This link should be pinned to the top of HN permanently: what a time saver! I've impulsively opened up HN at least 5 times today, then closed the tab feeling shamed by this link haha.
HN has built in antiprocrastination controls.
Why do you waste so much time on the internet?
341–350 of 685 posts
Re: Why do you waste so much time on the internet?
#342I 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 would encourage you to not think of this in an addiction framework. Instead think of this as a self medicating framework. Why are you choosing reddit over spending time your baby? Do you fear handling the baby? Does handling the baby make you feel uncomfortable thoughts or feelings? Is there something, like ego, that reddit gives you? This is a good problem for self journaling, working with someone, or whatever you…
Chronic media consumption is not always based on avoidance. It is very easy to open social media during genuine downtime "for 5 minutes" only for an hour to pass before you know it. That is just bad self control due to dopamine addiction.
Re: Why do you waste so much time on the internet?
#343I'm not sure about wasting. Most of my surfing consists of unearthing gems, and I have to wade through a lot of noise and muck to find those gems, but the gems are there. If I could automate it, I would, but it wouldn't be the same. A piece of code that crawls the net looking for something I would really enjoy is a hard problem, and I would have to code in my own biases to the program to make it work properly, and th…
Completely agree with this - it's those gems that keep us addicted. If the internet were 100% time wasting garbage, I think it would be easy enough to quit completely. But that tiny percentage of good content, which can often be very good (some of the best and most worthwhile writing I have ever encountered has been posted on obscure forums), keeps you searching for the next "hit."
Personally, I would love to subscribe to a paid service that would produce a "daily briefing" of sorts with well curated highlights of the internet. Content aggregators have tried to get at this, but the signal to noise ratio is still way off. If someone could produce this product, I actually think it could be quite successful.
Re: Why do you waste so much time on the internet?
#344Just speaking for myself, I've noticed that my habit is to eat what is in front of me, and clean my plate. I mean this both literally and figuratively. If I have dessert in the house, like a bag of chocolate, then I eat one after dinner. If I don't have it in the house, then I just don't eat dessert. If I have a social media feed full of content, then I'll scroll through all of it until there's nothing else that's ne…
> my habit is to eat what is in front of me
This! I often let my phone run out of battery and avoid plugging it in so I can do other things.
From a similar thread, someone mentioned that phones are only good for content consumption. When I’m on the computer, I’m at least somewhat productive and the distractions aren’t quite as strong.
Re: Why do you waste so much time on the internet?
#345If you live in the boring suburbs where you have to drive everywhere to do things and see people, then yeah there's basically nothing to do except watch television and browse the internet. My general theory of existence is that your environment makes up a huge portion of your overall wellbeing. Boredom, happiness, depression, anxiety - it all comes from your environment. If you set your life up in such a way that the…
This comment sums up what I was trying to say in another comment quite nicely, except in a more direct and practical way. Sometimes, I feel like this boring dystopia you describe is found in so many places as to seem inescapable. It's something intrinsic to modern life. Every building looks the same. Every road looks the same. Everyone's clothes and haircuts look the same. Everyone has the same attitude. Why? As Steve Ballmer would say, "Corporations, corporations, corporations, corporations." What do we get when the entire world, both physically and mentally, is shaped by the same style of hierarchy whose sole purpose is to extract human effort from the population for cash while ignoring the long term cost?
Re: Why do you waste so much time on the internet?
#346Just speaking for myself, I've noticed that my habit is to eat what is in front of me, and clean my plate. I mean this both literally and figuratively. If I have dessert in the house, like a bag of chocolate, then I eat one after dinner. If I don't have it in the house, then I just don't eat dessert. If I have a social media feed full of content, then I'll scroll through all of it until there's nothing else that's ne…
> my habit is to eat what is in front of me This! I often let my phone run out of battery and avoid plugging it in so I can do other things. From a similar thread, someone mentioned that phones are only good for content consumption. When I’m on the computer, I’m at least somewhat productive and the distractions aren’t quite as strong.
It’s what’s keeping me running an old phone; short battery life has its advantages!
Re: Why do you waste so much time on the internet?
#347Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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…
What about "Depression" is a sign that something deep down is shifting or needs changing. After introspection, my loss of motivation is a lot of the times me knowing that I want to work on problems that I dare worthwhile for the future of humanity and earth like climate change, environmental work, planting trees and social work..., and being obliged to not work in that triggers the lack of motivation unless obliged b…
I think that the issue of deriving meaning from one's work (and life) is as old as humanity.
It looks to me also that there's a bit of idealization going on on your side. In any case you'll work with other people and I bet you won't feel too good if you'll be doing env. work with total assholes. So I would also look at that angle -- being among people you like/appreciate and who reciprocate also kind of eases that existential thing (IMO).
Now I am working in the field and organization which definitely are worthwhile / good cause (imo). But it comes at a price, I wouldn't mind to work in a less meaningful place (subjectively) for a few years with a significantly higher comp.
Also good cause is a motivator but the not the most immediate one. Used to work in a slightly dysfunctional company but my responsibilities were (mostly) so well defined and managed day-to-day that just getting stuff done was satisfying.
Re: Why do you waste so much time on the internet?
#348Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree completely, the only reliable way to quit using a smartphone is to stop carrying one. I don't know why we apply such different thinking to digital addictions than physical ones. You would never tell someone who was trying to quit smoking "just carry a pack of cigarettes and a lighter everywhere but don't use them".
Because we still need certain utilities on our phone, like Maps and Music and Search and Camera. Those aren't the problems--we still want those things, which are not addictive and fruitful, but we want less of things which are addictive and fruitless, like Twitter and Reddit. Cigarettes have no such essential and positive utility.
>Because we still need certain utilities on our phone
You don't "need" any of those things, humans got on with life just fine without them for 100,000s of years, smartphones have only existed for the last 15.
>Maps
Look it up on a computer before you go, or ask someone on the street for directions. The only "benefit" having maps on a phone gives you is that you can completely avoid talking to people and just stare down at a screen instead.
>Music
MP3 players still exist. Or just ditch the music and be present in the moment.
>Search
I have never spontaneously needed to search something that couldn't wait 30 minutes until I was back at a computer.
>Camera
If you're going somewhere you know you're going to want to take pictures then take a proper camera. Otherwise you probably don't need one. I can't think of a single instance in the past 2 years where I needed to take a picture of something that actually mattered without knowing beforehand.
Re: Why do you waste so much time on the internet?
#349Earlier 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…
[deleted]
Re: Why do you waste so much time on the internet?
#350Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it's pretty common. I personally call it "Goldfish syndrome", although apparently that's caught on with another informal meaning according to the internet. Eating and drinking delicious high calorie things rewards your brain. On an evolutionary time scale, delicious things were relatively rare and often required expending a lot of energy to acquire. In the last 100 years or so, modern technology has shifted t…
> Rather than order a pizza ever again, learn how to make a really good hand stretched pizza dough from scratch This is good for different reasons, such as less additives in your food which might be healthier in the long term, taste, and the pleasure in the activity itself, but is unlikely to help with weight loss. There is little difference in calorie content between two similar pizzas, home made and from a restaura…
If you compare the same pizzas restaurant vs. homemade then sure, but learning to do it well allows you to modify everything to suit your needs. A really nice thin crust can be made with quite a bit less dough, which may then need a lot less cheese to saturate the dish. Just like that you've knocked down two of the most calorically heavy parts of a pizza!