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Addicted to Distraction

nytimes.com

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Re: Addicted to Distraction

#131

Post by wpietri »

thomasthomas wrote: post #129
wpietri wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One trick that works for me: having separate devices for separate activities. E.g., I have a tablet that I use for long-form content and pretty much nothing else. I consciously know that I could pretty easily log in to Facebook on the tablet's browser. But since I've never once done it on that device, my lizard brain doesn't know. I recently bought a new phone that feels physically different than my old one (Nexus 5x…

Thanks for sharing. I'm starting this today.

Good luck, and feel free to email/tweet me to discuss further. My big tip: don't ever yield to the temptation to check "just once". I've made that mistake and it's very hard to come back from.

Re: Addicted to Distraction

#133

Post by cableshaft »

nommm-nommm wrote: post #51
adrianN wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no boredom in the modern world. The Internet is an endless cesspool of poor quality entertainment, expertly arranged to give us the impression that we learn something or interact meaningfully with other people. Believing that a child will improve themselves and realize their potential without guidance and an appropriate amount of forcing is, in my opinion, misguided.

Science disagrees with you. http://www.bbc.com/news/education-21895704 http://greatist.com/happiness/benefits-of-boredom Nobody said you shouldn't guide your child sometimes but sometimes your child needs to guide themselves too. We are taking away the latter in the modern world.

I got bored during school pretty much every class, and I filled that time with doodling on paper, then writing stories and poetry, then trying to come up with my own language, then teaching myself programming by making games on my calculator.

I should also note that I wasn't supposed to be doing any of that stuff, and I would have gotten in trouble with the teacher if they caught me doing it and "not paying attention".

Based on my anecdotal experience, I do believe that there's something to the 'boredom leads to children developing their creativity' assertion, as stated in that bbc article.

Re: Addicted to Distraction

#134

Post by HAL9OOO »

scep12 wrote: post #33

I recently wrote a chrome extension that helps me curb my "compulsion loop." It's pretty simple; each time the browser loads a website that has potentially distracting content (think: twitter, FB, reddit, hacker news, rotoworld, etc) that I tend to over-visit in search of new tidbits, the extension keeps track of my visit and the text content of the page. The next time I visit, I do a text comparison that checks how…

Is your extension available for download?

Re: Addicted to Distraction

#135

Post by akavel »

scep12 wrote: post #33

I recently wrote a chrome extension that helps me curb my "compulsion loop." It's pretty simple; each time the browser loads a website that has potentially distracting content (think: twitter, FB, reddit, hacker news, rotoworld, etc) that I tend to over-visit in search of new tidbits, the extension keeps track of my visit and the text content of the page. The next time I visit, I do a text comparison that checks how…

Please do let me know too if you publish it. Also, please seriously consider publishing it even without/before cleaning up. TIA!

Re: Addicted to Distraction

#136

Post by neves »

nommm-nommm wrote: post #41
ThomPete wrote: post #6

I haven't really gotten my thoughts clear on this so excuse me for the probably unclear formulation. I recently realized that one of the unfortunate consequences of this is the way many in my generation (I'm 41) brings up our kids. Instead of teaching them one thing in depth we are forcing them through a million different subjects way before they even turn 10. It's not unusual in my circles that kids are both playing…

>It's not unusual in my circles that kids are both playing football, taking piano lessons, learning french on top of their school and homework. We are filling our kid's time with all these structured activities to "enrich" their lives. To give them a leg up in the adult world. To make them smarter and well rounded. We fill our houses with a whole bunch of "enriching" toys. This is extremely misguided. The majority of…

If I leave my kids for themselves they will spend all time watching Netflix and playing Minecraft. It's just better than watching TV.

Re: Addicted to Distraction

#138

Post by scep12 »

kbenson wrote: post #123
Disruptive_Dave wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I may be misunderstanding, but isn't this like a heavy drinker having the bartender put more water than beer in his glass when he heads to the local pub? This doesn't seem to be treating the actual issue at hand (lack of self control, lack of training of the mind, etc.) is what I'm getting at. Not meaning to crap on your build, as it certainly seems cool. Maybe this could be viewed as a training tool, but only if it'…

It sounds like that but if the bartender notices he's serving a lot of water to you, he turns you around and gently pushes you out the door (redirect).

Exactly :)
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