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I Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain

nytimes.com

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Re: I Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain

#41

Post by smileypete »

honzzz wrote: post #26

How do you separate the enriching part from the addictive part? To me the problem is that my laptop and my phone are magical doors that lead to both smart people at HN and some niche subreddits/blogs that really make me think, change my opinion, make my life more interesting... and right next to it there are social media bubbles, overwhelming stream of news and insight porn that I can read/watch for hours anxious tha…

I'm coming to the conclusion that it may be best to somehow curate and control your own 'feed'. Eg for Youtube, block the suggestions and just rely on RSS from subscribed channels, or bookmark videos recommended elsewhere.

What may also work well is to think of a topic that is really interesting, /then/ go searching for it on Youtube. Trouble is the suggestion algorithms also work to wear down discretion, as it seems you've found...

Re: I Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain

#42

Post by rockbmb »

open-source-ux wrote: post #18
grecy wrote: post #3

I'm 37, and I have never really had a smartphone, because I don't want one. I know I tend to be addicted to the internet (I can't resit my laptop when it's nearby with wifi), so I think it's more healthy for me to just not have a smartphone than to resist temptation (like an alcoholic simply not going into bars). I'm a Software Engineer and I've never downloaded or used an "app" on a smartphone. I did buy a new Andro…

I have a smartphone. A Windows smartphone. I'd say at least 60% of websites fail to render using the (obsolete) version of Internet Explorer on the phone (but Hacker News renders fine). Windows Phone OS support ends in December 2019 so I'll have to switch to a new phone at some point. Why do I keep using it? Familiarity and I like the simplicity of the OS. It does have a few essential apps like offline maps. Windows…

>Ironically, a little-used, dead-end OS with few apps available on the platform means you can't do a great deal on the phone apart from call or text people.

This right here.

I am quite fond of how using a Windows phone replicates the early cellphone experience from the late 1990s/early 2000s. One only has what they need, but most of the time, it's exactly one would want anyway.

Most commonly used apps are being phased out as well, meaning one has no choice - there is no way to use them, so it's almost as if the passage of time strips the phone down to the barest essentials. Mine functions as an alarm, watch and flashlight. I must admit a VPN and Signal/Matrix/Riot would be nice occasionally, though, but WhatsApp, notwithstanding its ownership by Facebook, works well.

Re: I Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain

#44

Post by Mirioron »

epx wrote: post #12

I've always loved to read, any kind of book would do, but recently I've been unable to sit down and read a book, even technical ones. Guess I got used to the instant gratification that Reddit & friends give to the brain. Considering to ditch the smartphone as well. Actually, I can't ditch the WhatsApp because it is the new phone company these days... Using a very weak smartphone with small screen, too small and slow…

I read on my phone. It's the main thing I use my phone for. Before I got a smartphone I basically hated reading fiction (thanks mandatory reading from school).

Have you tried reading on your phone?

Re: I Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain

#45

Post by epx »

Mirioron wrote: post #44
epx wrote: post #12

I've always loved to read, any kind of book would do, but recently I've been unable to sit down and read a book, even technical ones. Guess I got used to the instant gratification that Reddit & friends give to the brain. Considering to ditch the smartphone as well. Actually, I can't ditch the WhatsApp because it is the new phone company these days... Using a very weak smartphone with small screen, too small and slow…

I read on my phone. It's the main thing I use my phone for. Before I got a smartphone I basically hated reading fiction (thanks mandatory reading from school). Have you tried reading on your phone?

I can't read even in the computer, for some reason screens are associated with 'quick read'.

Re: I Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain

#46

Post by _eht »

Infinitesimus wrote: post #31
DKnoll wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There isn't much else to do on public transportation. You either fumble around on your phone or stare blankly at the wall. When I took public transit regularly I would read sometimes but there was too much noise and movement around me to really focus. Clearly you find yourself bored as well since you're looking over people's shoulders.

There are also those rare moments when you can strike up a conversation with someone else on the train and those can be nice if that's your cup of tea

Thanks, I hated it.

Re: I Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain

#47

Post by rjf72 »

DKnoll wrote: post #19
tannhaeuser wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my current job I'm almost daily going by subway and see most people fumbling on their phone all the time. Many can't even stop when hopping on/off the train. Now when I carefully look at just what it is that captures their attention, it's mostly cheap games or endless-scroll taboola-style crap. A guy sitting next to me the other day simultaneously phoned and frantically clicked on random crap on his phone with no…

There isn't much else to do on public transportation. You either fumble around on your phone or stare blankly at the wall. When I took public transit regularly I would read sometimes but there was too much noise and movement around me to really focus. Clearly you find yourself bored as well since you're looking over people's shoulders.

Or you could simply think. We live in an era where there is a nonstop stream of information and at times it seems that people have adjusted to this by becoming more and more passive consumers of it all. I mean if you just consider the headlines you've read in the past week you probably have enough to occupy your mind for many months! And this is still 'driven' thinking, as opposed to more creative thinking on whatever happens to interest you.

I am not picking you here. I think your view is increasingly common. In my opinion there do seem to be cognitive consequences to longterm 'smart' device usage. I would not be surprised if people in 50 years we look back on smartphones as we now look back on cigarettes. After all there was a time when most of everybody also just viewed cigarettes as a mostly harmless recreation and pleasure in times when you'd otherwise be doing nothing. That they were severely damaging your body over decades of use is probably something that did not really surprise that many people, but it was also something that was far from entirely certain. Similarly to today, I doubt many people would be especially surprised if there were indeed cognitive or other consequences from longterm 'smart' device usage, but it's still something that's far from entirely certain.

Re: I Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain

#48

Post by Mirioron »

epx wrote: post #45
Mirioron wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read on my phone. It's the main thing I use my phone for. Before I got a smartphone I basically hated reading fiction (thanks mandatory reading from school). Have you tried reading on your phone?

I can't read even in the computer, for some reason screens are associated with 'quick read'.

I can't read on a computer either, but for me it's because I get distracted and feel like I should be doing something more productive.

Re: I Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain

#49

Post by peatmoss »

sleepinseattle wrote: post #29

I got a cellular Apple Watch and leave my iPhone at home. Productivity at work went through the roof, and meetings aren’t as painful anymore because I have no choice but to pay attention and participate. It does all the smart phone essentials, including maps and Uber and two-factor auth, but the tiny screen staves off the addiction.

I got the non-cellular watch a while back and have found it pretty good at avoiding the “hey here’s a text message, but why don’t I also check the news” loop. I think I made a mistake in getting the non-cellular version as I still am compelled to get out the phone and thus risk distraction when I want to respond to a longer text message.

Re: I Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain

#50

Post by davidscolgan »

honzzz wrote: post #26

How do you separate the enriching part from the addictive part? To me the problem is that my laptop and my phone are magical doors that lead to both smart people at HN and some niche subreddits/blogs that really make me think, change my opinion, make my life more interesting... and right next to it there are social media bubbles, overwhelming stream of news and insight porn that I can read/watch for hours anxious tha…

If you figure out a way to solve this problem, please let me know - as someone who works from home, internet distractions are the biggest thing that stand between me and success.

I've heard the advice for writers of "turn of your wifi and just write without distractions". But, coding requires the internet in most cases. Hacker News is simultaneously enriching and distracting for me. Youtube is the source of all knowledge, both useful and incredibly banal.

I started using hnwatcher.com to notify me when certain topics I care about come up on Hacker News and that was a big level up in being more smart about time spent on here.

Reddit I have no idea how to use. I have the feeling I should just permaban it from my life, but it does have it's uses. Same with Twitter. Youtube has probably sucked more of my life away than anything else watching dumb videos that aren't useful or even entertaining/relaxing. It's one thing to do something to relax, but some of my internet surfing seems to fall into this weird middle ground of neither productive or fun, just addicting.

Perhaps one option is, as someone else mentioned, more curation. I don't usually have to worry about reading the news even though I do, since I know I'll get word of important things from my friends who do read the news a lot.

I recently joined a private freelancer community online, and that has replaced a lot of what I used Reddit effectively for - finding new ideas and rubbing shoulders with peers.

I'm also a fan these days of mailing lists since they are not sources of infinite content like Youtube/Reddit.

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