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'Doomscrolling' breeds anxiety – how to stop the cycle

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Re: 'Doomscrolling' breeds anxiety – how to stop the cycle

#111

Post by prawn »

dvtrn wrote: post #31
unknownkadath wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whoa, slow down there, Satan.

?? What? Blood Meridian has dark moments in the narrative sure, but it’s a beautifully written book and very easy spaghetti western adventure to get lost in before bed. It’s not like you’re dozing off reading The Necronomicon, c’mon.

It's my favourite book but it's hardly easy-reading for many people. It's grim and would challenge a few people I bet. I could read writing like that about the desert forever, but not everyone is so inclined.

I think everyone should read it, but I can also appreciate an "easy there, Satan"-type joke about it!

Re: 'Doomscrolling' breeds anxiety – how to stop the cycle

#112

Post by lostmsu »

vages wrote: post #109
lostmsu wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem I've been facing recently is that long form also turns out to be a waste of time after you go through the most informational/influential pieces. Lots of the articles thread the same water, dive into totally unnecessary details, or just tell a story that, while fascinating, does not really give you any important new information, or bury it in a few casual sentences, never elaborating on them. For books it…

I would say that the ability to recognize true novelty is hard to train without experiencing a fair amount of repetition.

Very true. It is still better to jump right away into dense stuff though.

Re: 'Doomscrolling' breeds anxiety – how to stop the cycle

#113

Post by lostmsu »

411111111111111 wrote: post #108
lostmsu wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem I've been facing recently is that long form also turns out to be a waste of time after you go through the most informational/influential pieces. Lots of the articles thread the same water, dive into totally unnecessary details, or just tell a story that, while fascinating, does not really give you any important new information, or bury it in a few casual sentences, never elaborating on them. For books it…

> For books it is usually just the same story told over and over again with the character names and forms changed. actual new things are by definition rare. each thing can only be done once for all of humanity. after that, its an iterative process with the occasional leap forward. if you're thinking about technical or even worse self-help books: yes - there are very few that actually bring anything worthwhile to the…

> how else would you write a book

Maybe you don't.

https://www.multivax.com/last_question.html

Re: 'Doomscrolling' breeds anxiety – how to stop the cycle

#114

Post by sien »

lilyball wrote: post #10

A few weeks ago I identified doomscrolling, particularly in bed, as a major source for my recent sleeping issues. As a result, I took a major step back from Twitter in general, and especially forced myself to stop reading Twitter in bed, or even in the late evenings. This produced an immediate improvement in both sleep quality and overall mood.

Deleting twitter from my phone was very much worth doing.

I'll log in at a conference, otherwise keeping it off your phone helps.

Also as others have said keep your phone away from your bed, preferably in another room.

Re: 'Doomscrolling' breeds anxiety – how to stop the cycle

#115

Post by InsOp »

xvector wrote: post #75
zozin wrote: post #59

I deleted my Twitter a few months ago and my life is better for it. The need to be “in the know” was powerful, but I realized that I was consuming vast amounts of shallow information that resulted in shallow, uninformed opinions. I’ve been reading a lot more long-form articles and books; I’ve finished reading three books in the last month or so. When my Twitter habit was strong I would often start a book and give up…

The feeling of reading through well-written long-form articles is very satisfying. Do any HN’ers have recommendations for websites with well-written long-form articles?

https://waitbutwhy.com/archive

Re: 'Doomscrolling' breeds anxiety – how to stop the cycle

#116

Post by luckylion »

lostmsu wrote: post #96
zozin wrote: post #59

I deleted my Twitter a few months ago and my life is better for it. The need to be “in the know” was powerful, but I realized that I was consuming vast amounts of shallow information that resulted in shallow, uninformed opinions. I’ve been reading a lot more long-form articles and books; I’ve finished reading three books in the last month or so. When my Twitter habit was strong I would often start a book and give up…

The problem I've been facing recently is that long form also turns out to be a waste of time after you go through the most informational/influential pieces. Lots of the articles thread the same water, dive into totally unnecessary details, or just tell a story that, while fascinating, does not really give you any important new information, or bury it in a few casual sentences, never elaborating on them. For books it…

The incentives on the web are skewed, and I believe the same is true for print. Nobody will be happy to pay the same price for a 50 page book as they would for a 200 page book, even if the information is the same, so if you have a 50 page book, you have every reason in the world to add fluff and stretch it to 200 pages.

For many articles on the web I believe it's an issue because of Google. Google does punish short pieces, so if you want to write about how to do X with Y, you need to start of with a history of Y, lay out a couple of use cases of X and then explain why doing X with Y is difficult, to finally explain how to do it.

Re: 'Doomscrolling' breeds anxiety – how to stop the cycle

#118

Post by peroporque »

zozin wrote: post #59

I deleted my Twitter a few months ago and my life is better for it. The need to be “in the know” was powerful, but I realized that I was consuming vast amounts of shallow information that resulted in shallow, uninformed opinions. I’ve been reading a lot more long-form articles and books; I’ve finished reading three books in the last month or so. When my Twitter habit was strong I would often start a book and give up…

It can be sane. Just be very selective who you allow. I maybe follow a hundred people or so, but my block list is probably ten times as long. Even blocking anybody with "pronouns" in their Bio already helps a lot.

Re: 'Doomscrolling' breeds anxiety – how to stop the cycle

#119

Post by ck425 »

One thing I found useful was installing Sudoku on my phone. If I feel the urge for a dopamine hit from the internet I play a have of Sudoku instead. It gives me a hit but without the anxiety and I find the focused thinking it causes very helpful if I'm procrastinating.

Re: 'Doomscrolling' breeds anxiety – how to stop the cycle

#120

Post by peroporque »

xvector wrote: post #75
zozin wrote: post #59

I deleted my Twitter a few months ago and my life is better for it. The need to be “in the know” was powerful, but I realized that I was consuming vast amounts of shallow information that resulted in shallow, uninformed opinions. I’ve been reading a lot more long-form articles and books; I’ve finished reading three books in the last month or so. When my Twitter habit was strong I would often start a book and give up…

The feeling of reading through well-written long-form articles is very satisfying. Do any HN’ers have recommendations for websites with well-written long-form articles?

https://quillette.com/
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