I'm addicted to downloading

[DANDAN_THE_DANDAN]

I have a problem with downloading, it's practically like digital hoarding. I'm pretty sure it started back when I first got an iPad and my dad taught me how to download games from the AppStore. The next phase happens in high school when my parents haven't installed wifi in the house and I got a 1.6 GB USB for schoolwork - I downloaded anime using the school's wifi, jammed everything in my USB, then transferred it all to my laptop (whose screen is now broken, RIP). Then it moved to downloading anime in my phone for offline viewing since my parents set an 11 pm wifi curfew which I have to live with now. Then it moved to mass-downloading all the manga chapters I have in my reading list. Then it moved to downloading songs from youtube to listen to offline. Then it moved to downloading hentai doujins. Then it moved to downloading pretty and lewd artworks from Pixiv and sometimes Twitter just for the sake of having it on my phone.

Basically all I'm doing is moving from smoking to vaping. This is taking so much of my time, especially when downloading porn cause I can't do it near my parents which forces me to stay in my room or bathroom for extended periods of time and throw my entire schedule off. And after that, I need to delete all the files to free up storage which I often spend a long time deliberating whether I actually want it deleted and what I want to keep. I often train myself to think faster and set standards on quality and/or necessity to decide on what to delete. When do I ever need that skill in life?

Any tips to help me stop?

 

[justforthelulz]

Move to a remote area with limited internet connection. Problem solved!
But on a more serious note, maybe find some offline hobby, like camping or cooking, one that will physically reduce your time in front of the screens.

 

[DANDAN_THE_DANDAN]

@justforthelulz My only hobby, aside from watching and reading, is writing and I do them all digitally. Leaving my screens will be a significantly harder job than downloading only when necessary.

 

[Richman]

I can't give you any advice other than telling you to delete EVERYTHING, chapters, anime, artwork, etc. and try distracting yourself with another thing, it could be videogames, reading, writing, going to the park, anything that doesn't involve downloading. Stop visiting anime websites, dispose of your USBs unless you use them for school, use spotify to listen to music instead, delete your pixiv and twitter accounts and uninstall them from your phone. If you think it's not working, you may have to risk talking to you parents, you can obviosly skip over downloading porn, but if porn is the problem, you will have to mention it too, you can also talk to a close friend about your problems. Last resort would honestly be therapy if you decide to treat it like an addiction, but that's only as a last resort.

 

[DANDAN_THE_DANDAN]

@Richman My gosh that's so drastic. Can we take baby steps first, plz?

 

[Richman]

@DANDAN_THE_DANDAN
If you are expecting me to be considerate with your feelings, no, you have to take this seriously. If it's really damaging your schedule and your way of life, then it's an addiction, you put it yourself as the title. I could have easily ignored this post but because i've seen you around for some time, i would feel guilty by not saying anything that could help you in some way. It may be drastic but you have to start somewhere, otherwise you'll procrastinate doing it, if you don't want to do everything at once, that's OK, but you must do something now.

 

[porkwrangler]

Don't worry, 10TB later you'll be glad you saved all that stuff offline. Nothing but the most mundane garbage on the Internet is forever.

Edit: Also stop with the plebeian way of saving songs from YT. Apply for [REDACTED].

 

[421cookies]

Manage your time based on that curfew
Subscribe to streaming service
Just read your manga here
Follow and take note of artist you like
Rely on google photo unlimited storage if things come to worst

 

[imcrazy]

i would never, never, never, even if it was last resort tell about porn to parents. It'll ruin forever their image of their child. they know you watch it, they know how kids are, that's why they put limitations, but they don't not want to be sure, i wouldn't... i would not want to know the details.... As you obviously know that your parents do/did have sex, you don't want to watch it or be sure it's real... or know how they like it brr... don't make me go any further....

My advise? maybe you have too much free time and you are often bored. Do more. go write outside... in a library.. (if you can't write anything, take notes about what you see with details, it could always be used afterwards when your story demands it). Do sports, take courses, find a part time job. What are you, an old man? I didn't say games because if you are at your pc, it's too tempting and if you want to replace your addiction with something else you need to limit yourself with it. Things that make us happy are often addicting, but you don't really need them.

With manga and anime, you need limitations. You have to set a bar. Like "today, before bed, i will watch 2 episodes and read 2 chapters of <title>", you download them when you are not at home and then you watch/read them. But you have to delete them as soon as you finish. There is no "one more".
You can keep your storage of stuff, but if you watch it or read it, you have to delete it. Can you do it? If you cant, delete everything and do like @Richman said.
Porn? it's tricky, because if you delete "resources", it will lead you to pass more time "researching". But it all depends on how much. You know, if i eat a slice of cake every now and then, i wont get fat, if i eat it every day i will get diabetes. If you do it instead of doing stuff you HAVE to do... then you are getting fat.
You can delete all the stuff and keep a txt file with the names and links of what you really liked, so you easily find it again, but not everything.
I think it's easier if you do it yourself, because if someone forbids you, you will think about it every second and you don't want someone that keeps an eye on you all the time and nag about every thing you do even if it's not about your addiction.
You have to agree in what's not healthy for you anymore and if you are not too far, you can go with limitations. Otherwise you need to purify your body from addicting things. if you can't alone, you need to talk to your doctor, it's affecting your life in a bad way and you need to get rid of it.

 

[KatoShuu]

Welp, I barely have any time to search for things to download because of work (wifi here sucks), exercise 1-2 hours ,and I can't any wifi signal from my room
Advice? Might as well write on paper and avoid phone, tablet, pc , etc
I do feel you tho. Whenever I can get wifi, I download 1-2 mangas (completed translated) and youtube videos
After I finished all of them, I deleted and repeat
Don't have any time to watch animes or movies ( ;w9
After 3-4 weeks, I read JoJo part 1-5. Gonna wait a bit for part 6-8. I'm hurting my eyes ( ;w
I bought 3 Witch Hat Atelier, 4 Hanako-kun, and 3 Assassin's Creed novels and I haven't finished all of them. I'm acting as if I don't have anything to read physically
I used up most of my phone's memory for games, so the things I can download are limited. Especially porn/hentai. I only keep [good] hentais and delete porn after finishing them. I also download Doujins....
.....dang my life

 

[strider_01]

One day you'll be glad you hoarded all that.
And well shit, how else would you watch anime? Fucking streaming?

 

[DANDAN_THE_DANDAN]

@imcrazy Oh no, I tried the "no more 'one more'" and it was impossible for me. And I think that I actually need motivation to watch anime and write my stories since I spend all my time procrastinating on YouTube after my daily subscription videos run out. It's not that I'm bored, it's that whenever I come across some doujins that are exactly my kinks and then I click the author to see more of their works that are exactly my kinks, I feel compelled to download them all to read at a later time but after I hide everything in the hidden cabinet of my phone, I don't even look at 90% of it all since everything in there is unmanaged and is a mess which makes me feel lazy to scroll through everything to get access to the one I want. Puting everything in neat folders has proven to help but my problem is that managing it also takes time. As for YouTube, idk that site hypnotizes me to stay or something. I should stay away from recommendation and the home screen.

But these lead to another problem: I became anxious of missing something I really love. What if a new translation of my favourite artists got released and I wasn't there to see it? What if there was a new channel that I would absolutely love but I missed it since I didn't search the recommendations hard enough? This is troubling since I already subscribe to so many channels that I spend 10 minutes scrolling through my sub feed and there are so many channels that YouTube just says "999+". This anxiety of missing out, on top of my insecurity for wifi cause of the curfew my parents set or because of the rare times that it randomly dies because of the provider, are probably what fuels my procrastination and downloading addictions.

@Richman I don't think I can go on a deletion genocide cause I need my offline entertainment but I'll see what I can do to manage my time better. I've already been deleting what I watch immidietely but I haven't do that with my hentai since I often revisit them. My best plan for now is to set up time limits to scrolling porn stuffs and YouTube outside of my sub feed. I already memorized my favourite artists anyway so I can just look them up to see any new additions after a week of abstaining from nhentai or something like that.

 

[DewiAdriyanti]

Cheers then brother.

 

[Nitta_Yoshifumi]

This anxiety of missing out, on top of my insecurity for wifi cause of the curfew my parents set or because of the rare times that it randomly dies because of the provider, are probably what fuels my procrastination and downloading addictions.

How about talking with you parents about you wifi curfew? If you tell them how it influences you that might be an easy fix for a part of your problem. Though depending on your parents this might also backfire, this depends on your parents and only you can judge how they will propably react.

 

[DANDAN_THE_DANDAN]

@Nitta_Yoshifumi I don't feel like outlining all the things I download, excluding hentai. Plus I asked them to remove it a while back and my dad said that the program that makes the wifi disconnect my devices after 11 pm is only accessible through a laptop that is in my dad's office, or at least that's what I think he's saying. There's a chance he could be lying and he just wants me to shut up about this but I highly doubt it since my family doesn't like lying. I have considered this tho so maybe I'll talk about this.

 

[imcrazy]

yes, ask your parents to lift the curfew, so that you can watch youtube and procrastinate a bit more.
Youtube "addictions" i don't understand. Stop watching everything for 3-5 days and you'll be so behind that you couldn't catch up anymore. Would your mind explode from the feeling of "missing out something?" 😱 You seem way too worked up about your "issues". Try to ease things up a notch. There is no such a thing like "impossible to do". You simply say "that's too much" and then you stand up, go to another room, talk to your parents or do other things, just to cut the flow. Don't make excuses to yourself.
like i said, i don't understand. i use youtube to kill time and i started to watch youtubers only 2 years ago because i didn't have anything else to do, if it was an anime or tv-series season or lightnovel or book i could understand, but youtube recommendations? come on... that's weak, you can do it 😃
Why don't you try to log out from your account and see if recommendations are less tempting? (i don't need to say to clear your history, right?)

 

[Nick_Asano]

Have you considered using BlockWebsite and setting a master password? You could make it complicated so that you'd have to write it down and even lock the piece of paper in a box in the storm cellar. Consider downloading pdf's and useful extensions instead, and writing down 5 things that you want/need to do throughout your day to distinguish the important things like mowing the lawn from unimportant things like downloading porn, which you might write down as one of the things NOT to do and put it, say, on your desktop in the form of a sticky note or inside of your pocket.

 

[BlackGeneral]

I have heard of a neet who stopped using internet for 100 days once.
He would spend his time writing and learning Japanese.
The legend says that after those 100 days he moved to japan, built a successful publishing house and get a maid.
The happiest man on earth you could say.
Could be a solution...