I Used to Be a Human Being
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I Used to Be a Human Being
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Re: I Used to Be a Human Being
#2> The interruptions often feel pleasant, of course, because they are usually the work of your friends. Distractions arrive in your brain connected to people you know (or think you know), which is the genius of social, peer-to-peer media.
Silly as it will sound I'd never thought of it that way. Cunning , brilliant and cunning again.
Re: I Used to Be a Human Being
#3> I couldn’t check my email or refresh my Instagram
> ... trying to describe what I was feeling. The two words “extreme suffering” won the naming contest in my head...
Re: I Used to Be a Human Being
#4> The interruptions often feel pleasant, of course, because they are usually the work of your friends. Distractions arrive in your brain connected to people you know (or think you know), which is the genius of social, peer-to-peer media. Silly as it will sound I'd never thought of it that way. Cunning , brilliant and cunning again.
A related thought: for any app, there's a question ~ "How do I get the user to open the app regularly? How do I turn checking the app into a habit?"
Messaging apps have a nice solution to this: they allow your friends to summon you to the app by sending you a message.
Re: I Used to Be a Human Being
#5> I couldn’t check my email or refresh my Instagram > ... trying to describe what I was feeling. The two words “extreme suffering” won the naming contest in my head...
The "extreme suffering" was in relation to his emotional crisis, not because he was unable to use his phone.
Re: I Used to Be a Human Being
#6> The interruptions often feel pleasant, of course, because they are usually the work of your friends. Distractions arrive in your brain connected to people you know (or think you know), which is the genius of social, peer-to-peer media. Silly as it will sound I'd never thought of it that way. Cunning , brilliant and cunning again.
A related thought: for any app, there's a question ~ "How do I get the user to open the app regularly? How do I turn checking the app into a habit?" Messaging apps have a nice solution to this: they allow your friends to summon you to the app by sending you a message.
From a business point of view, that's an important goal. The more a user depends on your product, the more you stay in business. And the goal of a business is to survive indefinitely.
But from a human perspective, I'd argue it's completely unethical. As a business, your goal isn't merely to encourage potential customers to choose your brand over another. It's also to get them to buy it even if they don't want it. And it's to get them hooked so they come back and buy more.
Now, what if your product is vodka? Your job suddenly became to make as many high-functioning alcoholics out of customers as possible (high-functioning so that they can continue to buy).
This may be a stretch from a mobile game or social media platform, but not much. They both have negative effects with real impacts on the health and happiness and sometimes even safety of the consumers.
Re: I Used to Be a Human Being
#7I'd be interested to hear everyone's strategies to combat this, as I assume many of us that work in the industry encounter similar problems of distraction and inundation.
First, I don't use any devices directly after waking up. I meditate for about 20 minutes upon waking and then try to read fiction for 40 minutes. So, all in, somewhere around an hour of no device distractions before starting my day.
Slack is one of the biggest interrupting factors while coding these days, more so than IRC ever was for me, so I try to have chunks of time during the day with it closed. This is something I've struggled with recently as co-workers always expect to be able to get in touch, but often I really need 30-60 minutes of uninterrupted focus for real tasks.
For personal things, I deleted Facebook and feel quite a bit better. I still scroll Instagram too much. I deleted the Twitter app from my phone and will only check it from time to time on the web. I try to turn on Do Not Disturb mode in the evenings, but it's hard when you have systems that potentially could go down and things could get escalated to you.
On top of that I try to take psychedelics a few times per year, not in any type of party settings, but with people that are close to me. Screens tend to turn up this feeling of disgust when I look at them in that state, so I automatically disengage with them. I find that for at least a short while after the trip my usage of distracting Internet things goes down a lot as well.
Interested to hear other strategies!
Re: I Used to Be a Human Being
#8I read somewhere recently that smart phones have essentially become random gratification engines in the same way as slot machines. Sometimes on a slot machine you win the jackpot, because of this every pull gives you an endorphin kick, each time we pick up our phones or get a notification it might be an important/interesting thing, therefore we get a little endorphin kick that keeps us checking.
Because of this I turn off all notifications apart from phone calls and text messages. I don't have app badge counters or notifications for email either, if it is that important the person would ring me.
Re: I Used to Be a Human Being
#9"I used to be a human being": I like this phrase.
It captures, poetically, the existential despair of losing the conditions of humanity. Regardless of if the author's particular conditions necessitates the implicit drama, each of one us, I'm sure, have felt like we lost what made us "real" or "authentic" at some point or another.
Re: I Used to Be a Human Being
#10I'd be interested to hear everyone's strategies to combat this, as I assume many of us that work in the industry encounter similar problems of distraction and inundation. First, I don't use any devices directly after waking up. I meditate for about 20 minutes upon waking and then try to read fiction for 40 minutes. So, all in, somewhere around an hour of no device distractions before starting my day. Slack is one of…
I've done the same. Facebook was closed last year, Reddit this year, Twitter never really used, but deleted the app. I've added comment blockers in all of my browsers to get rid of all of the negativity on websites, especially YouTube. I don't use any other social apps besides the occasional Instagram for business purposes.
My phone goes into Do Not Disturb about an hour before bed, and I place it face down on the nightstand.
I read daily before bed to wind down.
I've considered revisiting psychedelics, but it's been a long time since college!
I exercise daily, mostly high intensity aerobic, pushups, pullups, situps, indoor rowing, or hiking.
The phone stuff is really getting out of control, and I'm not sure what the solution is for less disciplined people. Dating sucks, going out socially sucks, going to concerts sucks, all because of the pervasiveness of the modern phone.