How do I Stop Being Addicted to the Internet?

[DoctorDizzy]

I disabled my Discord account for an entire month. This is pretty hard for me, since all of my Internet friends are there... I do have the phone numbers of some, and convinced some others to use escargot.chat, during my time off, since I find that escargot lacks the features that make me addicted to Discord. But, like...

I have relapsed a few times, re-enabling my account to read messages. I haven't sent any today, but still. It's hard to look away, it's hard to get rid of the feeling of am I missing something? What's going on?? Am I caught up with notifications?

How do I start living in real life again??

[Melooon]

Its late so only a quick reply; but it sounds like you might be setting yourself up to fail The modern world depends on the internet and modern web services, so you're not up against yourself, you're up against the whole world and that's an unwinnable battle!

The only thing you can do is manage your interactions with the web; it's okay to have Discord if you can restrict it to just your close friends and communities you actually love to interact with. It's ok to be on modern social media if you limit it to just a few key interests and don't get caught up in trends. Going cold turkey will just isolate you, and no one deserves to be isolated! It's more about knowing what's healthy for you and finding the right balance.

The web revival is a great alternative world, but it's not meant to be the whole world; it just gives you more options and a quiet corner to escape to when you need it 

So while others I'm sure will give you lots of practical advice. I would start by saying don't be so hard on yourself, it sounds like you are already doing really well! 

After that, the only thing Id say is; make real-life wonderful and you'll want to be in it more - fill your home with things you love, your day with places you love and your heart with people you love - none of that is easy; but when your physical life is great, you'll want to be in it more. (I wish I could get there too!)

[Icey!]

Just like you I also have a Discord account with online "friends" that I have accumulated threw out my presence online, sometimes I talk with them, other times not so much. But when it comes to trying to get rid of something that has "the goods" stuck on to it, hard decisions come up and it's not always clear if that decision is the right one.

Discord has to be the hardest social media to leave as not only everyone is on there but it's the primary way to communicate to people on the modern web. You can ether try and deal with it by limiting areas (there exists tools for this if you look them up) or you could try and abandon Discord along with your online friends which I would only do as a last resort but only for a logical reason rather than to cure an "addiction". But even so, you shouldn't beat yourself on it. There are many people in the web-revival who still use these services (facebook, whatsapp, etc) to talk to others who can only be accessed threw there.

One thing I may consider to make the situation a bit better like what your parents may have said before is the reminder of focusing more on your physical life as it's often the best way to not be on the internet. Take a shower, brush your teeth, pick up your room, and touch grass. Reading a book is optional.

[lonelyjuly]

I was on the same boat with Discord. It's the number one place I go to to interact with my online friends and even my real life friends in a private server since we don't see each other face-to-face as much anymore. But I've come to the point of limiting myself to the communities and people I interact with. Interacting with multiple communities will leave you juggling them like crazy and leave you "chronically online" (for the lack of a better term), which isn't a great lifestyle. Your physical life is much more important than your online life and that should take priority. It's absolutely okay to use modern social media if you're limiting yourself.

Much love 

[doubleincision]

slowly tapering yourself off is much easier than quitting everything cold turkey! don't beat yourself up for "failing" to quit; it's not a failure on your part when the entire online world uses these platforms. that's like forcing a guy to live in a McDonald's and telling him he's a failure if he eats a hamburger every now and again

something i do that may be helpful: recently, i've gotten myself into the habit of avoiding drama and negativity online, and i've found that this has had the unexpected side effect of drastically reducing my social media use. i block tags, topics, and people who make me angry. i unfollow people who post too much about ~discourse~. if a Discord server has a lot of overly negative or argument-starting people in it, i leave that server or i use it very rarely. since i started doing this, i've stopped using Twitter entirely(haven't even had the app on my phone for months now), i only use Discord to talk to a small handful of close friends, and my overall online experience has become so much more fun and positive. i still use the computer a lot, but it's for fun things like this forum, or looking at websites that aren't social media, or doing something creative like working on my own site or making art.
i think the reason this has worked so well for me is because social media largely relies on your anger to keep you engaged; there's a reason "the algorithm" tends to show people controversial posts. humans have something of a natural addiction to arguing and debating, we love the rush of feeling superior to other people. once i started noticing how much online life revolves around negativity, i realized there was literally nothing beneficial or fun about keeping that crap in my life, so i lost interest!