I'm trying to get myself more organized and to instead focus on slightly longer projects with determined goals, but I really have a hard time breaking my habits of information ingestion. In many ways the internet has helped me grow intellectually so much, but simultaneously I feel like I lose any sense of present and physical presense. And it's just so hard for me to focus and do the mundane things that I find uninteresting.
I think I'll post this and then close out HN for a bit. Traveling for the weekend so maybe I can sucessfully limit myself to only actually necessary internet usage and avoid any consumption of unimportant crap. We'll just have to see...
I've got rid of all my social media other than twitter and linkedin which I use for work. Facebook I only use for messenger. I check reddit once or twice a day but rarely do I scroll past the first page. My overall mental health is much better. I feel a little bit of sadness when I see friends who HAVE to check their phones (social media) after being without it for a hour. It's great in moderation but I think most people get too sucked in.
He is the physical manifestation of "what if someone indulged the news-appetite of a whole population every day."
This is the key. If you start posting it becomes a waiting game for the conversation to begin. I feel the need to monitor and wait for responses.
It's fun but obviously mentally taxing. An online conversation keeps me constantly engaged but distracts me heavily from other things. It's extremely hard for me to not want to openly opine and share on the various social networks about subjects I care about.
I get that stopping watching movies and TV would improve your mood, but I love how music makes me feel and I think (though haven’t tested) that if I stopped listening to music id be a little less jolly.
As of the end of last year, I stopped engaging in mainstream social media. So much better.
I still keep a Facebook account for Messenger and Events, but don't post, read timelines, or participate.
Not only do I have more time to read books and learn new things -- made pita bread from scratch for the first time this week -- but I am in general, notably happier and more focused.
I suspect that information hygiene is going to be one of the great underrated skills of the digital age.
Hacker News is an exception that I indulge in maybe once a week or two -- today's the day! -- as most of what ends up on here is worthwhile, and the moderation team has done an excellent job of keeping the signal-to-noise ratio high.
Quora also tends to be good, between Be Nice Be Respectful (BNBR), and the Real Name policy, although they recently went downhill by interleaving the standard cesspool that is mainstream news in the Quora feed.
Reddit... there are a few gold nuggets (/r/writingprompts), but overall it's just a crapfest.