We're in the same boat! But I fell for it, like, 15-20yrs ago. Have been restricting myself since, basically, to the web 1.0 level. I don't have broadband anymore, only limited plan, - this stops me from watching videos. This was a conscious step. After setting up some physical barriers it became easier to change my own mindset (I knew I didn't have such an iron will to begin with). Also, knowledge helps. For example, being concerned with own privacy, security and health, prevents me from using garbage like tiktok or instagram. There's also conventional wisdom which tells me to stop trying to catch on with everything (HN news stream, for example :) ). Although it was necessary for my line of work for quite a while, but in life it brings nothing but sense of miss or loss like "Oh I could've done this/involved with that/joined those projects/used this library/visited that conference/etc.
Sorry if this comment turned into ramblings )
HN is somewhere in the middle of useful and interesting versus distracting and repetitive. It’s valuable enough for me to keep track of. I’ve noticed that I like it more through RSS. Because I don’t see upvotes and comment counts there.
