The sheer volume of content served up on the infinite scroll of Reddit effortlessly steals focus and legitimately wastes much more time than anticipated. I thought if I had abandoned my account, I could break free from algorithmic recommendations from keeping me on the site. But even without an account, the front page and all the various meaningless comment threads still hook me in.

I don’t like this. Every time I break from the stupor there’s a small bit of regret, which compounds over time until it snowballs into anxiety.

But this is not the first time I’ve been here! I’ve solved this problem before with the Firefox extension LeechBlock NG. But when I migrated computers, I didn’t rememeber to re-install this, and the habit (addiction?) snuck up on me without realising

Blocking all reddit domains wasn’t a solution that would cut it. There are still some informative communities, and there’s often a problem I use Kagi/Google for where the solution is on a comment thread of Reddit. LeechBlock wildcards can whitelist all comment threads, so that I can read comment threads if a search engine takes me there!

Here’s my current LeechBlock setup for Reddit:

Domain names to block:

*.reddit.com*
*.reddit.com/r/*
+*.reddit.com/r/*/comments/*
+*.reddit.com/r/neovim/*
+*.reddit.com/r/velvethippos/*
+*.reddit.com/r/vim/*

Blocking schedule: All day, every day (0000-2400)

The “trick” with the + lines here is to allow specific comment threads and subreddits to break through the block, giving me access to genuinely useful information without opening the floodgates. The blanket *.reddit.com* line handles the rest.

Every time I’ve implemented this kind of block, the results are almost immediate and profoundly positive. My mood improves, that frantic urge to consume content subsides, and I rediscover “good quality boredom”. My mind gets to wander once more, connect the dots and ruminate on things I want to do and what I have tio look forward to.

Suddenly, I find myself gravitating towards more creative projects, or simply enjoying movies and games. Even for those moments on public transport, I still have many insightful blogs in the small internet to read. In all cases, I feel like I’m genuinely enjoying my time a lot more.