Guides

How to Check Screen Time on Android (Samsung, Pixel and Other Phones)

Where Android hides your screen time, how to read the Digital Wellbeing chart on Pixel and Samsung, and how to turn the numbers into limits.

What Is Doomscrolling? Meaning, Origin and How to Stop

The dictionary definition of doomscrolling, where the word came from in 2018 to 2020, what the first research found, and practical ways to stop.

Accessibility Service Keeps Turning Off on Oppo? The Fix

ColorOS stops background apps, and the accessibility service stops with them. Four settings keep it on, plus steps for Xiaomi, Samsung, Vivo and Huawei.

Best Apps to Block Shorts, Reels and TikTok on Android (2026)

Seven ways to cut short-form scrolling on Android, compared by approach, platforms and cost. We make one of them and say so.

Who Invented Pull-to-Refresh? Loren Brichter, Tweetie and His Regret

Pull to refresh was invented by Loren Brichter for Tweetie in 2009 to solve a layout problem. Years later he said it is addictive and that he regrets the downsides.

How to Disable or Block Instagram Reels on Android (Without Losing DMs)

There is no off switch for Reels. What Instagram's own controls change, and how to stop the endless swipe but keep messages and stories.

Tristan Harris's 2013 Google Slide Deck and the Origin of Digital Wellbeing

In 2013 Tristan Harris, a Google product manager, circulated a 141-slide deck on respecting users' attention. Five years later Android shipped Digital Wellbeing.

How to Block or Disable YouTube Shorts on Android (and Keep YouTube)

The zero-minute Shorts limit, an app timer, Not interested and a swipe blocker, compared by what they actually stop.

Goldfish Attention Span: The "8-Second" Statistic Has No Source

Do people really have a shorter attention span than a goldfish? The BBC traced the 8-second figure back and found no study. What the real attention data says.

What Is the Average Attention Span? It Fell From 2.5 Minutes to 47 Seconds

The average attention span on a screen fell from 2.5 minutes in 2004 to about 47 seconds. What Gloria Mark measured and what a 2025 meta-analysis found.

Who Invented Infinite Scroll, and Why Its Designer Regrets It

Aza Raskin or Microsoft's image search team? The 2006 origin of infinite scroll, and why its best-known designer now regrets it.