Tolerance is a browser extension that scores content by how hard it's trying to manipulate you, then makes the feed progressively higher quality so you spend precisely the amount of time you wish to.
Open source. The extension never tracks you.
How it Works
An AI analyzes each piece of content for manipulation signals: outrage bait, curiosity gaps, tribal triggers, engagement farming. Not "is this bad content", just "how hard is this trying to hijack your attention?"
For the first 15 minutes, you browse normally. Then Tolerance starts blurring the most manipulative content. The longer you scroll, the more gets blurred. By 75 minutes, almost everything is.
This is the key insight: blocking creates craving. Disinterest creates freedom. You close the tab because you're back in control; the algorithm lost its grip.
Features
Every post gets a 0-100 score based on psychological manipulation tactics, not engagement metrics. High score = trying hard to hook you.
One toggle. Instant full blur. Everything above 20 disappears. Only genuine, low-manipulation content remains.
The feed gets less interesting the longer you browse. Blurred content reveals on hover after 3 seconds of intentional focus. Friction, not blocking.
Answer one question each day: "Did yesterday feel too restricted, balanced, or too easy?" Tolerance adjusts automatically.
Reddit, Twitter/X, YouTube, and Instagram. Same intervention, tuned per platform. More coming soon.
The Philosophy
You've tried app timers. Screen time limits. Grayscale mode. They all fail the same way: the moment you override them, you feel like you lost.
That's because blocking creates felt deprivation, the same psychology as dieting. You're not consuming the thing, but you're thinking about it constantly. Willpower depletes. You cave. You feel worse.
Tolerance uses a different principle: extinction.
In behavioral psychology, extinction is what happens when a stimulus stops producing a reward. You press the lever, nothing happens. You check the feed, it's not hooking you. Eventually, the habit fades. The craving dissolves on its own.
Social media companies spent 20 years engineering the perfect reward schedule. Tolerance just... breaks the lever.
FAQ
No. Everything is still there. High-manipulation content just requires 3 seconds of intentional hover to reveal. If you actually want it, you can have it. The friction is the point.
Outrage bait, curiosity gaps ("you won't believe..."), tribal us-vs-them framing, engagement farming, ragebait, doom content. The AI looks for psychological tactics, not political content.
Not yet. Browser extension only. Mobile is harder (blame Apple and Google), but it's on the roadmap.
Yes. Works out of the box with no setup. Open source, no tracking. Power users can optionally add their own API key for unlimited usage.
Probably. Seeing manipulation scores on every post makes the tactics visible. Many users report that Tolerance made them more aware of how attention-grabbing and emotionally exploitative their feeds really are. You see the way it tries to adapt as you get better at resisting it. That awareness tends to stick.
Because social media companies optimized for time-on-site, and someone needed to optimize for time-well-spent.
Now Available
For people who want to go deeper, and fund development for everyone.
The free tier has usage limits to keep costs sustainable. Pro provides generous limits that are enough for even the heaviest of users.
Tolerance learns which stories your feed keeps telling you: doom loops, outrage cycles, tribal narratives... and helps you build counter-perspectives. See the pattern. Break the pattern.
Tell Tolerance what you actually want to be doing. When the feed gets disinteresting, we surface a gentle nudge toward the thing you said mattered: the article you're writing, the project you're building, the person you've been meaning to call.
Pro subscribers get new features first. Once they're battle-tested, we roll them into the free tier for everyone. Your subscription funds the research, and keeps Tolerance free for people who can't pay.