Reading articles and books
this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2025
101 points (97.2% liked)
Asklemmy
45884 readers
1205 users here now
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
Search asklemmy π
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- [email protected]: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
RSS feeds, Gemini and Gopher. Always good stuff there, and feels cosier than social media!
I second this! Hunting, curating, and organizing rss feeds are the best!
Lemmy (Summit) Open Sudoku
MTGA. Lots of fun.
Sir, please stop recommending crack to cure OP's smoking addiction.
Reading a paper book, playing balatro on mobile. I'm not using my phone as much, not with the current events happening.
Check if my apps are up to date. Then remind myself fun is in real life not my phone. I'm not being pedantic it just helps to focus on my real happiness and keeping my hands busy than not and dooming in my phone.
I have some novels on royal road i keep up with. But after than i enjoy the tranquility
In terms of chances:
- 90% Tiktok
- 8% Lemmy
- 2% YouTube
When I'm actively doing something (not just on my phone):
- 70% YouTube
- 10% Crunchyroll
- 5% Friends jellyfin servers
- 5% Netflix
- 10% Browser / Chatgpt / Termux / any other tool
I read lots of books. Libby is an app to electronically check out books from your local library for free. You can also read lots of amateur stories online on various sites. Royal Road has been one of my favorite sites for regular stories that you can read in public.
+1 for Libby. Also shout out to Z-Library, Library Genesis, and the Internet Archive for all the book epubs and pdfs you can find there
Nothing. I only use a gaming PC to go online, draw, and play games on. I rarely even use my phone...
I have miniflux setup for RSS feeds, and I'll doom scroll lemmy. For games I emulate old pokemon games. You can also just get lost in your thoughts for a bit too. It can really be good for your brain to just sit with your thoughts for a while.
Lately it's been sifting through IMDB collections to find movies to watch.
That or I check the groups I'm in to see what I'm late to the party on now.
Uhhhh
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Play the NYT wordle, mini crossword, connections for the day. I have some small simple games that can be stopped at any time. My most played ones are cake sort, water sort, sudoku and sometimes minesweeper. Also scroll lemmy sometimes, it's small enough that it doesn't take long to see everything that is new, so there's no risk of getting sucked in for long
Don't replace social media with something else on your phone.
Put the phone down and walk away.
I hear heroin is nice.
Probably less addictive.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Lemmy mostly
Honestly, as someone who largely disliked social media and was typically a lurking doomscroller that was ready to quit social media altogether at the reddit app ban, what made the best change ever was becoming someone who is primarily a poster.
I post what I want, when I want, and I get to start the conversation that way. It's always a topic I want to talk about, and it's something there isn't much to argue about, and all the interactions will be 99% positive.
It's a small crowd here, so you can get people that are ready to talk with whoever reaches out to the masses first.
You can take time replying to people, and if no one is talking at the moment, it gives you time to plan a next post.
Pick a topic you enjoy and make yourself our local expert. That prompts you to keep actively learning about something you enjoy too so you can answer people's questions they ask you.
switching to lemmy has made my social media consumption SIGNIFICANTLY less doomscroll-ey
How is so?
no addictive algorithm to keep you hooked and lemmy actually encourages you to act instead of just scrolling endlessly.
I was like most Americans doom scrolling things things like r/latestagecapitalism and a r/aboringdystopia because I was aware that things were fucked; like most of us are.
It felt like the fuckery was permanent and that there was nothing I could do but accept that this was reality and try to make the most out of it; filling me w despair about life and leading me to doomscrolling all the time.
Lemmy showed to me in writing that this fuckery was predicted almost 2 centuries ago and that there's actually very few people perpetuating the fuckery (for their own benefit) and they've engineered this system to create the mass false belief that all the fuckery is permanent and that there is nothing we can do about it except push for small, ineffectual changes.
Lemmy, tiktok, and rednote have shown me that people like me are living significantly better lives simply because the ultra rich are not allowed to perpetuate the type of fuckery that was keeping me trapped in a doomscroll loop.
Rednote, in particular, was eye opening for me: I learned from them that most people on that side of the planet assume that life altering medical bills, housing unaffordability, & student loans like mine were nothing more than anti-american propaganda from their governments.
us media has a way of sucking the life out of you. internet, movies and even games.
It's like refined sugar both addicting and difficult to avoid
I have a few dozen mobile games
Mostly tiktok scrolling. It's got a bad rep, but there's a huge amount of seriously talented people on there doing amazing and creative things. I'm a 50-something year old guy and it quickly figured out I like videos about mine explores and restoring vintage vehicles. Once you learn to downvote stuff you don't like, it's quick to learn and aside from the comment bots or obvious trolls (Typically pro-Russian or Pro-Trump, if there's a difference) it's generally a positive thing, in moderation.
I totally get your desire about avoiding socials and have experienced the mood swings it can bring too. That's made me quite tuned into how the algorithms are steering me. For me (and everyone's experience is different) - Facebook is mostly bland generic stuff but quite useful for local content - just avoid the drama llamas), and use an advert blocker. Reddit is mixed. I used to be on there a lot and contributed and modded a bunch of stuff, but quit for a year after spez screwed over the app people. I skim it a bit now, but don't give it much mind. X is awful, won't go near it. Lemmy is less of a shitpost zone than most but still has too few people to be significant. We're all helping with that though.
Lemmy aside, I think most algs will figure you out pretty quick. If you get involved in nasty commenting, it'll feed you more of that. If you do the odd positive thing (as I try to) then it can be less toxic - but with all things, remember why you're there. The more you feed it, the bigger to you it becomes. Balance is important, and be aware of how stuff is affecting you.
Anyway, beyond TT, crosswords, some news sites and the occasional candy crush.
Good question though, I'm reading other comments as it's harder to find stuff outside of the main channels now.
I hang out with all y'all jokers on lemmy
PPSSPP and Dolphin. Playing through the entirety of Paper Mario: TTYD, Luigis mansion, Sims 2, and Killzone wasted a good chunk of idle time for me.
Dolphin is honestly such a cool emulator. I also love how it's technically two emulators at once! Never had a single issue with any of the games I've played on it. It's so solid
Lemmy
Duolingo. My whole family has caught the bug. I hear the little ba-ding! noise from all corners of the house all evening long.
Y todavΓa no puedo hablar bien espaΓ±ol π
I wish there was a foss option that was so good for, for lack of a better description, mindless learning
load more comments
(2 replies)
yucata.de (online boardgames)
Shattered Pixel Dungeon
Simon Tatham Puzzles
Lichess app - Puzzle of the Day
Gurgle app (wordle)
https://wikitok.vercel.app/ (endless mood-scroll Wikipedia)
Various solitaires via LΓVE Solitaire.
Simon Tantham puzzles
And, due to a Lemmy post I saw the other day, a game called Slice and Dice.
I came here to see if anyone else suggested Simon Tathams puzzles - it's a real gem! Perfectly dull, all-quality puzzles with no bullshit!
load more comments
(2 replies)
view more: next βΊ