I realized blockers don't work for me. So I built a tool that ruins the experience instead
Hey guys, I wanted to share something I built based on a weird realization I had a while back.
I was having a weak moment, gave in to an urge, and went to a tube site. But the site was absolute garbage. There were pop-ups everywhere, the video kept buffering every five seconds, and the resolution was terrible.
And honestly? It completely killed the mood. The frustration of dealing with the lag and the bad quality completely overrode the dopamine rush. I just closed the tab, got up, and moved on with my day.
It made me realize why standard website blockers have never worked for me. When I hit a hard "SITE BLOCKED" wall, my brain immediately goes into problem-solving mode to bypass it. I just go into my extension settings and turn it off. It takes 5 seconds.
Willpower fails when you hit a wall. But when the experience itself just sucks, your brain loses interest naturally.
So, I spent the last few months building a Chrome extension to replicate that "mood-killing" experience. It’s called FadeOut. It doesn't block adult sites. Instead, when you go to a site you've added to your list, it subtly degrades the experience.
- Color Drain: The video colors slightly fades into boring.
- Fake Buffering: It randomly pauses the video with a fake loading spinner.
- Resolution Blur: you have an option to make videos slightly blurrier.
- Volume Drain: The audio gets capped.
it's just make it slightly annoying to stay on the page. which trains your brain that the site isn't worth the effort, while still not worth it to just disable it.
I just published it to the Chrome Web Store today for free.
If you are stuck in the cycle of downloading blockers and immediately disabling them, I hope this helps you rewire the habit. I'd love to hear if this psychological approach works for any of you.
Here's the link: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/fadeout/onoloaihkcmcdoaecnppeimlohcjnldj?authuser=1&hl=en
Stay strong.