Show HN: Scream to Unlock – Blocks social media until you scream “I'm a loser”
2 days ago
Hi all,
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.
I'm a programmer, a creative person, working on my projects, and regularly I need a short break, so on every break I usually lay in bed and checked the news and I often ended on YouTube watching more videos, wasting hours every day.
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:
If you want to make a kids app... Forcing the child to do a number of math problems to continue using the tablet would be an amazing app that I would definitely pay for.
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.
It would work short term, but I would worry that it makes a a price to be paid which will impair joy in learning the subject in the long term.
Its much better to make kids interested in learning than to reward reaching goals or punish failing to reach them.
On the other hand, the kids might do lot of exercises to keep playing, then they get better at something, then they realize that it is much more enjoyable to be good at something than not...
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".
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Is it much better if its not possible? You just handwaved away the work involve by assuming you can create "interest". You shifted the goal post away from using arithmetic as a tax on idle iPad use toward "learning."
What about chores? How should I make my children interested in chores outside of a reward or punishment?
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Math is a grind. Inherently. You gotta drill the basic arithmetic in order to learn it, and no amount of sugarcoating will make kids like it. So incentivizing kids to commit to the grind will beat attempting to make the subject more interesting, every time. This is the lesson unlearned by proponents of "New Math" and "Common Core" in the USA; in fact, maybe one of the reasons why Singapore Math is so successful is because Singaporeans, like many Asians, learn the value of discipline from an early age.
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Might I suggest https://www.prodigygame.com - it's a free-to-play online math game, where your child is a wizard that has to answer (age appropriate) math questions to gain magic to cast spells. Note: there is a paid subscription that allows your child to get access to more pets / faster experience gain, but is not required.
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!
The Anton app[0] does that to a decent extent. The kids have to earn "coins" by solving math/English/other school tasks, and can spend these coins on a huge variety of mini games.
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
I don’t think it’s possible to build this app on an iPad. But, I taught my kids my phone number by making it their passcode. Before that I used it to teach them how to spell their name.
Can I reach you over email ? Mine is in profile ! I want to share something not ready for primetime.
I sent an email - excited to see what you've got.
It certainly seems like someone would've invented a Kid Friendly phone by now that's completely safe, and doesn't allow access to the "real" internet at all, but only an ability to send texts without images, make voice calls, etc. Now that we have AI it would be easier, an you could potentially give "Google" access that's censored into a "child friendly" output by the AI. You could have a texting app where friends can talk, but only to kids in their own school for example, or at least limited by geographical area, to foster friendships IRL, rather than some Chinese Bot being able to trick your kid into eating Tide Pods or whatever their latest Attack on America happens to be.
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.
“Child friendly output” is not a solution. It is the problem. I trust my 9-yo to avoid porn or violence; I don’t trust him to be able to resist the hours of inane content on YouTube Kids &c. Using AI to facilitate access to more of that, while censoring reality, is the opposite of what’s needed.
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So make a phone without all the things that make it so profitable? Limit what they can be sold? You would have to sell it at a premium for less functionality.
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.
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I'd rather solve math problems than CAPTCHAs any day of the week.
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A lot of people are objecting to the "loser" unlock key. A lot of ideas about what to do instead. I think the biggest problem with social media is the loss of attention span.
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.
180 seems very high to me and I've already quit social networks (well, except for some forum-like ones such as HN).
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?
> 180 seems very high to me
Sounds like you would benefit from training 3 minutes at a time for starters!
People burn through half an hour scrolling like it was nothing. 3 minutes is a bargain!
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If 180 is high you've got Tiktok Brain my friend.
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This is cute, but in all seriousness it would be much more effective to shout "I'm a winner"
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.
But the point is you aren't a winner if you are unlocking social media. You are opening the gate to loserdom. I'm not sure how the I'm a winner concept would apply here using one of the four methods of operant conditioning.
The research stands, but the practical application of his app is based on a Positive Punishment operant conditioning.
> you aren't a winner if you are unlocking social media. You are opening the gate to loserdom
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.
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Yes - but then you go into the vicious cycle. Something in the line of The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry:
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.)
I imagine what the OP meant is that when you feel you are wasting time on Social Media, if you say "I am a winner / I am better than this" (or something more positive), it will block the social media for you. So basically the reverse.
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“Don't speak negatively about yourself, even as a joke. Your body doesn't know the difference. Words are energy and they cast spells, that's why it's called spelling. Change the way you speak about yourself, and you can change your life.”
- Bruce Lee
If you’re addicted to scrolling social media then you’ll just get used to calling yourself a loser to get another fix. Or you just uninstall the extension.
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.
Punishments need to follow unwanted behavior, not precede them. This is a technically interesting demo but it isn’t effective.
Then the command should probably be "I summon you to open the gate to loserdom!"
You're on social media.
hmm, maybe
"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.
I have on some occasions been tempted to wire up a shock collar to myself (or equivalent) and do some experiment for things like not visiting social media websites during certain times, but I find myself concerned that I may be reaching way, way further down the metaphorical "brain stack" than I really intend with that and could do some seriously weird things to myself in the process. So far I've always judged that risk as greater than the reward.
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.
Then it would be even simpler to build an app, because if you shout "I'm a winner", the extension doesn't need to do anything at all, just keep everything blocked as before...
Be kind to yourself, but think through the problem before sending a week worth of research articles.
It could work if they were rewarded for not opening social media. Otherwise that doesn’t make sense.
If only there was an API to only allow closing an app on a specific condition.
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 :) )
For sure, important to be kind to yourself.
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.
It's crazy I am/was a reddit user and it's like a compulsion. I now only look at news, worldnews and combatfootage but I keep reaching for something. The other thing is YouTube which I'm trying to stick to the educational stuff of people making things (I did get premium)'
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
You should run with this idea!
Now make a "Dungeon Crawler Carl" -branded one that requires a webcam, bare feet, and nail polish!
Perhaps a better approach would be to randomly replace links in your social media app with links to a random image of what you imagine to be a social media addict, or someone who has ruined their lives due to social media. Perpahs with a message like "This will be you in X years". Hopefully over time the subconscious parts of your brain will get the message. In your current approach, the signalling is largely aimed at the conscious part, which is usually not where the problem lies.
> links to a random image of what you imagine to be a social media addict, or someone who has ruined their lives due to social media.
Wouldn't that simply be a picture of himself?
That’s the idea of the disturbing pictures on packs of cigarettes in Germany.
Not sure it works as well on people already addicted compared to people not yet addicted.
The relevant code: https://github.com/Pankajtanwarbanna/scream-to-unlock/blob/m...
Are you sure Chrome doesn't talk to Google's server to convert the speech to text?
Chrome's Web Speech API does indeed send audio to Google's servers by default unless you're using the newer SpeechRecognition API with continuous=false and interimResults=true for local processing.
It seems to send the data to google's servers.
> 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_...
Far from me criticizing people with disabilities. But are we, as a generation, really that desperate to use these kind of solutions to just control our impulses? Listen, I sometime spend my Saturday just doom scrolling and watching useless shorts for all day beside eating meals, doing nothing productive. But I can stop whenever I can. If you find hard stopping your compulsive behavior you have some other problem that these kind of apps can't solve.
I love it when normies come in and criticize addicts for having a lack of impulse control. Maybe we are not willing to use the addiction word, but until we accept people are addicted, we're never going to solve anything.
Except things like this are not treatment but just memes
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I had similar efforts. so I made a Chrome extension that helps you be more mindful of your social media usage by prompting you to think twice before visiting social media sites. If you really want to see, just wait after the counting down:
https://github.com/chaosprint/twice
I genuinely don't get this. Let's say you believe it's an addiction - how is this an acceptable treatment? Would we justify something like this for alcoholics? "Scream you're a loser for another can of beer"
I'm not attacking this project and OP per se but if we do believe that social media addiction is a real problem we're approaching it in very immature ways. It's either an easy problem than can be solved with temperance or its a hard problem that needs to be solved with real science based tools. Anything in-between seems like it could be more harmful than helpful.
you talk as if people have never overcome addiction with sheer willpower.
Not sure what makes you think that way. I explictly said easy issues can be overcome with temperance (i.e. willpower) and hard issues need strong scientific based solutions. "Scream I'm a loser" is neither.
Good idea. Could be applied to other self-destructive categories: Porn, hookup apps, etc.
I created a similar app which locks your addictive apps until you exercise (climb stairs, bike, run etc) to earn screen time points. It's called Run for Fun:
https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/run-for-fun-screen-time-focus/...
Ha, might be more effective to have to say some long passage; could see myself eventually saying "I'm a loser" habitually to access the sites without internalizing the meaning.
Does singing the Beck song work?
For the v0 captcha contest I was going to create a scream captcha where you have to scream really loudly to verify, but I got caught up with work. Nice job!
For a subset of the population, this will have an inverse incentive. To support those people, perhaps have a toggle that requires them to say “I’m a good person”?
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Funny idea. I don't think I am a loser. But I'm pretty sure I'm addicted. So I'd prefer that sentence.
I found inverting colors in Accessibility settings works great. Phone is still useable, but everything feels strange and icky.
That's brilliant! Please make a Firefox extension too!
Can't you just uninstall the extension?
In order to uninstall it, you must scream "I'm a huge loser." (Just kidding)
You have to sit through a 10 hour YouTube video of Beck's Loser.
That's the problem with habit blocking extensions. A theoretical workaround would be to create two extensions - only make them work when both are installed and when one notices that the other got disabled, it does something like deleting your login credentials, or some form of reversible but very annoying punishment.
There's such a URL-blocking extension, that cam be programmed to block the chrome://extensions URL...
As much as I hate to say it, forcing users to look at ads probably does a decent job of limiting social media time, at least it would for me.
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.
So you think screaming 'im a loser' 10 times an hour is going to be good for mental health?
You could also just stop visiting those sites that you previously decided were bad for you... Then you don't need to scream "I'm a loser".
At last verification can technology is real. YC better swoop this one up. It's going places.
Haha, definetely needed.
Great work
This is hilarious. I can already imagine the real outcome though: I repeat "I'm a loser" 20-30 times a day, internalise it, and destroy my mental health even further :)
Now ship something that requires a convincing demonstration of inner peace before allowing the user access to X Dot Com The Everything App, and you'll really be cooking with fire.
Use the front-camera and tell the user to meditate for 30 seconds/algorithmically watch them while they do so.
I guess web browsers don't have integrated face recognition APIs yet, although phones could probably do this
iPhones could do it well, using the face ID lidar to measure the user's pupils. (It already does this, taking advantage of the property that they are reflective in IR.) Androids with only a front camera would do it poorly. But either would require pairing with a wearable capable of SpO2, skin galvanometry, HR measurement, etc., in order to credibly analyze physiological stress.
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.
Blade Runner 2049 style interrogation to prove you're not in a bad state of mind huh?
I mean, it is social media. Will you really say you never heard an idea you liked less?
Does it work with LinkedIn
That volume bar could be labeled "Humiliation:"
Could customize the user call out
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”
LOl hilarious!
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It should be “I’m addicted” instead of “I’m a loser”. Forcing someone to call themselves a loser over and over eventually weighs heavy on the soul, how would you feel if a user did it so many times one day they just decided to kill themselves? The blood is on your hands.