I been looking at various apps, how some are less addictive then others. and also how it varies from users to users which apps are more or less addictive to them.
A more, generic example of this is,
I use play the game Splatoon 2 and 3 on Nintendo switch, and my Switch’s battery would always be seemingly draining and dying.
I’m over here thinking, why does the Nintendo Switch battery sucks so bad, then I realize… that the battery isn’t as bad as it seemed, the game Splatoon was just addictive.
Splatoon as a game doesn’t really end you just keep playing and playing rank or turf matches. When the battery gets low, you might still want to keep playing but can’t and would have to charge the switch console. (sure there’s a story mode but the game doesn’t just stop after you completed the story.
Now take this similar concept of never ending, and addictive apps to your smartphone and even your laptop or PC.
Social media generally is also never ending and as addictive. I got an *offline pong game and played a few rounds offline on my smartphone and eventually I did get bored, there was no leveling up or nothing just a generic game. Technically the game didn’t end but since my brain wasn’t getting much dopamine from it I just turn off my phone and my battery notably lasted a lot longer then when I was playing more addictive and time consuming games/apps.
Thoughts?
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Set time limits.
There are apps that block opening apps longer than some amount of time. I used that to reduce my Reddit usage to a healthy level before I eventually bailed on it. Or you can use the simpler strategy of setting an alarm for yourself (e.g. if you want to play an hour, set an hour timer when you play).
If you find you’re consistently going over your time limit for a given thing, stop using it and replace it with something that you have a healthier relationship with. At a certain level, it’s an addiction, so cut out what you’re addicted to and replace it with something else that’s interesting. For example, if you like shooters but Splatoon is sucking too much of your time, maybe play Metro, Superhot, or Wolfenstein, each of those is SP only and has a clear ending, so you’re unlikely to get addicted to it.
I switched largely to SP games, and now I’m much happier and have a healthier relationship to games. The same is true for other things I used to spend way too much time on.
There are apps that block opening apps longer than some amount of time.
Can you recommend one for Android?
The built-in Digital Wellbeing & Parental controls works. I have it on my Android 11 device, haven’t tested on anything newer (it’s not on my Graphene OS device based on the most recent Android though).
Settings > Digital Wellbeing & Parental controls > Dashboard > click the timer icon next to an app and set a limitIf you want something outside of the Google ecosystem (e.g. you’re running GrapheneOS), the following should work (untested):
- Open TimeLimit - seems it supports multi-user, which is nice
- usageDirect - display only, no way to set limits AFAICT
There are probably others, that was just a cursory check.
You are confusing “addictive” and “fun”. If a game is enjoyable and you want to keep playing it, that is called fun. If a game makes you feel like you need to play it and you don’t really care if you’re enjoying it, it’s called addictive.
Your battery drains more the more you activity use the device. Shocking…
If it is your phone just uninstall those apps, then you cannot use them. If the devices main point is those apps like gaming on the switch what do you expect? I think the only real problem here is the switch’s lack of customizability so you have no trade off between game quality and battery life like you can on something like the steam deck.
If you’re addicted to a game, your phone battery is the least of your problems.
