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Comment by zug_zug | Hacker News Reader

"Just delete tiktok" is like the diet advice "just eat less." Demonstrably impractical and debatably harmful.

Perhaps better advice is to find things that are immediately stimulating but also long-term rewarding (akin to finding food that tastes delicious and is filling but also is healthy).

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> Perhaps better advice is to find things that are immediately stimulating but also long-term rewarding (akin to finding food that tastes delicious and is filling but also is healthy).

Do such things even exist? because my ADHD says no.

Sports, hobbies, books, various art forms

People with ADHD are known to pick up a million hobbies, books and art forms but struggle sticking to them, because the initial stimulation from novelty is stronger than anything else. Playing a sport or an instrument is fun, but getting good at it requires strong discipline, precisely because it's not fun. The only thing that truly helps with this is the right type and dosage of meds.

I was just answering the question that fulfilling things exist. I wasn't trying to cure adhd. Of course go talk to a pro and get real coping tools and medicine if needed to use.

Those things aren't necessarily "long-term fulfilling" for people with ADHD. The only things that have been that way for me are chatting with friends and programming. Everything else (and trust me, there's a lot of everything else) I instantly get depressed that I suck, give up, and lose the ability to ever try again.

Well maybe not yet, but there's no reason we couldn't invent one.

I can think of 10 ways to make an app like tiktok that's more social and promotes building relationships with people in your vicinity. I bet you could too.

You failed when you said "like tiktok" because nobody wants tiktok. Tiktok is a toxic cesspool and the entire premise is flawed. I build relationships on cohost instead.

How would an app build relationships?

People already build relationships through apps that wouldn't have otherwise happened (be it discord or tinder), though neither is really very good at that.

If you want to build relationships with people who live near you the app should have some element of seeing content from people nearby you (presumably within your age bracket too). And also more interactivity from viewers (you can see a moderate amount of interactivity even in youtube communities).

I don't know, Discord is the best for me because I can just talk to people without the app trying to cause something that needs to happen naturally.

Discord totally does encourage creating social connections. It has the idea of "friends", and does things like show you what games people are playing to enable people to join in games together or at the very least chat about it.

I use the friends list to DM people without sharing a server with them, that's it.

Isn't that what friends lists have always been anyway?

You picked the wrong analogy. Caloric restriction is both demonstrably practical and beneficial in numerous ways - bmi, longevity, anti-cancer, and general well-being to name a few.

But arent people using tiktok because its the best at stimulating them? I don’t necessarily think there is something that scratches the same itch but is good.

Its OK to be bored. Our minds latch onto social media, news, video games, etc. like drugs. Not reaching for the screen and finding something physical to do is remarkably like meditation, where you notice your mind latching onto some thought then make the decision to refocus on your breath.

We are comparing tiktok to eating? You know, eating which we need for survival?

> "Just delete tiktok" is like the diet advice "just eat less." Demonstrably impractical and debatably harmful.

I am 100% sure that not looking at tiktok is going to harm you in any way.

"like the diet advice "just eat less." Demonstrably impractical and debatably harmful"

What are you talking about? That is the correct, and only way, to lose weight.

Oh? Since it's demonstrable, please demonstrate how impractical that is.

Once the writing was on the wall for Musk's takeover of Twitter, I quit. After being a daily user for many years. It was not easy, but it was also not impractical. And I'm better off for it.

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