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Neal Stephenson: Why I Am a Sociomediapath (2015)

379 points by sasvari 11y ago

osullivj 11y ago
Perfectly captures the way I feel. I spend very little time on FB & twitter these days. I fear I'm still spending too much time on HN though...
- randycupertino 11y ago
  I loved how the whole point of the essay is not to waste your time reading the comments and not to get bogged down in minutia, yet here we all are, reading the comments!
amelius 11y ago
I just unfollow everybody by default on FB, and I can highly recommend this. (Basically I just use FB to find interesting events, and see where everybody is going).
- yitchelle 11y ago
  Wouldn't FB be a ghost site like myspace or G+ if everyone is unfriended?
  - isaacdl 11y ago
    There's a difference (on FB at least) between being "friends" and "following" someone. If you unfollow a friend, you'll still be connected, can communicate, see events, etc, you just won't see their posts in your news feed.
    - mistermann 11y ago
      Well I certainly didn't know that. Is there a way to make it so it screens out all the content that comes from content factories ("You won't believe....!"), but still see things such as pure text or user-created photo posts?
      - philh 11y ago
        You can unfollow individual sites. There's a down arrow in the top-right of a post, you click it and select 'hide all from clickhole'. I unfollowed a bunch, and now I rarely see that kind of thing.
        greggman 11y ago
        You can also use "fb purity", an extension that can hide posts based on string matches. For example "liked a post", "commented on", and other annoying things fb fills the feed with
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
- mmackh 11y ago
  Agreed. This works surprisingly well if you only care to follow a few friends and family that you know might not post that often. This way, I check Facebook only once a day without having the urge to follow the lastest trends.
irremediable 11y ago
It's interesting. I thought I didn't lose much time to social media because I only used them in "dead" time, e.g. waiting for a train. But I've come to believe this was a mistake in two respects. Firstly, no time is truly "dead", and there's almost always something better I could be doing. Secondly, almost any use of social media trains me to crave more -- it genuinely is addictive, and the unreliability of the novelty ("refreshing in the hope of seeing something new") makes this all the worse.
- MrJagil 11y ago
  A big annoyance for me when I lived in NYC was the lack of internet in the subway. Now i yearn for that 45 commute reading sci-fi shorts reccommended by you people.
  - kaybe 11y ago
    Where can I find those? I never even put internet on my phone. All maps are downloaded at home - an amazing amount of people seems to have never considered that and were astonished to find me navigating without signal.
- harryf 11y ago
  > Secondly, almost any use of social media trains me to crave more -- it genuinely is addictive, and the unreliability of the novelty ("refreshing in the hope of seeing something new") makes this all the worse. That's pretty much what it's designed to do. Really recommend reading "Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products" http://www.nirandfar.com/hooked http://www.nirandfar.com/hooked or watch some of the authors videos like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVDN2mjJpb8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVDN2mjJpb8 or his talk at The Next Web https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z29RvrHPp1s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z29RvrHPp1s
  - irremediable 11y ago
    No disagreement here -- I know it's intentional. Thanks for the resources though.
myhf 11y ago
In Seveneves, Stephenson discusses "Amistics, the study of the choices made by different cultures as to which technologies they would embrace or spurn." "Anyone who bothered to learn the history of the developed world in the years just before Zero understood perfectly well that Tavistock Prowse had been squarely in the middle of the normal range, as far as his social media habits and attention span had been concerned. But nevertheless, they called it Tav's Mistake. They didn't want to make it again. Any efforts made by modern manufacturers to produce the kinds of devices and apps that had disordered the brain of Tav were met with the same instinctive pushback as Victorian clergy might have directed against the inventor of a masturbation machine." You see those kinds of choices being made at a cultural level all over the world. Developed countries where nobody uses leafblowers, or in-sink food waste disposals, or what have you. People understand how those things work, they just don't want the effects.
- theoh 11y ago
  About leaf blowers and waste disposals, I think it's not about the "effects" so much as the item itself. These devices do perform a function but their original reason for existing is arguably to profitably sell motors (or small engines in the case of the leaf blower). Having lived mostly in countries where they aren't used, I'd say it's a skepticism about the real utility of the device that makes them unsuccessful there, not a reasoned assessment of the effects of widespread use.
  - cafard 11y ago
    Arguably? I loathe the sound of gasoline-powered leaf blowers, but they are quicker than rakes and brooms. I'm not sure that my neighbors are willing to pay for the additional labor needed by a lawn crew to rake leaves or sweep sidewalks.
    - theoh 11y ago
      It looks like leaf blowers originated in the mechanisation of farming, so perhaps there was a legitimate labour saving objective there. In the case of sink waste disposal, I'd be pretty surprised if there was a good reason. Hamilton Beach is an example of an early 20th C manufacturer that made a lot of consumer products which used similar motors, for example a now-classic catering-grade blender for milkshakes. That seems like a clear example of a market being created by the development of the device, which itself existed to apply a technology (the motor). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton_Beach_Brands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton_Beach_Brands
MikeNomad 11y ago
"Cultivate an identity as a Luddite." This coming from someone who writes their first draft using pen and paper.
- hobs 11y ago
  I dont understand this comment, should he be using quill pen, or starting an oral history to be more of a luddite?
  - MikeNomad 11y ago
    The thing that rang the loudest (for me) from his comment was irony.
  - adrusi 11y ago
    The point is that the parent thinks he's already established himself as a luddite by using so antiquated technology as dead trees.
  - MikeNomad 11y ago
    Sorry, not directly answering your question... I am not suggesting he do anything to be more or less of a Luddite (IIRC, he uses a very nice fountain pen).
- sageabilly 11y ago
  Lots of writers [0] do their first draft with pen and paper. There are studies[1] that show that using pen and paper to take notes boost memory and the ability to recall information, so of course a writer doing the first draft of a long novel would want that for themselves. [0]Do a Google search for "first draft pen and paper" and there are scores of hits from both authors and writing websites advocating for this [1]http://www.medicaldaily.com/why-using-pen-and-paper-not-laptops-boosts-memory-writing-notes-helps-recall-concepts-ability-268770 http://www.medicaldaily.com/why-using-pen-and-paper-not-lapt...
  - meric 11y ago
    Yeah, using laptop to take notes in lecture is useless, I might as well take no notes, and just listen more carefully. Pen and paper or nothing.
SwellJoe 11y ago
I took a week off of facebook two weeks ago. No interaction with facebook, at all, except one messenger session with a design contractor who is doing our UI overhaul. I haven't been so productive in years. And, it mostly broke my facebook addiction...I check it once a day now, often just on my phone while standing in line at the grocery or during some other downtime. I'm able to ignore it most of the time (notifications have been turned off for years, because I hate anything dinging at me and interrupting my thought process; I leave the ringer on my phone off for the same reason, I can check my voicemail in Google Voice a couple times a day to deal with important stuff). I'm considering doing the same "fast and then reduced consumption" for my other social media habits: reddit, HN, twitter. When I traveled full-time, in the past, I would often find myself with little or no Internet connectivity for a week at a time, and that imposed periodic social media fasting, and it was sufficient to keep the addictions in check. After living in a fixed house, with very fast Internet, for a little over a year, the urge to check my phone/tablet first thing in the morning and last thing at night has become notable and annoying. In short: He's right, and I notice my own inability to do things of substance has been significantly impaired by the time and attention I give to social media, and it's only reasonable to abstain in the interest of spending more time doing the things I truly value. It can be hard to make that choice, however...one more shot of dopamine (or whatever chemicals the constant affirmation of social media provides) seems harmless. (I note the irony of this being an HN comment.)
- riebschlager 11y ago
  I hear ya. I started out 2016 by deactivating my Facebook account, culling my Twitter following to 12 and my Feedly subscriptions to 10. I also added Disqus to my hosts file to make news sites less enraging. I've taken other measures in the past. Someone else in this thread mentioned unfollowing everyone on Facebook, that helped quite a bit. But there's a lot to be said for declaring social media bankruptcy and being freed from that involuntary compulsion to open up a new Chrome tab and waste time.
  - morganvachon 11y ago
    > Someone else in this thread mentioned unfollowing everyone on Facebook, that helped quite a bit. But there's a lot to be said for declaring social media bankruptcy and being freed from that involuntary compulsion to open up a new Chrome tab and waste time. I did this recently (unfollowing (almost) everyone on my FB friend list), and it has resulted in me spending less than 10 minutes a week on the site. I didn't do it so I would use FB less, I did it because my feed was full of nothing but hatred and negativity, and to see that from friends and family is extremely depressing. If I didn't use FB to promote a couple of projects I'm running, I'd drop it altogether and rely on my wife to keep me updated on family and mutual friends who choose to only have contact with the outside world via the FB window.
jacobmoe 11y ago
I'm torn. On the one hand, I agree. On the other hand, I wouldn't have found this Neal Stephenson post if it wasn't for social media.
- sasvari 11y ago
  I came across a reference to it while reading the first chapter of Deep Work by Cal Newport [0]. For anybody interested in distraction free work, it seems to be quite a good book (can't give a thorough review, I'm still at the beginning). I enjoyed reading his blog so far. [0] http://calnewport.com/blog/2016/01/05/the-book-facebook-doesnt-want-you-to-read/ http://calnewport.com/blog/2016/01/05/the-book-facebook-does...
  - 3stripe 11y ago
    I'm making this book my Bible for getting stuff done in 2016. Social media = crack.
    - pklausler 11y ago
      Ironically, for me, re-reading Neal Stephenson's novels is one of my biggest crack-like time-wasters.
HSO 11y ago
Abstaining from "social media" is for amateurs!!! ;-) Many years ago, I threw my TV out and it was one of the best decisions I've ever made. Internet is the new TV. I see the irony of writing this on HN but I really try to find the internet analogue for throwing out the TV. The problem is that you need services like maps, online banking and tickets, mobile payments, etc. What I want to get rid of though, completely, is news and noise. I tried and tried but self-regulation is too hard; I still waste so much time and poison my brain with all this crap; I think the time has come to try self-binding. My current setup is to not have internet at home (where I work) except for a mobile connection, and to pull the SIM card out by default. I only put it back in when I need to do something specific (or when I am on the go, for maps). Obviously, this is not a perfect solution yet (as I somehow found my way back to HN, grrr…) but I'm working on it. I should probably get a dumbphone for emergencies, and I also want to habituate myself to a weekly rhythm where I bunch all the stuff (like emails, software updates, articles to be downloaded, references to be checked, etc) to one day a week (say Sat) and do all my "internet errands" in one go. The rest of the time, I rely on my books and articles and downloaded documentations and offline Wikipedia. If I want to watch something, I can make a note and download the movie or entire season along with the other "internet groceries". To keep in touch with current events, I can read weekly news magazines. That also dials down the noise. Something like that. Interestingly, since I got a big tablet, I read news magazines like The Economist or Die Zeit in PDF format and it seems to also affect me somehow. There is no outside clicking and endless linkbait anymore, and I feel less monitored and stressed (even though I already have all these adblockers and Little Snitch and whatnot). It also gives me back a feeling of a natural end to my reading session when I reach the final pages of the PDF. On the web or online, the next article or curiosity is always right behind.
- branchless 11y ago
  I agree. When I watch TV now and see adverts they seem so transparent in their desire to manipulate me. And the people on the shows look ridiculous. Why are americans orange on TV? It's spread to the UK now - orange-itus. Best thing I ever did was to get rid of TV. Having one is like inviting the worst people in the world round your house. I think the internet might be next. I think I might offline things I want to learn. My phone can do for maps when I need it but for the rest it's a pain. I really should learn my TV lessons WRT the internet.
jasode 11y ago
This essay might be deeper than it first suggests. My first interpretation: knee-jerk reaction after reading it that it's a very typical lament about social media getting in the way of doing more important things in life. There are thousands of blog posts repeating this message and this variation of it happens to be on HN because it's from N.S. My second interpretation: I lingered on his chosen word "sociomediapath". Since it's a riff on "sociopath", I think what he's saying here is that he's going to give the impression that he's a social media hound but behind the scenes, he's doesn't care. Likewise, a sociopath like Ted Bundy on the surface can shake your hand and charm you with his smiles but underneath it all, he'll kill you. N.S. has to be a "sociopath" in media because he's a published author. He can't go full Howard Hughes detached-from-society-mode and therefore, has to at least fake out the public with a social media presence. Maybe that means there's a need for a web service that generates random and periodic posts on behalf of users to give the appearance of "Facebook normality". E.g. the website service posts random inspirational quotes from dead people or TIL from random wikipedia pages. You never have to log into Facebook and yet it seems like you're "with it". I believe other celebrities accomplish this with "public relations" staff. The PR firm makes the celebrity look "connected" to the fans via Reddit AMAs and Twitter updates but in reality, he/she really isn't.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
  - riskable 11y ago
    Yeah, we need "This Week in Hacker News" like those "This Week in Science" and "This Week in Tech" summaries put out by Futurism.com... http://futurism.com/infographics/?cat=science http://futurism.com/infographics/?cat=science http://futurism.com/infographics/?cat=tech http://futurism.com/infographics/?cat=tech
    - blakesmith 11y ago
      I like the "Hacker News Newsletter", lets me ignore what goes on here most days, and catch up when I have dedicated time. http://www.hackernewsletter.com/ http://www.hackernewsletter.com/
nickysielicki 11y ago
Not related to the content, but yeesh, this color scheme is awful. The yellow gradient... Blegh. I couldn't make it through the article because my eyes kept getting lost between the lines.
- brazzledazzle 11y ago
  My color settings or contrast might be set differently but for me the text is inside of a box that has a slightly transparent black background. The contrast between the text and the background is pretty good.
- jordanlev 11y ago
  What got me was the fact that the background image is a 3.4 MB (!!) file. Yowzas, talk about page boat.
  - Buge 11y ago
    Wow. And looking at it, it appears blurry and slightly pixelated, as if it has been upscaled. It also looks like it might have jpeg artifacts from a previous compression. Although it cannot simply be made a jpeg as-is because it is largely transparent. I used https://tinypng.com/ https://tinypng.com/ lossy png to get it down to 770kB with virtually no loss of quality (since the quality was so bad to begin with). But it could be shrunk more by either using a smaller image and upscaling it in the browser (instead of upsaling it prior to saving), or merging the background gradient with the image and saving it as jpeg.
josefresco 11y ago
I was able to fully quit Facebook - with the help of my wife. Not that she needed to help me actually close my account, but rather she keeps me posted (via her Facebook) page on the comings, and goings of my/our family. Without her I'd probably feel pressure to at least have FB for close family, however I'm not sure it would be enough to lure me back in, given the use of group texts etc.
marktangotango 11y ago
Comments so far seem to be focusing on the social media aspect of this piece, what struck me was the acknowledgement that he has a limited number of productive years left, and the Longfellow quote. In my mid 40's, I also have come to feel the weight of years passed, without achieving professional goals (ie starting a succesful software based company). This feeling of unfinished business really set in after the birth of our second child. I had always claimed to be one of the best developers around, yet, I could not master myself to be truly productive when working of personal projects. Overcoming my self imposed limits is where I'm at now. Has anyone else experienced this?
- osullivj 11y ago
  Oh yes! I'm 49, and the weight of potential unfulfilled weighs heavy. I guess that's classic mid life crisis territory. In reaction I've never been so focused and impatient with time wasters and wasting. I'm bootstrapping in my spare time - see my profile for more details.
- circuitslave 11y ago
  I am right there with you. I am in my 40s, and have a solid career as a corporate & solo dev. and I have started feeling that weight as well. You might just be describing a "modern" mid life crisis. Self reflection without the need to buy an impractical car.
- jdowner 11y ago
  I could have written exactly the same comment.
  - avoutthere 11y ago
    As could I. (51-year-old freelance developer)
    - foofoo55 11y ago
      Same (49, freelance).
cmiles74 11y ago
This strikes me as a pretty serious failure on the part of Facebook, Twitter and their ilk. I'm not sure what the solution might be, but I would prefer to read the posts of the actual author or personality, rather than a stream of PR posts. Neal Stephenson is not the first and surely won't be the last person who's account will now be ghostwritten (by publishers, agents, trusted people, etc.) I understand why he's managing it this way and I might do the same if I were in his position. My hope is that Facebook, etc. start to realize that their current approach isn't the best fit for everyone.
daemonk 11y ago
I think learning to do things in moderation is really the key here. I liked that the article is not vehemently chastising social media as the bane of modern civilization nor praising it as the second coming. There are pros and cons to adopting most new technologies. It's better to develop a discipline to use them in moderation rather than to cut it off completely or depend on them excessively.
sjclemmy 11y ago
Nothing to do with the function, but the form... I really struggle with white on black text. Most of the internet is black on white, so, when switching back to a light screen I see black line after images. I really dislike it.
SFjulie1 11y ago
If Charles Stross, Georges RR Martin could do the same, maybe we could stop having shitty milfan boy creepy SiFi and have good SiFi again with bits of humor. If Neal read this and meet Charles please tell him to stop post photo of his cats on twitter and go back to work. The quality of his writing is going down, and the only thing that make me stay away from social medias are good books. I get it. I am a Sociomediapath because of him in fact. I blame him 100%! PS neal makes good funny books, but he has difficulty making ends that don't involve deus ex machina. (REAMDE ending is a tad disappointing after quite a good development. Still it is a good essay on virtual currencies).
walod 11y ago
Well, I relate to both this and the older 'bad correspondent' article immensely. I have struggled with this for at least 2-3 years now. The only times I can be truly productive (in music, programming or visual stuff) is when I feel like I have a cocoon where there will be no interruptions with 100% certainty. For me personally the cell phone is a bigger problem than the internet, since people get annoyed when I don't pick up the phone, but I also notice I need to stop clicking endlessly all night on web sites to calm my mind down to get to that mental space for creativity. Basically the best periods I've had were when others were on vacation or I was, and there was some natural unbroken few days where there was no anxiety at all about being interrupted. The question is how to make it happen. I basically just turn off my phone, close the browser, go for a walk, try to get the nerves calmed down, and hopefully something comes out of it that night. It's really quite annoying though, because 7 years ago it wasn't like this. I don't want to be a recluse, I just want to balance the two things and have that be okay.
kenamarit 11y ago
If anyone else is interested, here's a link to someone's repost of "Why I'm a Bad Correspondent" http://www.carlkingdom.com/neal-stephenson-why-i-am-a-bad-correspondent http://www.carlkingdom.com/neal-stephenson-why-i-am-a-bad-co...
atmosx 11y ago
> I completed SEVENEVES recently and have three other novel projects in the works. Somewhat perversely, however, using social media has now become part of a novelist's job. I find amazing the fact that he manages to write 3 or 4 novels at the same time.
- sbierwagen 11y ago
  We can only hope that the other novels will be better than Seveneves.
  - atmosx 11y ago
    I have read only 2 of his novels so far - and they in my top10 list of books. Cryptonomicon & SnowCrash - I've read the first book of the Baroque Cycle too!
  - trusche 11y ago
    They can hardly get worse. I used to be a huge fan of NS, but Seveneves was the last book of his I bought without reading review first. He seems to have decided that character development is for other people, not to mention the gaping plot holes. Sloppy and superficial.
    - programmarchy 11y ago
      Huh, I thought the book was pretty good. (Warning: spoilers ahead.) I couldn't put it down for the first 500 pages. Things got a little slow in the second part of the book, but I thought the character development in terms of the races of Eves was a really interesting twist. You still "knew" the characters based on their ancestors. I do wish he had fleshed out the history of the Diggers and Pingers, but that could be an entire book in itself.
  - acheron 11y ago
    Different strokes I guess. I thought REAMDE was rather dull but Seveneves was a nice bounceback. FWIW my favorite Stephenson novel is still Anathem.
Johnny_Brahms 11y ago
HN is the only social media I use. Quitting social media is really the best thing I have ever done. I used to check facebook and twitter every 2 minuter when I had nothing else to do. The result was to never have a dull moment. It just stressed me out. After quitting I realized how much I need all those small breaks. I am less stressed and much more productive. Jobs kept coming by word of mouth.
MCRed 11y ago
"With that said, here are the links to my social media:" <crickets> I think a rendering issue in Safari hid them, or something, but I thought it was humorous to have that article, followed by no way to follow him on social media! (presumably unintended.)
- mayoff 11y ago
  An ad blocker that blocks social media sharing buttons will hide the link buttons at the bottom of that page.
tmaly 11y ago
I am almost 38 and I look at the founder of the company I work at in my day job. He started the company in his early 40s and now he is worth in excess of 8 billion. 40 is not too late to start something.
skybrian 11y ago
But why does Neal Stephenson of all people feel he needs to write as many more novels as possible? Sure, it's good for us that he feels that way, but strange that he thinks he still has something to prove.
mark_l_watson 11y ago
Social media is a tool, useful for business and self promotion. Also handy for checking up on what friends and relatives are doing. That said, I agree with Stephenson (I really enjoyed his latest book Seveneves) that it's use can get in the way of doing more creative and productive things. I am a big fan of "self monitoring" to keep track of types of food eaten, time spent on social media, TV, etc. Personally, if I spend more than 15 minutes a day on social media that is a warning sign that I need to do better time management.
- tomkinstinch 11y ago
  Automated monitoring of computer time can be very revealing. I use RescueTime[1] as a check of my productivity, and have found it helpful for ensuring I remain on-track. 1. https://www.rescuetime.com https://www.rescuetime.com
  - mark_l_watson 11y ago
    I also used rescue time for several months after one of my consulting customers recommended it. It is a good product, but after understanding my time use profile I stopped using it.
huuu 11y ago
Cut away branches that suck energy but don't bear fruit.
cableshaft 11y ago
This is a bit offtopic, but his latest book is 'Seveneves', huh? I worked on a puzzle game for the DS and Wii called 'Neves', which was named that way because there was a 'puzzle in the name', being seven backwards, and there was seven pieces in each puzzle. I feel like I should probably read Seveneves now, even though I know it's just a coincidence they're named similarly.
- acheron 11y ago
  I feel like I should probably read Seveneves now Do you like orbital mechanics?
david_mitchell 11y ago
I think this is a good time to repost a link to pg's "disconnecting distraction": http://paulgraham.com/distraction.html http://paulgraham.com/distraction.html
DubiousPusher 11y ago
Basically, he's just coming out and saying that he's doing what almost every other highly visible, busy person is doing.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

379 points by sasvari 11y ago

Perfectly captures the way I feel. I spend very little time on FB & twitter these days. I fear I'm still spending too much time on HN though...

randycupertino 11y ago
I loved how the whole point of the essay is not to waste your time reading the comments and not to get bogged down in minutia, yet here we all are, reading the comments!

amelius 11y ago

I just unfollow everybody by default on FB, and I can highly recommend this. (Basically I just use FB to find interesting events, and see where everybody is going).

yitchelle 11y ago
Wouldn't FB be a ghost site like myspace or G+ if everyone is unfriended?
- isaacdl 11y ago
  There's a difference (on FB at least) between being "friends" and "following" someone. If you unfollow a friend, you'll still be connected, can communicate, see events, etc, you just won't see their posts in your news feed.
  - mistermann 11y ago
    Well I certainly didn't know that. Is there a way to make it so it screens out all the content that comes from content factories ("You won't believe....!"), but still see things such as pure text or user-created photo posts?
    - philh 11y ago
      You can unfollow individual sites. There's a down arrow in the top-right of a post, you click it and select 'hide all from clickhole'. I unfollowed a bunch, and now I rarely see that kind of thing.
      - greggman 11y ago
        You can also use "fb purity", an extension that can hide posts based on string matches. For example "liked a post", "commented on", and other annoying things fb fills the feed with
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
mmackh 11y ago
Agreed. This works surprisingly well if you only care to follow a few friends and family that you know might not post that often. This way, I check Facebook only once a day without having the urge to follow the lastest trends.

irremediable 11y ago

It's interesting. I thought I didn't lose much time to social media because I only used them in "dead" time, e.g. waiting for a train. But I've come to believe this was a mistake in two respects. Firstly, no time is truly "dead", and there's almost always something better I could be doing. Secondly, almost any use of social media trains me to crave more -- it genuinely is addictive, and the unreliability of the novelty ("refreshing in the hope of seeing something new") makes this all the worse.

MrJagil 11y ago
A big annoyance for me when I lived in NYC was the lack of internet in the subway. Now i yearn for that 45 commute reading sci-fi shorts reccommended by you people.
- kaybe 11y ago
  Where can I find those? I never even put internet on my phone. All maps are downloaded at home - an amazing amount of people seems to have never considered that and were astonished to find me navigating without signal.
harryf 11y ago
> Secondly, almost any use of social media trains me to crave more -- it genuinely is addictive, and the unreliability of the novelty ("refreshing in the hope of seeing something new") makes this all the worse. That's pretty much what it's designed to do. Really recommend reading "Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products" http://www.nirandfar.com/hooked http://www.nirandfar.com/hooked or watch some of the authors videos like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVDN2mjJpb8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVDN2mjJpb8 or his talk at The Next Web https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z29RvrHPp1s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z29RvrHPp1s
- irremediable 11y ago
  No disagreement here -- I know it's intentional. Thanks for the resources though.

myhf 11y ago

In Seveneves, Stephenson discusses "Amistics, the study of the choices made by different cultures as to which technologies they would embrace or spurn." "Anyone who bothered to learn the history of the developed world in the years just before Zero understood perfectly well that Tavistock Prowse had been squarely in the middle of the normal range, as far as his social media habits and attention span had been concerned. But nevertheless, they called it Tav's Mistake. They didn't want to make it again. Any efforts made by modern manufacturers to produce the kinds of devices and apps that had disordered the brain of Tav were met with the same instinctive pushback as Victorian clergy might have directed against the inventor of a masturbation machine." You see those kinds of choices being made at a cultural level all over the world. Developed countries where nobody uses leafblowers, or in-sink food waste disposals, or what have you. People understand how those things work, they just don't want the effects.

theoh 11y ago
About leaf blowers and waste disposals, I think it's not about the "effects" so much as the item itself. These devices do perform a function but their original reason for existing is arguably to profitably sell motors (or small engines in the case of the leaf blower). Having lived mostly in countries where they aren't used, I'd say it's a skepticism about the real utility of the device that makes them unsuccessful there, not a reasoned assessment of the effects of widespread use.
- cafard 11y ago
  Arguably? I loathe the sound of gasoline-powered leaf blowers, but they are quicker than rakes and brooms. I'm not sure that my neighbors are willing to pay for the additional labor needed by a lawn crew to rake leaves or sweep sidewalks.
  - theoh 11y ago
    It looks like leaf blowers originated in the mechanisation of farming, so perhaps there was a legitimate labour saving objective there. In the case of sink waste disposal, I'd be pretty surprised if there was a good reason. Hamilton Beach is an example of an early 20th C manufacturer that made a lot of consumer products which used similar motors, for example a now-classic catering-grade blender for milkshakes. That seems like a clear example of a market being created by the development of the device, which itself existed to apply a technology (the motor). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton_Beach_Brands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton_Beach_Brands

MikeNomad 11y ago

"Cultivate an identity as a Luddite." This coming from someone who writes their first draft using pen and paper.

hobs 11y ago
I dont understand this comment, should he be using quill pen, or starting an oral history to be more of a luddite?
- MikeNomad 11y ago
  The thing that rang the loudest (for me) from his comment was irony.
- adrusi 11y ago
  The point is that the parent thinks he's already established himself as a luddite by using so antiquated technology as dead trees.
- MikeNomad 11y ago
  Sorry, not directly answering your question... I am not suggesting he do anything to be more or less of a Luddite (IIRC, he uses a very nice fountain pen).
sageabilly 11y ago
Lots of writers [0] do their first draft with pen and paper. There are studies[1] that show that using pen and paper to take notes boost memory and the ability to recall information, so of course a writer doing the first draft of a long novel would want that for themselves. [0]Do a Google search for "first draft pen and paper" and there are scores of hits from both authors and writing websites advocating for this [1]http://www.medicaldaily.com/why-using-pen-and-paper-not-laptops-boosts-memory-writing-notes-helps-recall-concepts-ability-268770 http://www.medicaldaily.com/why-using-pen-and-paper-not-lapt...
- meric 11y ago
  Yeah, using laptop to take notes in lecture is useless, I might as well take no notes, and just listen more carefully. Pen and paper or nothing.

SwellJoe 11y ago

I took a week off of facebook two weeks ago. No interaction with facebook, at all, except one messenger session with a design contractor who is doing our UI overhaul. I haven't been so productive in years. And, it mostly broke my facebook addiction...I check it once a day now, often just on my phone while standing in line at the grocery or during some other downtime. I'm able to ignore it most of the time (notifications have been turned off for years, because I hate anything dinging at me and interrupting my thought process; I leave the ringer on my phone off for the same reason, I can check my voicemail in Google Voice a couple times a day to deal with important stuff). I'm considering doing the same "fast and then reduced consumption" for my other social media habits: reddit, HN, twitter. When I traveled full-time, in the past, I would often find myself with little or no Internet connectivity for a week at a time, and that imposed periodic social media fasting, and it was sufficient to keep the addictions in check. After living in a fixed house, with very fast Internet, for a little over a year, the urge to check my phone/tablet first thing in the morning and last thing at night has become notable and annoying. In short: He's right, and I notice my own inability to do things of substance has been significantly impaired by the time and attention I give to social media, and it's only reasonable to abstain in the interest of spending more time doing the things I truly value. It can be hard to make that choice, however...one more shot of dopamine (or whatever chemicals the constant affirmation of social media provides) seems harmless. (I note the irony of this being an HN comment.)

riebschlager 11y ago
I hear ya. I started out 2016 by deactivating my Facebook account, culling my Twitter following to 12 and my Feedly subscriptions to 10. I also added Disqus to my hosts file to make news sites less enraging. I've taken other measures in the past. Someone else in this thread mentioned unfollowing everyone on Facebook, that helped quite a bit. But there's a lot to be said for declaring social media bankruptcy and being freed from that involuntary compulsion to open up a new Chrome tab and waste time.
- morganvachon 11y ago
  > Someone else in this thread mentioned unfollowing everyone on Facebook, that helped quite a bit. But there's a lot to be said for declaring social media bankruptcy and being freed from that involuntary compulsion to open up a new Chrome tab and waste time. I did this recently (unfollowing (almost) everyone on my FB friend list), and it has resulted in me spending less than 10 minutes a week on the site. I didn't do it so I would use FB less, I did it because my feed was full of nothing but hatred and negativity, and to see that from friends and family is extremely depressing. If I didn't use FB to promote a couple of projects I'm running, I'd drop it altogether and rely on my wife to keep me updated on family and mutual friends who choose to only have contact with the outside world via the FB window.

jacobmoe 11y ago

I'm torn. On the one hand, I agree. On the other hand, I wouldn't have found this Neal Stephenson post if it wasn't for social media.

sasvari 11y ago
I came across a reference to it while reading the first chapter of Deep Work by Cal Newport [0]. For anybody interested in distraction free work, it seems to be quite a good book (can't give a thorough review, I'm still at the beginning). I enjoyed reading his blog so far. [0] http://calnewport.com/blog/2016/01/05/the-book-facebook-doesnt-want-you-to-read/ http://calnewport.com/blog/2016/01/05/the-book-facebook-does...
- 3stripe 11y ago
  I'm making this book my Bible for getting stuff done in 2016. Social media = crack.
  - pklausler 11y ago
    Ironically, for me, re-reading Neal Stephenson's novels is one of my biggest crack-like time-wasters.

HSO 11y ago

Abstaining from "social media" is for amateurs!!! ;-) Many years ago, I threw my TV out and it was one of the best decisions I've ever made. Internet is the new TV. I see the irony of writing this on HN but I really try to find the internet analogue for throwing out the TV. The problem is that you need services like maps, online banking and tickets, mobile payments, etc. What I want to get rid of though, completely, is news and noise. I tried and tried but self-regulation is too hard; I still waste so much time and poison my brain with all this crap; I think the time has come to try self-binding. My current setup is to not have internet at home (where I work) except for a mobile connection, and to pull the SIM card out by default. I only put it back in when I need to do something specific (or when I am on the go, for maps). Obviously, this is not a perfect solution yet (as I somehow found my way back to HN, grrr…) but I'm working on it. I should probably get a dumbphone for emergencies, and I also want to habituate myself to a weekly rhythm where I bunch all the stuff (like emails, software updates, articles to be downloaded, references to be checked, etc) to one day a week (say Sat) and do all my "internet errands" in one go. The rest of the time, I rely on my books and articles and downloaded documentations and offline Wikipedia. If I want to watch something, I can make a note and download the movie or entire season along with the other "internet groceries". To keep in touch with current events, I can read weekly news magazines. That also dials down the noise. Something like that. Interestingly, since I got a big tablet, I read news magazines like The Economist or Die Zeit in PDF format and it seems to also affect me somehow. There is no outside clicking and endless linkbait anymore, and I feel less monitored and stressed (even though I already have all these adblockers and Little Snitch and whatnot). It also gives me back a feeling of a natural end to my reading session when I reach the final pages of the PDF. On the web or online, the next article or curiosity is always right behind.

branchless 11y ago
I agree. When I watch TV now and see adverts they seem so transparent in their desire to manipulate me. And the people on the shows look ridiculous. Why are americans orange on TV? It's spread to the UK now - orange-itus. Best thing I ever did was to get rid of TV. Having one is like inviting the worst people in the world round your house. I think the internet might be next. I think I might offline things I want to learn. My phone can do for maps when I need it but for the rest it's a pain. I really should learn my TV lessons WRT the internet.

jasode 11y ago

This essay might be deeper than it first suggests. My first interpretation: knee-jerk reaction after reading it that it's a very typical lament about social media getting in the way of doing more important things in life. There are thousands of blog posts repeating this message and this variation of it happens to be on HN because it's from N.S. My second interpretation: I lingered on his chosen word "sociomediapath". Since it's a riff on "sociopath", I think what he's saying here is that he's going to give the impression that he's a social media hound but behind the scenes, he's doesn't care. Likewise, a sociopath like Ted Bundy on the surface can shake your hand and charm you with his smiles but underneath it all, he'll kill you. N.S. has to be a "sociopath" in media because he's a published author. He can't go full Howard Hughes detached-from-society-mode and therefore, has to at least fake out the public with a social media presence. Maybe that means there's a need for a web service that generates random and periodic posts on behalf of users to give the appearance of "Facebook normality". E.g. the website service posts random inspirational quotes from dead people or TIL from random wikipedia pages. You never have to log into Facebook and yet it seems like you're "with it". I believe other celebrities accomplish this with "public relations" staff. The PR firm makes the celebrity look "connected" to the fans via Reddit AMAs and Twitter updates but in reality, he/she really isn't.

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- riskable 11y ago
  Yeah, we need "This Week in Hacker News" like those "This Week in Science" and "This Week in Tech" summaries put out by Futurism.com... http://futurism.com/infographics/?cat=science http://futurism.com/infographics/?cat=science http://futurism.com/infographics/?cat=tech http://futurism.com/infographics/?cat=tech
  - blakesmith 11y ago
    I like the "Hacker News Newsletter", lets me ignore what goes on here most days, and catch up when I have dedicated time. http://www.hackernewsletter.com/ http://www.hackernewsletter.com/

nickysielicki 11y ago

Not related to the content, but yeesh, this color scheme is awful. The yellow gradient... Blegh. I couldn't make it through the article because my eyes kept getting lost between the lines.

brazzledazzle 11y ago
My color settings or contrast might be set differently but for me the text is inside of a box that has a slightly transparent black background. The contrast between the text and the background is pretty good.
jordanlev 11y ago
What got me was the fact that the background image is a 3.4 MB (!!) file. Yowzas, talk about page boat.
- Buge 11y ago
  Wow. And looking at it, it appears blurry and slightly pixelated, as if it has been upscaled. It also looks like it might have jpeg artifacts from a previous compression. Although it cannot simply be made a jpeg as-is because it is largely transparent. I used https://tinypng.com/ https://tinypng.com/ lossy png to get it down to 770kB with virtually no loss of quality (since the quality was so bad to begin with). But it could be shrunk more by either using a smaller image and upscaling it in the browser (instead of upsaling it prior to saving), or merging the background gradient with the image and saving it as jpeg.

josefresco 11y ago

I was able to fully quit Facebook - with the help of my wife. Not that she needed to help me actually close my account, but rather she keeps me posted (via her Facebook) page on the comings, and goings of my/our family. Without her I'd probably feel pressure to at least have FB for close family, however I'm not sure it would be enough to lure me back in, given the use of group texts etc.

marktangotango 11y ago

Comments so far seem to be focusing on the social media aspect of this piece, what struck me was the acknowledgement that he has a limited number of productive years left, and the Longfellow quote. In my mid 40's, I also have come to feel the weight of years passed, without achieving professional goals (ie starting a succesful software based company). This feeling of unfinished business really set in after the birth of our second child. I had always claimed to be one of the best developers around, yet, I could not master myself to be truly productive when working of personal projects. Overcoming my self imposed limits is where I'm at now. Has anyone else experienced this?

osullivj 11y ago
Oh yes! I'm 49, and the weight of potential unfulfilled weighs heavy. I guess that's classic mid life crisis territory. In reaction I've never been so focused and impatient with time wasters and wasting. I'm bootstrapping in my spare time - see my profile for more details.
circuitslave 11y ago
I am right there with you. I am in my 40s, and have a solid career as a corporate & solo dev. and I have started feeling that weight as well. You might just be describing a "modern" mid life crisis. Self reflection without the need to buy an impractical car.
jdowner 11y ago
I could have written exactly the same comment.
- avoutthere 11y ago
  As could I. (51-year-old freelance developer)
  - foofoo55 11y ago
    Same (49, freelance).

cmiles74 11y ago

This strikes me as a pretty serious failure on the part of Facebook, Twitter and their ilk. I'm not sure what the solution might be, but I would prefer to read the posts of the actual author or personality, rather than a stream of PR posts. Neal Stephenson is not the first and surely won't be the last person who's account will now be ghostwritten (by publishers, agents, trusted people, etc.) I understand why he's managing it this way and I might do the same if I were in his position. My hope is that Facebook, etc. start to realize that their current approach isn't the best fit for everyone.

daemonk 11y ago

I think learning to do things in moderation is really the key here. I liked that the article is not vehemently chastising social media as the bane of modern civilization nor praising it as the second coming. There are pros and cons to adopting most new technologies. It's better to develop a discipline to use them in moderation rather than to cut it off completely or depend on them excessively.

sjclemmy 11y ago

Nothing to do with the function, but the form... I really struggle with white on black text. Most of the internet is black on white, so, when switching back to a light screen I see black line after images. I really dislike it.

SFjulie1 11y ago

If Charles Stross, Georges RR Martin could do the same, maybe we could stop having shitty milfan boy creepy SiFi and have good SiFi again with bits of humor. If Neal read this and meet Charles please tell him to stop post photo of his cats on twitter and go back to work. The quality of his writing is going down, and the only thing that make me stay away from social medias are good books. I get it. I am a Sociomediapath because of him in fact. I blame him 100%! PS neal makes good funny books, but he has difficulty making ends that don't involve deus ex machina. (REAMDE ending is a tad disappointing after quite a good development. Still it is a good essay on virtual currencies).

walod 11y ago

Well, I relate to both this and the older 'bad correspondent' article immensely. I have struggled with this for at least 2-3 years now. The only times I can be truly productive (in music, programming or visual stuff) is when I feel like I have a cocoon where there will be no interruptions with 100% certainty. For me personally the cell phone is a bigger problem than the internet, since people get annoyed when I don't pick up the phone, but I also notice I need to stop clicking endlessly all night on web sites to calm my mind down to get to that mental space for creativity. Basically the best periods I've had were when others were on vacation or I was, and there was some natural unbroken few days where there was no anxiety at all about being interrupted. The question is how to make it happen. I basically just turn off my phone, close the browser, go for a walk, try to get the nerves calmed down, and hopefully something comes out of it that night. It's really quite annoying though, because 7 years ago it wasn't like this. I don't want to be a recluse, I just want to balance the two things and have that be okay.

kenamarit 11y ago

If anyone else is interested, here's a link to someone's repost of "Why I'm a Bad Correspondent" http://www.carlkingdom.com/neal-stephenson-why-i-am-a-bad-correspondent http://www.carlkingdom.com/neal-stephenson-why-i-am-a-bad-co...

atmosx 11y ago

> I completed SEVENEVES recently and have three other novel projects in the works. Somewhat perversely, however, using social media has now become part of a novelist's job. I find amazing the fact that he manages to write 3 or 4 novels at the same time.

sbierwagen 11y ago
We can only hope that the other novels will be better than Seveneves.
- atmosx 11y ago
  I have read only 2 of his novels so far - and they in my top10 list of books. Cryptonomicon & SnowCrash - I've read the first book of the Baroque Cycle too!
- trusche 11y ago
  They can hardly get worse. I used to be a huge fan of NS, but Seveneves was the last book of his I bought without reading review first. He seems to have decided that character development is for other people, not to mention the gaping plot holes. Sloppy and superficial.
  - programmarchy 11y ago
    Huh, I thought the book was pretty good. (Warning: spoilers ahead.) I couldn't put it down for the first 500 pages. Things got a little slow in the second part of the book, but I thought the character development in terms of the races of Eves was a really interesting twist. You still "knew" the characters based on their ancestors. I do wish he had fleshed out the history of the Diggers and Pingers, but that could be an entire book in itself.
- acheron 11y ago
  Different strokes I guess. I thought REAMDE was rather dull but Seveneves was a nice bounceback. FWIW my favorite Stephenson novel is still Anathem.

Johnny_Brahms 11y ago

HN is the only social media I use. Quitting social media is really the best thing I have ever done. I used to check facebook and twitter every 2 minuter when I had nothing else to do. The result was to never have a dull moment. It just stressed me out. After quitting I realized how much I need all those small breaks. I am less stressed and much more productive. Jobs kept coming by word of mouth.

MCRed 11y ago

"With that said, here are the links to my social media:" <crickets> I think a rendering issue in Safari hid them, or something, but I thought it was humorous to have that article, followed by no way to follow him on social media! (presumably unintended.)

mayoff 11y ago
An ad blocker that blocks social media sharing buttons will hide the link buttons at the bottom of that page.

tmaly 11y ago

I am almost 38 and I look at the founder of the company I work at in my day job. He started the company in his early 40s and now he is worth in excess of 8 billion. 40 is not too late to start something.

skybrian 11y ago

But why does Neal Stephenson of all people feel he needs to write as many more novels as possible? Sure, it's good for us that he feels that way, but strange that he thinks he still has something to prove.

mark_l_watson 11y ago

Social media is a tool, useful for business and self promotion. Also handy for checking up on what friends and relatives are doing. That said, I agree with Stephenson (I really enjoyed his latest book Seveneves) that it's use can get in the way of doing more creative and productive things. I am a big fan of "self monitoring" to keep track of types of food eaten, time spent on social media, TV, etc. Personally, if I spend more than 15 minutes a day on social media that is a warning sign that I need to do better time management.

tomkinstinch 11y ago
Automated monitoring of computer time can be very revealing. I use RescueTime[1] as a check of my productivity, and have found it helpful for ensuring I remain on-track. 1. https://www.rescuetime.com https://www.rescuetime.com
- mark_l_watson 11y ago
  I also used rescue time for several months after one of my consulting customers recommended it. It is a good product, but after understanding my time use profile I stopped using it.

huuu 11y ago

Cut away branches that suck energy but don't bear fruit.

cableshaft 11y ago

This is a bit offtopic, but his latest book is 'Seveneves', huh? I worked on a puzzle game for the DS and Wii called 'Neves', which was named that way because there was a 'puzzle in the name', being seven backwards, and there was seven pieces in each puzzle. I feel like I should probably read Seveneves now, even though I know it's just a coincidence they're named similarly.

acheron 11y ago
I feel like I should probably read Seveneves now Do you like orbital mechanics?

david_mitchell 11y ago

I think this is a good time to repost a link to pg's "disconnecting distraction": http://paulgraham.com/distraction.html http://paulgraham.com/distraction.html

DubiousPusher 11y ago

Basically, he's just coming out and saying that he's doing what almost every other highly visible, busy person is doing.

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