this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2025
107 points (97.3% liked)
Asklemmy
46498 readers
1304 users here now
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
Search asklemmy π
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- !lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
Lemmy (Summit) Open Sudoku
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!
Reading a paper book, playing balatro on mobile. I'm not using my phone as much, not with the current events happening.
Reading articles and books
MTGA. Lots of fun.
Sir, please stop recommending crack to cure OP's smoking addiction.
Hey man, I can quit whenever I like.. Just one more draft and I'll hit the big leagues
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.
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
Nothing. I only use a gaming PC to go online, draw, and play games on. I rarely even use my phone...
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.
I have some novels on royal road i keep up with. But after than i enjoy the tranquility
Lemmy mostly
Honestly, as someone who largely disliked social media and was typically a lurking doomscroller that was ready to quit social media altogether at the reddit app ban, what made the best change ever was becoming someone who is primarily a poster.
I post what I want, when I want, and I get to start the conversation that way. It's always a topic I want to talk about, and it's something there isn't much to argue about, and all the interactions will be 99% positive.
It's a small crowd here, so you can get people that are ready to talk with whoever reaches out to the masses first.
You can take time replying to people, and if no one is talking at the moment, it gives you time to plan a next post.
Pick a topic you enjoy and make yourself our local expert. That prompts you to keep actively learning about something you enjoy too so you can answer people's questions they ask you.
switching to lemmy has made my social media consumption SIGNIFICANTLY less doomscroll-ey
load more comments
(5 replies)
Don't replace social media with something else on your phone.
Put the phone down and walk away.
This was my philosophy, then I realized I prefer crossword puzzles and sudoku on my phone because I can do it one-handed so I can pet my cat at the same time.
I also tried watching shows on my TV instead of my phone but it's harder to block ads.
I hear heroin is nice.
Probably less addictive.
load more comments
(1 replies)
I read ebooks.
Libby is an absolute blessing.
Oooo, I should try that! I have been using KU, which I know isn't awesome, but did allow romance authors to break the publishing model (fascinating story: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/romance-novels/). And there's a part of me that wants to give the middle finger to publishers who took in a bunch of money from romance books to pay for books/authors that would never recoup their costs.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
Duolingo. My whole family has caught the bug. I hear the little ba-ding! noise from all corners of the house all evening long.
Y todavΓa no puedo hablar bien espaΓ±ol π
I wish there was a foss option that was so good for, for lack of a better description, mindless learning
load more comments
(2 replies)
Various solitaires via LΓVE Solitaire.
Simon Tantham puzzles
And, due to a Lemmy post I saw the other day, a game called Slice and Dice.
I came here to see if anyone else suggested Simon Tathams puzzles - it's a real gem! Perfectly dull, all-quality puzzles with no bullshit!
Yes slice and dice! I would hate to know how many hours I've played on that game over three different phones.
If you haven't tried them yet, slay the spire and balatro are also brilliant.
Slay the spire has so many hours on my PC. I absolutely adore that game. For some reason I bounce off of Balatro, it doesn't hook me in the same ways and I'm not sure why. I don't feel smart enough for it lol
Mostly tiktok scrolling. It's got a bad rep, but there's a huge amount of seriously talented people on there doing amazing and creative things. I'm a 50-something year old guy and it quickly figured out I like videos about mine explores and restoring vintage vehicles. Once you learn to downvote stuff you don't like, it's quick to learn and aside from the comment bots or obvious trolls (Typically pro-Russian or Pro-Trump, if there's a difference) it's generally a positive thing, in moderation.
I totally get your desire about avoiding socials and have experienced the mood swings it can bring too. That's made me quite tuned into how the algorithms are steering me. For me (and everyone's experience is different) - Facebook is mostly bland generic stuff but quite useful for local content - just avoid the drama llamas), and use an advert blocker. Reddit is mixed. I used to be on there a lot and contributed and modded a bunch of stuff, but quit for a year after spez screwed over the app people. I skim it a bit now, but don't give it much mind. X is awful, won't go near it. Lemmy is less of a shitpost zone than most but still has too few people to be significant. We're all helping with that though.
Lemmy aside, I think most algs will figure you out pretty quick. If you get involved in nasty commenting, it'll feed you more of that. If you do the odd positive thing (as I try to) then it can be less toxic - but with all things, remember why you're there. The more you feed it, the bigger to you it becomes. Balance is important, and be aware of how stuff is affecting you.
Anyway, beyond TT, crosswords, some news sites and the occasional candy crush.
Good question though, I'm reading other comments as it's harder to find stuff outside of the main channels now.
I hang out with all y'all jokers on lemmy
Lemmy
The Wikipedia app or Wikireader
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
PPSSPP and Dolphin. Playing through the entirety of Paper Mario: TTYD, Luigis mansion, Sims 2, and Killzone wasted a good chunk of idle time for me.
Dolphin is honestly such a cool emulator. I also love how it's technically two emulators at once! Never had a single issue with any of the games I've played on it. It's so solid
Find the lesser posted contributors to your field/s of interest, read them, post them, share your thoughts.
This means you are actively using social media, actively considering different texts in subjects you already have an interest in, and actively using your brain to make considered contributions.
This is my go to. Take a look at my post history in aussie-enviro. I continually go out of my way to find environmental or conservation organisations themselves instead of waiting only for a news site like Guardian to do a write up themselves.
I'm finding my reading speed and attentiveness has improved, and i've better knowledge recall, especially on key details. Its of course fun as well.