zlacker

>>joeman+(OP)
I don't think deleting social media accounts is a good idea. Used appropriately, social media can be very useful and open doors that would otherwise not be available.

The problem is when you are just looping[1], absentmindedly opening and closing news and social media sites for hours. This can eat a lot of time, and is generally pretty draining.

I've been adding separate user accounts based on what tasks I'm doing, and locking them down so they can only perform those tasks.

I have a social media account (which I'm on right now), I have a coding account which I can not access news or social media from, and I have a few other accounts. This creates friction when task switching, and makes it so I have to be a bit more deliberate with how I use the computer. (I have social media blocked on my phone, as I find that's just not compatible with a happy life)

I've also recently been setting up Site Specific Browsers[2], basically custom PWAs, a web browser with no URL bar and no tabs, to further add barriers between tasks (like checking CI) and just noodling on the web. (I use electron to do this, but you can also use chrome by starting it with --app=https://www.example.com/ . Sadly Firefox has removed the ability to do this. )

[1] https://xkcd.com/1411/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Site-specific_browser

>>margin+d6
Like everything else, community is key. I simply deleted some of my social media because I realized I'd come out more angry than social connected. Deletion is simply a nice hard cold turkey approach if you find yourself commenting for hours on end everyday. I'd prefer a hard freeze for X amount of time, but IIRC no one does it in a meaningful way. FB can freeze your account, but it's not hard to unfreeze.

But it's not like all my social media is gone. I'm still obviously here on HN. I have a tildes account for more general news. I have two discord for personal and semi-anonymous servers. And for future connections I semi-regret missing in the Twitter age, I have a Bluesky ready.

I'm simply being more mindful of what sites I use and and what communities I join to prevent the issues that arose with Reddit, Facebook, and Tumblr.