Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

'Doomscrolling' breeds anxiety – how to stop the cycle

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 305 posts

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

#181

Post by prox »

moksly wrote: post #149
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 think the long form is really good actually, but it needs to be done by people who wrote it out of love. HN will sometimes lead you down that path, like that story about the diver who survived for many minutes on the floor of the North Sea without oxygen after his umbilical cord was severed. Mostly though, almost everything linked to by HN didn’t really need to be written and was likely written for clicks. HN is st…

The comment section is now and again of higher quality, many who are informed on a particular subject.

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

#184

Post by chrisseaton »

yungmodulus wrote: post #176
chrisseaton wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That title’s editorialised. How about just ‘$600 Unemployment Benefit Scheme to End’?

It seems like you’re using “editorialised” as a pejorative, but I don’t necessarily understand how it’s negative. Nothing about the headline is hyperbolic or an exaggeration. The string of events from “unsafe to work” —> “cannot work” / “went to work sick” —> “no benefits” does have a direct impact on the economy, unless I’m missing some section there.

> It seems like you’re using “editorialised” as a pejorative

No it's a dispassionate statement of fact.

Sometimes when I'm choosing not to get too wound up in current events I just want to know what's going on expressed in the simplest way possible. A briefing. I'm sure their opinion here on the impact is extremely sensible, but sometimes I'm not interested in anyone's opinions, no matter how obvious or sensible.

This thread was about how to avoid getting involved in people's opinions and just learning the essential facts that you may have to do something about, like a new law to wear a mask, wasn't it?

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

#185

Post by rayiner »

dragonwriter wrote: post #100
rayiner wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you had told me 25 years ago that in my home country (Bangladesh) people were going to be demanding removal of a statue of lady justice from in front of the Supreme Court, and that the court would oblige, and that veiling women would go from being nearly non-existent to commonplace, and that secular journalists would be getting murdered, I wouldn’t have believed you. But Islamists got control of education, and all…

> Thousands of school districts are integrating material into their curriculum that claims slavery was capitalist. Chattel slavery of the type practiced in the early US and elsewhere was part of the dominant Western system of the mid-19th century for which critics coined the term “capitalism”; what else would it be but capitalist?

The term “capitalist” was not coined by critics of capitalism. For example, David Ricardo used the term decades before Marx. Criticizing capitalism by linking it to slavery was pioneered by Marx, and accepting that point of view is Marxist rhetoric.

It is, of course, logically invalid to claim that because slavery was practiced in countries that happened to be capitalist, that slavery is capitalist. By that logic, slavery is Christian and Islamic too—even more so. I’m not interested in debating Marx’s criticisms of capitalism: the fact that we’re even having this conversation proves my original concern—the resurgence of Marxism in America. I will point out that, in contemporary usage “capitalism” assumes a free market, which is incompatible with slavery both in theory and in practice. (America got richer after it abandoned slavery, which is what free market theories of economics would predict.) Trying to link what people understand capitalism to be today, to the proto-capitalism practiced in the American south, is layering specious argument upon specious argument.

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

#186

Post by rayiner »

throwanem wrote: post #156
rayiner wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you had told me 25 years ago that in my home country (Bangladesh) people were going to be demanding removal of a statue of lady justice from in front of the Supreme Court, and that the court would oblige, and that veiling women would go from being nearly non-existent to commonplace, and that secular journalists would be getting murdered, I wouldn’t have believed you. But Islamists got control of education, and all…

> A third of college students embrace communism This sounds a lot scarier when you don't realize that, among the same set, there is all but ubiquitous contempt for "tankies", i.e. the very same Stalinist-style sort of thing you're worried about. Newsmax won't tell you that, because why would they? Keeping you frightened keeps you doomscrolling their ads. I know about the tankie hate because I know a bunch of the peop…

I appear to arguing on HN with people who are repeating Marxist critiques of capitalism back at me, so I don’t think my fears are at all irrational.

Also, see: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1996/04/14/w...

> McCarthy, as his subsequent history would show, knew little about communism, on this side of the ocean or the other. This loutish, duplicitous bully, who carried, not the names of Reds but bottles of hootch in his briefcase died in disgrace and of alcoholism. Yet, in a global sense McCarthy was on to something. McCarthy may have exaggerated the scope of the problem but not by much. The government was the workplace of perhaps 100 communist agents in 1943-45. He just didn't know their names.

(Note that this was written by a prominent left leaning journalist based on declassified intelligence information.)

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

#187

Post by toto444 »

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…

I came to the same realization not so long ago. Most of the content being produced is pretty much deja vu. That lead me into questioning what creativity is but that I could not find anything interesting to read about the topic. So if anyone has any pointer please share.

It is exacerbated by the fact that there are so many ranking on the internet. I most often start by the top 10 and then the rest seems boring in comparison.

Platforms don't help either. There are hundreds of thousands of creators on Youtube and Instagram and they somehow manage to all produce the same thing...

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

#188

Post by Consultant32452 »

0xdeadb00f wrote: post #141
septimus111 wrote: post #126

I have started unsubscribing to any subreddit the moment I notice a post is generating a negative emotion. Nowadays my feed is mostly woodworking, cooking and photography.

I get it, I really do. Negativity is shit. The world is a messed up place. Sure, we shouldn't be bombarded by this fact day in and day out, but I personally think it's a good thing to remind yourself now and then how fucked up the world we live in can be - to maintain a sort of tether to the "reality" of the world's current messed up situation; it puts a lot into perspective. Any thoughts? Am I wrong for thinking thi…

One great strategy is subscribing to a weekly or monthly newspaper/magazine. If it's not important enough to make it into the weekly news, it's not that important.

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

#189

Post by Bedon292 »

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.

I really realized it a few weeks back as well. I found a few things helpful. I turned on the Digital Wellbeing settings on Android. Limited Twitter to an hour a day. It makes me much more cognizant of the time I spend, and I end up not doomscrolling the comments and stuff like that. I also turned on Bed time mode, so its all black and white by the time I am in bed. I can still do it, but with limits and help me not fall into never ending holes as much. Also playing with Focus mode, so I can't really check it in the day until after dinner. Might bump it up a little earlier so I get out of bed faster too.

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

#190

Post by koheripbal »

0xdeadb00f wrote: post #141
septimus111 wrote: post #126

I have started unsubscribing to any subreddit the moment I notice a post is generating a negative emotion. Nowadays my feed is mostly woodworking, cooking and photography.

I get it, I really do. Negativity is shit. The world is a messed up place. Sure, we shouldn't be bombarded by this fact day in and day out, but I personally think it's a good thing to remind yourself now and then how fucked up the world we live in can be - to maintain a sort of tether to the "reality" of the world's current messed up situation; it puts a lot into perspective. Any thoughts? Am I wrong for thinking thi…

Is the world really worse than ever?
Post reply on HN