My version of this was getting rid of my smartphone 6 years ago. Creates a forcing function to be in my own head a lot more often, and I feel like this has given me thinking and attention span superpowers.
Hello, me. It's been a while
61–70 of 219 posts
Re: Hello, me. It's been a while
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
> for some reason our brain loves filling the silence with junk Natural selection might pick for this trait because if you can gather and evaluate and otherwise process a large volume of information you might be able to better find food, avoid getting eaten, and finding a mate to mate with. executive function and intuition filter, but you need a bunch of data to feed on.
Picture yourself in a location where getting eaten is problem. Now intersect those locations with internet coverage. Your statement didn't make much sense anymore
Now picture yourself being just a smart monkey, shaped by evolutionary traits that focused on reproduction and survival.
Now give this monkey tiktok and sensory overload.
Re: Hello, me. It's been a while
#63There's a researcher at Harvard, Arthur C. Brooks, who wrote a book on this, the importance of the default mode network of the brain that is engaged when you do nothing or are bored. People who drown out boredom or silence tend to eliminate wandering thoughts, introspection, autobiographical thinking, pondering of relations, effectively the kind of internal reflection that's necessary from time to time. It's pretty c…
I recently bumped into default mode network as a concept and started noticing the constant aversion I have for "doing nothing". Now I try to take more of my breaks without constant barrage of external stimuli.
Re: Hello, me. It's been a while
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It’s sort of the opposite of an activity, and the brain hates it. While this is true, I'd word it differently: It's sort of the opposite of an activity, and we've conditioned our brains to hate it. Boredom used to be absolutely normal in our society for pretty much ever, and the urge to do something about it when it occurred was a lot weaker than it is now.
I disagree. I remember when I was a kid and didn't have access to smartphones (didn't exist) or other sources of constant entertainment. My days were basically just kindergarten and dicking around with other kids. But I remember I absolutely dreaded going to the doctor's office, taking a long distance train, or any other kind of "activity" that involved long periods of waiting around. I would find it extremely boring…
Judging by your name, I presume your Romanian. I think it’s very much ingrained in eastern European culture that sitting around this bad whereas more western cultures do not condemn it so much.
So part of your hating the boring activities might be a cultural thing as well, even as a child. Also, it’s a deeply eastern European thing to have to wait around too much at the doctors office.
However, I have the same experience with hating it, but I don’t think I had the balls to try to negotiate myself out of it.
Re: Hello, me. It's been a while
#65In the past, whenever doing something that didn't require concentration, I would always listen to an audiobook, and sometimes music.
The moment I bought land it stopped. I wanted to be present, to hear the sounds, appreciate the changing seasons. Music and audio books got in the way.
I cancelled spotify and audible and haven't looked back.
Nowadays, I find I am getting back into sitting still and doing nothing, and I have zero desire to give my attention to music of audio books.
Re: Hello, me. It's been a while
#66At the start of this year I wrote down "Get rid of your Airpods" as a New Years Resolution. This was basically my proxy for "stop filling every spare moment with audiobooks and podcasts".
I still haven't done it, and my reflex for listening to something - even after my listening backlogs emptied a few months back - suggests I'm essentially addicted. Especially considering how much better I feel when I don't take my airpods out with me.
So, time to deal with that I guess. Thanks for the push.
Re: Hello, me. It's been a while
#67Contet is created like 1000h every day. You can't consume it all. and it does not change your life. really. I stopped listening all the podcasts, yt-videos and also most times music. I have started my days with an old ipad in the kitchen playing affirmations with subtle background music. Oh boy, it is different momentum! instead of crazy in my head, i get positive thinking loop right from the start of each day. I thi…
Replaced sounds, not with silence but with a different type of sound?
Re: Hello, me. It's been a while
#68At the start of this year I wrote down "Get rid of your Airpods" as a New Years Resolution. This was basically my proxy for "stop filling every spare moment with audiobooks and podcasts". I still haven't done it, and my reflex for listening to something - even after my listening backlogs emptied a few months back - suggests I'm essentially addicted. Especially considering how much better I feel when I don't take my a…
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Re: Hello, me. It's been a while
#69I’m not able to do my work with music, or even noise-canceling headphones. I’ve tried, and it doesn’t work. I know that I’m unusual, in that sense, but there you have it. I do listen to music, on my morning walks, though. That’s the only time, during the day, when I do.
I prefer to work in silence. But by that I mean actual silence. However, I live in a city where there's construction going on I can hear through my window. If I have to work from the office, there'll be colleagues yapping around (helps with creativity or whatever the sugarcoating is for the open office). Bonus points for one of the offices being next to a different construction site. In these situations, I tend to pr…
I'm similar except idk about silence, My preference would be natural local sounds, wind,bugs, birds (not mockingbirds lol) but have to settle for music pretty often.
Re: Hello, me. It's been a while
#70It's always seemed strange to me that it's so common for people to feel the need to have continuous ... radio/podcasts/tv. It turns out there is a fair amount of research done on this, look into: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_partial_attention
I have this thought everytime I'm at the beach...