How do you block addictive websites in a way that can't be easily undone?

1 pointskobenni11mo ago3 comments

Dear HN, I struggle a lot with scrolling too much on websites on my Android phone (especially reddit and YouTube). Despite the problems this causes me, making an effort to stop through willpower simply does not work for me. Therefore I require some method of blocking my access to such websites and apps. I've tried many methods of blocking already, but everything I found so far can be undone within seconds.

What worked somewhat okay for me was rooting the phone to edit the hosts file, but this was really cumbersome and left many loopholes that I only found afterwards. Then the root access suddenly disappeared, so I can no longer close these loopholes. I didn't really understand the rooting process (on Samsung Android), it was just patched together from various tutorials, so I can't explain why this happened or how to fix it.

Blocking directly in the router also worked a bit better than other methods, but can be bypassed by switching to mobile internet, and my current router doesn't support it anyway.

If anyone has any suggestions for me, it would be super helpful. So far my last resort would be to get a different phone for which it is easier to acquire root access, but I hope there is a better way.

3 comments

thinkingemote11mo ago

NextDNS can be set up to block stuff, and then you can use it at the router level and on the machine level so even on mobile internet, sites will be blocked.

Parental controls generally and there is a range of accountability software too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accountability_software

kobenniOP11mo ago

Thank you for the suggestions.

Regarding NextDNS, can it be setup in a way that is difficult to disable? Or could I just disable the user application on my phone and use my unfiltered mobile internet? Same for accountability softwares, are there any that go below the user application level to stop me from simply disabling them?

Google parental controls seem cumbersome, as apparently I can only block domains in Chrome and will thus also need to block other browsers. But I will play around with it and see if I can make it work for me.

LinuxBender11mo ago

In my opinion the issue is with too cumbersome, willpower and quickly undone conflicting with one another, otherwise it would be easy to do in uBlock Origin in "My Filters":

    #
    ||ru^
    ||sy^
    ||ir^
    ||cn^
    #
    ||google.com^
    ||gstatic.com^
    ||zip^
    ||theatlantic.com^
    ||techdirt.com^
    ||squarespace.com^
    ||deepfence.io^
    ||carbon.now.sh^
    ||politicopro.com^

All the other methods I know of would require rooting the phone and either modifying the hosts file as you mentioned or adding static routes but that would be even more cumbersome than editing hosts. It sounds like you may need a different phone or perhaps a phone that can't even browse the web. The closest thing to a middle ground I can think of is to uninstall all web browsers from the phone but if the phone is not de-Google'd then some things may break.

You may need a friend that can force you to stop scrolling the web or make you do push-ups every time you open a browser. A drill-instructor friend that will forcefully intervene so to speak. Intervention. There is probably an addiction facility that is no stranger to cell phone additions can could help?

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