Show HN: Scream to Unlock – Blocks social media until you scream “I'm a loser”

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.

Just because surveys say X = Y it doesn't necessary mean it has to apply to everyone's mindset.

In practice, I have never encountered a person who benefits from such negative self beliefs in the long term, or anyone who would claim they were beneficial. My perspective on this is driven by many years of real world experience with addiction and related communities, and more personal exploration of the negative bias than I can quantify.

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.

Your not wrong, I do agree. But for a pet-project, it's a bit of fun? Or should we just face it.

Everyone is a loser for using social media?

This just doesn’t land for me.

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 use none of Social Media other than HN, which could be classified as such.

I know and see the damage upon. We've let social media control us.