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Why do you waste so much time on the internet?

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Re: Why do you waste so much time on the internet?

#321

Post by v-erne »

nvusuvu wrote: post #138
spir wrote: post #29

I am addicted to twitter and reddit. Especially reddit. It often takes the place of reading, hobbies, quiet moments, improving my home, talking with my spouse, and playing with my baby. When reddit records a click or an upvote, it thinks it has been a Good Product, and created Engagement. Reddit then takes those feedback loops and tunes the algorithm and feedback loops to create further engagement. But in reality, th…

As a married husband (almost 20 yrs) and father of five kids, allow me to share some wisdom. Spouse time is vital to a healthy, strong, vibrant, lasting relationship. Reddit doesn't care about you like your spouse does. And kids grow up way too fast. Treasure every moment.

>> Spouse time is vital to a healthy, strong, vibrant, lasting relationship

Hear! Hear! This cannot be overstated.

>> And kids grow up way too fast. Treasure every moment.

And this on the other hand ... works only if You somehow like children (and who does not like small psychopats with dictatorial aspirations). For the others (I believe most of people who lives in my housing estate can be counted) I observe that the moments they really treasure are those when their children are is safe distance from them taking care of themselves.

Re: Why do you waste so much time on the internet?

#322

Post by senjin »

I know exactly why I do it and it feels impossible to stop. I scroll endlessly to avoid the pain of everything else in life. Doing work, doing chores, doing hobbies, talking to anyone, making decisions even about projects I'm excited to work on, it all causes a small hit of emotional pain. I don't really know where this pain comes from either. Maybe some childhood trauma that I can't even remember? I don't know.

The 2nd part that cements this into what feels like an unbreakable habit is that I feel like I'm constantly learning. It's partly true, I'm constantly learning about things that have even benefited me and my team at work, but in general it's low quality garbage I'm learning about or just the surface of a good/useful topic.

Like the author I have recognized this and done research on it and have no idea how to fix it. I remember finding the word akrasia [1] years ago that has stuck with me since but no help actually getting past it.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akrasia

Re: Why do you waste so much time on the internet?

#323

Post by adra »

If you have social media apps, TURN off notifications, block them forever!

I also tried using greyscale screen modes in accessibility and I found it cut my phone usage in half. Definitely a cheap win for me to the point that I barely ever use my phone for "idle" time anymore, and certainly not "the" place I go to satisfy my need to spend time.

Re: Why do you waste so much time on the internet?

#325

Post by mdoms »

Tade0 wrote: post #86
DerekBickerton wrote: post #11

I'm not sure about wasting. Most of my surfing consists of unearthing gems, and I have to wade through a lot of noise and muck to find those gems, but the gems are there. If I could automate it, I would, but it wouldn't be the same. A piece of code that crawls the net looking for something I would really enjoy is a hard problem, and I would have to code in my own biases to the program to make it work properly, and th…

Can you give an example of such a gem? Normally I just rely on HN to provide me with interesting links, but lately it doesn't seem to give me the same kick it used to.

I'm not the person you asked but I try to keep my gems in bookmarks, would love to share some. Obviously I don't know your interests so take it for what you will. I have many more than I'll post here if you want some.

Some of this came from HN, some from elsewhere.

This website lists the first references to some cultural icons on Usenet (for example the first time AIDS was ever discussed, first mention of a new TV cartoon "The Simpsons", etc.) http://www.eightyeightynine.com/culture/80susenet.html

The Public Domain Review, a collection and analysis of interesting stuff in the public domain https://publicdomainreview.org/

David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. I have spent many hours browsing the incredible content here. https://www.davidrumsey.com/

Artvee. Free, high quality art. https://artvee.com/

Restoration Mustang. A high quality long term journal of the restoration of a classic Mustang. Think like an /r/diy project but with way more detail and over a longer time scale. https://restorationmustang.com/

The Renegade Gardener. Highly opinionated no-bullshit gardening advice. I especially love the "Don't Do That" section. https://renegadegardener.com/

Garden Myths. There's a lot of misinformation and old wives' tales in gardening, this website cuts the crap. https://www.gardenmyths.com/

Million Short is a search engine that lets you cut out the million (or 10,000 or 100,000) top results from a search, really good for finding gems. It also has an option for removing e-commerce websites from search which is a godsend. https://millionshort.com/

This one is relevant if you live in New Zealand and love the outdoors: Can I Light a Fire? https://www.checkitsalright.nz/can-i-light-a-fire

Re: Why do you waste so much time on the internet?

#326

Post by b555 »

nvusuvu wrote: post #138
spir wrote: post #29

I am addicted to twitter and reddit. Especially reddit. It often takes the place of reading, hobbies, quiet moments, improving my home, talking with my spouse, and playing with my baby. When reddit records a click or an upvote, it thinks it has been a Good Product, and created Engagement. Reddit then takes those feedback loops and tunes the algorithm and feedback loops to create further engagement. But in reality, th…

As a married husband (almost 20 yrs) and father of five kids, allow me to share some wisdom. Spouse time is vital to a healthy, strong, vibrant, lasting relationship. Reddit doesn't care about you like your spouse does. And kids grow up way too fast. Treasure every moment.

could not agree more with this. social media exists out there, but spouse and kids are right in front of you each and every day. when done correctly, seeing the growth of your family and spending time with them can be extremely rewarding, even more than the dopamine produced by interacting with the social media

Re: Why do you waste so much time on the internet?

#327

Post by reggieband »

drivers99 wrote: post #313
reggieband wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People often say they will keep old TV shows like Friends, How I Met Your Mother or The Office on in the background. I think it simulates the feeling of having familiar social connections in ones life. 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 tha…

I got really into watching Twitch for a while in 2020 (especially IRL content such as a mechanical watch repair guy (relevant to yesterday's top post about watches), musicians, and other small streamers I could get to know and they'd recognize my name) and that scene often came to mind.

I wanted to keep my post short so I didn't list all of the ways I feel we express this tendency. Others mentioned podcasts and talk radio but Youtube and Twitch are great examples. There is no denying that people who watch creators like Mizkif are feeling like they are part of a group of friends. Ludwig called it out most famously in his parasocial video [1]. It is so well known it is already a hackneyed meme.

Sometimes I feel smug looking down on people who become obsessed with the latest Kardashian drama or the British Royal Family or whatever celebrity culture. But then I turn a critical eye on myself and I'll realize I spend a lot of time watching YouTube videos on woodworking, small engine repair and outdoor activities. I don't do any of these things and I tend to watch the same creators over and over again.

Some people want to feel like they have hyper-crazy friends like Jake Paul who live wild fantasy lifestyles. I'm not certain that is different than me watching videos of some guy quietly building a log cabin on his own in the woods.

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzyQbfh4t_8

Re: Why do you waste so much time on the internet?

#328

Post by ketzo »

331c8c71 wrote: post #296
dcchambers wrote: post #21

My completely unprofessional opinion is that almost everyone that uses the internet throughout the day has developed some form of undiagnosed ADD/ADHD. The modern internet has broken our slowly evolved brains. We are not built to cope with these types of attention destroying activities and media. At least 20 years ago you had to sit down at a specific place and use a chunky computer. Smartphones have made it 1000x wo…

Not exactly. It's definitely not ADHD if there's no prolonged and debilitating impact. Being distracted an hour there and a couple there is not like ADHD. ADHD would be like more like falling in a pit where one basically cannot do anything meaningful for days and days despite willing to do so (if the motivation is lost, in turn, we are talking about depression-like states). I doubt that many of normal smartphone user…

ADD/ADHD are very much a spectrum. If someone is having trouble focusing for a few hours a day, even if it’s not literal days on end, I don’t think it’s crazy to investigate ADD/ADHD as the cause/name of the problem.

Re: Why do you waste so much time on the internet?

#329

Post by b555 »

kabdib wrote: post #302

A week ago I deleted my Twitter account. Today I'm deleting my Reddit account. I'm keeping Facebook simply to stay in touch with family and a few friends, otherwise it would definitely go. I'm on the fence about HN, but it will probably go as well. These online communities are a net negative in my life, and I'm done.

when folks talk about going cold turkey like this, I have a question for them - do you think they were a net negative or our capability to moderate our use of these social media was not controllable?

Re: Why do you waste so much time on the internet?

#330

Post by Crabber »

sarsway wrote: post #124

Because we humans have a lot of idle time. We feel like we're wasting it, and we feel we should instead spend time archiving goals, to better ourselves, to do something more meaningful. But that is not how life works. You are just unnecessarily burden yourself with guilt. Thinking you should be doing something else. There are so many things to learn about, so many things to experience, right? We fear on missing out o…

>Watch some livestreams of lions on youtube, what do they do? 99% of the time they just sit under a tree doing absolutely nothing, and I bet they don't feel guilty about it

Lions are at peace with the world. They sit around with clear minds, watching nature go by. They are content with the world and their place within it.

This is absolutely not the same as a human who spends 4 hours a day doomscrolling through twitter and reddit and can't help checking their phone every 5 minutes.

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