Kids find ways around everything. Even adults find the 'digital wellbeing' tools on Android and iOS useless. Just look at the multitude of apps available for digital self regulation these days (ScreenZen, Freedom, BlockSite, etc). No single solution works for everybody at the moment.

Regulation by itself is also insufficient. But maybe combining regulation with parental controls plus other measures will be effective. A 'defense in depth' or swiss cheese strategy, with multiple layers of protection.

I do hope we figure out what layers are needed soon, though. It feels like we're running out of time.

And yes, there are lots of cows. The longer you stay on distracting sites, the more cows appear.

The idea is to make distracting sites less appealing, without using a black-and-white site blocker, which you can easily disable.

Chrome: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/mooblock/eanbagjehd...

Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/mooblock/

And yes it is based off my research on Internet and porn addiction (I am a psych researcher). So far I've received very positive feedback suggesting that it does work for people.

For desktop, I recently built a free browser extension called MooBlock - it's similar to ScreenZen in that it adds a forced pause before you reach a distracting site. Bu once you reach the site, a herd of cows start walking all over your screen to make the website less appealing.

It's available in both the Chrome and Firefox extension stores. Hoping to make an Android version later this year too.

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/mooblock/eanbagjehd...

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47985862

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

We need to find the Goldilocks optimal level of AI assistance that doesn't leave everyone hating their jobs, while still boosting productivity.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46772551

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46352627

Points: 4

# Comments: 0

I've been using it for the past few months and it's massively boosted my productivity.

Chrome: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/decayblock/lpljcnal... Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/decayblock/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45586279

Points: 6

# Comments: 6

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45498809

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

To solve this for myself, I built DecayBlock, a browser extension based on the principle of adaptive friction. The mechanism is simple:

1. When you visit a site on your distraction list, a brief timeout is applied before the page loads.

2. This timeout accumulates with each visit, so repeated or habitual access becomes progressively more difficult.

3. Over time, the accumulated timeout decays with a configurable half-life when you stay away from those sites.

The goal isn't to enforce a ban (although you can permanently block websites if you choose), but to introduce a small, increasing cost to the act of procrastination. That brief pause is often enough to break the subconscious loop of opening a distracting tab, without ever fully locking you out. You can configure the timeout growth rate and decay half-life to match your own habits.

I've been using this system daily for several months, and it has been significantly more effective for me than any other tool.

DecayBlock is available now on both the Chrome and Firefox web extension stores. Currently it’s only on desktop but I’m hoping to release a mobile version at some point in the future.

Chrome: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/decayblock/lpljcnal...

Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/decayblock/

I'm here to answer any questions and would love any feedback!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45447130

Points: 4

# Comments: 0

To solve this for myself, I built DecayBlock, a browser extension based on the principle of adaptive friction. The mechanism is simple:

1. When you visit a site on your distraction list, a brief timeout is applied before the page loads.

2. This timeout accumulates with each visit, so repeated or habitual access becomes progressively more difficult.

3. Over time, the accumulated timeout decays with a configurable half-life when you stay away from those sites.

The goal isn't to enforce a ban (although you can permanently block websites if you choose), but to introduce a small, increasing cost to the act of procrastination. That brief pause is often enough to break the subconscious loop of opening a distracting tab, without ever fully locking you out. You can configure the timeout growth rate and decay half-life to match your own habits.

I've been using this system daily for several months, and it has been significantly more effective for me than any other tool.

DecayBlock is available now on both the Chrome and Firefox web extension stores. Currently it’s only on desktop but I’m hoping to release a mobile version at some point in the future.

Chrome: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/decayblock/lpljcnal...

Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/decayblock/

I'm here to answer any questions and would love any feedback!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45444549

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

To solve this for myself, I built DecayBlock, a browser extension based on the principle of adaptive friction. The mechanism is simple:

1. When you visit a site on your distraction list, a brief timeout is applied before the page loads.

2. This timeout accumulates with each visit, so repeated or habitual access becomes progressively more difficult.

3. Over time, the accumulated timeout decays with a configurable half-life when you stay away from those sites.

The goal isn't to enforce a ban (although you can permanently block websites if you choose), but to introduce a small, increasing cost to the act of procrastination. That brief pause is often enough to break the subconscious loop of opening a distracting tab, without ever fully locking you out. You can configure the timeout growth rate and decay half-life to match your own habits.

I've been using this system daily for several months, and it has been significantly more effective for me than any other tool.

DecayBlock is available now on both the Chrome and Firefox web extension stores. Currently it’s only on desktop but I’m hoping to release a mobile version at some point in the future.

Chrome: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/decayblock/lpljcnal...

Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/decayblock/

I'm here to answer any questions and would love any feedback!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45329540

Points: 2

# Comments: 2

Curious what others think about this direction, particularly in terms of practicality

Our team recently published a paper introducing a tool to reduce echo chamber effects on social media. Essentially, we’ve developed an “allostatic regulator”, grounded in psychological theory, that can be applied at the inference layer of pretty much any existing recommender.

Think of it as a code wrapper that helps machine learning algorithms offer a more diverse content diet, by subtly nudging users away from extreme algorithmic reinforcement, based on a user’s recent content viewing history. We've shown it works in simulated environments, but the big next step is real-world deployment and testing at scale.

We believe this tool has significant potential for platforms like Google and Meta – not just for user mental health, but also as a long-term strategic benefit for their ecosystems. So we're really keen to get this into the hands of researchers and engineers who are working on these problems. If you're at Google, Meta, or elsewhere and this resonates, we'd love to explore how we might collaborate on testing it in a live setting.

You can read the full paper here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/29974100.2025.2...

Any advice or feedback is very welcome!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44469654

Points: 4

# Comments: 0

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44435492

Points: 4

# Comments: 1

But I think this is a step in the right direction. There is clear evidence of the harms caused by social media, especially for adolescents. We have to start trying things - albeit imperfectly - to get to a better place. We can learn a lot from the outcomes of this experiment.