Can I end doom scrolling with a tiny e-reader?

I don't have to tell you what social media apps, designed to keep your attention to the content and to the ads, do with your brain. You know this already.
But how do we get rid of them again, or learn how to handle those dark patterns implemented into our smarthphones and our lives? While uninstalling these apps and deleting the accounts is the most obvious answer, stil I am hooked on the connection it can bring with some people not in my immediate circle.

But every step out of this mess counts and this is how I started to approach the task: First, I started to use my smartphone less, by making it a little less convenient. Uninstalling the Instagram app helped, so I have to deal with the awful web version (which in my case is a good thing) when I want to use it on the go. Also, I got the Zune for listening to music, instead of relying purely on my phone.

And then there is one more step I took: I purchased a tiny ebook reader (that I found out about while doomscrolling on Instagram...).

The xteink x4 is a tiny, 74g light and wifi-enabled e-reader that gets the fundamentals right and does not really anything else. It shows you ebooks, that's it. It has a magnets in the back so you can stick it to your phone and a SD card to store content.

What really made me pull the trigger is the fact that there is an open source project called Crosspoint that replaces the operating system and adds a few quality of life features, like uploading ebooks via web interface, and some customization options.

After flashing the firmware via web brower, I loaded a few ebooks onto it using it's local WIFI file server. No tinkering involved, everything was fast and easy. So is the general software experience.

Reading is simple, as it should be. There are buttons to flip through the pages, both on the front and on the side. The screen (220 ppi) is good enough to read with the smallest text size available. The loading times for books are somehow slower than I remember it from last ebook reader, the Kindle Keyboard (but I could be wrong). Whenever a new chapter is loaded, it takes a few seconds to index and format it for the screen. Out of the box, every ten page turns the screen refreshes, which can be adjusted but does not bother me. The battery lasts forever it seems. It comes with a screen protector and simple case in the box, all attached to ruggedize it and make it just a tool.

Everything is great then, right? Not quite: My device has a minor physical damage, as one of the keys can get stuck. In all their promo material, you can see how the e-reader attaches to the magnetic back of your iPhone, but for me, this only works if I attached it upside down (although I've learned this seems to be true for other users as well). xteink did not reply to emails I sent to their customer support on these issues, which is a bummer as my general experience with Chinese companies has been rather positive. On the bright side: It looks like I got myself a new hardware tinker project.

On the software side, I miss some features, like adding bookmarks. But there are already PRs opened in the Github, so its only a matter of time until they arrive.

I also started exporting very long posts like this outstanding one as EPUBs to read them on the go, which is quite a pleasant experience. Converting websites into EPUB is easy with the browser extension dotEPUB.

So how did this help me ending doom scrolling then, if at all? As its so compact, I take this reader with me everywhere. I started reading books when I'm waiting for friends that are a bit late, in the subway, and whenever I need to kill some time or just outside in the sun because I want to. Without it, I would reach to my phone, check emails and end up on Instagram or Reddit. Reading about ids history or how Patrick Steward became Captain Picard hooks me even more than the next short dopamine burst.

Cute cover art by Natalia