I go through phases of deleting social media apps off my phone. I find that I’m waisting too much time and getting annoyed by the content I see. It’s hard, however, to kick the phone habit entirely, so that scrolling time gets largely reinvested into games (pokemon emulators or MTG arena) and eBay. I find that in these social media free periods my pokemon card spending goes way up. So, my question is, would you guys rather scroll social media for free or free yourself from the algorithm overlords at your wallets expense? Can anyone else relate to this dilemma? (Yes, I know I can simply delete social media AND not buy cards… that’s not the point lol)
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Id rather buy Pokémon cards than doomscroll on social media. I don’t use Facebook, insta, or any social media and don’t plan to ever use them. I do use fb/insta for Pokémon related transactions but that’s about it
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Been there for sure. You could try browsing or building your ”collection” on tcgcollector as an alternative.
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Have you considered another hobby as an option as well? I wouldnt ever want to limit myself to just those two. Learn a new language, pick up a book, or go travel. Tons of better things to do!
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Could be mistaken, but I think they’re referring to times when it’s either phone or nothing
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Gotcha. I misread it a bit I think. 
I was assuming I had only two options, and never like restricting myself.
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This is a great idea; funny enough, the E4 Secret Santa requirement to draw a picture made me start drawing more as a hobby!
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Scroll social media, but only educational content. Learning something is better than brainrot or wasting money.
Lots of educational toks these days.
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I like eevee’s suggestion of finding a new hobby. For example something that’s easy to pick up and gets into your routine, like duolingo, drawing or reading books. I see plenty of people doing such even on short train trips to work, it’s so much better.
I also agree with dyl. While you attempt a detox, tricking your brain is a good idea: try to polish your feed so you get at least educational content, or consider something that doesn’t require doomscrolling (podcasts, reddit, YouTube..).
It really isn’t ideal that you switch an “addiction” for another like excessive spending, so I honestly don’t know which one I would choose. Maybe a 50-50 split so neither of them reaches a dangerous level.
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Yeah just to clarify I do more than just scroll my phone lol - but in a hypothetical situation where all phone time was either spent on social media or scrolling ebay for cards, which would be preferred?
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Ah I see. Well Im a little biased as I dont use any social media other than Reddit/E4, so probably scrolling for cards I know I cant afford XD
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Thanks for sharing!
While I don’t use social media, I can certainly understand your dilemma. Besides echoing what others have said about considering trying to add another hobby to your repertoire, I’ll extend this train of thought a bit. Perhaps consider what aspects of scrolling (social media or eBay) you enjoy the most and be intentional about what you substitute that time with.
For instance, if you enjoy the passivity, perhaps read some of the posts under the “articles” tag here on E4, or via Google (e.g. Wikipedia, google scholar, etc.) pertaining to another interest of yours (but NOT via your typical social media outlets). If you prefer the excitement of procuring more cards, use the “no social media time” to organize and sort through what you already have instead of eBay. Hopefully this helps a bit 
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