2mo ago

How to get over my reddit ""addiction""?

So I’m pretty sure most of you guys also came from reddit. Or at least, a majority of you did. So I think you all understand how addictive it can be. I’m not going to lie, in the past few years I really liked to go up every now and then to troll stupid and harmful people. But lately, I realised it’s all a waste of time because it’s not like I can actually hurt them - I mean I did manage to hurt them but only because they were dumb enough, but it’s not like I can actually “”act upon my judgement”” or any other cringe thing an edgelord can think about. But yeah, I’ve grown tired of negativity, and I want to be a… wholesome person, I think. But sometimes when relaxing, I get the urge to hop back on Reddit to troll some people just because, which I don’t want. I mean don’t misunderstand me, I didn’t entirely gave up on Reddit bc I still have an account there and I do go up if I want to see gaming shit or anything related to my niche interest, I’m just avoiding some specific subreddits. So what should I do? Does anyone else have similar feelings as I do?

43 comments

I switched from "Boost for Reddit" to "Boost for Lemmy", found as many equivalent subs as I could, and just went from there.
Because I'm using essentially the same interface, it's a very similar experience.
- Not using it on desktop and purely on mobile has been nice too. Cuts out short form content at the same time.
- This was my process. I was on Reddit for 13 years before switching to Lemmy. I've tried most of the apps and Boost has been my favorite

I'd say that doing a partial switch is much harder than doing a full one. I went all in and just replaced all my bookmarks so that my muscle memory didn't bring me there but here instead.
- Yep. I swapped my bookmarks, deleted my main account, and just kinda ceased using reddit almost entirely. I still have an alt I use very rarely to browse some niche subs, but that's about it.
  
  +1 on deleting the account. Having no familiarity was a big leaning factor on going to Lemmy.
- I block traffic to their domain on my firewall.

Don't think of it as stopping, quitting or denying yourself something. Get better hobbies. Take up a new interest. Fill your life with things that make trolling on the internet seem lame and stupid in comparison.

I can't relate with this feeling of wanting to "troll people on Reddit" at all. Are you conjoined at the hip with them? Is your identity defined by your relationship with them?
Cut them out. Try some scissors.
- I'm with you on this. Even if you are trolling objectively bad people, it's a bizarre way to spend time and is certainly not healthy. You aren't going to change their minds or behavior, and are latching yourself to their goings-on in an unhealthy parasocial relationship.

Interrupt your habits.
Uninstall the app, if you use that.
Log out in your browser.
If you use ublockorigin, add reddit.com to the custom block list
Use a password manager, change your password to something you can't remember. Then in your password manager, put a prefix on it like (take-a-break), so you have to go through the hassle of editing it to log in.
You don't need to be up to the minute or even the day for most of your interests, you can catch up when you have time to do so intentionally.
Interruptions cause you to slow down and give your will power a moment to catch up and intervene.

I was in a similar position to you. I had 500k karma iirc and I was legit addicted.
Delete your account. That's what I did. It was unthinkable and honestly kind of painful but looking back I'm so glad that I did. Rip the bandaid off and you'll never really have a reason to go back.
Find a Lemmy app that you like (or mbin or kbin, they all serve the same content (kinda)) and just use that.
Lemmy has far less content so when you run out of things to look at, realize that that is the addiction and try to do anything else.
When commenting, try and remember that you're (probably) responding to a real human and don't be an asshole. Admittedly I'm not always great about this but have made a lot of progress in the right direction.
Try not to get involved in the inter-instance drama. It isn't worth your time.
Its a process. You're going to find what works for you. You'll probably fail a bunch too but life is about getting back up when you fail so just keep at it and you can make meaningful change if you want to.

Replace it with Tumblr. By the time you have had your fifteen minutes of browsing, you'll be done for the day.
- This is what I do, except with Imgur (and occasionally Bluesky).
  Lemmy alone is not big enough to replace reddit yet. You need a supplimental website to complete your social media diet.
  
  It's plenty big enough for me. But I'm just a simple country doctor, Jim.

What's that panel from?
- I round out it's an original drawing made by someone named Poetaz after playing Letgal Company.
  
  Awesome, thank you!
  Edit: looked up Lethal Company. Sounds pretty cool

Just to echo everybody else, uninstall the Reddit app. Put a Lemmy app where your Reddit button used to be.
It's been over a year and a half for me, I've only been to Reddit a few times since then, and it was to find specific information.

Best thing I did was browse reddit with a new account without participating. Just enjoying certain content. I deleted my old and made a private email and new account and subbed to the ones I was but no posting or comments just upvote/down ote and reading, watching clicking links etc. I realized I spent too much time conversing and not enough time enjoying some of the content. Less people on Lemmy and can actually get responses to good convos and post feedback. I wish you could follow accounts and specific posts here though.

I have a userscript that sets display = 'none' for urls matching reddit to remind myself to stay off reddit for a while. I adjusted it a little to support blocking only specific subreddits like you seem to want to do, maybe it will be useful to someone: https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/520007-disableredditbysub

The best way to get rid of reddit, or other things, is to remove the allure/possibility to use. Blacklist the reddit app, install an addon that blacklists the reddit website, and maybe even get an adblocker to block any mention of reddit. Just make it really difficult to consume anything from reddit or participate on reddit.

Talk about wanting to kill public figures until they permanently ban you
- Way too inefficient. Just comment any way about Lemmy and throw in a little #FuckSpez.
  That's my best guess for why two accounts I had got banned on there.
  
  Go on a pitbull-lovers subreddit and suggest that all their dogs should be put down. You'll get a site wide ban for "promoting violence" right quick.

Step #1: Log out. Log out on your phone, desktop, or wherever you access reddit from.
Step #2: Delete whatever apps you used.
The way to get off of reddit is to get off of reddit. I found that as long as I was logged in, I couldn't help but contribute - so I logged out and stopped.
Six months later I went back, vandalized my posts and comments, and then deleted my accounts.
I'm gone. I'm done. The divorce is final.

Switch to Lemmy - it's working for me. I like the UI much better.

Best way to beat a bad habit is to replace it with a good habit.

Only thing I go back to reddit for is BuckingNoNonsense's Caves of Qud lore discussions, and I do it not signed in, on old reddit, with as many scripts disabled and blockers on as possible.

It sounds like you need to sort yourself out and stick to your convictions
- You probably mean well, but this sort of "advice" annoys me. It says what to do but not how to do it. Almost like explaining it would be as hard for the advice giver as it would be for the recipient to implement it, revealing what a sham it really is. It's practically a heckle. "Boooo! Git gud!"
  
  Yeah this post was low effort as well. It's easier to assist people who clearly want to make effort and have their head wrapped around it a bit but to attempt to hand somebody all of this while they've got a half-assed writeup and lazy ideas, the best I've got is to continue refining oneself and ones focus.
  This is the same as addicts discussing sobriety without them actually being prepared or willing, it's a fuckin waste

I used to browse certain subreddits for negativity bait. Eventually I decided that I didn't want to immerse myself in a negative mindset so often.
The trick for me was to recognize those moments when I was on auto-pilot and navigating to those spaces because I was bored and it was a reflex. I would remind myself that I know it's bad for me, and then force myself to do literally anything else. Go to some other website. Vacuum the floor. Put on some music and go for a walk. Eventually I lost that reflexive instinct, and now I have no desire to go back to those places.
I'm not going to pretend that what worked for me will work for anyone else, nor will I say that I'm now a better person for avoiding those spaces. I've probably replaced that habit with an equally pointless one, it's just nice to not always view things from the context of tearing others down.

The next time you feel the urge to browse reddit:
Go to imgur and browse the category aww
Spend a few minutes looking at cute dogs and cats
Carry on with your day, and be proud of yourself that you did not go on reddit.
Bonus link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOqb_UzJSUQ

Use Lemmy instead

Well, if you say you've enjoyed trolling people on there. Why not troll so much so that if you try registering, you're banned within an hour?
Because, I can't register onto Reddit anymore regardless of what e-mail I use and however. I'm banned within an hour on sight or shadowbanned after posting a couple comments. Not that my banning was primarily because of trolling but funnily enough, my banning was because of dealing with trolls - like you. Ironic.
- Well, if you weren’t a harmful person or an asshole, you didn’t get trolled by me 🤷‍♂️

Afraid Reddit is still the only place for certain interests and filled with x1000 more people. It also has certain features, so I might hop back someday, but sure as heck not now.

Troll live streamers. It’s way more fun when you can see their reaction. Kick is an especially fun target—those IRL MAGA types are the biggest snowflakes around.
Never go back to Reddit. Dead inside.

It sounds like you are fundamentally trying to embrace healthier habits. I would suggest starting by examining the feeling. Just spend some time thinking about it before acting. Why do I feel motivated to do this? How will I feel while doing it? How will I feel after? Do I gain something from this worth the downsides?
The goal is to make a decision about what you are doing and why instead of just falling into old patterns of behavior with thought.

43 comments