Inspiration
I have spent countless months just swiping, and countless moments with my family have been turned down because I was in my room doomscrolling. I will never get those moments back, but I can do my best to ensure nobody else does that again. The inspiration came from my hometown in Mexico, where people might be financially poor, but socially rich. You are not able to go on the street without someone wanting to talk to you. Where they don't walk around glued to their phones but instead smile, looking around. That's because they are not worried about having the newest iPhone, but instead of providing for their family and ensuring their children grow up in a better life, something that not even 1000 iPhones could match. This deeper connection is what makes them different. We often forget about our loved ones while on the phone, not because we don't love them, but because the rapid content ensures we can't think of anything else. That's when I realized the solution for doom scrolling, having your loved ones be there before or during your swipes, a small notification can break the cycle of swiping, ensuring we live a life not for quick pleasure, but true meaning and interactions with each other.
What it does
The way it prevents doom scrolling is by the ability to upload photos with significant meaning. For example, a photo I would use is my mom when she worked two shifts a day and still fed and raised me. I would describe the significance of it, and AI would generate a message that goes with that paragraph, a photo, and eventually send you a notification. The biggest thing that no one else tries to limit your screen time is incorporating significant photos with new quotes. That is what makes this app special, the deeper connection, instead of brushing it off. The notification is based on the weekly schedule, where students can add their classes and events like working out, studying, relaxing, or whatever event they are doing, and using past data of screen time to calculate what time your more likely to be swiping. As well as being able to type in a goal, and generate small steps you can slowly work on until you achieve it. Since it is an app to become better than you were yesterday, I had to introduce a system progression, a progression of life. Where you can earn badges depending on the amount of activities you log, for example, 8 hours of sleep for 1 week. These badges show your personal growth, but also a testament that you can live your life without doomscrolling. Of course, with a leaderboard among your friends to encourage each other to progress further than alone.
How we built it
I built the solution to Doom Scrolling using React Native with Expo to ensure it works across all platforms, as well as being mobile-friendly. Using React Navigation to structure the app, with each screen being modular and reusable. The motivational system lets users upload meaningful photos while adding the significance of them, later used as a prompt to generate new quotes, such as the notifications you receive. The schedule system lets users add their classes and events, as well as a compact yet appealing UI system. The progression and social layer is a badge system to track personal growth and accomplishments. Being able to healthily compete with your friends or keep each other accountable on the journey of progression. Each section has 3-4 helper files to ensure that the maintenance is small and understandable.
Challenges we ran into
One of the biggest challenges was the basic structure of the app. It was my first time using React, and it was a different ballpark than I expected. I knew I wanted to test on a mobile device, and I learned of Expo Go, being able to use as the app. This amazing benefit turned out to be a couple of hours long to figure out the basic setup and the navigation system. I didn't know you had to install native-stack and many other small packages for the features I wanted. Another challenge was the constraint of the size of the phone, where normally I had the whole pc, to condense it aanda easily accessible was more complicated than I first thought. Having to balance the length of words, the different orientations, and how to space evenly different objects. Another important challenge was to ensure it was all common sense to use, since if it was too complicated, most people would abandon the app and continue to doom scroll their life away. A mental challenge was being stuck at the basic level of the code, not making a lot of progress at the start, questioning if I should just wait till another year when I knew more, but luckily, I was determined to ensure my small first attempt at the moment helps people overcome their doom-scrolling habits.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
This is a major problem in life now, being able to spend all day on your phone instead of spending time with your loved ones. This app can make a difference; that is what I am most proud of. Knowing that if one person gives their mom a call instead of doom scrolling, decides to come downstairs to eat dinner as a family, or just talks about each other's day instead of social media. I feel proud knowing I did it, experiencing countless errors, but now I know for next time, each of them is solvable. I wanted to stop midway, but I continued. Overall, it was amazing from the start with lots of hiccups along the way.
What we learned
I learned how to structure React native with modular components, how to use Expo Go, and the ability to cross-platform. To navigate the different screens as well as handle countless errors from each one. Learning the vast amount of functions available and how to incorporate local storage into them as well. Finally, the most important, I learned is how impactful personal notifications are with the photo paired with someone you are close to. Where phones are inherently the problem, but instead the social media that keeps us trapped, instead of living life.
What's next for Solution to Doom Scrolling
The future steps for Doom Scrolling will be the integrate AI-generated reminders directly into the app, as well as having analytics look at the data provided to create the most optimal time to send you a notification. Increasing the badge account as well as the social aspect, making different leaderboards with different skills, as well as the ability to make your own skill. From optimizing even more on the goal steps, to making the UI even better.
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