"Focus" apps are very bad from a long term perspective.

If you want to be productive, if you want to be efficient in your work, if you want to have the discipline to do regular schoolwork, you are better off avoiding "focus" apps like Freedom and the like. They are very short-termist in their approach, and only serve to cybernetically reinforce an Anglo-American culture's obsession with productivity.<br><br>Freedom and the like are bad because they are the embodiment of late capitalist productivity. Here's the thing: no person can maintain consistent focus for an extended period of time - it is inhuman. There is a reason why humans are not automatons. our minds are wired to wander, and simply cannot maintain an elongated period of focus. The only reason we tolerate this from people is because they are humans, not machines.<br><br>It's very easy to compare your productivity to that of people on this chamber who can work for 3 hours straight and ignore their phone so much that they forget to eat. But I want you to remember that that is a cybernetic work ethic, and even the people touting such a work ethic are just people who are preternaturally able to hyperfocus. <br><br>But that's not you. So if you have trouble maintaining focus, or if you are very hard on yourself when you cannot maintain focus, then you need to accept something: you are not a machine, and you cannot work like a machine.<br><br>But in a certain sense, Staying Focused apps like Freedom are just like that. They are an attempt to mechanize yourself, to cyberneticize yourself, to make yourself into just another machine. Into another drone. It is an attempt to automate yourself to do what you want to do, and, in a certain sense, that is very, very dystopian. It's an Anglo-American capitalism thing. <br><br>In that sense, Staying Focused apps like Freedom are actually very bad for your mental health in the long run. It is obvious why: they are very bad at actually helping you focus. Your brain is not designed to spend 10 hours staring at a screen, and if you have trouble spending 10 hours staring at a screen, it is because you are not a machine. <br><br>However, apps like Freedom are actually very good at making you feel bad about yourself. If you cyberneticize yourself to work, you will find it very hard to be human. And that's something that people who use Freedom apps often don't account for: the fact that they're human. They're supposed to be able to work for 3 hours straight. They're supposed to be able to hyperfocus. They're supposed to ignore their phones. They're supposed to cyberneticize themselves and make themselves another machine. <br><br>But that's simply not possible. They're human. So if you struggle with hyperfocusing, you don't need to cyberneticize yourself. You don't need to be a machine. You are human. You don't need to work like a machine. You are very, very hard on yourself when you cannot work like a machine. You do not need to turn yourself into a machine.<br><br>So cyberneticize yourself if you want. Try to make yourself into a machine if you want. It serves no purpose. All that will happen is that you feel bad. That's what happens if you try to mechanize yourself and make yourself another machine. <br><br>But freedom apps are very good at making you feel bad. They are very good at making you feel like a failure. They are very good at making you feel subhuman. They are very good at making you feel like you cyberneticize yourself and become a machine. <br><br>And so I think that "focus" apps like Freedom are very bad for your mental health.