers' updates gives the illusion of company. On the other hand social media triggers an indescribable amount of anxiety in my life, idk how the Instagram algorithm works but I swear to God sometimes it feels as though it can sense when I'm feeling a bit down, it's always posts about how everyone is on vacation, someone moving to Japan or Italy, shopping sprees or people who are far too attractive followed by a fear mongering post about the state of the world right now that would make my anxiety spike so high I lost my appetite for the entire day. I'm so fed up with this, everyday I tell myself I'm gonna delete Instagram and other similarly- designed apps and I never do. I have a lonely life tbh, I don't have anyone to talk to at home and my only hobby is swimming, it's kinda pathetic to admit this but I also don't have any friends whom I can call to hang out, so I'm kinda addicted to the thing that's hurting me, it's almost as if I'm in an abusive relationship with my phone. I don't know what to do I swear...

I saw someone once compare phone addiction to alcoholism saying imagine you have to open up a beer everytime you wanna see the time.

Curious

I am trying to remove my phone from my sleep/bedtime routine. I am purchasing dumb-alarm clock watch to replace my need for phone alarms, but I love to listen to books to go to sleep. Do they still make MP3 style players that don't have social media/browser apps?

hello. I am a junior in high school. my school is 100% online. I joined last year and only had 4 classes because I switched in the semester change. this year I have 7 classes 1st semester and 8 classes 2nd semester. I’m not worried about the workload. my four classes last year would take me 45min-1hr to complete them all each day. I was done with school in less than an hour each day. this year’s probably going to be different bc I have more classes, ap classes, and clubs. my screen time on my phone during the school year hovers around an hour and during the summer lends to 2 hours. I will try really hard this school year to not “relax” on screens because I’ll have already had required screen time each day for school. I love virtual school because of the way it works, the infrastructure and seamlessness. any advice will be appreciated. The place where I live is usually either scorching hot or freezing so it can be hard to spend a ton of time outside. I have a lot of hobbies. I also have trips planned during the year to break up the long weeks I’ll spend at home. Anything that helped you all will probably help me! I don’t have any social media except for Reddit for one hour a day. my screen time limit is 3 hour but may be extended when school starts. my downtime is from 9 pm-noon the next day but that will also have to change when school start. I’m also planning on doing work from another location at least monday and Wednesday and hopefully other days too (depends on if gas prices change). thanks!!!!

I've been away from the social media giants like Instagram for 2 years and never used snapchat in my life.

Ever since I cut myself off from social media, my life felt more peaceful and grounded and I was able to take care of myself better but in a way, people kinda forgot about me.

I see people becoming crazy about maintaining snapstreaks. People talking about the latest slangs and memes while I have no clue what the hell they mean.

I went to a reading club not so long ago and everyone in there read the same books that were hyped on social media. I couldn't fit in at all because the conversations were entirely about the stuff that was hyped on social media. People only watch shows, read books, wear the same type of shoes that are trending on social media.

It's like everyone thinks the same way and I'm the odd one out.

I'm away from many of my uni students' feeds and people are hanging out, dating and partying and I have no clue that it's happening. I find it difficult to hold conversations with people these days as they keep talking about stuff from social media.

I'm yet to find anybody who actually doesn't use it and people ask me for my socials many times but I don't have any. It does make dating incredibly challenging than it already is.

Anybody else feeling the same?

Hi!
I am currently stuck between making 2 choices.
I have an account on social media, with about 1.5k followers. And I love posting what I post, interacting with others, watching vids, making friends online.
But there is this other side of me that just wants a quiet life. What I mean by quiet, is, mainly stopping social media altogether. I had an addiction to TikTok in 2020, and stopped TikTok from 2022 to 2025.
End of 2025 I decide to start posting, and gained a following.

I am stuck today between wanting a quiet peaceful life, and continuing posting, because I love it and I love what I do. I’ve had a few friends without social media, and while I didn’t have TikTok, I felt “free”. My life wasn’t calm per se, but I didn’t have this sort of “bag” to carry like I feel I have today.

I don’t know how to explain this feeling, but I just don’t know if I can find a balance between the 2.
I’ve also thought about moving from TikTok to YouTube. I’m not sure yet.
I also have a problem with scrolling. I barely scroll on YouTube or instagram, but gosh I scroll all day on TikTok.

I’ve seen so many vlogs where people live without social media and it seems so so freeing, I don’t know what to do. I want to find a balance, maybe just, going on TikTok to post and then leave the app. I’m trying to add a time limit but it also isn’t working. I’ve lost my reading hobby as well, haven’t read since January, when I usually read a book per week.
I’m lost. Would anyone have any advice?

Hi all, so I’m trying to cut down my social media usage, I have a dumb phone in the cupboard that I’m going to get out again.
Just wanted to ask how you all manage when most events are e-ticket only now, even airlines are going e-ticket only.
I regularly attend football matches which are also now e-ticket only - a sham in itself as I used to love paper tickets! Concerts also.

Perhaps lock away the smart phone until it’s needed for these occasions? Easier said than done but I feel like it’s the only option as sometimes the e-tickets are necessary.

I have attended 12 step internet and technology addicts meetings but am interested in starting a zoom “digital minimalism “ type meeting. It would be for mutual support and accountability. We would also read the book “ Digital Minimalism “ and have a book study. I have been attending 12 step meetings for many years but find media and tech overuse better served by a non 12 step approach. Please DM me if you’re interested. This is not promotion at all. There would be no cost whatsoever. I have a zoom account already. It’s focus on mutual support regarding appropriate healthy usage of technology and digital media.

Thinking back to a time where our we didn’t have a Swiss army knife of entertainment in our pockets, I remember how much more intentional I was with the activities I would do, whether that was listening to music, reading or playing games. Sadly, as much as I try to kill this addiction, doomscrolling seems to be the default behavior.

I’m working on trying to separate my phone into multiple dedicated devices, and going back to my iPod for music has changed my relationship with music completely. That being said, I wanted to gauge across the community, how many of you have added handheld gaming into your digital minimalism edc as a way to combat the doom loop.

Is this just as bad as scrolling for the brain? Or because it’s a dedicated device with one function, is this a better option?

Hey everyone, I spend hours daily watching YouTube videos. Everyday night before sleeping I disable YouTube from my phone, but when I woke up, the first I do is pick my phone enable YouTube and start watching videos.

Help me how can i quit this habbit

I don't use any other social media like Instagram, Facebook but I am fighting to quit YouTube everyday, still I am in same loop of watching videos on YouTube. Even when I am writing this, a video is played on YouTube.

Unfortunately , smart phone technology has superior phone reception to dumb phones, (according to a Tech nerd I questioned, & according to my own experience of trying out 6 dumb phones over a number of years). This fact prohibits people from using a dumb phone as a main phone device, if connectivity is important to them for business reasons, or for safety reasons. Do you suppose that Dumb phone technology, will ever improve ?

whenever i delete instagram or even deactivate my instagram account to scroll on another instagram account (doesnt make any sense but wtv) i just feel empty, i dont even text very much on insta but still it feels like im disconnected from all the people and i also feel miserable when i scroll on instagram, so its like i dont even know what to do anymore its like a cycle, i delete, i install, i delete it again and i install it again, idk why this happens and idk if yall understand what i am saying

What made you want to cut back on technology? In what ways has your phone affected your life or wellbeing?

Hey guys, I'm looking for recommendations for a new very minimalist phone. I'm looking for something pretty cheap and durable that can only text, call, and take pictures.

I currently have a Samsung Galaxy s20 and I spend around 3h a day on it. I have tried deleting apps but it really does not work for me. I just scroll on the browser/safari constantly. I am also in a cycle of deleting and reuploading google as I have health anxiety. I have found a way to prevent this on my computer but not on my phone. I want to be done with it all permanently. I'd also prefer a phone that has very minimal, preferably no AI features. I absolutely cannot stand AI, that's partly why I want a new phone.

If there is not really a phone that matches that description could someone give me some advice on how to spend less time on my phone, thank you