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Ask HN: How do you deal with information and internet addiction?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with information and internet addiction?

#91

Post by pkghost »

A 6-minute Bob Newhart clip from MadTV that is guaranteed[1] to fix all your problems: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow0lr63y4Mw (tl;dw: stop it!)

> But the work is tedious enough that I am too tried in the evening to do something interesting.

Same; sounds normal.

> Have you been able to detach yourself from the constant flow of information and focus on your own stuff?

I put the xbox in the closet for while and made it just a little harder to indulge the impulse. Don't tell yourself you have to swear off podcasts or HN or whatever forever—just ask yourself if you'd be willing to try a brief but significant break, and make sure you have some ideas for what you'll replace it with.

I also rarely spend free time programming. Once in a while I'll get an idea and the motivation to do so, but I find that if I spend a significant chunk of my productive/creative energy during the day on work, I'm much happier if I then spend the rest of the day socializing, exercising, doing stuff around the house—basically anything not in front of the computer.

Habit change can be daunting, but the hardest part is often recognizing something that you want to change, and you're already there! Good luck with the rest :)

1) Not.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with information and internet addiction?

#94

Post by officeplant »

mike_mg wrote: post #80

> Does anybody else feel that way? oh yeah, sure! 2 actionable things that changed my view on this things completely: 1) Huberman lab podcast on dopamine: https://hubermanlab.com/how-to-increase-motivation-and-drive... . It's not some self help BS, all based on science, backed by publications. TL; DR, you might be riding too high on dopamine / layering too many dopaminergic activities. You might need to lower your ba…

A podcast would come up in a discussion about addiction to podcasts and other media.

But also thanks I'm gonna add this to my list as well.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with information and internet addiction?

#95

Post by photochemsyn »

Using a timer to restrict online time is a possible approach.

The science fiction novel "The Ringworld Engineers" by Larry Niven (1980) features one Louis Wu, who at the beginning of the story has become a 'wirehead' (wireheading being "the act of directly triggering the brain's reward center by electrical stimulation of an inserted wire, for the purpose of 'short-circuiting' the brain's normal reward process and artificially inducing pleasure.") He manages it by use of a specially designed timer which requires several hours of painstaking work to reset.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with information and internet addiction?

#96

Post by CobrastanJorji »

58x14 wrote: post #77
CobrastanJorji wrote: post #28

I wonder if this can be a good forum for your question. You must suspect every answer here simply because everyone here is a self-selected group of people idly reading and commenting on Hacker News threads. It is like asking your friends at the bar for suggestions on how to quit drinking: many there have no interest in it, and the rest are interested but have not succeeded.

Several threads here seem insightful, particularly the top comment with quotes on avoiding the pitfall of information addiction. I often find pragmatic, applicable advice for fuzzy mental and emotional problems here, more so than in most other online communities. In the end, it’s the poster’s responsibility to comb through responses to find useful snippets. The cliche of “admitting the problem is the first step towar…

Nothing wrong with bars. They're also known for spirited debate, like-minded people, and foosball tables, even more so than tech campus courtyards.

But you have a point. I'm being snarky, unfair, and, worse, unhelpful. One can consume media and also create stuff. Hanging out here doesn't mean that you aren't also creating neat things, and indeed there are a whole bunch of posts here every day showing the insane and wonderful things people are out there creating.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with information and internet addiction?

#97

Post by mindwork »

In order to change the behavior, first you need to grow the context and understanding of why you want to do this, what are downsides, what tropes do you want to avoid.

I recommend reading Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport and Essentialism by Greg McKeown.

First understand the problem and all the aspects of it. Then action will foolow

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with information and internet addiction?

#98

Post by eBombzor »

labrador wrote: post #11

I handle it by collecting quotes that tell me to knock it off. I've since started to focus on just the things I really care about: The purpose of knowledge is action, not knowledge. ― Aristotle Knowledge isn't free. You have to pay attention ― Richard Feynman "Information is not truth" ― Yuval Noah Harari If I were the plaything of every thought, I would be a fool, not a wise man. ― Rumi Dhamma is in your mind, not i…

Okay... so what about academic research?

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with information and internet addiction?

#99

Post by beezlebroxxxxxx »

mike_mg wrote: post #80

> Does anybody else feel that way? oh yeah, sure! 2 actionable things that changed my view on this things completely: 1) Huberman lab podcast on dopamine: https://hubermanlab.com/how-to-increase-motivation-and-drive... . It's not some self help BS, all based on science, backed by publications. TL; DR, you might be riding too high on dopamine / layering too many dopaminergic activities. You might need to lower your ba…

I think I've ran into some criticisms of Huberman for often citing animal studies as equally applicable to human studies. Tbf, I like Huberman generally, but I do also think he's very good at making every single thing he says "science based" as if the existence of a single finding from a one-off study on mice is somehow iron clad confirmation and proof in favor of his specific recommendation.

But his general recommendations are usually pretty good and he has good guests sometimes.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with information and internet addiction?

#100

Post by jti107 »

dandanua wrote: post #38
jti107 wrote: post #12

i'd suggest reading Dopamine Nation, essentially the premise of the book is modern society has hijacked our natural reward system and we havent figured out how to moderate ourselves. author suggests 30 day dopamine detox so whatever you think you're addicted to (social media, sugar, sex, news, drugs, alcohol, etc.) force yourself to not use it for a couple of weeks and see how you feel. you should go thru intense wit…

Practicing self-restrictions is a good advice in general, but I wouldn't equate the addiction problem with dopamine levels. There is a meaning in everything you do, including your addictions. Sometimes this meaning is very deep. And you won't solve the problem without understanding roots of it.

Yep totally agree, you will need need to solve the root issue at some point. The detox is just to meant to give you a chance to look at the situation clearly and hopefully put you in the path to addressing the root issue. which hopefully means you won’t need to medicate thru ur addiction
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