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I made a Chrome extension for a new internet addiction management strategy. I've always uninstalled or worked around website blockers, and after spending a week on a vacation in Colorado where I was completely off the grid, I wanted to try a new approach.
What makes this different is that it's not about blocking access to certain sites, or requiring a delay, or setting a time budget. It's about changing the internet's highly addictive, variable rewards into much more manageable, consistent, predictable rewards.
The extension works by delivering content once a day. Right now it only works with three websites (Hackernews, Gmail, Nytimes), but I'm working on adding more. Both NYTimes and Hackernews have a section called "front" which shows a version of the website that only updates - you guessed it - once a day. The extension detects if you're visiting one of the restricted sites and redirects you to a new url. The Gmail version of the extension hides some email badge counts and redirects to a search for messages delivered prior to midnight.
It took a few days for my behavior to change, but I'm no longer compulsively checking those sites, hoping for new content to appear. I've also felt no urge to open an incognito browser to work around the extension, so I take that as evidence that this new management strategy is working.
You can install the extension from the Chrome Store https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/the-daily-delivery... To follow along as we make progress, join us at https://www.merini.io/ The extension is open source and available https://github.com/awkwardengineer/merini.
Cheers!
