My experience of avoiding #Mastodon for a whole week πŸ’ͺ

I figured out that timelines are really bad. They trap you in this weird slot-machine-like game where you pull the lever over and over again.

Timelines are polluted with interesting topics and unimportant posts. A perfect mix for gambling.

You barely hit something good, but if, you get a small dopamine boost, which holds for a few seconds and as soon as it's gone, you keep pulling the lever over and over again, until you wasted a lot of time or fall asleep being exhausted of scrolling.

There is nothing social in timelines. It's only an invention of big tech corps to keep you on their platforms to consume more ads and get more data to sell.

Even if timelines are in order on the fediverse and not manipulated by algorithms, like those from #facebook #twitter or #instagram, it still has it's flaws.

A good solution would be to only show the content of a person I follow, who uses a specific hashtag I follow, too. Both should match, not only one of it. The timeline would be very short and not as long as it normally is, which is a problem, too, because if someone posts something at a wrong time, the post goes into the void without anyone seeing it.

Why are #timelines a thing in the #fediverse?

Wasn't the fediverse something without ads and for the people and because it tried to be social?

Why do we have those #addictive and #notsocial mechanisms here?

If someone knows a better system or tool, which is content based and more social, please let me know.

btw. my #productivity went up the last week a lot, because the very first thing I did in the morning was something useful, like working in the garden, working on the next youtube video, reading a book or learning. With social media I would've wasted the time scrolling and that's only what happened in the morning! Imagine the rest of the day being as productive as those mornings...

#socialmedia #addiction #distraction #timekiller #trapsoftheinternet #doomscrolling #wastingtime

Will I be able to avoid Mastodon for a whole week?

Bets are open! 🎲

The last weeks I figured out that I often didn't check off the tasks I planed for a day and after checking my tracker*, I figured out that I am using #Mastodon longer and longer.

In general I don't get #addicted to social media and even help others to get rid of it or reduce it. I fight #entertainingmedia and even wrote articles about it in a blog series called #cleandopamine (https://utopify.org/clean-dopamine-journey-to-the-good-happiness-bringers.html)

But now it looks like, I lost control!

And as a #punishment I will block Mastodon on all of my devices and go #coldturkey for a week.

I will comment on this #poll as soon as I am back. So I hope it will be next Saturday πŸ™‚

Let's do this πŸ’ͺ

* = I've coded my own #tracker years ago, which is simple to activate. After I sit down in front of my PC, I hit a key combination, choose an activity and a timer starts, which is shown in the status bar and after I stop the time, it gets added into a database (The starting process is done in 2 seconds, try this on a smartphone...).

I do this for years to see, which activity needed the most time, how long I worked on important projects and where I wasted time.

Currently the numbers for #socialmedia are too high!

#addiction #distraction #timewaste #wastingtime #doomscrolling #productivity #trapsoftheinternet

Yes, you can do it!
63.6%
No, you're an addict!
36.4%
Poll ended at .
Clean Dopamine – Journey to the good happiness bringers

Project β€œClean Dopamine” was born on the day I realized I have several dependencies that hurt me and I decided to fight them. I do not only want to leave the diverse addictions behind, though, but also become …

utopify.org