251–260 of 685 posts
So we always need ways to constrain the amount of snack food and snack media we consume
I wonder if this is because we're lonely..? Just wondering out loud here. E.g. Twitter - feels like many of the "thought leaders" I follow, their "friends" are also on Twitter. And they tweet/respond so much I often wonder if they're really ever "building a business". And are they ever interacting with their real-world friends or family? Or if their lives just consist of a constant refresh of their feed. Even at dinn…
In Fahrenheit 451, the protagonist's wife Mildred "finds herself more involved in the "parlor wall" entertainment in the living room – large televisions filling the walls" [1]. She frequently calls the entertainers that appear on the screen her family. So this satirical observation is at least as old as that fiction.
I frequently wonder how AR/VR will play in this particular space. Cynically, I believe there is a killer app to be had there.
Just speaking for myself, I've noticed that my habit is to eat what is in front of me, and clean my plate. I mean this both literally and figuratively. If I have dessert in the house, like a bag of chocolate, then I eat one after dinner. If I don't have it in the house, then I just don't eat dessert. If I have a social media feed full of content, then I'll scroll through all of it until there's nothing else that's ne…
Don’t quit social media. Don’t restrict yourself by setting rules you’ll break a few days later. Why? Because it doesn’t work.
Life can be and will be about what you are passionate about.
So sure go ahead and enjoy wasting time on the internet. But after 15-30 minutes when it’s no longer enjoyable but rather you are seeking that enjoyment you first had, get up and try something new. It might be awful (so one and done), but it also might be amazing. It might just become the activity you wake up excited to do every day that social media/web scrolling doesn’t even compare to.
Just speaking for myself, I've noticed that my habit is to eat what is in front of me, and clean my plate. I mean this both literally and figuratively. If I have dessert in the house, like a bag of chocolate, then I eat one after dinner. If I don't have it in the house, then I just don't eat dessert. If I have a social media feed full of content, then I'll scroll through all of it until there's nothing else that's ne…
I could never do that with Facebook as it is mostly all useless crap and ads
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree completely, the only reliable way to quit using a smartphone is to stop carrying one. I don't know why we apply such different thinking to digital addictions than physical ones. You would never tell someone who was trying to quit smoking "just carry a pack of cigarettes and a lighter everywhere but don't use them".
Because we still need certain utilities on our phone, like Maps and Music and Search and Camera. Those aren't the problems--we still want those things, which are not addictive and fruitful, but we want less of things which are addictive and fruitless, like Twitter and Reddit. Cigarettes have no such essential and positive utility.
It's surprising how often I actually don't, though. Rarely am I going anywhere I actually don't know how to go. Rarely do I actually need to take a photo of something (though to be fair, I've never really been into photography; this would be different for people who are). I prefer quiet to music (although again, admittedly, I know I'm not the norm here). And not being able to search the answer to any old thing whenever I want? Turns out I forget most of those things by the time I get to a computer, so I guess they weren't terribly important. I make more of a point of trying to learn things now.
I don't distract myself as much as I used to. I feel like I'm actually more present when I'm present because I don't have anywhere else to be.
YMMV, but there's no perfect solution. Everything has tradeoffs. You just have to choose which set you care about most.
Just speaking for myself, I've noticed that my habit is to eat what is in front of me, and clean my plate. I mean this both literally and figuratively. If I have dessert in the house, like a bag of chocolate, then I eat one after dinner. If I don't have it in the house, then I just don't eat dessert. If I have a social media feed full of content, then I'll scroll through all of it until there's nothing else that's ne…
Switching Twitter to timeline mode rather than their poor excuse of an algorithm helps. Learned that from HN....but I have a browser plug-in that also removes all their recommended and "Joe also owed this tweet" junk.
I had to reach a point where I admitted to myself that, as much as I may wish I were a person who could handle having a smartphone in my pocket, I'm not. If I have one there, it will suck up time I don't want to give it. I tried putting all kinds of guides in place until I just...got a flip phone that, yeah, can run Android apps, but absolutely sucks to use. It doesn't have a touch screen, so I have to navigate with…
I am much the same way. I use more of a half measure than you, which is to physically remove the phone from my proximity as much as possible unless I’m intentionally trying to zone out. So if I’m working, the phone is in another room on silent. When I’m done with work, I do a hard “screens off” time for family time from 6-9 or so. That, combined with deleting fb/ig and logging out of twitter (still sometimes useful f…