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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?

#381

Post by swayvil »

bvinc wrote: post #375
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…

Everyone else replying to you is trying to convince you with arguments that reddit isn't a good use of your time. As you already know, this won't work. You're already convinced. The only thing that works is a site blocker. It actually works. Convince yourself that the block is permanent. Delete the app. This of course won't completely stop you, because you could always unblock yourself. But it'll stop you from mindle…

everybody likes to put their reddit down.

but we are just good friends.

reddit man.

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

#383

Post by tomca32 »

reportingsjr wrote: post #295
dawidw wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is so bad about keto diet?

The key thing you do in a keto diet, entering a state of ketogenesis, can cause massive complications for diabetic people due to ketoacidosis. Unfortunately a lot of people who would be interested in dieting and trying out a keto diet are diabetic. It's not always dangerous, but it's generally not a good diet for diabetic people because of this.

This is incorrect. I'm a Type 1 Diabetic and in my opinion keto diet is probably the healthiest diet a diabetic can be on.

Ketoacidosis is a result of extremely high blood sugar for a prolonged period of time combined with ketosis. The reason this happens is that without insulin your body cannot use the sugar in your blood so your blood sugar keeps going up and your body doesn't get any energy out of it.

What happens when your body is out of fuel for a couple of days? It enters ketosis and starts to burn fat. Ketons mixed with sugar in your blood will acidify blood, this is ketoacidosis. It's an extremely dangerous condition.

However, if a diabetic is on keto diet they will have low blood sugar and their body will enter regular ketosis almost eliminating the need for insulin and ensuring a stable healthy blood sugar.

In other words, a diabetic will end up in ketoacidosis if they're bad at controlling their blood sugar, regardless of their diet. However, if they are on keto diet the chance that their blood sugar will be very high is extremely small. High blood sugar is the killer, not ketosis.

I've been doing a keto diet on and off for a number of years. When I'm in ketosis my blood sugar is steady in 80-100 range and I don't need almost any insulin.

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

#384

Post by bogwog »

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…

I had a similar addiction to reddit a couple of years ago, especially while I was in college. It just became something I did as part of my routine. In hindsight I don't know why, since I rarely had a good time on there. It felt like everyone was an asshole, the content was all repeats of the same shitty jokes and fake stories from people desperately trying to farm internet points. It all felt pathetic, and I knew it at the time, but something kept bringing me back.

So one day I decided to just delete my account, and that was it. As soon as the account disappeared, so did my interest in the site. It was like a switch flipped in my head. I guess it was the internet points that were tickling the addiction part of my brain?

Next time I find myself wasting too much time on a social network, I'm just going to delete the account and move on. Unfortunately, I don't think HN lets you delete your account, so I'll need to get creative if I decide to drop this site too (maybe do something to get myself banned?)

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

#385

Post by Crabber »

soared wrote: post #377
Crabber wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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 twitte…

The point is that lions are chasing down prey 100% of the time, and so humans also don’t need to be actively doing something 100% of the time either. Doomscrolling isn’t a great example, but is comparable to the leisure of lions.

The point I was trying to make is that even within "unproductive time" there are extremely healthy, and extremely unhealthy ways to spend it.

Someone introduced me to the idea of "mental diet" a while ago. I find it to be an interesting concept. We know not to spend hours of our time eating junk food because it's not good for our physical health, why do we never consider our mental health in a similar way?

Doomscrolling is just filling your brain up with mental junk. Most content on the modern internet is just mental junk honestly. And spending hours reading and getting invested in all of this crap really does affect your headspace for the rest of the day.

Lions, by comparison, have a very pure and healthy mental diet.

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

#386

Post by chefandy »

331c8c71 wrote: post #307
motoboi wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those who didn't get the memo: Be warned, folks! Depression is not about sadness, but about not being able to do things. If you are feeling incapable of doing things, like physically siting in front of the computer and not being able to do any work, you are probably depressed. Sometimes you'll sit in front of the computer, try to start some task but somehow end opening hackeer news, digg, youtube. Seek help as so…

> Sometimes you'll sit in front of the computer, try to start some task but somehow end opening hackeer news, digg, youtube. I have to strongly disagree. If that kind of behavior gets out of control it sounds like typical adhd. One still wants to do stuff but unable to get oneself into actually doing it. Depression IMO is when one starts losing motivation and ability to derive pleasure from activities that were norma…

It's not that cut and dried. Comorbidity of ADHD and serious depression or anxiety is something like 80%. Depression also affects your ability to focus. Either way, you should get help if it's negatively impacting your life in ways serious enough that you've made concerted efforts to stop. That's especially true if you haven't been able to improve it yourself.

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

#387

Post by robocat »

bityard wrote: post #196
joaomacp wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may be a common trait in programmers, since we're rewarded by getting to the bottom of things: "why is this function failing? who calls it? in which possible states?" Most programmers have experienced being so immersed in code that we don't notice time is passing, forgetting to eat or sleep. It's similar with immersion in social media / food / whatever. We become lost in the activity and lose our sense of self. I'…

I identify with all of this, but this: > to make pauses, take a deep breath and think about "what am I doing right now? What should I be doing instead?". this too can have its pitfalls. In my case, I always feel like I have BOTH too many things that I WANT to do and too many things HAVE to do and whenever I step back and try to look at the bigger picture, I realize that I don't feel like I'm making tangible progress…

Perhaps try to distinguish where your wants and pressures come from?

So many of our "wants" are social status goals, or social expectations.

I find it very hard to discriminate my own desires from my unconscious programming by others.

Whenever you feel pressured, try and find the root cause of the pressure?

Just an idea - perhaps damaging but hopefully enabling.

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

#388

Post by Crabber »

bogwog wrote: post #384
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…

I had a similar addiction to reddit a couple of years ago, especially while I was in college. It just became something I did as part of my routine. In hindsight I don't know why, since I rarely had a good time on there. It felt like everyone was an asshole, the content was all repeats of the same shitty jokes and fake stories from people desperately trying to farm internet points. It all felt pathetic, and I knew it…

>In hindsight I don't know why, since I rarely had a good time on there.

Someone told me once that addiction is built more strongly with negative experiences and it blew my mind. I think it's probably true.

Addiction isn't built by you getting a reward, it's built by you desperately chasing a reward you never quite reach. We call a book a "page turner" not because it's a satisfying book, but because every chapter ends in some bullshit cliff hanger. Same applies to TV shows.

I would suggest that maybe you weren't addicted to reddit because it was actually giving you what you wanted, but because you were chasing some satisfaction that you never quite got. Satisfied users leave a site happy after 5 minutes and get on with life. People who have spent 2 hours opening 200 threads and still haven't got the happy feeling they came there for stay around to open "just one more thread" another 50 times.

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

#389

Post by ryandrake »

organsnyder wrote: post #365
acwan93 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've read that the decline of religion also plays a role here. Aside from the religious aspect, the sense of community and regularity you get meeting the same people on a regular basis is lost. It's kind of the mix of a loss of "third place" (institutions, coffee shops, etc.) and the increase of social media bubbles that pushes us to be more polarized, I think.

The community of my church is probably keeping me there more than my faith is.

I'd probably be more into church if it was just a social club and didn't come with that expectation that you'd be worshiping an invisible sky daddy, adopting questionable morality/philosophies, and attending what's basically a Republican political rally every Sunday. My wife goes to hers and it's nice, socially for her, that it comes prepackaged with a ready-made group of friends, but as soon as the Bibles and Trump flags come out, I bounce.

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

#390

Post by grappler »

I set a points threshold on what hacker news stories I see. This article broke through that threshold even though it is not worth my time, so the thing I'm going to do immediately after posting this comment is raise the threshold some more.

That's the action that should always follow, any time something gets through the filter. Make the filter more restrictive. Over time, that should clear out the low value things.

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