Show HN: Scream to Unlock – Blocks social media until you scream “I'm a loser”
I kept wasting time on social media, even though I’d promised myself I’d stay focused. Regular site blockers didn’t help.
I needed something that felt annoying enough to break the habit. That’s how the idea came up: make the blocker ask me to say something embarrassing out loud before it lets me back in. If I actually have to yell “I’m a loser” into my mic. Even better - the louder I screamed, the more time I’d get.
So I put together Scream to Unlock. It’s silly, but so far it’s done its job. My social feeds stay locked unless I really want them.
Extension link - https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/scream-to-unlock-ye...
Its open source and transparent - https://github.com/Pankajtanwarbanna/scream-to-unlock. No data collection or tracking, Audio processing happens locally in your browser. No recordings saved or transmitted.
What eventually helped me was use css to replace entire YouTube (and other doom scrolling websites) with a motivational picture that says:
"One day, you'll realize that your dream died because you chose comfort over effort. Don't let that regret haunt you forever."
And it worked.
Edit: the css for yt looks like this:
So I think it should force you to stare into the camera for 180 seconds without context switching to unlock. Practice focus to unlock distraction.
I like the idea, though, maybe five minutes for every 30 seconds of non-distracted gaze? Or something like that and tunable. Maybe even dynamic to the amount of time spent scrolling the feed in the last x hours?
Sounds like you would benefit from training 3 minutes at a time for starters!
I can't let it lock! That would increase the cost. Must keep scrolling.
My daughter is a second grader. If every 5 minutes of tablet use 'cost' her 5 correct arithmetic answers she would be working at space x right now.
Its much better to make kids interested in learning than to reward reaching goals or punish failing to reach them.
Long term, it could still be a win.
Obviously not the same, but in the first years of university, I hated math because it suddenly got hard (never before university did I have to learn math or physics just to barely pass). Then, after many nights of reading through books and practicing, grinding, I realized it's not that hard and it made me enjoy solving the "challenges".
This is still useful after having left academia, I often look at something and the right "tool" pops up from the toolbox. It helos to understand the world around us and realize how much bullshit we are fed through doctored graphs or tables.
The only thing I'd change from this wonderful comment is that it is that hard! It's just that, like any other hard skill, lots of dedicated study and practice makes it easier to do hard things.
What I mean is that before that, I just thought it’s simply too hard for me and the others are smarter or they come from better school. Then, after going through practically 3-5 books for each topic, practically “drilling” exercises, I finally understood why the others “just get it”. It was hard to get myself to sit down, focus, work, practice… but once I worked on a topic for long enough and got better, I realized it’s not magic, I don’t need special talents, and I can just sit down and study most things.
Then, the classes and exams didn’t give me anxiety anymore, I started to enjoy them, treat exams as challenges rather then the step before receiving another failed exam notification…
I studied Physics but switched to software engineering and this experience helped me add another tool to my toolbelt when something gets difficult.
Some perseverance, some time, and we can learn many things. And as you get better, you start to enjoy things.
What about chores? How should I make my children interested in chores outside of a reward or punishment?
it is usually possible IMO
What is the per se benefit of the "tax" if not to encourage learning.?
> How should I make my children interested in chores outside of a reward or punishment?
Instill a sense of duty and obligation. Set an example. Children do understand quite young that things need to be done, and they like to help parents.
Do less arithmetic. We have calculators so arithmetic matters less.
> no amount of sugarcoating will make kids like it.
Sugarcoating is exactly the wrong approach. Its making the subject itself enjoyable.
https://profkeithdevlin.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/lockh...
> This is the lesson unlearned by proponents of "New Math" and "Common Core" in the USA
Not familiar with those, but I the "its fun" approach has worked for me.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-pound_burger#Marketing_f...
"The results revealed that many participants mistakenly believed that one-third of a pound was smaller than one-fourth (quarter) of a pound. Focus group participants expressed confusion over the price, asking why they should pay the same amount for a "smaller" third-pound burger."
Disagee. Fluency in basic arithmetic is a very useful life skill.
would you also posit that, since we have AI auto gen tools, we no longer need to teach spelling/grammar to children?
I would not teach spelling by drill and memorisation either - you pick it up if you read.
Learning the basics and drilling them is a useful skill even if you can make the machine do it for you.
While this isn't a "do math to be able to unlock your device" type of game, it is fun to play and can be used as an earned screen-time requirement (or a "free screen-time" option!)
Disclaimer: I work for Prodigy as a Site Reliability Engineer, but my son (10) also enjoys playing the game!
For use on a tablet, you'd have to lock down the tablet to that single app by putting it into Kiosk mode/Single App mode.
[0] https://anton.app
But TBH making kids continually solve math problems seems a bit mean to me. Like making a kid do pushups for food if they're overweight. Too militaristic and authoritarian for my liking, but I can respect your creativity for creating that. It's good to try new ideas.
There are ways of locking down phones and apps, I think. I am pretty sure there are apps that will do most of what you want, but they do not have critical mass.
I did set up a Jitsi server for my daughter and her friends at one point when another parent was not keen on allowing kids access to chat and video apps.
You can give kids a basic phone instead of a smartphone.
If I had kids I wouldn't even allow use of a smartphone. I think hardly any BigTech execs let their own kids use these dumpster fires called smartphones and social media. They know there's almost zero benefits to it. Just leads to brain damage, laziness, ADHD, psychological disorders like depression, life-threatening risk-taking, and even su*cicd.
There is Android support for locking things down for kids, but I do not know how effective it is - mine are adults of close to being an adult now.
Its also hard to do without. I would have to pay a lot more for my daughter's bus tickets to get to school if she did not use the bus company app (because that would mean daily tickets instead of monthly which are a lot cheaper). Its where a lot of kids not only discuss things and social, but organise things (although I encourage doing that at a desktop rather than a phone when possible) so kids without get left out.
Research:
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3354773/ – Low self-esteem + rejection hurts self-control
- https://selfdeterminationtheory.org/SDT/documents/2007_Power... – Self-criticism predicts less goal progress
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9916102/ – Social exclusion slows inhibitory control
- https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1191... – Low teen self-esteem → poorer self-control
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8768475/ – Meta-analysis links shame to regulation drops
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28810473/ – Self-compassion boosts self-regulation
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312138882_Self-Cont... – Ego threats deplete self-control resources
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21632968/ – Self-criticism tied to worse goal progress
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-96476-8 – Low self-respect → low self-control → problems
Remember to be kind to yourself.
The research stands, but the practical application of his app is based on a Positive Punishment operant conditioning.
That is not a psychologically healthy way to frame this.
And I think it’s a stretch to say that screaming “I’m a loser” is positive punishment, which seems just as likely to reinforce negative self beliefs that lead to the outcomes described in the parent comment’s research and opposite of what the user presumably wants.
To your point, just flipping this around to “I’m a winner” doesn’t seem quite right either. But more importantly, reinforcing the idea that “I’m a loser” seems counterproductive either way.
A positive punishment is giving the subject something they don’t like. For example corporeal punishment.
A negative punishment is taking away something the subject does like. For example food.
Importantly punishments need to happen after the unwanted behavior. So being punished before the behavior occurs doesn’t make any sense.
Also importantly, punishment as a mechanism for changing behavior is generally considered less effective than reinforcement approaches, which tend to be more effective and carry fewer downsides (like internalizing the idea that I'm a loser).
To your last point, I think the conclusion remains similar. Even if yelling “I’m a loser” qualifies as “something you have to do”, it seems unlikely to be an effective “punishment” in that framework for the reasons explored above.
Maybe the solution would be to have to shout something embarrassing but not deprecating towards your own self-worth. Like “I eat spaghetti through my nose” or “my poop comes out really soft”. You’d certainly avoid using social media in public.
While a “punishment” that involves calling oneself a loser is a problem, the entire approach of punishment-based learning has given way to reinforcement approaches because they tend to be more effective in the long term without the negative effects of punishment-based approaches.
To put this another way, using punishment to stop using social media is probably not a good approach either way. Yelling “I’m a loser” is just one of the worst variants of this specific approach.
There’s a good reason addiction recovery is now often focused on the underlying issues of shame and other negative self beliefs. They tend to be at the root of the issue, despite being the default reaction people feel towards themselves due to social conditioning.
Everyone is a loser for using social media?
Quite a bit of social media use happens for perfectly good reasons. Organizing local events, finding and attending local events, meeting people in other regions who care about a common cause, etc.
What tends to distress people is that social media is also a toxic hellscape that simultaneously stresses them out and addicts them by playing on their evolutionary instincts and needs for social connection while feeding them engagement bait.
And so unplugging is a common topic these days, because people are trying to live better lives.
I get that it’s a pet project, but if this pet project was aimed at alcoholics trying to get sober, I think people would look at it in a different light because people take alcoholism seriously, and reinforcing negative loops that actually perpetuate alcoholism would be justifiably criticized.
I personally don’t think we’re taking social media harms seriously enough collectively, although there are signs that people are catching up. So while I think this project comes from the right place and I’m all for having a bit of fun, I think it’s actually quite problematic in its current state given the issue it attempts to address, and I don’t think the fact that it’s intended to be fun should shield it from the feedback it’s getting.
> Or should we just face it.
The sentence following this is just objectively false to a degree that I don’t even see the humor in it. It’s schoolyard stuff that perpetuates the problem.
I know and see the damage upon. We've let social media control us.
For most people, social media is something that happened to them, and the nature of the relationship is asymmetrical.
The companies building these products spend millions weaponizing their apps to take advantage of human psychology, while social forces have made these apps ubiquitous and part of the fabric of many people’s lives.
I don’t think it’s fair to say people “let” social media control them any more than it’s fair to say someone predisposed to alcoholism “lets” alcohol control them.
This isn’t to say we don’t need to each take steps to improve our situations or unplug from social media, but I’m pointing this out because of how it relates to your earlier diagnosis that “Everyone who uses social media is a loser”, which points the finger in the wrong direction and frames the issue as a personal problem vs. a growing systemic social issue.
Why are you drinking? — the little prince asked.
- In order to forget — replied the drunkard.
- To forget what? — inquired the little prince, who was already feeling sorry for him.
- To forget that I am ashamed — the drunkard confessed, hanging his head.
- Ashamed of what? — asked the little prince who wanted to help him.
- Ashamed of drinking! — concluded the drunkard, withdrawing into total silence.
---
What helps is self-forgiveness and being gentle towards oneself. (I also was in the mode of guilt-tripping myself; and still, I do that often. But it does not help.)
- Bruce Lee
There needs to be a healthier alternative to that replaces the social media habit, that is reinforced by enjoying it. I do this by reading books I wouldn’t normally read, which also gives me a reason to browse indie bookshops.
"social media is for losers, and I'm a winner!"
might be both comedic and positive?
Maybe that's a little too close to the WINNERS DON'T USE DRUGS! splash screens that dominated the video games of my youth. We all snickered at those and I don't think it made a bit of difference. Dunno. Heck of a thing to holler when you're on the bus or whatever before you can get your fix, that's for sure.
Yelling "I'm a loser" too much reminds me of that, though on a different level of the "brain stack". I get the sentiment, and I understand the somewhat playful intent, but quite seriously I'd suggest something more neutral at the very least. Maybe it's completely harmless, but that's clearly the best case scenario, and it goes down hill fast after that. "First, do no harm" strikes me as relevant here, and important as ever.
Be kind to yourself, but think through the problem before sending a week worth of research articles.
Then you could make it so the pain was in leaving to go back to other work, so you'd enter knowing it would not be an easy exit. (But you'd get to yell self-affirming things on exit :) )
But screaming "I'm a winner" doesn't do it either, and is perhaps even more undermining
Everyone knows if you yourself have to say "I'm randomPositiveAttribute", whether it is "winner", "genius", "brilliant", "good-looking", etc., you are NOT that — you are just a loser trying to tell everyone you are somehow a winner.
Perhaps the best thing to yell is the most straightforward — "Unlock Social Media Now!". It doesn't overtly characterize you, it honestly exposes your weakness, which is probably a more powerful shaming de-motivator.
Otherwise Hacker News or freelance/indiehacker sites
edit: I do have a hobby (making hardware stuff) but I fell out of it/trying to get back into it (motivation) and work multiple jobs, but on downtime trying to do mindless stuff which isn't always bad/need a mental break
Now make a "Dungeon Crawler Carl" -branded one that requires a webcam, bare feet, and nail polish!
Not sure it works as well on people already addicted compared to people not yet addicted.
Wouldn't that simply be a picture of himself?
Are you sure Chrome doesn't talk to Google's server to convert the speech to text?
> Note: On some browsers, like Chrome, using Speech Recognition on a web page involves a server-based recognition engine. Your audio is sent to a web service for recognition processing, so it won't work offline.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_Speech_...
https://github.com/chaosprint/twice
On TikTok you can just swipe through ads when they come up, so lots of people now have built-in muscle memory to auto-swipe every 4th or 5th video, or if they see "Sponsored" in the lower left. If I was instead forced to watch every one of those through to completion, I'd spend a lot less time on there.
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I guess web browsers don't have integrated face recognition APIs yet, although phones could probably do this
I suppose it needs clarifying that I say this all in jest, not as any kind of serious suggestion. Among other reasons, it would only improve the tone and not the substance.
Maybe something like “I know this is the opposite of socializing but I want to give in the the mindless algorithmic manipulation for a little longer anyways”