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How 30 days without social media changed my life

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Re: How 30 days without social media changed my life

#21

Post by bostonpete »

jmduke wrote: post #13

This is a great blog post -- I can't help but feel like its an argument less against social media and more about how we use social media. I think it's particularly ironic that he singled out Reddit for providing "absolutely 0 value to me", since Reddit's original use was a news aggregator devoted to separating signal from noise. Nowadays, its a place for people to spout memes.

I dunno -- I haven't actively used reddit in a couple of years but I remember it always being pretty meme-heavy...

(that and an unhealthy obsession with comparing reddit to digg, though I'm guessing that theme has fallen by the wayside)

Re: How 30 days without social media changed my life

#22

Post by digitalzombie »

Giving values and more hobbies? OP sounds like he's doing PUA's inner game stuff.

I guess I'm a bit on the high horse since, I can do social media, and still be able to Judo, workout (6 days a week with insanity,gym, and hiking), dance at clubs, hang out with friends, self help stuff, and study for fun.

I don't think social media is the problem but his lack of discipline.

And everybody is jumping on the bandwagon "Whooa he's right! It's all social media fault." Hello, what you do with your time is up to you, it's not social media fault at all. It's your lack of time management skill.

Re: How 30 days without social media changed my life

#23

Post by justjimmy »

digitalzombie wrote: post #22

Giving values and more hobbies? OP sounds like he's doing PUA's inner game stuff. I guess I'm a bit on the high horse since, I can do social media, and still be able to Judo, workout (6 days a week with insanity,gym, and hiking), dance at clubs, hang out with friends, self help stuff, and study for fun. I don't think social media is the problem but his lack of discipline. And everybody is jumping on the bandwagon "Wh…

Hmm… I don't think that what the author was getting at. I felt it was more closely aligned with the point that social media put some of wall/distance between us and our connections/relationships - in the sense that we are assimilating stories of our friends through status updates instead of a more personal face to face interaction. ie: Getting the news your friend is pregnant through status update vs. them breaking the news to you face to face and the emotions that happens as you congratulate and hug them.

Re: How 30 days without social media changed my life

#24

Post by GrantCov »

I ditched Facebook for about 8 months (I've been back since January) last year and it was incredibly liberating. As a result of my complete withdrawal for such a long period I don't check nearly as much as I previously did, although I must admit I have been starting to slip back into old habits. Also when I re-activated my Facebook I also joined Twitter which I now spent far too much time on. Despite some regression, I still feel that by having taken such an extended hiatus I am far less addicted to receiving the constant stream of information, as I once was.

This post has inspired me to take some steps to make sure I don't completely revert to the state I was ~1.5 years ago. I too plan to be more consciousness of my Twitter/Facebook/Reddit usage and not just spend large chunks of time mindlessly browsing them, when I could be doing some productive.

Great post, thanks for the reminder!

Re: How 30 days without social media changed my life

#25

Post by dwc »

jmduke wrote: post #13

This is a great blog post -- I can't help but feel like its an argument less against social media and more about how we use social media. I think it's particularly ironic that he singled out Reddit for providing "absolutely 0 value to me", since Reddit's original use was a news aggregator devoted to separating signal from noise. Nowadays, its a place for people to spout memes.

I use reddit, but I had to unsubscribe from most of the default subreddits, and also from a few subreddits that I'd hand picked. It's a shame, but it's difficult to get programming news from reddit these days. Apart from silly memes, it's sipping from a firehose. So these days I largely stick to the backwaters where there's a much smaller amount of total content and good signal:noise.

Re: How 30 days without social media changed my life

#27

Post by timc3 »

dhughes wrote: post #17
kanamekun wrote: post #6

This essay could also be called, "Life in the 80s (and early 90s) for most people." Back then, you had to be relatively informed to have access to "social media" (i.e. Usenet, gopher, BBS). It's amazing how much productivity has been disrupted by social media. There are of course huge upsides as well, but sometimes I wonder if the full downside is recognized. A lot of people I know do very little work in the workplac…

I was a news hound in the 80s which was great because TV news didn't suck. Another 80s early 90s information device was the magazine, there were tons of magazines which were mostly killed off by the Internet. Social media is a whole lot of everything and 1% substance on a good day. It's a habit it's like Entertainment Tonight you sit there and one day think "why am I watching this?". That actually happened to me in t…

It did suck, you just didn't have nothing to compare it to.

Re: How 30 days without social media changed my life

#28

Post by toemetoch »

dhughes wrote: post #17
kanamekun wrote: post #6

This essay could also be called, "Life in the 80s (and early 90s) for most people." Back then, you had to be relatively informed to have access to "social media" (i.e. Usenet, gopher, BBS). It's amazing how much productivity has been disrupted by social media. There are of course huge upsides as well, but sometimes I wonder if the full downside is recognized. A lot of people I know do very little work in the workplac…

I was a news hound in the 80s which was great because TV news didn't suck. Another 80s early 90s information device was the magazine, there were tons of magazines which were mostly killed off by the Internet. Social media is a whole lot of everything and 1% substance on a good day. It's a habit it's like Entertainment Tonight you sit there and one day think "why am I watching this?". That actually happened to me in t…

Ditched my TV last week and have been cutting back on my internet habit when I'm home for a while now. I suddenly have hours of free time every evening and I'm re-discovering magazines. But you're right, lots of them have been under pressure or have disappeared.

One thing I found out about myself is that internet made me lazy. These days I find it easier to read short articles - online articles used to get bookmarked and never read. I'm also trying harder to work on stuff without the net. I'm in electronics/embedded and I used to click around for every little thing. Now I sit down with pencil & paper again until I crack it by hand.

Re: How 30 days without social media changed my life

#30

Post by graue »

jmduke wrote: post #13

This is a great blog post -- I can't help but feel like its an argument less against social media and more about how we use social media. I think it's particularly ironic that he singled out Reddit for providing "absolutely 0 value to me", since Reddit's original use was a news aggregator devoted to separating signal from noise. Nowadays, its a place for people to spout memes.

I'd argue though that a news aggregator can separate signal from noise and still provide no value. On HN I catch myself reading very well-written, thoroughly researched and fascinating articles... that have nothing to do with my life. That takes time away from _doing_ things, like the writing and painting OP accomplished on his info diet.
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