iPhone de-distraction and retro tech

[mk313]

I used to seek out tech. In the 70s, my first calculator and later VCR felt like I was slowly clawing my way to the future. That process continued for decades with CDs, LaserDiscs, digital cameras and the internet of course.

Now I feel like the tech has become so ubiquitous that I want to flee it. It feels odd even to type that. In my opinion, it’s oftentimes not the tech itself but the way it’s implemented or maybe the way it’s being used.

Some random examples:
New purchases that require pairing to an iPhone and an account setup in order to operate. I just want to take my temperature. I just want to see if I’ve lost any weight.

Going to dinner with a group of friends where they all discuss a funny video from social media. I really wanted to hear how they’re doing. Maybe talk about current events. Along those lines, trying to talk to someone who looks at their screen while trying to talk to you. Then unsurprisingly I have to repeat what I said.

Things that just don’t work. I’m often amazed when I turn on the radio or play a CD on my older car. I didn’t have to reboot it because it got stuck. I didn’t have to logout and login. No need to update software. Yep, they just play music.

I had a very nice loaner car thus week while mine was serviced. It had big beautiful screens. The problem was they were unnecessary. Around every display was a ton of white space. The fonts were larger than needed. There was, for me, way too much information displayed than I wanted or needed. I’m old school where I try to keep eyes on the road.

I really try to keep iPhone notifications to an absolute minimum. I don’t want to spend my day monitoring for something important. So I doubt I’d use a dedicated device just to minimize notifications.

Just my two cents. 🤷🏻‍♂️

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I:"m kind of on the fence on this one.

When I think about your examples, I see some positives as well.

You can still buy scales & thermometers that don't have to pair with your phone. But the ones that pair with your phone offer additional features that many people feel are worth the trade-off.

And talking about a funny video on social media is kind of current events.

I'll certainly agree with you about people looking at their phones during meals.

With regards to the radio, sure it works, but man does terrestrial radio suck. It's almost nothing bud ads. You hear a couple of songs, then a bunch of commercials. I'm thankful there are other options nowadays.

 

[eyoungren]

Well, we could go down such a ridiculous nanny-controlled route, I suppose.

Or, and hear me out on this, we could TAKE RESPONSIBILITY (I know, it’s an alien concept to far too many these days) - if you don’t want social media apps, use the simply hack (‘cos everything is a hack these days apparently) of not installing them.

Job done.

You are an adult - act like it, for heaven’s sake.
Take responsibility for your actions.


I had a friend recently whinging about how distracting it is with notifications pinging on their phone all the time.

“Well have you ever thought of turning them off? It’s your phone, you are in charge not it. If you find them distracting, use the settings helpfully and thoughtfully provided for that very purpose…”

They were momentarily stunned by the concept but eventually did it.
And you know what?
They’ve stopped being distracted by notifications!

Amazing what taking a bit of personal responsibility can achieve…

And it is this sort of thing I practice. If a device or piece of technology is annoying me, I figure out how to solve the problem with the device/piece of technology. Google's been great for this.

But I subscribe to the theory that I control my devices/technology and how I use and interact with them. Not the other way around.

 

[eyoungren]

Paying for stuff, banking apps, calendar, those things are not the problem. It's the constant engagement with social media. Change my mind 😅

I'm not going to change your mind. I am simply going to point out that NOT engaging constantly with social media is what I do. My devices/tech do not control me.

 

[jerryjohnson]

You’re not overthinking it at all — you’re describing a real shift in what many people want from technology.
For years the selling point was “do everything on one device.” Now more people are realizing that comes with a cost: fragmented attention, compulsive habits, and constant mental noise.
I’m not sure Apple would build a separate iPhone SKU for it, but a true lockout mode for social apps or a modern offline-first iPod would absolutely find an audience.
Sometimes less functionality creates more value.

 

[eyoungren]

I used to seek out tech. In the 70s, my first calculator and later VCR felt like I was slowly clawing my way to the future. That process continued for decades with CDs, LaserDiscs, digital cameras and the internet of course.

Now I feel like the tech has become so ubiquitous that I want to flee it. It feels odd even to type that. In my opinion, it’s oftentimes not the tech itself but the way it’s implemented or maybe the way it’s being used.

Some random examples:
New purchases that require pairing to an iPhone and an account setup in order to operate. I just want to take my temperature. I just want to see if I’ve lost any weight.

Going to dinner with a group of friends where they all discuss a funny video from social media. I really wanted to hear how they’re doing. Maybe talk about current events. Along those lines, trying to talk to someone who looks at their screen while trying to talk to you. Then unsurprisingly I have to repeat what I said.

Things that just don’t work. I’m often amazed when I turn on the radio or play a CD on my older car. I didn’t have to reboot it because it got stuck. I didn’t have to logout and login. No need to update software. Yep, they just play music.

I had a very nice loaner car thus week while mine was serviced. It had big beautiful screens. The problem was they were unnecessary. Around every display was a ton of white space. The fonts were larger than needed. There was, for me, way too much information displayed than I wanted or needed. I’m old school where I try to keep eyes on the road.

I really try to keep iPhone notifications to an absolute minimum. I don’t want to spend my day monitoring for something important. So I doubt I’d use a dedicated device just to minimize notifications.

Just my two cents. 🤷🏻‍♂️

I will make a few simple statements to this.

1. I ignore tech I don't want. I want a thermometer? I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, I know what a thermometer looks like. I'll grab a cheap one off Amazon.

2. When I was in high school the concept of shallow friends was present. I didn't make many friends because a lot of them were shallow. A boss of mine also commented that all the people he went to high school with were stuck in the past and he didn't really care to know any of them. I don't want to say 'you need better friends' because I don't know you and your friends. But, you might examine what your relationships to them are actually built on. I had to do this with a former friend of mine and as it turns out, that relationship was based on a lot of immature things I'd held on to in high school. We parted ways.

But to comment specifically to your statement: For my wife and I and our two kids, phones have always been allowed around the table. However, we were never actively on our phones when out eating. We were talking to our kids. If a phone came out it was because we were looking up something to share. It then got put away. Our kids adopted that philosophy and there has never been an issue with that to this day.

Contrast with my wife and I pre-kids enjoying a meal together while reading books separately. 😀 Gone are those days!

3. Things that just don't work. See my first comment. 🙂

 

[eyoungren]

You’re not overthinking it at all — you’re describing a real shift in what many people want from technology.
For years the selling point was “do everything on one device.” Now more people are realizing that comes with a cost: fragmented attention, compulsive habits, and constant mental noise.
I’m not sure Apple would build a separate iPhone SKU for it, but a true lockout mode for social apps or a modern offline-first iPod would absolutely find an audience.
Sometimes less functionality creates more value.

Perhaps that's part of it. I have a mentality of one device for one purpose, or at most two. Some of that may stem from trying to do a job with a crescent wrench when a box wrench was more appropriate, IDK. But I'm not a fan of devices/things that are jacks of all trades. I'd rather have multiple masters of trades and use one of those for the purpose I need it for.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

I have a hard time relating to this. I have never had an account on any of the major social media websites, nor do any of my peers, and we all have smartphones.

I would think that learning methods of self control would be better than lugging around a walkman, a flip phone, an instant camera, paper maps, a phone book, etc. I everywhere you go?

But maybe there is a huge group of people that would rather go “retro” instead, and I just never encounter them? I don’t know.

Downgrading or moving to a basic phone and other non-smartphone things IS a method of self-control, and a very effective one at that.

 

[neuropsychguy]

I use my pixel with grapheneOS so it does not have any google stuff on it. I do not and never will have any social media accounts as just dont need the distraction.
Most of my screen time is on a kindle reading books.

You have a Macrumors account and comment here. That's social media. 😉

 

[NUFC2025]

You have a Macrumors account and comment here. That's social media. 😉

I was waiting for this comment, I meant the usual social media crap

 

[neuropsychguy]

I was waiting for this comment, I meant the usual social media crap

I know, I just like to point out that BBS, Usenet, and forums are social media -- in fact, they are the original social media (internet-based [if we want to get technical, newspaper letters to the editor are even older forms of social media]).

I'm also off all other social media, except for a couple forums/sites (but Macrumors is basically it for me).

 

[leonremi]

It's not the tech. It's what we do with it (collectively as a society, very much including the politicians that are supposed to write our laws and regulations).

Social networks didn't need to have infinite scrolling, or algorithms that pull us away from our friends and into small bubbles of hatred.
Social networks didn't need to be anonymous and overrun with hostile powers controlled bots.
Advertisement didn't have to be targeted.
Our data didn't have to end up being, sold, stolen and monetized to the last drop, by late stage capitalism turned death cult.
Entire pointless industries of SEO, dumb influencers and other drop shippers didn't need to come into existence.
All of this didn't need to cross pollinate into monstrosities like Donald Trump and Andrew Tate.

We did this. Or at least we were complacent enough and too busy getting our little dopamine rushes each time we clicked.

 

[TracerAnalog]

I'm not going to change your mind. I am simply going to point out that NOT engaging constantly with social media is what I do. My devices/tech do not control me.

Uh so we agree? 😊

 

[Nikita_K]

So with the general sense of malaise with … modernity, that is rippling through both tech-focused communities and otherwise, more and more people are looking to get back to their devices as being a source of productive tooling and non-distracting entertainment, myself included. I think most people are now aware of the degradation to the social fabric, politically, democratically, and individually around attention/cognition that constant access to the social media attention extraction machine does to us, and want to think about disengaging.

The most success I’ve had so far with this is the use of the Blank app to dull my home screen and force me to do 10 push-ups before I can open Instagram. (this doesn’t sound like much but it’s been the most successful method so far to remove constant Instagram use, particularly away from home because you’re not exactly gonna drop and give me 10 out and about)

I’ve also got back into iPods and off-line listening where the music doesn’t fade into the background of whatever other more distracting tasks my device is able to distract me with.

So both of these got me thinking about how much interest there would be from every day non-apple heads for either/both a new modern day iPod (with click wheel, bluetooth, modern design language but older interface and syncing, where the work required to navigate is in service of the engagement with and mindful curation of the music)

And also the potential for an iPhone model that at firmware level is not able to run any social media applications (or the ability to black list particular applications), where perhaps an aftermarket desire to do so is subject to some kind of administration fee for Apple to turn that back on at hardware/firmware level. It sounds like overkill but I genuinely think I would opt in to a social media free SKU over the standard phone. I would then just use home devices to do that more mindfully for less time.

On one hand, it’s kind of self infantilising effectively delegating parental control to Apple, but these systems are psychologically designed from the ground up to be addictive. it would be empowering for a gambling addict to be able to purchase a phone that can’t run gambling applications so why not for people who have issues with social media?

is this massive overkill/over thought or do you think there would be sufficient numbers buying in to these ideas for a sufficient financial incentive for Apple to make these a reality

So with the general sense of malaise with … modernity, that is rippling through both tech-focused communities and otherwise, more and more people are looking to get back to their devices as being a source of productive tooling and non-distracting entertainment, myself included. I think most people are now aware of the degradation to the social fabric, politically, democratically, and individually around attention/cognition that constant access to the social media attention extraction machine does to us, and want to think about disengaging.

The most success I’ve had so far with this is the use of the Blank app to dull my home screen and force me to do 10 push-ups before I can open Instagram. (this doesn’t sound like much but it’s been the most successful method so far to remove constant Instagram use, particularly away from home because you’re not exactly gonna drop and give me 10 out and about)

I’ve also got back into iPods and off-line listening where the music doesn’t fade into the background of whatever other more distracting tasks my device is able to distract me with.

So both of these got me thinking about how much interest there would be from every day non-apple heads for either/both a new modern day iPod (with click wheel, bluetooth, modern design language but older interface and syncing, where the work required to navigate is in service of the engagement with and mindful curation of the music)

And also the potential for an iPhone model that at firmware level is not able to run any social media applications (or the ability to black list particular applications), where perhaps an aftermarket desire to do so is subject to some kind of administration fee for Apple to turn that back on at hardware/firmware level. It sounds like overkill but I genuinely think I would opt in to a social media free SKU over the standard phone. I would then just use home devices to do that more mindfully for less time.

On one hand, it’s kind of self infantilising effectively delegating parental control to Apple, but these systems are psychologically designed from the ground up to be addictive. it would be empowering for a gambling addict to be able to purchase a phone that can’t run gambling applications so why not for people who have issues with social media?

is this massive overkill/over thought or do you think there would be sufficient numbers buying in to these ideas for a sufficient financial incentive for Apple to make these a reality?

In Russia where I live a lot of services are simply blocked either due to western sanctions or by our own government, so we are being naturally detoxed🙂). You can access all that stuff using VPNs, but they are also getting blocked. I decided to keep my phone without any vpns deliberately to reduce distraction and use it only on my Mac and iPad and mostly at home. Additionally I stopped wearing my Apple Watch almost two years ago and changed it for a 5000 series gshock and seiko 5. This was quite a decision I should say, but it feels like I'm not coming back.

 

[Howard2k]

In Russia where I live a lot of services are simply blocked either due to western sanctions or by our own government, so we are being naturally detoxed🙂). You can access all that stuff using VPNs, but they are also getting blocked. I decided to keep my phone without any vpns deliberately to reduce distraction and use it only on my Mac and iPad and mostly at home. Additionally I stopped wearing my Apple Watch almost two years ago and changed it for a 5000 series gshock and seiko 5. This was quite a decision I should say, but it feels like I'm not coming back.

I am 100% Apple Watch these days, but I know that the G-Shock solar and Seiko (cheaper than yours) mechanical are both good to keep on hand, just in case.

 

[Luftkopf]

There are a few extreme reactions here. I am impressed by people who keep old tech going, as I'm not a fan of the disposable culture. But I sit somewhere in the middle though. I grew up in the 80s and 90s and was super into tech, or reading about it because I couldn't afford any of it. I spent a lot of time on our family PC (starting with an Amstrad PC 1512. DOS 3.2 Windows 2, GEM, etc), learning how to use it, poking around under the hood to see how things worked, and had a great time doing it.

Now I'm hitting middle aged, I'm not as excited about the direction of things. I'm glad I switched to Mac years ago, I think my iPhone 14, and my M3 Pro MacBook are great. I desperately want to upgrade my iPad Air 2 to something new, and preferably 13", and it would be super nice to upgrade my S2 Apple Watch. The Silicon Valley hype cycle churned through NFTs and crypto, and now is stuck on AI. I hate it on so many grounds, but have forced myself to use it so I can understand it, so when my 3 month old daughter is older, I will be able to guide her well, and not be a grumpy old man yelling at the clouds having no idea what she's up against.

I like using iCloud and the Apple ecosystem, making it do things I want it to, and staying out of the way the rest of the time.

The big social media platforms are a pain, I don’t want to be manipulated by algorithm. I’m on some because I have to be, and I’m on others to follow accounts I’m interested in, but I do not use them as intended. I curate them myself, and don’t get sucked in to them. They’re essentially either communications platforms, or content feeds for accounts I follow.

I remember my old walkman, and the cassettes it chewed up. If I were to choose a piece of tech to go backwards to, it would be the MiniDisc, particularly the late models. Now they were great! Compact enough you could carry a good selection, good audio quality. There is something to be said for looking through physical media when choosing what to listen to. I kinda get why people like vinyl, but cassettes? Really?

My car is a 2006 VW Passat, and it's perfect for me. Analogue gauges, no touch screes, cloth seats, etc. I don't much like the interiors in new cars. Touch screens and too much leather. No thanks.

 

[mdcmdcmdc]

So with the general sense of malaise with … modernity, that is rippling through both tech-focused communities and otherwise, more and more people are looking to get back to their devices as being a source of productive tooling and non-distracting entertainment, myself included. I think most people are now aware of the degradation to the social fabric, politically, democratically, and individually around attention/cognition that constant access to the social media attention extraction machine does to us, and want to think about disengaging.

The most success I’ve had so far with this is the use of the Blank app to dull my home screen and force me to do 10 push-ups before I can open Instagram. (this doesn’t sound like much but it’s been the most successful method so far to remove constant Instagram use, particularly away from home because you’re not exactly gonna drop and give me 10 out and about)

I’ve also got back into iPods and off-line listening where the music doesn’t fade into the background of whatever other more distracting tasks my device is able to distract me with.

So both of these got me thinking about how much interest there would be from every day non-apple heads for either/both a new modern day iPod (with click wheel, bluetooth, modern design language but older interface and syncing, where the work required to navigate is in service of the engagement with and mindful curation of the music)

And also the potential for an iPhone model that at firmware level is not able to run any social media applications (or the ability to black list particular applications), where perhaps an aftermarket desire to do so is subject to some kind of administration fee for Apple to turn that back on at hardware/firmware level. It sounds like overkill but I genuinely think I would opt in to a social media free SKU over the standard phone. I would then just use home devices to do that more mindfully for less time.

On one hand, it’s kind of self infantilising effectively delegating parental control to Apple, but these systems are psychologically designed from the ground up to be addictive. it would be empowering for a gambling addict to be able to purchase a phone that can’t run gambling applications so why not for people who have issues with social media?

is this massive overkill/over thought or do you think there would be sufficient numbers buying in to these ideas for a sufficient financial incentive for Apple to make these a reality?

Like most social issues, even if "most people" agree there's a problem, there's no agreement on how to fix it.

"Most people" believe they're OK, it's other people who are the problem. They want the government to regulate social media use for kids under 16, because other people can't regulate their own kids. It's not my kids, it's other people's.

Turning back the clock and pretending like this technology doesn't exist isn't an answer. Why is offline listening with an iPod OK but streaming with an iPhone 17 is bad? Why stop there? Go back to a cassette Walkman (I still have one). Or those big, heavy, FM radio headphones from the 1970s.

Technology changes. New technologies disrupt existing paradigms, and social norms evolve with it. It's usually the older generations who think there's a problem (full disclosure: I'm gen X with adult zoomer kids). The younger generations have grown up with the new technology and it's part of their worldview. Their elders may not be able to relate, and they may not approve, but that's not their place. Humans are surprisingly adaptable and resilient. The kids will be fine.

 

[nickdalzell1]

There are a few extreme reactions here. I am impressed by people who keep old tech going, as I'm not a fan of the disposable culture. But I sit somewhere in the middle though. I grew up in the 80s and 90s and was super into tech, or reading about it because I couldn't afford any of it. I spent a lot of time on our family PC (starting with an Amstrad PC 1512. DOS 3.2 Windows 2, GEM, etc), learning how to use it, poking around under the hood to see how things worked, and had a great time doing it.

Now I'm hitting middle aged, I'm not as excited about the direction of things. I'm glad I switched to Mac years ago, I think my iPhone 14, and my M3 Pro MacBook are great. I desperately want to upgrade my iPad Air 2 to something new, and preferably 13", and it would be super nice to upgrade my S2 Apple Watch. The Silicon Valley hype cycle churned through NFTs and crypto, and now is stuck on AI. I hate it on so many grounds, but have forced myself to use it so I can understand it, so when my 3 month old daughter is older, I will be able to guide her well, and not be a grumpy old man yelling at the clouds having no idea what she's up against.

I like using iCloud and the Apple ecosystem, making it do things I want it to, and staying out of the way the rest of the time.

The big social media platforms are a pain, I don’t want to be manipulated by algorithm. I’m on some because I have to be, and I’m on others to follow accounts I’m interested in, but I do not use them as intended. I curate them myself, and don’t get sucked in to them. They’re essentially either communications platforms, or content feeds for accounts I follow.

I remember my old walkman, and the cassettes it chewed up. If I were to choose a piece of tech to go backwards to, it would be the MiniDisc, particularly the late models. Now they were great! Compact enough you could carry a good selection, good audio quality. There is something to be said for looking through physical media when choosing what to listen to. I kinda get why people like vinyl, but cassettes? Really?

My car is a 2006 VW Passat, and it's perfect for me. Analogue gauges, no touch screes, cloth seats, etc. I don't much like the interiors in new cars. Touch screens and too much leather. No thanks.

I can undersand your preference of MiniDisc, but how easy is it to come across MiniDisc albums second hand? I find cassettes are extremely common as car regular old Compact Discs, and cheap (50 cents to a dollar each!) but I have NEVER seen a MiniDisc anywhere. Even when they were the 'in thing' they were about as rare as LaserDisc. Out town gave up on LaserDisc in 1993 (I was amazed to find out they made it into the DVD era--but we haven't had a player or media for one for sale even in a pawn shop since 1993).

Now the weird thing is, we must have had an obsession instead with its predecessor--The RCA Selectavision VideoDisc (or CED, Capacitive Electronic Disc). Those are piling up EVERYWHERE in vendor malls and secondhand shops. No players however. I looked some up on eBay and I do love the aesthetic of the player--woodgrain, no digital display, very fitting for my 1970s home! But working ones are going for north of $500+ and that's too expensive for something so outdated and from what I read, generally unreliable. I heard they also had worse video quality than VHS.

 

[eyoungren]

Like most social issues, even if "most people" agree there's a problem, there's no agreement on how to fix it.

"Most people" believe they're OK, it's other people who are the problem. They want the government to regulate social media use for kids under 16, because other people can't regulate their own kids. It's not my kids, it's other people's.

Turning back the clock and pretending like this technology doesn't exist isn't an answer. Why is offline listening with an iPod OK but streaming with an iPhone 17 is bad? Why stop there? Go back to a cassette Walkman (I still have one). Or those big, heavy, FM radio headphones from the 1970s.

Technology changes. New technologies disrupt existing paradigms, and social norms evolve with it. It's usually the older generations who think there's a problem (full disclosure: I'm gen X with adult zoomer kids). The younger generations have grown up with the new technology and it's part of their worldview. Their elders may not be able to relate, and they may not approve, but that's not their place. Humans are surprisingly adaptable and resilient. The kids will be fine.

I am also Gen-X, with a 22 year old and a 17 year old. The 17 year old graduates High School in about a month and the 22 year old has a Bachelor's in IT.

Since tech has always been a big thing in my life, my son got his first computer when he was 5. We used to go to Starbucks and bum around on the internet while I had coffee and he had hot chocolate. My daughter was always attracted to iPads and art apps.

Both my kids have grown up with this stuff. My son has a degree in it! And for me, I will always be trying something new.

So, yeah - they'll be fine.

 

[SpotOnT]

Downgrading or moving to a basic phone and other non-smartphone things IS a method of self-control, and a very effective one at that.

Well, it is a method of control…

I will still disagree with you that it is a method of self-control though.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Well, it is a method of control…

I will still disagree with you that it is a method of self-control though.

Why not? It's a person being self-aware and taking action to minimize their impulses. That seems like the definition of self-control to me.

Either way, if it's working for them so I don't see a downside.

 

[SpotOnT]

Why not? It's a person being self-aware and taking action to minimize their impulses. That seems like the definition of self-control to me.

Either way, if it's working for them so I don't see a downside.

Because you aren’t practicing “self-control” with your smartphone use, you are eliminating your smartphone. You cannot practice self-control over an object that you don’t have. It is a logical impossibility.

It is like someone who “manages” their road rage by not driving. You aren’t managing anything. You are eliminating driving altogether. You can’t manage something that you don’t do. It is a logical impossibility.

Don’t get me wrong, I fully support people dealing with things the way that works best for them. And if that is removing the smartphone altogether, not driving at all, not going anywhere that serves or sells alcohol, etc. - all the power too them.

I just think words matter and not engaging in something is not the same as managing your interaction with something. You can’t manage something you don’t engage in.

 

[mdcmdcmdc]

Because you aren’t practicing “self-control” with your smartphone use, you are eliminating your smartphone. You cannot practice self-control over an object that you don’t have. It is a logical impossibility.

It is like someone who “manages” their road rage by not driving. You aren’t managing anything. You are eliminating driving altogether. You can’t manage something that you don’t do. It is a logical impossibility.

So what you’re saying is, someone with a history of alcoholism should go into a bar and have a few drinks to prove they can “manage” it.

The entire premise of this thread is that modern electronics and social media bring out addictive tendencies in people, tendencies which some people find disruptive to their lives. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, but if simply not participating is the best solution for someone, then that’s their choice.

 

[eyoungren]

So what you’re saying is, someone with a history of alcoholism should go into a bar and have a few drinks to prove they can “manage” it.

The entire premise of this thread is that modern electronics and social media bring out addictive tendencies in people, tendencies which some people find disruptive to their lives. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, but if simply not participating is the best solution for someone, then that’s their choice.

I believe what @SpotOnT is trying to say is that there is a difference between managing a problem and eliminating a problem.

Self-control is how we deal with problems when they are present. Some people have zero self-control, so eliminating a problem entirely is the only real route. But eliminating a problem doesn't mean we've now learned how to manage the problem. We have simply removed the problem so we can't access it, nothing else.

Speaking to your example about an alcoholic - you could place that same person in a situation where no matter what they do, what they think, how hard they try, they cannot gain access to alcohol. You have eliminated the problem - their ability to drink. What you have NOT dealt with is that desire to drink. That's still there.

 

[Luftkopf]

I can undersand your preference of MiniDisc, but how easy is it to come across MiniDisc albums second hand? I find cassettes are extremely common as car regular old Compact Discs, and cheap (50 cents to a dollar each!) but I have NEVER seen a MiniDisc anywhere. Even when they were the 'in thing' they were about as rare as LaserDisc. Out town gave up on LaserDisc in 1993 (I was amazed to find out they made it into the DVD era--but we haven't had a player or media for one for sale even in a pawn shop since 1993).

Now the weird thing is, we must have had an obsession instead with its predecessor--The RCA Selectavision VideoDisc (or CED, Capacitive Electronic Disc). Those are piling up EVERYWHERE in vendor malls and secondhand shops. No players however. I looked some up on eBay and I do love the aesthetic of the player--woodgrain, no digital display, very fitting for my 1970s home! But working ones are going for north of $500+ and that's too expensive for something so outdated and from what I read, generally unreliable. I heard they also had worse video quality than VHS.

I don’t know how hard they are to find now, but blank minidiscs were never hard to find here, I’ve never seen a VideoDisc or LaserDisc though, I've only ever read of them.

 

[mdcmdcmdc]

I believe what @SpotOnT is trying to say is that there is a difference between managing a problem and eliminating a problem.

Self-control is how we deal with problems when they are present. Some people have zero self-control, so eliminating a problem entirely is the only real route. But eliminating a problem doesn't mean we've now learned how to manage the problem. We have simply removed the problem so we can't access it, nothing else.

Speaking to your example about an alcoholic - you could place that same person in a situation where no matter what they do, what they think, how hard they try, they cannot gain access to alcohol. You have eliminated the problem - their ability to drink. What you have NOT dealt with is that desire to drink. That's still there.

I understand your point but I don't agree. The person with alcoholism knows they shouldn't have a drink because they won't be able to stop at just one, and they don't like what it does to them. Abstinence is how they manage it.

It isn't practical to completely prevent somebody with alcoholism from gaining access to it. Even if they never go into a bar, alcohol is available at restaurants and, in many localities, in convenience stores and grocery stores. The person still has to say no, I'm not going to have a drink today.

Likewise, for someone who is addicted to social media, it's perfectly valid for them to manage it by deleting their accounts and not participating. They can delete the apps from their phone, but they can still access most services through a browser. Like the alcohol in restaurants and grocery stores, it takes an act of willpower for the person to say no, I'm not going to log into ____ today.

The analogy between alcoholism and social media addiction isn't superfluous. Both affect peoples relationships, moods, self esteem, and many other factors in their daily lives.