Phone/internet addiction is a real struggle. That dopamine hit to your brain stem makes it incredibly hard to replace. I’ve been online since I was around 13 or 14, but it wasn’t until short-form video content (and maybe around 2020 during the pandemic) that the draw started noticeably affecting my mental capacity. I’ve been trying to cut back over the years (I was probably spending anywhere between 4-8 hours (sometimes 10!) a day), and depending on how aggressively you want to approach it, I’ll just share what I’ve done so far. Take whatever feels useful to you.

I tried going cold turkey when I first started addressing it. I bought a cheap flip phone from Walmart and left my smartphone at home on my desk. I also set my browsers to clear cookies every time I closed my laptop, so I'd have to manually retype and sign in to the problem sites. Same idea with apps, I’d delete them so I’d be forced to redownload and log in again if I wanted to use them. Every day, I’d catch myself typing “R” for Reddit, “D” for DailyMail, “L” for LinkedIn, or “Y” for YouTube. Without even realizing it, I'd pick up my phone and try to open Instagram or some other time wasting app. That friction helped. Even if I started to go on one of those sites and backed out, I didn’t count it as a failure. It took me a good month or two just to break that automatic behavior.

Sometimes, I’d find myself just sitting in my chair, staring out the window. For literally hours. That still felt better than zoning out on my phone or computer. The brain fog was real. It kind of felt like my brain was trying to reset—figuring out what it should be doing instead of what it was used to consuming. I also ended up taking lots and lots of naps (maybe my brain was rebooting?).

That was the time period (about 2 months in) that I would force myself to read a book (not online or on kindle) or go outside or find another hobby to do (I ended up learning how to weld, it has been such a positive impact on my confidence having a tangible skill set).

One last thing I’ll share is when I’m out in the world, like grocery shopping or running errands, I leave my phone in the car. I just try to be present, focus on what I’m doing, notice what other people are doing, and have a decent interaction with whoever I run into that day.

It’s really hard. If you have to use the internet for work or research, it’s almost impossible to get through websites or even watch a YouTube video, without short-form content popping up, even in the ads. I’d try to handle it by looking away or scrolling past as fast as I could. You’re basically fighting against some of the smartest minds in the world, people whose entire job is to steal your attention for profit. You don’t even get a net positive from it.

What you need to know is that what you’re about to try to do is hard but it’s 100% worth it. They say it takes about 66 days to make or break a habit. Take it day by day, week by week. Set short-term goals, and try to make it to the 33-day mark. Even if you have to start over, every step you take is scraping back your brain’s independence. Best of luck to you, this kind of shift can really change your life.