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'Gentle parenting' my smartphone addiction

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/infinite-scroll/gentle-parenting-my-smartphone-addiction
56•fortran77•13h ago

Comments

huhkerrf•12h ago
https://archive.ph/bGTKg
zephyrus1985•11h ago
thanks
Centigonal•12h ago
I need to pay for a New Yorker subscription to see some native advertising for an app I need to pay for that claims to combat information addiction
bitpush•12h ago
I know, right?. The audacity of publishers expecting to be paid for work they do.
righthand•11h ago
They already do get paid, that’s why they sell all their readers out to advertising. They need MORE money?
kjkjadksj•11h ago
Yeah they do. The readership is the product to be marketed towards. The clients are the advertisers. That is why they don’t go subscription free with a higher ad rate: their real clients would leave.
bitpush•10h ago
"Apple makes money from iPhones and they are charging for Airpods and Macbooks as well. They need MORE money?"

What a weird take.

vkou•9h ago
The existence of the Macbook does not really degrade the UX of an iPhone.

Either way, if there's too many ads in a paid publication, don't subscribe to it.

_Algernon_•8h ago
The mixed funding model of customers paying directly + funding with advertisement has been a thing for decades. Chomsky commented on it in Manufacturing Consent published in 1988 and iirc it had already been a thing then for decades at that point.

In short publications that supplemented with advertising out-competed the alternatives that took a larger fee. Blame price sensitive customers' willingness to pay, not the publications.

immibis•7h ago
It was understandable back when they, like, delivered news and stuff. But they don't deliver news now, just advertising. Why pay for extra advertising?
bigyabai•9h ago
There is fair and documented product placement, and then there is native advertisement. This is the latter, undoubtedly.

As someone that doesn't pay a dime for news, this sort of article leaves me pretty content with my investment.

nkrisc•11h ago
You can just not pay them and not read it. You’ll be fine if you don’t read it.
sfpotter•10h ago
They can also complain and make snarky comments. You don't have to read them or comment. You'll be fine if you don't.
latexr•8h ago
> They can also complain and make snarky comments.

On HN the snark is specifically frowned upon. From the Guidelines:

> Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html#comments

mrexroad•10h ago
<!—- Insert joke about subscribing to the New Yorker and never finding time to read it —->
rdlw•9h ago
Christ, what an asshole!
huhkerrf•12h ago
Not surprising that a magazine that has been called a $12,000 espresso machine turned into a periodical only mentions iPhone apps, but if you're an Android, there are also a lot of good apps for this.

For locking you out of apps based on time, location, or usage, Lock Me Out is really good. You can get most of what you need out of it without paying anything, which can't be said for a lot of the others. (Am I really going to pay a subscription for this? Yuck.)

I couple it with Olauncher, which also doesn't need a subscription.

I'm not affiliated with either, but just those that have worked well for me.

politelemon•12h ago
Thank you. Are there any equivalent analogues for desktop browser doom scrolling?
bramhaag•11h ago
Leechblock NG [1] allows you to block sites on a schedule or add time limits.

[1] https://www.proginosko.com/leechblock/

reverendsteveii•11h ago
if you're on a mac or linux you can always edit /etc/hosts to redirect traffic to localhost, effectively killing the site on your local machine
roflchoppa•11h ago
for MacOs https://github.com/SelfControlApp/selfcontrol
masfuerte•11h ago
c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts ditto.
mkmk•6h ago
This barely works for me because it seems like stuff always gets cached either at the browser or the OS level.
littlecranky67•10h ago
Create a separate, non-admin user account that is controled by any parental control apps, parental proxy filters etc. and use that one for work or during leisure time. You can then time-lock your admin- or parental control password using an online time lock service such as lockmeout.online or other solutions.
richardw•9h ago
https://freedom.to/ Works everywhere for me.
nativeit•9h ago
This is somewhat tangential, but related: if you are savvy enough to setup some self-hosted apps, I have used FreshRSS (along with some related extensions/plugins) to great effect in an effort to remove the direct influence of algorithms and endless scrolling.

With some tweaks, I can even use it to maintain subscriptions to YouTube channels and social media feeds. It’s maybe a subtle distinction, but I feel like having a very prosaic, chronological list of posts/articles/videos promotes healthier habits for consuming them.

reverendsteveii•11h ago
I use blocksite to help with avoiding the mobile browser versions of these services as well. another one where you can get most of what you need for free and while of course you can always undo something you did the extra few seconds it takes to unblock facebook is often time enough for me to determine whether I'm actually using it for a purpose or dopamine regulating.
goda90•11h ago
I switched to Lock Me Out recently, much better than the others I've tried.
CobrastanJorji•8h ago
I just looked through it and noticed that one of the options for unlocking access is paying Lock Me Out an amount of money that you configure. So like "to help myself with my Reddit addiction, I'll pay $5 every time I open Reddit."

Now THERE's a business model. Hot damn.

sheiyei•7h ago
That's amazing lol, great idea
rob_c•10h ago
> Am I really going to pay a subscription for this?

You pay a subscription to kill your subscriptions whilst your in queue for your subscriptions to get more for your addictions...

If your smart enough to ask no. If your not gullible enough to have your action taken from you, no. If you're too childish to believe a habit is an addiction yes, if you're too stupid to know the difference yes, and if you're a fool you'll simply pay for the pro plus version.

RandallBrown•10h ago
I believe Opal is coming to Android.
jvm___•10h ago
I have a 30 minute hourglass that I put on my phone beside me on my desk. I can still see and read notifications or change the song but I'm not allowed to pickup my phone and actually use it.
lukko•9h ago
Is this a paid placement? It seems kinda unusual for the NY to name an app on the home page, and there doesn't seem to be anything unique about Opal vs other blocker apps.
1270018080•8h ago
Yes it is a paid placement and a fictional story
toofy•8h ago
could be. or it could just a situation of picking something and moving on with their day. especially as you say, there doesn’t seem to be anything unique vs many similar apps.

this is exactly the kind of thing i appreciate. where if i’m taking the limited amount of time i have in my day, im choosing to browse through something, i don’t need decision fatigue on something like this. just recommend me the thing that you know works (and is pretty much the same as others that also work) so i can move on with my day.

someone recommending something doesn’t mean it’s somehow the only choice out there, it’s just curation. we could all use less decision fatigue, particularly if it’s one of those things where they’re all so similar to each other.

awaseem•8h ago
Such a strange article, why mention Opal by name. There are so many other free alternatives and opal is over 120 dollars a year. Basically saying if you got money you can solve that addiction.
pocketarc•8h ago
I wonder how many of us think we're above all this but still come to HN religiously. I definitely do. Every damn day.
all2•8h ago
This is one of the only places I see real conversation still happening, though.
ubb_server•7h ago
I think about this a lot. Friends and colleagues consume their daily media from feeds via instagram, tiktok and youtube nonstop.

I pretentiously/foolishly like to think of myself as a slightly higher class of content consumer, because my media isn't algorithmically sourced; its 'high end', organically and ethically sourced from select artisanal hand-crafted subreddit queries or vote-curated headlines like HN.

Maybe it's not as big of a difference as I'd like to imagine.

weepinbell•6h ago
I recently set up a system for myself using some cheap NFC tags and Tasker that:

1. Has a "lock" tag next to my bad that scans when I place my phone down on my night stand

This disables all the apps on my phone that I consider distracting/harmful/etc.

2. Has an "unlock" tag that I scan next to the kitchen sink where I take my morning pill (could just as easily be in the bathroom for brushing my teeth etc).

This forces me to at least get out of bed before I can use time-sucking apps. It's a small thing, but baby steps is kinda what I was looking for, and it's noticeably decreased the number of days where I laze in bed for longer than I meant to in the morning. It's been ~2 months and still going well.

“Reading Rainbow” was created to combat summer reading slumps

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/to-combat-summer-reading-slumps-this-timeless-childrens-television-show-tried-to-bridge-the-literacy-gap-with-the-magic-of-stories-180986984/
106•arbesman•4h ago•18 comments

Ex-Waymo engineers launch Bedrock Robotics to automate construction

https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/16/ex-waymo-engineers-launch-bedrock-robotics-with-80m-to-automate-construction/
257•boulos•12h ago•208 comments

Original Xbox Hacks: The A20 CPU Gate

https://connortumbleson.com/2021/07/19/the-xbox-and-a20-line/
17•mattweinberg•1h ago•0 comments

I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone (2022)

https://smallandroidphone.com/
159•asimops•8h ago•207 comments

I was wrong about robots.txt

https://evgeniipendragon.com/posts/i-was-wrong-about-robots-txt/
50•EPendragon•4h ago•33 comments

AI therapy bots fuel delusions and give dangerous advice, Stanford study finds

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/07/ai-therapy-bots-fuel-delusions-and-give-dangerous-advice-stanford-study-finds/
179•pseudolus•3d ago•84 comments

Altermagnets: The first new type of magnet in nearly a century

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2487013-weve-discovered-a-new-kind-of-magnetism-what-can-we-do-with-it/
303•Brajeshwar•13h ago•74 comments

Show HN: A 'Choose Your Own Adventure' written in Emacs Org Mode

https://tendollaradventure.com/sample/
90•dskhatri•7h ago•8 comments

Theory of Everything: Solved

https://github.com/Cosmolalia/TOE
3•Cosmolalia•47m ago•0 comments

The 1960s schools experiment that created a whole new alphabet

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/jul/06/1960s-schools-experiment-created-new-alphabet-thousands-children-unable-to-spell
28•Hooke•1d ago•23 comments

Inside the box: Everything I did with an Arduino starter kit

https://lopespm.com/hardware/2025/07/15/arduino.html
24•lopespm•1d ago•2 comments

Intel's retreat is unlike anything it's done before in Oregon

https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2025/07/intels-retreat-is-unlike-anything-its-done-before-in-oregon.html
108•cbzbc•9h ago•161 comments

Gaslight-driven development

https://tonsky.me/blog/gaslight-driven-development/
102•theodorejb•4h ago•63 comments

Blue Pencil no. 18–Some history about Arial

https://www.paulshawletterdesign.com/2011/09/blue-pencil-no-18%e2%80%94some-history-about-arial/
21•Bluestein•2d ago•4 comments

Pgactive: Postgres active-active replication extension

https://github.com/aws/pgactive
274•ForHackernews•19h ago•71 comments

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https://www.zeroentropy.dev/blog/improving-rag-with-elo-scores
143•ghita_•14h ago•45 comments

How and where will agents ship software?

https://www.instantdb.com/essays/agents
114•stopachka•11h ago•56 comments

Mistakes Microsoft made in the Xbox security system (2005)

https://xboxdevwiki.net/17_Mistakes_Microsoft_Made_in_the_Xbox_Security_System
42•davikr•4h ago•11 comments

Artisanal handcrafted Git repositories

https://drew.silcock.dev/blog/artisanal-git/
127•drewsberry•9h ago•31 comments

I'm switching to Python and actually liking it

https://www.cesarsotovalero.net/blog/i-am-switching-to-python-and-actually-liking-it.html
375•cesarsotovalero•21h ago•570 comments

Shipping WebGPU on Windows in Firefox 141

https://mozillagfx.wordpress.com/2025/07/15/shipping-webgpu-on-windows-in-firefox-141/
358•Bogdanp•22h ago•145 comments

Remembrance of Scents Past

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/onward-and-upward-with-the-arts/remembrance-of-scents-past
9•prismatic•2d ago•1 comments

Signs of autism could be encoded in the way you walk

https://www.sciencealert.com/signs-of-autism-could-be-encoded-in-the-way-you-walk
111•amichail•10h ago•107 comments

Roman dodecahedron: 12-sided object has baffled archaeologists for centuries

https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/romans/roman-dodecahedron-a-mysterious-12-sided-object-that-has-baffled-archaeologists-for-centuries
54•bookofjoe•2d ago•84 comments

A Rust shaped hole

https://mnvr.in/rust
64•vishnumohandas•1d ago•114 comments

Show HN: 0xDEAD//TYPE – A fast-paced typing shooter with retro vibes

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70•theden•4d ago•19 comments

Chain of thought monitorability: A new and fragile opportunity for AI safety

https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.11473
109•mfiguiere•14h ago•50 comments

Scanned piano rolls database

http://www.pianorollmusic.org/rolldatabase.php
37•bookofjoe•4d ago•9 comments

Weave (YC W25) is hiring an AI engineer

https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/weave-3/jobs/SqFnIFE-founding-ai-engineer
1•adchurch•12h ago

The battle for Britain’s first book of the month club

https://www.historytoday.com/archive/history-matters/battle-britains-first-book-month-club
9•samclemens•2d ago•1 comments