At least about one thing, anyway: https://johnoliverwantsyourraterotica.com

I never fully grasped what's Rat Erotica all about, but that's not what matters for me here.

What matters is that applying the settings as prescribed there makes Facebook and Instagram exceptionally frustrating to use. And while on the surface that sounds weird - it's exactly what I needed.

Screen time limits rarely work on me, because it's way too easy to just add extra time whenever I need. Anything stricter doesn't work either - I can just disable it in a moment of weakness.

But this - this is perfect. Every ad shown to me is not only less personalized, but it also prevents me from scrolling for 5 whole seconds. The moment I go on Facebook for a purpose and eventually find myself on the home feed - that's when the unskippable ad hits. And that's when I close Facebook immediately. It works 100% of the time so far, and it's been over a year since I've done this.

And the somehow even better part: it's fucking hard to turn off.

Strike that. It's quite easy to turn off - the ad timer itself has a two-click interface for that. But now it's a matter of principle, and also - a meaningful portion of privacy. Giving that up doesn't feel worth it, just so I can look at some racist and homophobic bullshit.

I don't watch John Oliver's show any more, and this post is also not about that. But having written this, I'm a bit tempted to watch again a little.