I don't think it's anything human specific, any caged animal needs something to occupy its attention and stimulate the senses otherwise it will suffer the huge stress and with time start developing health issues - whether it's a mammal or bird or even a fish. It seems much more like an underlying neurological limitation of some kind, than just some high-level philosophical/existentialistic issue specific to us humans…
Maybe it’s more that we think that because humans have a higher layer of thought, we should be able to deal with it?
If you are commenting here, you haven't really quit "social media".
How helpful to have a person who knows nothing about my situation police my behaviors because of a vague congruence and an apparent desire to score internet points. No, for the purposes of what I'm doing, HN was not included in that. From my perspective, HN isn't really designed for addiction in the same way. No personalized, UAM-optimized algorithmic feed, no infinite river of small content bites, no rich mechanisms…
> an apparent desire to score Internet points.
Like in a social media you mean?.. :)
I’m not sure there are « good » and « bad » platforms. It’s not about the platform, it’s about our usage.
Where can I apply for that room? For virtually everybody, that quiet room is not a given, but has to be acquired and maintained. How can you sit in that room and give yourself to silence if you know deep down that the silence is a temporary illusion? You have to leave that room and either defend your wealth or acquire the means to be able to return. Additionally, the experiment doesn't measure what it wants to measur…
> Sitting in silence for somebody else is not the same as sitting in silence.
I don’t see the difference? If some researcher asks me between sitting in silenceand getting an electric shock, I know what I’d pick.
the day you can sit for hours without doing anything, you've attained the state of self-realization – self-love free from all conditions. The conditioned mind is no longer there, the thoughts no longer bombard you, the emotions no longer disturb you. You enjoy the deep peace, contentment and bliss of your infinite self. Then you can truly contemplate deeply on anything you feel important, then the deep mysteries of e…
> Then, you see the truth, of life, existence and the universe. Pretty words, but do they mean anything? For example, if I reach this state, will it be revealed to me why there is something rather than nothing? I think not, otherwise someone would have reported back with the answer already. I'm interested in meditation to learn more about my own body and mind, maybe improve my life somehow. But IMHO the discussions a…
> if I reach this state, will it be revealed to me why there is something rather than nothing?
Contemplation of dependent origination is a meditative practice.
That has a lot of resonance for me. In this modern age, we are all kings, and there are vast industries to save us from ever being alone from our thoughts. For December, I quit sugar, social media, and video games. It's been really interesting to notice what state I'm in when I go to reach for those things. Sometimes it's just habit, but often it's because I'm uncomfortable or in distress and want to avoid those feel…
If you are commenting here, you haven't really quit "social media".
Who made you the judge?
I don’t consider HN to be social media anymore than a discussion forum on gardening is social media.
HN is not a SV startup selling ads spying on you manipulating your behaviour to sell crap or breaking democracy or depressing teenagers into suicide, it’s just not comparable and these false equivalences are just so tiring. Stop trying to bring other people down.
If you are commenting here, you haven't really quit "social media".
HN has no user/private profile bubble which is the distinctive feature of social networks in my opinion.
Less so now but the whole site used to be a filter bubble of people in tech/science or with tech/science interests. It was actually a fairly positive filter though since it resulted in some very interesting content being surfaced. It still stands head and shoulders above the rest but there has certainly been some decline in recent years. In its early days, Reddit was much the same but suffered a massive decline after becoming the "front page of the internet". All "free as in beer" communities seem to follow a similar progression, those with stronger gatekeeping tend to last longer but no site can survive an overwhelming influx of new users without a proportionate increase in the ability to educate those users in the norms of the group they are joining.
This quote comes from Blaise Pascal's Pensées, accessible here. "That is why we like noise and activity so much. That is why imprisonment is such a horrific punishment. That is why the pleasure of being alone is incomprehensible. That is, in fact, the main joy of the condition of kingship, because people are constantly trying to amuse kings and provide them with all sorts of distraction.—The king is surrounded by peo…
That has a lot of resonance for me. In this modern age, we are all kings, and there are vast industries to save us from ever being alone from our thoughts. For December, I quit sugar, social media, and video games. It's been really interesting to notice what state I'm in when I go to reach for those things. Sometimes it's just habit, but often it's because I'm uncomfortable or in distress and want to avoid those feel…
> That has a lot of resonance for me. In this modern age, we are all kings, and there are vast industries to save us from ever being alone from our thoughts.
I don't think it's anything human specific, any caged animal needs something to occupy its attention and stimulate the senses otherwise it will suffer the huge stress and with time start developing health issues - whether it's a mammal or bird or even a fish. It seems much more like an underlying neurological limitation of some kind, than just some high-level philosophical/existentialistic issue specific to us humans…
Maybe it’s more that we think that because humans have a higher layer of thought, we should be able to deal with it?
True, and with enough training we can, that's what meditation is basically - just like we can learn to control our instincts like hunger or sex drive, but still it's not the normal state, it requires a focused mental effort. On the basic level we're social animals and we're probably hard-wired to need the presence of others, and also to seek places that stimulate our senses, as that is where the food is. Being strongly driven to sit in some deserted cave with nothing to eat or do in it wouldn't be a good evolutionary adaptation to any organism - so we surely have an instinct to avoid it - just think of horror movies, how they imagine really scary places? Dark, empty, deserted - low stimulus and it scares the hell of us.
Just my interpretation (of the Pascal quote), beginning with the full quote. > When I have occasionally set myself to consider the different distractions of men, the pains and perils to which they expose themselves at court or in war, whence arise so many quarrels, passions, bold and often bad ventures, etc., I have discovered that all the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly…
Thanks. I was reading this thread thinking that sitting alone with your thoughts does not necessarily bring you peace. It can often do the opposite.
I take time and pray to God each morning. I find that this gives me peace. I feel better prepared to deal with the day when I pray.
My routine is focused around praying the Lord's Prayer, as in the prayer Jesus taught. Praying this prayer over years has enabled some truths to sink in. For example, the first part of the prayer is not about us, it is about God. I think it is good to start the day with the understanding we are not the centre of the universe. Secondly, I have been struck by how the Lord's prayer does not start at the place of forgiveness. Whether that be seeking forgiveness or asking for forgiveness. This gives me peace in the knowledge I don't need to have it all together before I engage with God in prayer.