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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

#501

Post by explainplease »

kunimu wrote: post #64
wffurr wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The root of the issue is ... capitalism" FTFY. The structural issues mentioned in the original article are inherent in a free market economy. Democratic deployment of capital and technology would change the dynamic substantially. An alternate approach would be to have substantial regulation on speech by companies (aka advertising and propaganda), but even this would require major changes driven by the democratic pro…

This is precisely correct. I think the replies to you are missing a very central point (speaking as if the accusation of advocating Marxian Communism was a serious charge, too). Perhaps the important authors about the relationship between media and capitalism are the Frankfurt School, in particular Herbert Marcuse's works. I'm reading his book One-Dimensional Man at the moment. He's advocating exactly what you are: d…

Good grief, man, stop brainwashing yourself!

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#502

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#503

Post by ardillaroja »

eckza wrote: post #264
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 love this, I love this, I love this. Right now, I am about a month along with no Facebook or Messenger. Previously I spent hours per day on both, running a pretty large community group and supporting its members. I disappeared; no explanation. Stress levels are down, I have so much more time to do things, and I have so much more attention for the things that really matter. Anybody that needs me, has my phone number…

> reasonably diverse backgrounds and worldviews

Definitely agree with the rest of your comment. Not sure about this bit though, I love the HN community but I think we're a pretty homogenous bunch. I would guess a lot of us work in technology, relatively well-educated, relatively wealthy, left-leaning, english speaking etc.

Disclaimer: I've no data on this...

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#504

Post by mtobi »

projektir wrote: post #285
free_everybody wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great points. If you stop consuming cable television and take a step back, you can see that pundit news shows and professional sports have so much in common. It's "right" vs "wrong", "red" vs "blue", "stupid" vs "smart", "weak" vs "strong", etc. There's a winner. There's a loser. You aren't a loser, are you? Don't forget to buy Doritos. Since media isn't going way, we really need to create alternative systems that st…

> There's a winner. There's a loser. You aren't a loser, are you? The whole world runs on this. If you catch it at the right time, you can avoid a lot of mental traps.

The works of Alan Watts have been instrumental in providing me with a mental framework to notice exactly that kind of bamboozles, and many more. A lot of his ideas (or his intrepretations of others) seem to me like a straightforward cure for many of this information age ailments, I think a rehash for modern times is long overdue. I strongly recommend to look at least at a couple of essays of his, if only for the absolutely delightful prose.

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#506

Post by chli »

dhd415 wrote: post #160
jacobra2 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,…

FWIW, you can disable Google Now on your phone. On the more recent versions of Android, you long-press an empty spot on your home screen, select "Settings", and then locate and disable the "Your feed" item.

Hi I accessed it using the following method on my Galaxy S7.

Applications Drawer\Google -> Hamburger Menu\Settings -> Your Feed

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#508

Post by ericd »

rootusrootus wrote: post #340
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.

I have found my experience similar to the person you are responding to. With my Apple Watch I still see notifications, but I devote very little time to the interruption before dismissing most of it. It doesn't distract me long enough to derail my train of thought, and it is hard to get sucked into the Internet through the watch. I am working on tuning my notifications to just essentials, but even at full blast it has…

I found it still creates those addictive little dopamine hits that prevents you from really being able to easily disengage, slow down, and think deeply. It keeps the addiction alive. It's useful for times when you need to respond quickly to messages, emails, and such, like during big deals or launches, but otherwise, I throw my smart watch in the drawer in favor of a mechanical one. I also aggressively uninstall apps that attempt to grab my attention, rather than waiting for me to call on them. Couldn't be happier with these decisions.

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#509

Post by KozmoNau7 »

intrasight wrote: post #401
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…

The smartphone is no problem at all. Hardly anybody "calls" anymore, and the only time I look at the thing is when I'm sitting on the crapper (and in that case I'd say I'm not wasting time but multitasking). It could be because I was very late to the smartphone party and never got addicted.

I stuck with my feature phone for years, and only had to replace it with a smartphone when I dropped it and broke the screen. There weren't any usable non-smartphone alternatives, so I bit the bullet and got a smartphone. After originally going completely app-crazy and installing just about everything, I'm on my second smartphone now, with ~10 apps installed over the stock LineageOS lineup, and a home screen that looks like this: https://i.imgur.com/6CndpKw.png?1

I only have the most necessary apps installed, such as Firefox, Spotify, Messenger and couple of others, no social media. Google Calendar and Gmail are still there, but I'm working to move to a different email provider and find a different calendar solution.

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#510

Post by joshuahedlund »

shostack wrote: post #385
free_everybody wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great points. If you stop consuming cable television and take a step back, you can see that pundit news shows and professional sports have so much in common. It's "right" vs "wrong", "red" vs "blue", "stupid" vs "smart", "weak" vs "strong", etc. There's a winner. There's a loser. You aren't a loser, are you? Don't forget to buy Doritos. Since media isn't going way, we really need to create alternative systems that st…

Is there any international coverage of US news that follows a better format?

I like The Economist (weekly print magazine)
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