341–350 of 417 posts
I occasionally watch "let's play" videos as a harm reduced alternative to actually playing games. A half hour spent watching someone play a game/sim totally relieves my FOMO. It also dissipates my urge to build a gaming PC. As a maker and musician, there's tons of inspiring and informative content on YT. I feel that I'm quite net positive on my use of YT to enrich my life.
I am seriously addicted to the internet in general and while it may not be an addiction in the physical sense, it has caused major issues in my life. The amount of time I spend on the Internet is insane and no matter how hard I try to will power through it and cut down my usage I always fail. If I ever figure out how to overcome it I'll have to write a book or something, because I've wasted years of my life and misse…
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I spend was too much time on the internet too like right now checking hn but for me I chalk it up to lack of other things to do. I don't have a lot of friends, it's hard to make new ones, covid doesn't help, at the moment I've got no personal projects except maybe trying new recipes now and then. that said, if I do find other activities I have no trouble doing them. I'm taking a class for example, meet the friends I…
> I chalk it up to lack of other things to do In my case, I don't have other things to do because I'm on the internet. When I manage to turn off the internet (HN, Youtube, podcasts, Twitter, LinkedIn, reading up on random, pretty useless stuff), suddenly I get pretty good ideas on what to do. Oh, I wanted to learn finally that language. I wanted to clean up in the kitchen cabinet. I wanted to meet up with a friend. I…
> It's scary to think about having a hole and not being able to fill it with that comfortable "zoning out" feeling. That is exactly my experience. I've also rather recently came to the revelation that this behavior and dependence on "zoning out" is addiction. It doesn't matter that the object of addiction is a website with silly popular videos. The pattern of behavior _is_ addiction.
I am seriously addicted to the internet in general and while it may not be an addiction in the physical sense, it has caused major issues in my life. The amount of time I spend on the Internet is insane and no matter how hard I try to will power through it and cut down my usage I always fail. If I ever figure out how to overcome it I'll have to write a book or something, because I've wasted years of my life and misse…
ever take a vacation and not ensure you have internet access?
The last time I lost internet for an extended time (my cable got dug up) made me an anxious mess for weeks.
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What was the testing criteria? My assessment took several days, totalling around 8 hours of time in the clinic. A lot of interviewing and cognitive assessments. I'm not sure if that's standard, but maybe that gives you something to contrast it with. I left the experience with a fairly hefty document describing my abilities/disabilities along with various recommendations moving forward. I also received an IQ test resu…
> I also received an IQ test result which was strange to see, and I actually would have preferred not to see it. Why is that?
I had aspirations I didn’t pursue because I thought I wasn’t capable, for example. Lacked confidence because I believed I wasn’t competent. Suddenly I was faced with the notion that I wasn’t failed by genetics or something I couldn’t control, but rather, I’d simply lived for decades apparently completely unaware of myself and wasting my potential. What a strange thought.
My score wasn’t exceptional. I expected it to be much lower, though.
I’m still not sure how I feel. I wonder if I should do more with myself or not, if any of it even matters, that sort of thing. I suspect never knowing actually could have been better; it’s unlikely at this point that I could ever realize potential that I was previously unaware of. I don’t think it serves me at all. In a strange way I guess I liked assuming I wasn’t intelligent. I genuinely don’t feel intelligent.
I am seriously addicted to the internet in general and while it may not be an addiction in the physical sense, it has caused major issues in my life. The amount of time I spend on the Internet is insane and no matter how hard I try to will power through it and cut down my usage I always fail. If I ever figure out how to overcome it I'll have to write a book or something, because I've wasted years of my life and misse…
I did take a break. A long break. I joined the Army in 2021, after being laid off during the pandemic, thinking I wanted to leave technology for good. Then after I graduated from basic, I realized I was probably going to be a shitty, unfit soldier and that I missed all of the interesting technical and engineering challenges we solve as software engineers.
I'm still working on getting back into the profession (pretty much due to my own laziness the past year... I guess needed time to recalibrate after everything). But, I have spent countless hours the past year setting up homelab equipment, various servers, writing scripts and small programs to organize stuff.
Youtube isn't something I really could get addicted to, because I don't like learning from videos or watching stuff I could read in a quarter of the time. But I guess I do have a pretty bad TV addiction. I wasted tons of hours when I was depressed binge-watching shows online. It's to the point I don't even watch movies often because I prefer the intimacy I feel when I know the characters well and am deeply immersed in a series, especially something running multiple seasons. I binged all 5 seasons of the Handmaid's Tale a few weeks ago in less than a week, for example, and considered immediately rewatching them all.
As another has stated below, I guess this is to fill the void that occurs in life when we are single and childless, unemployed, or both.
I still don't think if I would call my internet usage or passion for technology "addiction". The TV/Netflix/etc. ... sure. That's fair. But I think it's fine to be obsessed with something like programming, especially if it's your profession. People who get paid to do something they love are lucky.
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> I also received an IQ test result which was strange to see, and I actually would have preferred not to see it. Why is that?
I suppose the gist of it was that I felt stupid all my life and never challenged myself as a result. Then I found out I’m not, at least according to that scale. I had aspirations I didn’t pursue because I thought I wasn’t capable, for example. Lacked confidence because I believed I wasn’t competent. Suddenly I was faced with the notion that I wasn’t failed by genetics or something I couldn’t control, but rather, I’d…
For what it's worth, I don't actually think IQ is a canonical measure of intelligence, and the narrative people have of "being stupid" is often driven by society valuing certain kinds of intelligence more than others. But the kind of intelligence it takes to do software dev is more widely considered the "legitimate" kind of intelligence (by people who tend to view intelligence in more reductive, "black-and-white" terms).
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If you're intent on getting off the internet, Gabor has several books worth reading. One trouble with his writing and speaking on the subject isn't that I think he's wrong or does a bad job at all, but like anything in psychology, you aren't going to read it and "get there", so to speak. What Gabor describes is often years of critical reflection away from fully making sense. I guess from my perspective I don't get th…
Which books of his would you recommend one start with?
I read Hold On to Your Kids and enjoyed it, but I prefer many others in the category quite a bit more. I agree with what he says and I think it’s worthwhile information. Perhaps I just prefer another format in the context of childhood psychology. If you have young kids you might find that you enjoy it, though — it’s certainly worth taking a look.