Now here’s a secret that you would like to hear, you’re welcome!
Just visit one site to download free Adplus Block (it’s free!) Seriously, in one second – all the annoying pop-ups, ads and other annoying stuff to surf through when you work online completely disappears – pop!
Of course, some sites then won’t let you visit (so be it). If you do wish to visit certain sites that only allow ads, you can ‘whitelist list’, but the rest goes! Once downloaded, you”ll never go back.
While you’re at it, also download Unhook (this will remove all the ‘recommended videos’ in the sidebar, if you want or have to watch a YouTube video). It’s just then a blank site on the right-hand site.
And while we’re at it (there’s a theme here), download I Don’t Care About Cookies (so each time you visit a site, you won’t have to keep clicking pop-ups to reach the page you want). Saves you time, then you can turn off and go outside in to the fresh air!
In her wonderful book The Joy of Missing Out, writer Christina Crook decided to take a 31-day Internet fast, to simply learn about a world that wasn’t totally revolved around the web. She did this after hearing a ‘man of the cloth’ blessing Blackberries (the phones, not the fruits).
She did eventually go back to working alone, but set her own rules on how and when to do so. And felt a lot better for it.
How apps are designed to hook you
These days the world and his wife entice you to buy a smartphone (it’s difficult to get ID, open a bank account or move home without one, due to apps). But of course they have created a world of ‘infinite scrollers’ who can never get off the damn things.
People scroll their phones at the bus stop, when ‘talking to you’ in pubs, and some people have even been tweeting as they had miscarriages (a few have even fallen to their deaths, due to selfies gone wrong). Not funny, but they were so intent on making the images good, they didn’t see the danger behind.
It’s a world gone mad. ‘Free trials’ rolled into paid plans because you forgot (not because you decided). It’s the modern equivalent of forgetting the direct debit payments for the lapsed gym membership. Only more sinister, as it’s not so easy to pop down the gym and cancel.
People who decide to sign to Facebook can do so in a minute. But see how difficult it is to cancel. Rather than get discouraged, try a quick reset to empower yourself, your rules, your time, your life:
- Turn off non-essential notifications.
- Move unnecessary apps off screens.
- Only check for socials and news twice daily.
- ‘Park’ your phone (away from your bed) at night.
- Unsubscribe from marketing emails.
- Use notification summaries (so pings arrive in batches)
- Use tracker blocking and clear cookies.
To free yourself, to be more authentic, to be less addicted, to be less manipulated, to be less paranoid – for all these marvellous reasons, delete your accounts. Jaron Lanier
