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Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

m.nautil.us

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Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#461

Post by tonyedgecombe »

QML wrote: post #371
free_everybody wrote: post #256

Stop carrying your smartphone. Leave it at home. If you must because your family/work depends on you, then delete every app. Use your laptop as your main driver. If you need to, get a laptop with better battery life. Start developing a personal philosophy of internet usage. Here is mine: Category 3 [Abstain from completely] Reddit (Yes, all of reddit), Facebook ... Category 2 [Check once every couple days ~15 min tot…

I don’t think smartphones are the main issue here — problem is people can’t delay gratification. I’m sure if we ran the Marshmellow experiment again, a higher proportion of people won’t be able to wait. Among my peers, I’m noticing an inability to study continuously for more than 30 minutes; even in my friend group, a couple can’t watch a whole movie without checking their phones. However, keeping your smartphone at…

problem is people can’t delay gratification

If you accept that is the case then you shouldn't be surprised when people look for a working solution such as leaving their phone at home.

forcing yourself to work on a single task otherwise

Which clearly doesn't work for many or maybe even most people.

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#462

Post by suprfnk »

int_19h wrote: post #383
free_everybody wrote: post #256

Stop carrying your smartphone. Leave it at home. If you must because your family/work depends on you, then delete every app. Use your laptop as your main driver. If you need to, get a laptop with better battery life. Start developing a personal philosophy of internet usage. Here is mine: Category 3 [Abstain from completely] Reddit (Yes, all of reddit), Facebook ... Category 2 [Check once every couple days ~15 min tot…

It's rather telling that you say "delete every app", but you really mean "delete every social media app" (for many people, these are, indeed, equivalent).

Yeah. I'm not about to delete the app I use to generate background noise when the people in my office are being too loud. Or the app in which I track my weightlifting progress. Or the app I use to digitize and archive all important letters I receive. Or any of these kinds of apps.

The difference is, these aren't time wasting apps. I couldn't waste hours in my fitness tracker or digitizing important letters.

Remove all time wasting apps. Keep functional apps. The smartphone is a great tool if used right.

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#463

Post by najra »

eckza wrote: post #455
greggman wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

interesting. I would have thought a watch would be worse because it's basically a "hey, look at your phone alarm". I spend too much time futsing around the internet but I have almost all notifications turned off. no Twitter notifications, no Facebook notifications, no Instagram notifications. I only have messenger like app notifications on.

That's what I told my wife for like 3 years (as she has been an Apple Watch day-one user). I finally caved and got one. Everybody else that commented on this post beat me to the punch, more or less; but because I have to spend less mental energy digesting the notifications, it ends up being LESS of an interruption - not more. You don't have to sit at dinner with your family, KNOWING that your phone buzzed, wondering…

So you do end up reading those, just quicker than you would on your phone

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#464

Post by bobbinsbob »

freebooter wrote: post #356
Rapzid wrote: post #351

The biggest shocker is anyone actually believes in "free will" anymore. Although, the desire to limit a particular stimuli's influence over our actions seems valid. In a way, the hyperbolic title seems to be an prime example of its own thesis..

Freewill exists, but it now comes with a cost. Let me provide a personal anecdote that is happening now with my job: - What with "rising" health care costs, my employer has decided to "force" everyone into getting a series of physical tests, to include those for high blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol, and a fecal occult blood test. Failure to comply by year's end results in a financial penalty taken from your che…

I really am thankful I don't reside in the US! Say what you want about the NHS it beats this sort of crap.

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#465

Post by Super_Jambo »

tallanvor wrote: post #433
xster wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe another way I'd frame the issue is that there are 2 orthogonal themes. 1, whether the structural incentives of the institution is altogether aligned with the interests of the common working people ( http://fair.org/home/washington-post-ran-16-negative-stories... ) or with the financial elites ( https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/cia-funded-washington-pos... ), and 2, whether the publication follows scientific r…

>When's the last time WaPo wrote about the 99% or DAPL or TiSa or had an opinion about this last $700 billion pentagon budget? They write about the 99% pretty much daily. You can start by looking at healthcare coverage. They published articles concerning DAPL as recently as November 16 (plus more recent ones on Keystone XL and the ANWR drilling). The Trade in Services Agreement process has been very secretive, and un…

WaPo is very good at publishing about everything. To extract sentiment you have to actually read their articles & see what they bother to put above the fold.

They published plenty of "negative" stories about Clinton during the primaries. Except if you read the stories in detail at publication time you'll see they downplay the negative story. Getting out ahead of the story and presenting it in the best light.

Grandfather comment has really set you up an excellent strawman to knock down there.

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#466

Post by bobbinsbob »

crankylinuxuser wrote: post #51
ryandrake wrote: post #42

Ironically, the first thing you're greeted with on this site is an attention-grabbing ad, if you choose to browse without protection. If modern media a DoS attack, it's not very sophisticated since it can be easily avoided by non-participation. Install an Ad blocker. Browse the web in private mode. Turn off notifications. Treat everything you read with skepticism (assume it is trying to manipulate you). And never, ev…

Oh, just wait until the hordes come out of the woodwork to poo-poo you for blocking ads and such. They have their reasons, like "No Ads means no free content", or "You're taking the money out of content creators mouths", or variations on a theme. What's doubly silly, is I control how my computer renders what content, downloads what content, and does whatever actions I want. Once it leaves your computer/network, its n…

That's the thing though. If those ads are forced on you say like in-game ads you can't skip then I'll just do what I do with them. Something else. Volume down, attention elsewhere until it's over. Just like those old unskippable YouTube ads. I might not be able to skip them but they don't get any of my attention either way.

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#467

Post by andrepd »

jacobra2 wrote: post #145
senko wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's how I (try to) keep the Internet-based distractions to a minimum: * Uninstall twitter, facebook and other social apps from your phone; only use the computer (or other device that's not constantly in your pocket). * Even on your computer, log out of twitter, facebook and others. Only log in when you want to look into something (eg. check the social events, send a message), and use private/incognito mode for thi…

I've done something similar with my Android phone, and it's worked out decently. One problem I encountered though - I spent a lot of time on Reddit, and would check it subconsciously, so I deleted it. Now I find that I'm using Google Now, the left swipe off the home screen. In effect I took the attention from Reddit and gave it to Google. I'm not convinced that was a worthwhile trade. Given I can't delete Google Now,…

Install a different launcher. I suggest Nova Launcher, or Trebuchet (open source launcher, get it from https://labs.xda-developers.com/store/app/com.lineageport.tr...)

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#468

Post by listic »

free_everybody wrote: post #256

Stop carrying your smartphone. Leave it at home. If you must because your family/work depends on you, then delete every app. Use your laptop as your main driver. If you need to, get a laptop with better battery life. Start developing a personal philosophy of internet usage. Here is mine: Category 3 [Abstain from completely] Reddit (Yes, all of reddit), Facebook ... Category 2 [Check once every couple days ~15 min tot…

I'm not talking about voice calling tremendously simplifying meetups, since this is not a smartphone feature. But how about navigation? I really wouldn't like to go back to the time without navigation.

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#469

Post by michaelt »

eckza wrote: post #455
greggman wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

interesting. I would have thought a watch would be worse because it's basically a "hey, look at your phone alarm". I spend too much time futsing around the internet but I have almost all notifications turned off. no Twitter notifications, no Facebook notifications, no Instagram notifications. I only have messenger like app notifications on.

That's what I told my wife for like 3 years (as she has been an Apple Watch day-one user). I finally caved and got one. Everybody else that commented on this post beat me to the punch, more or less; but because I have to spend less mental energy digesting the notifications, it ends up being LESS of an interruption - not more. You don't have to sit at dinner with your family, KNOWING that your phone buzzed, wondering…

If I couldn't leave work for long enough to eat a dinner with my family, I would be diagnosing a different root cause and applying a different fix :)

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#470

Post by rsync »

tribune wrote: post #34

I've been coming to resent my smartphone more and more, essentially because of this. I recently quit using tobacco. I remembered all the warnings from my school health classes about how hard it was to quit once you start, how there's a physical dependence and all that. It was uncomfortable at times, and there were plenty of cravings to get over, but I was ultimately successful. I can compare this to the couple of tim…

"The problem is that there's nowhere to run from the Internet."

Please allow me to recommend my two favorite print magazines:

New Yorker London Review of Books

Highly recommended. Please subscribe. I read the New Yorker on my Kindle but I read LRB in print.

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