Memair DNS

Pseudorandomly block social media on 50% of days. Blocking occurs at the DNS level, affecting both social media websites & their apps. Social media apps will still open, however they will not have connectivity which prevents new content, notifications, etc.

Use cases:

• Conducting A/B tests on the effect of social media
• Noticing the influence of social media usage
• Reducing social media usage

Private DNS: dns.memair.com
IP DNS: 35.224.0.214

Blocked Social Media Sites

• Facebook
• Imgur
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• MySpace
• Pinterest
• Reddit
• Tumblr
• Twitter

Please create a pull request if you would like to block additional social media sites or domains. See the Full Block List here.

Experimenting

We're currently working on a framework to make experimenting easier. Follow us on Twitter to get updates (we will only be posting on unblocked days).

How it works

Each day at 00:00 UTC, the DNS server has a 25% chance of changing state from blocked to unblocked or vice versa. Details on how this is calculated can be seen in update.py. The status of each day in 2020 is available here.

Setup

Updates to operating systems occur frequently, please update these instructions if they have become outdated or are not easily understandable.

Android 9 (Pie) or later

1. Go to Settings > Network & Internet > Advanced > Private DNS
2. Select Private DNS provider hostname
3. Enter dns.memair.com as the hostname of the DNS provider
4. Click Save

note: Android versions prior to 9 (Pie) do not allow system level DNS settings.

iPhones & iPad (iOS)

Unfortunately iOS doesn't support system wide DNS settings. You can set the DNS settings for each wifi & cellular network you connect to or alternatively you can use an app like DNS Override

Mac OS

1. Click the Apple Symbol > System Preferences > Network
2. Click Advanced in the bottom right
3. Select the DNS tab
4. Remove all current DNS servers
5. Add 35.224.0.214 as your DNS server
6. Click OK > Apply

Router

1. In your browser, enter the IP address to access the router's administration console.
2. When prompted, enter the password to access network settings.
3. Find the screen in which DNS server settings are specified.
4. If there are IP addresses specified in the fields for the primary and seconday DNS servers, write them down for future reference.
5. Replace those addresses with the 35.224.0.214
6. Save and exit.
7. Restart your browser.

Windows 7

1. Open Control Panel
2. Click Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center > Change adapter settings
3. Right click on the network interface connected to the Internet and select Properties
4. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation
5. Select the Networking tab. Under This connection uses the following items, select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) then click Properties
6. Select Use the following DNS server addresses and enter 35.224.0.214 as the Preferred DNS server
7. Click OK & OK

Windows 10

1. Open Control Panel
2. Click Network and Internet
3. Click Network and Sharing Center
4. On the left pane click Change adaptor settings
5. Right click on the network interface connected to the Internet and select Properties
6. Under This connection uses the following items, select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) then click Properties
7. Select Use the following DNS server addresses and enter 35.224.0.214 as the Preferred DNS server
8. Click OK & OK

Contributors

A big thank you to @jasonmwhite & @camdavidsonpilon for letting me (@gregology) pick their brains when starting this project.