i find myself spending WAAAAAY more time on reddit as an unregistered lurker than a contributing user on the entire fediverse combined due to the lack of content.
what are some easy things i can do to make sure that my surfing doesn't benefit reddit or any other site?
Just by clicking on a Reddit link you are benefitting them. I avoid Reddit altogether and just adjusted my intake habits to that new reality. The end result of my exit from Reddit and Twatter is that since then I went from never reading books to finishing four novels borrowed from my local library system, and I've taken guitar back up.
Your brain will find another time sink. It's what we (humans with idle time) do.
my idle time is the 10/15 mins between tasks and i retain less than 5% of anything i read within 15 minutes of reading it.