r/nosurf • u/N0Surf • May 14 '20

The NoSurf Activity List is now live: awesome ways to spend your time instead of mindless surfing

1.5k Upvotes

The NoSurf Activity List is a comprehensive list of awesome hobbies and activities to explore instead of mindlessly surfing.

It might sound shocking to some of you reading this now, but a lot of newcomers to the community have voiced that they have no idea what they'd do all day if mindlessly surfing the web was no longer an option. This confusion illustrates just how dependent we've grown on the devices around us: we have trouble fathoming what life would be like without them.

Fortunately there's a whole world out there on the other side of our screens. It's a world that won't give you instant short term pleasure. It doesn't appeal to our desire for instant gratification. But what it does offer us is worth so much more. Fulfillment, happiness, and meaning are within our grasps, and a list of inspiring NoSurf activities can serve as a gateway into the world in which they can be found.

This NoSurf Activity list was initially created by combining the contributions of: /anthymnx , /Bdi89 , /iridescentlichen , /hu_lee_oh . Without them this list would not exist, thank you.

Link to list (accessible from the sidebar and in the wiki)

How this list came to be

This list was created after /Bdi89 drew attention to the fact that it would be great to have a centralized resource made up of wholesome, fulfilling activities newcomers and experienced NoSurf veterans alike could be inspired by. Up until this point we've had a really great thread that /anthymx created on how to use your free time linked in the wiki. But it became clear that many more awesome suggestions for NoSurf activities came out of the community since it's creation and that we would benefit from a more in depth resource made up of the best ideas across the subreddit.

I spent a weekend pouring over all of the submissions and sorted through them to pick out the best suggestions. I then invested a day into organizing them into distinct sections that could be explored individually. Lastly I expanded the list by adding in quality suggestions and links to resources that were missing to make the list more comprehensive and actionable. It’s important that newcomers are not just inspired, but actually follow through in adopting better habits and investing their time in fulfilling pursuits.

And thus, the NoSurf Activity List was born. No doubt it's sure to undergo changes and improvements in the coming weeks (some sections could use some additional text), but I believe that as a community we can proud of Version 1 so far. The List is broken down into the following sections:

  • Awesome hobbies

  • Indoor activities

  • Outdoor activities

  • Physical growth

  • Mental growth

  • Self improvement and continued learning

  • Giving back to your community

Naturally not every single activity on this list will appeal to every single person. Instead of expecting this list to be perfectly tailored to each person's interests, I believe it's best to think of it as a source of inspiration, and a symbol of possibility. It's a starting point from which newcomers will be able to embark on their own journeys of exploration, growth, and learn to discover the activities that bring them joy.

A call on the community

If you see a newcomer struggling with how to use their time or wondering what they’d do if they stopped mindlessly browsing the internet, please know that you can positively influence their lives for the better by pointing them towards this resource. If you see someone that seems lost, confused, and unable to make any progress, link them to this list.

It might seem like a small act on your part, but the transformative, and almost magical effect of adopting a hobby cannot be under-emphasized. As a result of your seemingly small act, someone may fall in love with fitness, writing, board games, programming, or reading. So much so that they can no longer fathom the thought of mindlessly surfing anymore, because it means less time in the pursuit of what makes them feel truly alive.

P.S. If you have some ideas you think might be a good fit for the list you can leave a comment in The NoSurf Activity suggestions thread after reading the submission guidelines. The mod team will periodically review the comments in that thread and make changes to the list after taking into account into aspects like originality, quality, broad applicability, etc. of the suggestion. This will ensure that a degree of list quality, consistency, and organization is preserved and that it remains a helpful resource for newcomers and veterans alike.

59 comments

r/nosurf • u/SnooHesitations5296 • Aug 19 '21

Digital Minimalism Reading List

1.5k Upvotes

If you have suggestions you'd like to see added, please email me at [darshanvkalola@gmail.com](mailto:darshanvkalola@gmail.com).

Must Reads

  1. Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World, Cal Newport, 2019
  2. Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now, Jaron Lanier, 2018
  3. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, Sherry Turkle, 2017
  4. Glow Kids: How Screen Addiction Is Hijacking Our Kids - and How to Break the Trance, Nicholas Kardaras, 2016
  5. How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, Jenny Odell, 2019
  6. How to Break Up with Your Phone: The 30-Day Plan to Take Back Your Life, Catherine Price, 2018
  7. The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, Nicholas G. Carr, 2010
  8. Notes on a Nervous Planet, Matt Haig, 2018
  9. Your Brain on Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction, Gary Wilson, 2014
  10. Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life, Nir Eyal, 2019
  11. Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked, Adam Alter, 2017
  12. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power, Shoshana Zuboff, 2019
  13. The Coddling of the American Mind, Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, 2018
  14. Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy, Cathy O'Neil, 2016
  15. Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence, Anna Lembke, 2021
  16. You Should Quit Reddit, Jacob Desforges, 2023

By Subject

Social Media

  1. Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing, Chris Bail, 2021
  2. Rage Inside the Machine: The Prejudice of Algorithms, and How to Stop the Internet Making Bigots of Us All, Robert Elliott Smith, 2019
  3. Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now, Jaron Lanier, 2018
  4. Terms of Service: Social Media and the Price of Constant Connection, Jacob Silverman, 2015
  5. The Digital Divide: Arguments for and Against Facebook, Google, Texting, and the Age of Social Networking, Mark Bauerlein, 2011
  6. The Hype Machine: How Social Media Disrupts Our Elections, Our Economy, and Our Health--and How We Must Adapt, Sinan Aral, 2020
  7. The Psychology of Social Media, Ciaran McMahon, 2019
  8. Tweets and the Streets: Social Media and Contemporary Activism, Paolo Gerbaudo, 2012
  9. You Should Quit Reddit, Jacob Desforges, 2023

Technology and Society

  1. A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload, Cal Newport, 2021
  2. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, Sherry Turkle, 2017
  3. Attention Factory: The Story of TikTok and China's ByteDance, Matthew Brennan, 2020
  4. Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing, Chris Bail, 2021
  5. Hate Inc.: Why Today’s Media Makes Us Despise One Another, Matt Taibbi, 2019
  6. Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked, Adam Alter, 2017
  7. New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future, James Bridle, 2018
  8. Rage Inside the Machine: The Prejudice of Algorithms, and How to Stop the Internet Making Bigots of Us All, Robert Elliott Smith, 2019
  9. Stand Out of Our Light: Freedom and Resistance in the Attention Economy, James WIlliams, 2018
  10. Team Human, Douglas Rushkoff, 2019
  11. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power, Shoshana Zuboff, 2019
  12. The Digital Divide: Arguments for and Against Facebook, Google, Texting, and the Age of Social Networking, Mark Bauerlein, 2011
  13. The Hacking of the American Mind: The Science Behind the Corporate Takeover of Our Bodies and Brains, Robert H. Lustig, 2017
  14. The Hype Machine: How Social Media Disrupts Our Elections, Our Economy, and Our Health--and How We Must Adapt, Sinan Aral, 2020
  15. Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy, Cathy O'Neil, 2016
  16. The Glass Cage: How Our Computers Are Changing Us, Nicholas Carr, 2015

Children, Parenting, and Families

  1. Glow Kids: How Screen Addiction Is Hijacking Our Kids - and How to Break the Trance, Nicholas Kardaras, 2016
  2. It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens, danah boyd, 2014
  3. Media Moms & Digital Dads: A Fact-Not-Fear Approach to Parenting in the Digital Age, Yalda T Uhls, 2015
  4. Parenting for a Digital Future: How Hopes and Fears about Technology Shape Children's Lives, Sonia Livingstone and Alicia Blum-Ross, 2020
  5. Parenting in a Tech World: A handbook for raising kids in the digital age, Matt McKee and Titania Jordan, 2020
  6. Power Down & Parent Up!: Cyber Bullying, Screen Dependence & Raising Tech-Healthy Children, Holli Kenley, 2017
  7. Screen Kids: 5 Relational Skills Every Child Needs in a Tech-Driven World, Gary Chapman and Arlene Pellicane, 2020
  8. Screen Time: How Electronic Media-From Baby Videos to Educational Software-Affects Your Young Child, Lisa Guernsey, 2012
  9. Talking Back to Facebook: The Common Sense Guide to Raising Kids in the Digital Age, James P. Steyer, 2012
  10. Tap, Click, Read: Growing Readers in a World of Screens, Lisa Guernsey and Michael H. Levine, 2015
  11. Tech Savvy Parenting: Navigating Your Child's Digital Life, Brian Housman, 2014
  12. The App Generation: How Today's Youth Navigate Identity, Intimacy, and Imagination in a Digital World, Howard Gardner and Katie Davis, 2013
  13. The Art of Screen Time: How Your Family Can Balance Digital Media and Real Life, Anya Kamenetz, 2018
  14. The Big Disconnect: Protecting Childhood and Family Relationships in the Digital Age, Catherine Steiner-Adair with Teresa H. Barker, 2014
  15. The Coddling of the American Mind, Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, 2018
  16. The Other Parent: The Inside Story of the Media's Effect on Our Children, James P. Steyer, 2003
  17. The Simple Parenting Guide to Technology: Practical Advice on Smartphones, Gaming and Social Media in Just 40 Pages, Joshua Wayne, 2020
  18. The Tech Diet for your Child & Teen: The 7-Step Plan to Unplug & Reclaim Your Kid's Childhood (And Your Family's Sanity), Brad Marshall, 2019
  19. The Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in Its Proper Place, Andy Crouch, 2017
  20. Why Can't I Have a Cell Phone?: Anderson the Aardvark Gets His First Cell Phone (Teaches Kids Responsibility, Morality, Internet Addiction and Social Media Parental Monitoring), Teddy Behr, 2019
  21. iGen, Jean Twenge, 2017
  22. Reset Your Child's Brain: A Four-Week Plan to End Meltdowns, Raise Grades, and Boost Social Skills by Reversing the Effects of Electronic Screen-Time, Victoria L. Dunckley, 2015

Gaming

  1. Hooked on Games: The Lure and Cost of Video Game and Internet Addiction, Andrew P. Doan and Brooke Strickland, 2012
  2. Internet Addiction: The Ultimate Guide for How to Overcome An Internet Addiction For Life (Gaming Addiction, Video Game, TV, RPG, Role-Playing, Treatment, Computer), Caesar Lincoln, 2014
  3. Cyber Junkie: Escape the Gaming and Internet Trap, Kevin Roberts, 2010

Pornography

  1. Your Brain on Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction, Gary Wilson, 2014
  2. Life After Lust: Stories & Strategies for Sex & Pornography Addiction Recovery, Forest Benedict, 2017
  3. Love You, Hate the Porn: Healing a Relationship Damaged by Virtual Infidelity, Mark Chamberlain and Geoff Steurer, 2011
  4. Porn Addict's Wife: Surviving Betrayal and Taking Back Your Life, Sandy Brown, 2017
  5. Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality, Gail Dines, 2011
  6. The Porn Myth: Exposing the Reality Behind the Fantasy of Pornography, Matt Fradd, 2017
  7. The Porn Trap: The Essential Guide to Overcoming Problems Caused by Pornography, Wendy Maltz and Larry Maltz, 2009
  8. The Easy Peasy Way to Quit Porn, Hackauthor2, 2020
  9. How to Thrive in the 21st Century - By Avoiding Porn and Other Distractions, Havard Mela, 2020

Classics

  1. Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman, 1985
  2. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley, 1932
  3. The Medium is the Massage, Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore, 1967
  4. Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, Neil Postman, 1992
  5. The Disappearance of Childhood, Neil Postman, 1994

Fiction

  1. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley, 1932
  2. The Circle, Dave Eggers, 2015
  3. All Rights Reserved, Gregory Scott Katsoulis, 2017
  4. Access Restricted, Gregory Scott Katsoulis, 2018
  5. An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, Hank Green, 2018
  6. A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor, Hank Green, 2020

Critiques, Counterpoints, and Optimism

  1. It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens, danah boyd, 2014
  2. Screen Time: How Electronic Media-From Baby Videos to Educational Software-Affects Your Young Child, Lisa Guernsey, 2012
  3. Tap, Click, Read: Growing Readers in a World of Screens, Lisa Guernsey and Michael H. Levine, 2015

Full List

  1. 24/6: The Power of Unplugging One Day a Week, Tiffany Shlain, 2019
  2. A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor, Hank Green, 2020
  3. A Deadly Wandering: A Tale of Tragedy and Redemption in the Age of Attention, Matt Richtel, 2014
  4. A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload, Cal Newport, 2021
  5. Access Restricted, Gregory Scott Katsoulis, 2018
  6. All Rights Reserved, Gregory Scott Katsoulis, 2017
  7. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, Sherry Turkle, 2017
  8. Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman, 1985
  9. An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, Hank Green, 2018
  10. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, James Clear, 2018
  11. Attention Factory: The Story of TikTok and China's ByteDance, Matthew Brennan, 2020
  12. Bored and Brilliant: How Time Spent Doing Nothing Changes Everything, Manoush Zomorodi, 2017
  13. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley, 1932
  14. Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing, Chris Bail, 2021
  15. Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley, Antonio Garcia Martinez, 2018
  16. Cyber Junkie: Escape the Gaming and Internet Trap, Kevin Roberts, 2010
  17. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, Cal Newport, 2016
  18. Digital Detox: The Ultimate Guide To Beating Technology Addiction, Cultivating Mindfulness, and Enjoying More Creativity, Inspiration, And Balance In Your Life!, Damon Zahariades, 2018
  19. Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World, Cal Newport, 2019
  20. Digital Nomads: In Search of Freedom, Community, and Meaningful Work in the New Economy, Rachel A. Woldoff and Robert C. Litchfield, 2021
  21. Don't Be Evil: How Big Tech Betrayed Its Founding Principles, Rana Foroohar, 2019
  22. Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence, Anna Lembke, 2021
  23. The Easy Peasy Way to Quit Porn, Hackauthor2, 2020
  24. Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, Oliver Burkeman, 2021
  25. Glow Kids: How Screen Addiction Is Hijacking Our Kids - and How to Break the Trance, Nicholas Kardaras, 2016
  26. Hate Inc.: Why Today’s Media Makes Us Despise One Another, Matt Taibbi, 2019
  27. Hooked on Games: The Lure and Cost of Video Game and Internet Addiction, Andrew P. Doan and Brooke Strickland, 2012
  28. Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products, Nir Eyal, 2014
  29. How to Break Up with Your Phone: The 30-Day Plan to Take Back Your Life, Catherine Price, 2018
  30. How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, Jenny Odell, 2019
  31. How to Live With the Internet and Not Let It Run Your Life, Gabrielle Alexa Noel, 2021
  32. How to Thrive in the 21st Century - By Avoiding Porn and Other Distractions, Havard Mela, 2020
  33. Hyperfocus: How to Be More Productive in a World of Distraction, Chris Bailey, 2018
  34. iGen, Jean Twenge, 2017
  35. In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction, Gabor Maté, 2010
  36. In the Shadows of the Net: Breaking Free of Compulsive Online Sexual Behavior, Patrick J Carnes and David L. Delmonico and Elizabeth Griffin, 2007
  37. Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life, Nir Eyal, 2019
  38. Internet Addiction: The Ultimate Guide for How to Overcome An Internet Addiction For Life (Gaming Addiction, Video Game, TV, RPG, Role-Playing, Treatment, Computer), Caesar Lincoln, 2014
  39. Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked, Adam Alter, 2017
  40. It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens, danah boyd, 2014
  41. Life After Lust: Stories & Strategies for Sex & Pornography Addiction Recovery, Forest Benedict, 2017
  42. Love You, Hate the Porn: Healing a Relationship Damaged by Virtual Infidelity, Mark Chamberlain and Geoff Steurer, 2011
  43. Media Moms & Digital Dads: A Fact-Not-Fear Approach to Parenting in the Digital Age, Yalda T Uhls, 2015
  44. New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future, James Bridle, 2018
  45. Notes on a Nervous Planet, Matt Haig, 2018
  46. Offline: Free Your Mind from Smartphone and Social Media Stress, Imran Rashid and Soren Kenner, 2018
  47. Parenting for a Digital Future: How Hopes and Fears about Technology Shape Children's Lives, Sonia Livingstone and Alicia Blum-Ross, 2020
  48. Parenting in a Tech World: A handbook for raising kids in the digital age, Matt McKee and Titania Jordan, 2020
  49. Porn Addict's Wife: Surviving Betrayal and Taking Back Your Life, Sandy Brown, 2017
  50. Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality, Gail Dines, 2011
  51. Power Down & Parent Up!: Cyber Bullying, Screen Dependence & Raising Tech-Healthy Children, Holli Kenley, 2017
  52. Rage Inside the Machine: The Prejudice of Algorithms, and How to Stop the Internet Making Bigots of Us All, Robert Elliott Smith, 2019
  53. Raising Humans in a Digital World: Helping Kids Build a Healthy Relationship with Technology, Diana Graber, 2019
  54. Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age, Sherry Turkle, 2015
  55. Reset Your Child's Brain: A Four-Week Plan to End Meltdowns, Raise Grades, and Boost Social Skills by Reversing the Effects of Electronic Screen-Time, Victoria L. Dunckley, 2015
  56. Screen Kids: 5 Relational Skills Every Child Needs in a Tech-Driven World, Gary Chapman and Arlene Pellicane, 2020
  57. Screen Schooled: Two Veteran Teachers Expose How Technology Overuse Is Making Our Kids Dumber, Joe Clement and Matt Miles, 2017
  58. Screen Time: How Electronic Media-From Baby Videos to Educational Software-Affects Your Young Child, Lisa Guernsey, 2012
  59. Stand Out of Our Light: Freedom and Resistance in the Attention Economy, James WIlliams, 2018
  60. Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention, Johann Hari, 2022
  61. Talking Back to Facebook: The Common Sense Guide to Raising Kids in the Digital Age, James P. Steyer, 2012
  62. Tap, Click, Read: Growing Readers in a World of Screens, Lisa Guernsey and Michael H. Levine, 2015
  63. Team Human, Douglas Rushkoff, 2019
  64. Tech Savvy Parenting: Navigating Your Child's Digital Life, Brian Housman, 2014
  65. Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, Neil Postman, 1992
  66. Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now, Jaron Lanier, 2018
  67. Terms of Service: Social Media and the Price of Constant Connection, Jacob Silverman, 2015
  68. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power, Shoshana Zuboff, 2019
  69. The App Generation: How Today's Youth Navigate Identity, Intimacy, and Imagination in a Digital World, Howard Gardner and Katie Davis, 2013
  70. The Art of Screen Time: How Your Family Can Balance Digital Media and Real Life, Anya Kamenetz, 2018
  71. The Big Disconnect: Protecting Childhood and Family Relationships in the Digital Age, Catherine Steiner-Adair with Teresa H. Barker, 2014
  72. The Circle, Dave Eggers, 2015
  73. The Coddling of the American Mind, Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, 2018
  74. The Digital Divide: Arguments for and Against Facebook, Google, Texting, and the Age of Social Networking, Mark Bauerlein, 2011
  75. The Disappearance of Childhood, Neil Postman, 1994
  76. The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30), Mark Bauerlein, 2008
  77. The Glass Cage: How Our Computers Are Changing Us, Nicholas Carr, 2015
  78. The Hacking of the American Mind: The Science Behind the Corporate Takeover of Our Bodies and Brains, Robert H. Lustig, 2017
  79. The Hype Machine: How Social Media Disrupts Our Elections, Our Economy, and Our Health--and How We Must Adapt, Sinan Aral, 2020
  80. The Joy of Missing Out: Finding Balance In A Wired World, Christina Crook, 2014
  81. The Medium is the Massage, Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore, 1967
  82. The Other Parent: The Inside Story of the Media's Effect on Our Children, James P. Steyer, 2003
  83. The Porn Myth: Exposing the Reality Behind the Fantasy of Pornography, Matt Fradd, 2017
  84. The Porn Trap: The Essential Guide to Overcoming Problems Caused by Pornography, Wendy Maltz and Larry Maltz, 2009
  85. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, Charles Duhigg, 2014
  86. The Psychology of Social Media, Ciaran McMahon, 2019
  87. The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, Nicholas G. Carr, 2010
  88. The Simple Parenting Guide to Technology: Practical Advice on Smartphones, Gaming and Social Media in Just 40 Pages, Joshua Wayne, 2020
  89. The Tech Diet for your Child & Teen: The 7-Step Plan to Unplug & Reclaim Your Kid's Childhood (And Your Family's Sanity), Brad Marshall, 2019
  90. The Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in Its Proper Place, Andy Crouch, 2017
  91. The Trap: Sex, Social Media, and Surveillance Capitalism, Jewels Jade, 2021
  92. Trapped In The Web: How I Liberated Myself From Internet Addiction, And How You Can Too, A. N. Turner and Ben Beard and Kris Kozak, 2018
  93. Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion, Jia Tolentino, 2019
  94. Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator, Ryan Holiday, 2013
  95. Tweets and the Streets: Social Media and Contemporary Activism, Paolo Gerbaudo, 2012
  96. Utopia Is Creepy: And Other Provocations, Nicholas Carr, 2016
  97. Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy, Cathy O'Neil, 2016
  98. Who Owns the Future?, Jaron Lanier, 2013
  99. Why Can't I Have a Cell Phone?: Anderson the Aardvark Gets His First Cell Phone (Teaches Kids Responsibility, Morality, Internet Addiction and Social Media Parental Monitoring), Teddy Behr, 2019
  100. You Should Quit Reddit, Jacob Desforges, 2023
  101. Your Brain on Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction, Gary Wilson, 2014

Big thanks to all the contributors: Natalie Sharpe, David Marshall, Rick Dempsey, RonnieVae, Westofer Raymond, Sarah Devan, Zak Zelkova.

104 comments

r/nosurf • u/orphanofhypnos • 5h ago

Another reason to quit: chat gpt posts all over reddit

34 Upvotes

If you needed another reason to get off the platform, I'm seeing a worrying pattern of people talking like ai. I don't actually think these are bots; when challenged they respond normally.

So why are they spreading ai speak? English as second language "practice"? Karma farming?

It's easy to spot because it uses the familiar "school essay" style of paragraphs where you "tell ''em your gonna tell 'em, then tell 'em, then tell them you told them". That works in a long essay where the thesis and summary sentences are different than the content but it's very obvious when the "middle sentences" are the same as the summary. Eg the paragraphs are devoid of meaning.

For example, I had an exchange about this just now on r out of the loop and when I clicked to his profile, other people have also noticed they sound like AI...

TLDR get off the internet; it's filled with bots and humans mimicking bots.

5 comments

r/nosurf • u/Moist_Apartment5474 • 1h ago

A lot of times you already deep down know what to do instead of searching for validation on social media and online support

• Upvotes

I say for myself, I'm heavily addicted to the media in general and one of the most destructive things I do is continue to search for validation on the Internet and social media for my life choices, but it made me depressed once I stopped spending less time on the Internet. My life blossomed. It is kind of like a coping mechanism from us not taking any actions in our life and you whoever is watching this deep down you already know what you are lacking and let's be honest the reason that makes you search for validation on social media and online and sorry to break it to you while it's comforting for social media and online people to validate you it actually makes your mental health worse overtime take action to work through it and confront it.

2 comments

r/nosurf • u/-SavedByZero- • 7m ago

Can't stop looking at my fucking phone.

• Upvotes

This year has been an all-time worse for my phone usage. I'm looking at it pretty much from the time I wake up to the time I go to bed. I've even been late for work a few times because I'm sitting on the couch scrolling Reddit. If something pops into my head, I immediately need to Google it.

I noticed I'm not doing literally anything anymore. I barely watch TV or movies, and if I do I'm missing the entire plot looking at my phone. I don't play video games anymore, I watch my husband play while I scroll my phone. Fuck reading. Can't pay attention.

I come home from work and just want to go on the couch and decompress and stare at my phone. Never want thoughts to enter my brain. Constant distraction. I can't tell if I'm depressed and anxious because I'm looking at my phone all day, or I'm looking at my phone all day because I'm depressed and anxious.

It took everything in me today on my day off to get up and clean my house, which was interrupted multiple times by me getting distracted with my phone.

I'm so tired of it. It's only Reddit and Facebook really. I can't delete my Facebook because it's how I connect with family. Reddit I've deleted in the past but I start to feel out of the loop and hate that I'm missing things. I also Facebook message my sister literally all day back and forth and I don't know how to stop that.

I look back on all the shit I used to do and have the attention span for and I feel sick.

2 comments

r/nosurf • u/raisethesong • 4h ago

How do y'all balance staying informed while not mindlessly scrolling?

7 Upvotes

Let me preface by saying that I don't intend for this to become a debate on which news sources are real/factual/[insert adjective here]. This is a question that I've been going back and forth over for a bit and I wanted to get some insights from folks with similar feelings about the internet ecosystem we've found ourselves in.

Far more often than not, trying to use any social media platform as a means for following news updates ends in mindless scrolling and digesting content designed to make you feel worse. Twitter has dramatically fallen off from being a half-decent place to get a pulse on the day's headlines and follow along with breaking news -- there's no upside to wading through that cesspool anymore. Reddit and Instagram are hardly better and picking up more social platforms to scroll through with Bluesky or TikTok feels asinine.

I've been using a news aggregator app for a couple years now because it can get around some paywalls, but half of the "breaking news" headlines it sends me are clickbait junk. Despite me changing the notification settings to only be Breaking News events and a single evening summary of the day's headlines.

I'm honestly at a loss for a half-decent solution for keeping reasonably informed while avoiding the mind-numbing garbage content.

What's been working for y'all? RSS feeds? Watching the nightly news on TV again? Are there any news apps that don't suck? Should I just give up and throw my phone into the nearest body of water? I'm open to any ideas at this point

19 comments

r/nosurf • u/Relevant-Soup9837 • 4h ago

I feel lost without the internet

3 Upvotes

I'm having such a hard time staying off the internet, and keeping apps like TikTok deleted. I just have the urge to keep going back and checking for the fear of missing out, and I'm not sure how to stop it. Even Reddit feels like it's addictive at this point, and I can't let go. How do I actually commit to disconnecting from it all?

2 comments

r/nosurf • u/Pure-Relationship140 • 8h ago

I want to stop being on social media so much

8 Upvotes

I (15F, with autism/ADHD) am deciding that starting from 2025, I am going to use social media as little as possible. However, I'm so addicted to it that it's so hard to stop in one day. I can't just shut my laptop and turn my phone and iPad off, because it's like they have a force that pulls me back to them. My friends always use social media too. I don't have TikTok or Instagram, but I do go on Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit, Quora, and of course, YouTube, a lot. And I mean a lot. My friend group's conversations are centred around social media and it's really draining to be talking about and scrolling on social media 24/7.

What made me decide to do this was when I was playing board games with my brothers. I found that I actually had a much more fun time with them than I have ever had with social media and with my friend group. I've been depressed for a while, and my spirits have been lifting up lately ever since I planned not to use social so much, which was one or two days ago lol but still.

The thing I'm worried about is that what if I set myself unrealistic expectations? You know, I say that starting from 2025 I won't go on social media that much, but then I actually go on it for the same amounts of time that I used to. The whole 'new year, new me' has never worked for me as I always return to the 'old me'. I do NOT want to spend so much time on social media anymore. If I catch myself scrolling through negative echo chambers and comment sections again I'm actually going to rip my hair out.

I like certain subreddits of Reddit, including this one, and I find that the subreddits I like here don't drain me so much, but even then, looking on Reddit for so long exhausts me. I also love YT, YT and Reddit are my source for many things, but again, spending so much time on YT is also draining. So I guess I should only spend a certain amount of time on Reddit and YT and only go on certain videos/subreddits.

I suppose what I am trying to say in this post is that I really need advice on how to stick to staying off social media, when my friends constantly use it (Snapchat is how we communicate with each other outside of school) and when I have such an unhealthy addiction to it. I'm tired of being exhausted, and I know that one way to partly help my constant fatigue is being off social media. I just don't know where to start and how to keep off it. I just want to be happier.

5 comments

r/nosurf • u/mmofrki • 1d ago

Finding out "content houses" exist, just cemented my belief that the Internet isn't real.

238 Upvotes

In short a content house is usually a large house or mansion that is used by content creators to give the appearance that they ooze money out the wahoo.

I was wondering why a lot of houses that show up in the godawful content my niece is allowed to watch that involve parents shoving cameras in their kids' lives are almost always large, yet empty aside from a few pieces of furniture.

They don't live there, but are seemingly rented out by whoever produces the videos to give off the appearance that 'this is what content creation can give you'

Is it to ensnare people into attempting to make their own? To feign success? I don't know, but it's incredibly odd to see.

37 comments

r/nosurf • u/NxFlwrs • 11h ago

What do you spend time doing, instead of being on your phone?

11 Upvotes

I am working on minimizing my screen time and I found lately that I have way more time when I’m not “doomscrolling”. I would love to spend time out, but I think another issue is inflation. I’ve had conversations with the older folks I work with about what they did for fun when they were teens in the 60s. They shared that they would go to the YMCA and maybe play ping pong or participate in other activities. Coffee shops were another option, or grabbing a hamburger and a shake for $3. Saturday night double features at the cinema were a quarter. I feel like I’d be way more open to going out if prices were still like that.

Anyways, I rambled a bit. What I sometimes do is go to the library and hang out there, or a cafe (but I dread buying something just to stay). I’m also a big movie watcher, however the whole point of going out would be for me to reduce screen times of all sorts, not just phone.

What are some other activities you do or you suggest?

13 comments

r/nosurf • u/rizzla808 • 7h ago

Are the majority of people in this sub reddit addicted regardless of social life / work?

4 Upvotes

I thought the majority of people are addicted to being online because of the underline reason of not having people to genuinely speak to and connect with on a regular basis.

4 comments

r/nosurf • u/Comfortable-Table-57 • 8h ago

Does all of the negative takes you see on social media make you feel scared of relationships?

2 Upvotes

Besides domestic abuse and already bad relationships etc as this is more universal, I noticed that many of the life pessimistic content I see on social media made me temporarily scared of relationships, either me entering one or seeing a couple.

There were many manipulative anti-relationship echochambers I was stumbled across online which were mainly monolithic radical incel/femcel content rather than discussing actual issues. Things like how all westerners apparently treat their 8 ft tall guy or 4 ft 11 exposed-clothed gf as their trophy and only caring about them and no one else (not even their family), how 100% of "modern" women have unrealistic dating standards and apparently thinking their dream guy matters and no one else. I mean, if that was 100%, then they will all turn out to be antisocial (unethical behaviour rather than being asocial) and then back at school, half of the class would be excluded as a result. Oh furthermore on this, these guys with monolithic views like this only prefer girls who are blonde and dress sexy, isn't that some unrealistic/unfair expectation? As a guy that is wrong.

So, as a result of this echochamber, I get scared whenever I see a couple in public (particularly if they are at my age) in which the guy is slightly taller than the girl, when broadly guys are usually taller than girls naturally. I mean, I shouldn't have been scared as I dated twice and the girls I dated were just a few ft lower; they didn't complain about me not being even taller. Nevertheless though, I have been getting anxiety when I see such couples, not only in public but also on snapchat stranger stories, when I shouldn't as A) Height difference are natural B) The girls I dated did not complain about not being 6 ft or higher and C) Maybe they have height preference but not like Burj Khalifa or kitten standards.

I just want to find a way to stop feeling scared when my real life experiences barely match with these monolithically negative takes.

9 comments

r/nosurf • u/OffTheGrid2025 • 21h ago

Nuclear Option Screen Free Year for 2025

21 Upvotes

I am done with this addiction once and for all. I have struggled with social media, YouTube, binge watching streaming, gaming, scrolling, etc. in some form or another off and on ever since we got the Internet in our home in 1995. I could write an entire book and how so much of my life has been shaped by my relationship with technology and the inner complexities of grappling with it.

I've gone off and on with a dumb phone vs. smart phone...even spent a lot of time in ITAA and quit all of my worst behaviors but never really got underneath the addiction

I have deleted and re-started social media accounts...I have done detoxes that lasted a month at a time. I have done every type of therapy imaginable. (CBT, DBT, EMDR....lots of acronyms)

I work part-time at a school and need very little technology for work. My husband works from home and can take care of a lot of our family's digital "errands" if you will. My child has also showed signs of extreme dysregulation with screen time which is a whole different story.

For 2025 this is how I will use technology:

*Light phone as my primary phone

*E-mail for work

*Texting

*GPS

*A few movies with the family (very rarely like watching Prisoner of Azkaban with my family when my child finishes the book)

*Sit down once a week with the husband on the computer to go over budgeting, personal e-mail, registering for community events, etc.

*Only use smart phone for payment app and booking exercise classes

Here is what I will not do:

*Social media (Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, TikTok, etc.)

*Television

*Digital music

*Going online without a clear purpose

*YouTube

*Mindless scrolling through articles and news

Here is what I WILL do instead:

*Cook, exercise, board games, jigsaw puzzles, drink water, hang out with my family, work, clean, dance to music on CD's or our Alexa Echo dot, yoga classes, play the piano, go on walks outside, READ PAPER BOOKS, paint, organize my home, puzzle books, nap, take pictures with a real camera, draw, stare at the wall and do nothing, tarot & oracle card readings, feel my feelings, meditation, journaling, prayer, community events, comedy at a local open mic, and a billion other options

I am spending the next few days writing down the books I want to read, cleaning up my e-mail, making sure I can access voice mail on my Light Phone, etc. and then the nuclear option will be activated.

7 comments

r/nosurf • u/mmofrki • 12h ago

You wake up tomorrow and social media (in all forms, including Reddit) doesn't exist. What would be different?

4 Upvotes

Online communication would still exist, e-mails, messaging, but no one's posting selfies or doing tiktoks, etc.

5 comments

r/nosurf • u/thecalmman420 • 20h ago

I kind of broke my phone (And you can too!)

13 Upvotes

Over the past 2 years I keep blocking more and more aspects of my phone with various apps. I tell people my goal is to “make my phone useless” outside of what I actually want from it.

I don’t wanna do the dumb phone thing as phones are very useful such ass Calculators, Calendars, Maps, Communication (for work this is mandatory), Banking and payments, etc.

However there’s so much useless stuff like social media (I have none on my phone, nothing), YouTube scrolling, REDDIT scrolling! The worst!

Over the past 2 years I’ve installed a bunch of apps, some free some paid, to do some form of app/website blocking but I always was able to turn them off here or there.

Then something funny happened.

Youtube is blocked on my browser. I literally can’t turn it off. I’ve opened tons of apps, gone through setting, I have no idea where this “Youtube block” exists.

I THINK what happened was I had a paid app, blocked YouTube, didn’t pay to extend it, deleted it, and now it’s still just blocked somewhere on there.

So the past 2 months I just started doing more of that.

I use Blank Page, Screen Time, Down Time, Simple Phone, Blank Spaces, and more and set up schedule blocks, app blocks, total blocks, I use Blank Pages and blocked a gigantic list of websites and had my coworker I don’t know that well set a random PIN that he doesn’t remember the code to (every block list has a different PIN and I can’t keep track of them), and so on.

My MacBook is similar in that I use 1Focus and set up a bunch of unbreakable blocks with PINs I don’t even know.

Now my Reddit use is only open 1 hour in the morning and 1 hour in the evening so I just write down stuff I wanna do for when it opens up but I know from experience that in a week I’ll miss half these open blocks and break this habit.

Fun stuff.

3 comments

r/nosurf • u/nothing2Ch3re880 • 17h ago

I feel weird NOT being on the Internet

6 Upvotes

I hate hate hate the internet and how it has held me back in almost every aspect of my life. I want to be rid of it as much as possible, but sadly in the times we live in it's impossible or at least severely impractical to not have acess at all. I installed the Cold Turkey Blocker recently and that has really helped, especially since I can schedule time where all distracting websites are blocked, but I can give myself some time to browse in the day. The problem is even when I can't access social media or YouTube, I'll find some other way to mindlessly click around and scroll I've done it so much it feels weird not doing it. I want to read more and replace the majority of my screen time with reading or practicing piano or journaling or something productive. But even when I don't have access to the websites, I was addicted to I still find something else to scroll, even scrolling in the photo's app on my phone. How do I pull myself away?

2 comments

r/nosurf • u/JohnAMcdonald • 17h ago

Giving up my worst addiction

5 Upvotes

I've given up various addictions throughout my life, and I always seemed to have pretty good control. It feels like giving up most anything for a month is trivial. Internet addiction is different though, giving up abusive usage for a day is painful, a week just about impossible. I've always known I'm an addict but it has only recently dawned on me how much it is to blame for so many problems I have.

I've realised that I'm in a position in life where I have a lot of ability to help others and live a fufilling life if I could just kick this overwhelming addiction, which steals more of my time than every other addiction has combined. So I dunno, I'm going to start, I'm listening to "Smart Phone, Dumb Phone" on a recommendation here as a first step.

I do not want to give up the internet completely, my ideal is to use the internet in a controlled and utilitarian way.

1 comment

r/nosurf • u/mmofrki • 1d ago

The Internet is Annoying and Unusable (to me)

36 Upvotes

Ads, reels, shorts, subscriptions, pay walls.

It ruins the Internet experience. Yet, people just accept this as normal.

Wanna play a game? Okay, enjoy endless ads and money grubbing opportunities unless you pay $6/month.

Wanna edit photos? Same thing.

Browsing the web: "We noticed you have an ad blocker, please disable it to continue." "Wanna read the rest of the article? Please pay us $5."

I don't know how anyone can find this experience fun, and entertaining. Especially when the entertainment just seems so similar, everywhere. Crappy short form content, top ten lists, people arguing about other online people.

Even wanting to watch actual shows and movies are under lock and key unless you have the physical copies, which depending on the material could be hard to find.

At least there's an app like Libby and libraries still exist. And personal creativity exists too.

24 comments

r/nosurf • u/Sploshbg • 1d ago

YouTube shorts is so hard to put down.

18 Upvotes

Lately I haven't been able to fall asleep at the time I intend to do, because I keep wasting my time with YouTube shorts. Last night was the worse. I fell asleep at 4am after getting exhausted to the point of feeling it in my stomach. It's very hard to control myself before bed. My mind needs some stimulation, and I don't know how to fulfill that in a different way. What's worse is that during vacations and weekends I struggle to find ways to fill a whole day with meaningful activities, so I end up either playing video games, porn or YouTube. I feel my life is passing away. Anyone can relate? At least I managed to read some fiction more regularly. Hopefully I can start doing it every day and spend more time with it.

20 comments

r/nosurf • u/ProfessionalYogurt68 • 22h ago

Is there no surf for moms/parents?

8 Upvotes

Just wondering if anyone knows of anyone focused on being off our devices as parents. I love Cal Newport but sometimes his experience as a professor (and dude into dude things) is hard to relate to. Any names of folks who speak out about being less plugged in from a parenting perspective?

5 comments

r/nosurf • u/Fit-Bullfrog1157 • 16h ago

Digital cleanse January

2 Upvotes

I'm cutting out TV and greatly reducing phone usage in January, at the same time I'm cutting sugar down. I'll be super pleasant for a couple weeks 😆. Question: Will my brain rebalanced or improve without the TV/phone addiction even if I'm listening to podcasts? I want my focus, motivation, and neurotransmitters to improve but am not sure if both visual AND audio need to be cut? Does that question make sense? Thanks! P.S. I don't usually do New Years resolutions, but this year I'll take ANY motivation I can get to even initiate this effort.

6 comments

r/nosurf • u/Small-Strength-9501 • 17h ago

Why is self control so hard to achieve?

2 Upvotes

This question have been hanging around in my mind, why is it so hard for me to have self control?

3 comments

r/nosurf • u/mmofrki • 1d ago

Does the Internet give people a feeling of self-importance?

6 Upvotes

I have Snapchat but I use it for communication with people who, for some reason, refuse to use anything else.

Rarely do I venture onto stories, but I did today and I realized that a lot of people perceive themselves to have "haters" and constantly talk about sticking it to them.

This has been a thing since MySpace, if I recall correctly. People with about 50 friends or more always felt like those who wouldn't add them were hating on them, and I w always wondered why they felt so seemingly important to be ignored by everyone else.

Maybe its because I'm introverted, but I've never understood the point of inviting unnecessary drama onto oneself.

3 comments

r/nosurf • u/fernwise • 18h ago

Disconnected typing device for writing?

2 Upvotes

Hey I was wondering if anyone knows of any devices or small laptops which you can use for writing, that don’t connect to the internet and have a really simple/basic UI? I have thought about using a typewriter, but I’d like a device that can keep up with how fast my thoughts go and the keys on typewriters are too clunky for me to type too fast, and they’re too bulky to carry around with me. I discovered the device “Freewrite” last night, are there any other devices such as this out there? Or maybe an old small laptop? Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

8 comments

r/nosurf • u/[deleted] • 15h ago

Testing blocking app and set up

0 Upvotes

Ok so my no surf set up is across three devices.

On my phone and tablet I have the minimalist launcher app and grey scale. I have chrome, the playstore, and social media all blocked. My Chromebook I have chrome extensions 1) Adblock Plus 2) Shorts Blocker (to block shorts on YouTube) 3) Social Focus 4) Stay Focused.

I have put a limit on how long I can be on social media to 1 hour a day in total. I am hoping this helps. I will let you know. Any other suggestions are appreciated.

1 comment

r/nosurf • u/Unknown-0-0 • 15h ago

help

1 Upvotes

so recently like 1 week ago my mom got mad at me bcuz i didnt listen to her because she would say when ur done using ur phone but it in her room she said that was gonna check it and i have a gf and im not supossed yo but i do bcuz i love her and never wanna let her go so she got mad and thrw my phone and she apolized but then she said that im going tto my gramas house and idk how im gonna text my gf now any soultions

2 comments

r/nosurf • u/[deleted] • 15h ago

Other subs?

1 Upvotes

I am attempting to find all the digital minimalist type subs on here. So far I have r/nosurf r/technologicslavery r/luddite r/neoluddite r/digitalminimalism any others?

1 comment