21 ms·

I Used to Be a Human Being

344 points by oscarwao 10y ago

Raphmedia 10y ago
I fixed my brain by cancelling my internet services. All I had was 1gb of cellphone data. Never been happier. Right now I am back with an internet subscription and I'm miserable. I am an internet addict and having internet at home is very bad for me. I strongly consider cancelling my internet suscription again.
- ashark 10y ago
  I've had good success putting my laptop away and only using an inconveniently-located desktop when I want to do Computer Stuff. I can still go spend a lot of time on it (sometimes you need to, sometimes you actually want to), but it's a conscious choice to go do that. I can't just carry the cancer that is the Internet around the house with me, flip the lid open "just to check something" and surface two hours later having accomplished nothing.
- wott 10y ago
  I have no smartphone, I don't use mobile Internet. Fixed Internet is enough of a problem for me. What I would love is to go back to dial-up times. I mean, paying by the minute/hour, or a limited plan + by the minute/hour after the limit, or a fixed limit in hours or Go per month. Something like this. That would help me a lot. People might tell me to implement it on my side, but I know it is not going to work for me: there's no way I pay full price to have a 24/24 connection and then limit myself. And as operators are not going to propose such schemes that would lower their income, I am screwed. Only satellite operators still have such systems. ---- I had an ADSL failure that lasted 8 days a few months ago. The first 2 or 3 days were tough (launching compulsorily the web or mail browser, wondering how the hell I am doing to do X or Y, having to remember that there is no point in doing X and to remember the 'old' way of doing Y), but then it was a relief. A breath of fresh air. We (the family) began to talk to each other. We even did things together! Then the ADSL was fixed and the Internet addicted behaviours started again, same as before..
tim333 10y ago
I rather like the internet connected version of living.
- bernardino 10y ago
  How so?
  - tim333 10y ago
    Well at the everyday level you can keep in touch with your friends, catch Pokemon, access the world's information and the like. More speculatively you have the points made by Louis C.K in the article, that "Underneath in your life there’s that thing … that forever empty … that knowledge that it’s all for nothing and you’re alone …" "you just feel … kinda satisfied with your products. And then you die." As an engineering type I think a lot of that can be fixed by technology, that as computers equal and pass human brain capacities a lot of cool stuff will be possible maybe including fixing the alone and dying stuff and it's interesting to see things progress.
hitekker 10y ago
"I used to be a human being": I like this phrase. It captures, poetically, the existential despair of losing the conditions of humanity. Regardless of if the author's particular conditions necessitates the implicit drama, each of one us, I'm sure, have felt like we lost what made us "real" or "authentic" at some point or another.
- pmoriarty 10y ago
  People have complained about the loss of authenticity for much longer than the internet (much less social media) has been around. It happens around any time of great change. We happen to be living through a period of some of the fastest changes in human history, so it's not surprising a lot of people are confused and feel like they've lost something.
  - marmot777 10y ago
    What have we lost? I don't doubt we have lost something, I just don't know what it is.
    - stnmtn 10y ago
      What have we lost? In my opinion, a big part of it is the illusion that people are more than just people With the internet, we've been able to confirm that everyone is, more or less, just like us. You can see this especially in up and coming new media stars. They use self deprecation as a crutch and irony is really funny. The internet released a hall of mirrors on society and now the illusion of authenticity is broken Why is that that 'Hipsters' reach out for things that they hope are real? Facial hair is real. Single-Speed Bikes are real. I'm talking about a stereotype here, obviously, but I think that a hipster is something who reaches for external authenticity I hope I don't sound like a cynical person, because I really don't think I am. I don't think this is a terrible thing, but it certainly makes navigating people much harder because the illusion of becoming one of 'The Greats' with a Capital G is something that doesn't seem very possible anymore
      - 10y ago
FuNe 10y ago
> The interruptions often feel pleasant, of course, because they are usually the work of your friends. Distractions arrive in your brain connected to people you know (or think you know), which is the genius of social, peer-to-peer media. Silly as it will sound I'd never thought of it that way. Cunning , brilliant and cunning again.
- danblick 10y ago
  A related thought: for any app, there's a question ~ "How do I get the user to open the app regularly? How do I turn checking the app into a habit?" Messaging apps have a nice solution to this: they allow your friends to summon you to the app by sending you a message.
  - sdegutis 10y ago
    From a business point of view, that's an important goal. The more a user depends on your product, the more you stay in business. And the goal of a business is to survive indefinitely. But from a human perspective, I'd argue it's completely unethical. As a business, your goal isn't merely to encourage potential customers to choose your brand over another. It's also to get them to buy it even if they don't want it. And it's to get them hooked so they come back and buy more. Now, what if your product is vodka? Your job suddenly became to make as many high-functioning alcoholics out of customers as possible (high-functioning so that they can continue to buy). This may be a stretch from a mobile game or social media platform, but not much. They both have negative effects with real impacts on the health and happiness and sometimes even safety of the consumers.
jkot 10y ago
> I couldn’t check my email or refresh my Instagram > ... trying to describe what I was feeling. The two words “extreme suffering” won the naming contest in my head...
- mcphage 10y ago
  The "extreme suffering" was in relation to his emotional crisis, not because he was unable to use his phone.
  - oldmanjay 10y ago
    Hyperbole makes a point weaker, not stronger.
    - crawfordcomeaux 10y ago
      And judging someone's self-described suffering as hyperbole misses the point altogether.
- retbull 10y ago
  Wow you took that out of context.
resetting 10y ago
I'd be interested to hear everyone's strategies to combat this, as I assume many of us that work in the industry encounter similar problems of distraction and inundation. First, I don't use any devices directly after waking up. I meditate for about 20 minutes upon waking and then try to read fiction for 40 minutes. So, all in, somewhere around an hour of no device distractions before starting my day. Slack is one of the biggest interrupting factors while coding these days, more so than IRC ever was for me, so I try to have chunks of time during the day with it closed. This is something I've struggled with recently as co-workers always expect to be able to get in touch, but often I really need 30-60 minutes of uninterrupted focus for real tasks. For personal things, I deleted Facebook and feel quite a bit better. I still scroll Instagram too much. I deleted the Twitter app from my phone and will only check it from time to time on the web. I try to turn on Do Not Disturb mode in the evenings, but it's hard when you have systems that potentially could go down and things could get escalated to you. On top of that I try to take psychedelics a few times per year, not in any type of party settings, but with people that are close to me. Screens tend to turn up this feeling of disgust when I look at them in that state, so I automatically disengage with them. I find that for at least a short while after the trip my usage of distracting Internet things goes down a lot as well. Interested to hear other strategies!
- overcast 10y ago
  I've done the same. Facebook was closed last year, Reddit this year, Twitter never really used, but deleted the app. I've added comment blockers in all of my browsers to get rid of all of the negativity on websites, especially YouTube. I don't use any other social apps besides the occasional Instagram for business purposes. My phone goes into Do Not Disturb about an hour before bed, and I place it face down on the nightstand. I read daily before bed to wind down. I've considered revisiting psychedelics, but it's been a long time since college! I exercise daily, mostly high intensity aerobic, pushups, pullups, situps, indoor rowing, or hiking. The phone stuff is really getting out of control, and I'm not sure what the solution is for less disciplined people. Dating sucks, going out socially sucks, going to concerts sucks, all because of the pervasiveness of the modern phone.
  - 10y ago
simonbarker87 10y ago
I read somewhere recently that smart phones have essentially become random gratification engines in the same way as slot machines. Sometimes on a slot machine you win the jackpot, because of this every pull gives you an endorphin kick, each time we pick up our phones or get a notification it might be an important/interesting thing, therefore we get a little endorphin kick that keeps us checking. Because of this I turn off all notifications apart from phone calls and text messages. I don't have app badge counters or notifications for email either, if it is that important the person would ring me.
- hammock 10y ago
  Look up "Skinner box." Basically codified the psychology behind a slot machine. A mouse hits a single lever that either releases or doesn't release food. When the lever is set to Always release food, the mouse soon gets bored and only eats when he's hungry. When the lever is set to Randomly release food, the mouse gets addicted, compulsively hitting the lever all day without concern for how fat he is getting.
  - achileas 10y ago
    To expand on this a bit, BF Skinner founded the behaviorist area of psychology (which is important in later fields like neuroscience for training animals on various experiments), he specifically investigated operant behavior (behavior where the organism does something to its environment) and various schedules of reinforcement. The schedule you're thinking of is one of the strongest schedules for inducing behavior, and that's the variable ratio schedule, where reinforcement occurs after a variable number of responses from the organism. Skinner was actually one of the first to try and bring more rigor to psychology.
    - marmot777 10y ago
      Being aware we're in a skinner box enables us at least the option of transcending it. It's on my "to do" list.
  - qb45 10y ago
nxzero 10y ago
Just wait until machine learning gets really good at providing information that's of value that you "must have" to get through the day.
- Retr0spectrum 10y ago
  This service does a rather good job of summarising individual articles: http://smmry.com/ http://smmry.com/
  - mcguire 10y ago
    I'm not sure nxzero (and I) think that is a good thing.
    - Retr0spectrum 10y ago
      I got the impression that nxzero thought it was a good thing. Filtering out the signal from the noise.
      - rhizome 10y ago
        There are two value judgements in there: that there is a such thing as "must have" information that could be provided by such technology, and that a technology's ability to provide that information means it's getting "good."
CMYK5 10y ago
The problem is that these technologies are increasingly necessary to function within normal society. Do we somehow regulate the allowable behaviors of apps? Is it on us to improve our self control so we can act as engaged, but distant participants? There's also the ethical question around people not being aware of their obsessions/addictions (especially in the mobile gaming space)
aquiles 10y ago
I can only laugh. I like when chaos and disaster starts to slowly creep into society. Makes me feel validated.
SandersAK 10y ago
This article could have been called "here's all the thoughts I have after watching anime for the first time"
ryandrake 10y ago
Did this really need a 7000+ word essay? If you don't like Facebook, don't use it. If you're concerned about "distraction overload" then remove things from your life you find distracting. Nobody is putting a gun to your head and forcing you to use smartphone apps and 10 different text messaging systems. If you want to live as a technology-free hermit, go right ahead. But don't try to argue that I should live like you. The author instead seems to be taking his personal opinions about technology and trying to apply them to everyone. It's not enough that he doesn't like these things. We should not like them either and here's why. Time with my kid is invalid because I also have the TV on? GPS leads me to stop remembering things? Emojis are unsuitable replacements for voicemail? The author imagines restaurants where smartphones must be surrendered upon entering. Cool, you've described a place I'll actively avoid. Where's that "stop liking things I don't like" GIF when you need it? "Our enslavement to dopamine?" -- how about YOUR enslavement to dopamine? Leave me out of it.
- maus42 10y ago
  > If you want to live as a technology-free hermit, go right ahead. That's very nice, but if you want to live as a technology-free non-hermit you naturally would try encourage other people to join you. You don't have to read their 7000+ word essays, either, if you have so aggressive reactions to their claims.
  - marmot777 10y ago
    Yeah no kidding. I would regret my decision after about 45 minutes sitting up on cold mountain. Shit, I probably wouldn't get service even if I hadn't given my phone away. What now? People would spot me outside the library in town, resisting the urge to go inside... To return the edible plant id guide and maybe I don't know surf the web just a little.
- te_chris 10y ago
  Or, how about the writer has experienced something very personal which their editor thought would appeal to an audience as wide as that of NYMag? Perhaps, instead of just saying the writer is wrong, you could try and empathise with the position, see if you feel better after some time apart from the internet. Try and understand another perspective. Writing is 1 to many, the author was most certainly not writing just for you. No need to be so incensed.
RUG3Y 10y ago
I spent the weekend working on my Honda, replacing the timing belt, water pump, clutch cylinders. It's been a long time since I've come up for air, so to speak, and spending the entire weekend off the computer was immensely gratifying. I found more satisfaction in fixing my car than I have in anything for a long time. I found myself thinking that perhaps being on the internet constantly has caused me to lose some taste for life. I'm taking a vacation soon, 9 days with no computer will be a much needed reset.
marmot777 10y ago
I see his point and used to read his blog. But could he have been just as effective online while scheduling in a real life? That is, he could have achieved as much or more with some measure of balance. Easier said than done. I'm not saying I have a life but I'm hoping to get one real soon now.
- mcphage 10y ago
  > But could he have been just as effective online while scheduling in a real life? That is, he could have achieved as much or more with some measure of balance. I'd like to believe it's possible, but I think he had to accept the fact that, he didn't know how. Maybe he'll figure it out, now that he has some more free time?
jonstokes 10y ago
The number one thing I've found to be effective in combatting this is sleep. I have to get 8 hours of uninterrupted, unmedicated sleep. 9 hours is even better. And I have to do it for a few nights in a row. If I do anything at all that interferes with the quality of my sleep, I'm screwed, and The Stream will suck me in. Conversely, things that increase the quality of my sleep -- exercise, diet, not using gadgets after a certain hour -- all increase my ability to fight off Stream-induced distraction. So that's my recommendation. YMMV.
- toddsiegel 10y ago
  Yes. Lack of sleep weakens my discipline and makes it easier to get sucked in and it's a vicious cycle after that.
- n72 10y ago
  Absolutely my finding as well. On those days I'm tired I just get sucked in for hours. I guess I should pick up an easy to read novel on those days.
- cortesoft 10y ago
  If only my infant daughter would agree to this plan....
- dohertyjf 10y ago
  Indeed. I also leave my phone in another room and have a separate alarm clock. Really helps with quality sleep!
- remarkEon 10y ago
  I'll second this, but note that I wasn't getting the ~8 hours of truly restful sleep until I rejuvenated my exercise routine. Not to hijack this comment and turn it into a thread from /r/Fitness, but I simply couldn't turn off "the Stream" (a helpful metaphor, thank you) without actually going to bed tired. My knees are shot now, so running isn't an option. But if you're able I highly recommend swimming.
hprotagonist 10y ago
reminds me of the poem "The World is Too Much With Us", by William Wadsworth: >The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;— Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon; The winds that will be howling at all hours, And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers; For this, for everything, we are out of tune; It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.
- fmela 10y ago
  I believe this is William Wordsworth.
  - hprotagonist 10y ago
    Whoops. Edited to correct.
Disruptive_Dave 10y ago
Meditation, meditation, meditation. These devices/games/stimuli are training your brain, so it's up to you to actively combat that with your own training. That's how I view it - you are being programmed one way or another, either by outside forces or by your own doing.
kubernetizen 10y ago
Gossip + Random Rewards = Addiction
morgante 10y ago
To me, this reads like an alcoholic ranting about how everyone should stop drinking. Yes, technology can be addicting. That doesn't mean we're "helpless" or even that it's bad. I'm really sick of these hyperbolic luddites. Personally, it's not at all a problem. I'm not a technophobe—I have an iPhone, use Facebook, etc.—but it's done nothing but positively improve my life. I can keep in touch with friends around the world and work remotely from anywhere, all thanks to the beauty of these "distracting" technologies. However, even though my life is heavily entangled with technology I certainly don't feel "addicted" to it. I have no problem going out into the wilderness for a week and having 0 contact with the world. I certainly don't interrupt conversations to check my phone. If technology is hurting your life, the problem could just as easily be with you as it is with technology.
- kelvin0 10y ago
  I see what you mean, and you are quite possibly right. Please don't take it as an insult, but how do you know this technology is not causing similar issues in your life? We've all seen some people in our lives deny some facet of themselves only to realize they had a problem (after much introspection). I would really like to have your opinion on this.
  - morgante 10y ago
    > Please don't take it as an insult, but how do you know this technology is not causing similar issues in your life? That's something I think a lot about. For me, the evidence that technology is not having that effect on my life: 1. At least once a year, I go on a hike of at least 1 week (without a phone). I'm consistently able to do this without feeling any sort of withdrawal. 2. I try to read a book on my Kindle for an hour every day. [0] 3. Whenever I fly, I never purchase wifi. If I'm able to consistently go 9-12 hours without any internet access, just reading or napping, it hardly seems like I'm addicted. 4. When I'm around other people, focus on them. If I go out to dinner with someone, I sit and talk to them instead of playing on my phone. It honestly boggles my mind that people think it's acceptable to stare at your phone while talking to someone. [0] The fixation on "printed" books really is ludicrous. Reading on the Kindle is no more or less distracting than reading a printed book. It's essentially an offline experience.
n72 10y ago
I'm considering writing a plugin which, much like an ad-blocker, removes click bait links. There would be various black lists one could use. Any feedback on implementation appreciated.
- dredmorbius 10y ago
  My thinking is leaning toward a few concepts: * Quantified content utilisation. I've been looking at measures of just how much content people can engage with in a day, and it's much smaller than you might think. Stephen Wolfram and Walt Mossberg both hit about 150 - 300 emails. The NY Times comment moderation crew tackle about 800 comments each per day. That latter means 36 seconds per comment, assuming an 8-hour day. At some point, your brain simply becomes full. I suspect a much smaller number of detailed items, and a small number (10-30) medium, and perhaps 100 or so trivial items, is about the sane limit. * A quality metric for content, based on some finite, depletable, periodically renewed resource. "Time" might be one such metric (you've only got 86,400 seconds today, but you'll have more tomorrow!). I have a 5-6 point ranking of content, from '0' (actually makes you stupid for having read it) to 5/6 (defines a field, 6 == extends it). Most news articles fall in the 1-2 range, a good news article perhaps 3, a solid technical paper a 3-4. Key is to not assign everything a top-of-the-scale range. * Assignment of reputations to sources based on those ratings. Both authors and publishers. Increasingly, I'm simply adding clickbait sites to my firewall's blocklist. https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/wgtaltzorrurzat3wf-lwa https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/wgtaltzorrurzat3wf-lwa Iwould very much prrefer to have that capacity on my tablet itself (Google and Samsung say I cannot, fuck 'em, fuck 'em hard), or in some brwoser-like tool (really a next-gen browser). https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/ubkidr7yuc7azg9hdnl7lq https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/ubkidr7yuc7azg9hdnl7lq
- cartlonchew 10y ago
  Would be interesting to see whether this would cause a retreat to "honest" titles, or an evolution to something completely different.
turkeysandwich 10y ago
I need to know where this fellow gets his weed. Because based on this article, it must be some dank shit.
agentcooper 10y ago
Shameless plug: I created a Chrome extension which makes me wait 1 minute before proceeding to the one of distracting websites, helps me a lot. Maybe it will help you too: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/better-things-to-do/begggblpkegcnammjagcmplfnpopocla https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/better-things-to-d....
- fudged71 10y ago
  Thank you so much! This is great
n72 10y ago
The best thing I found to combat this is make distraction difficult. To that end, the best two things I did was write an FF plugin to hide FB's news feed and removed the News feed from my iPhone. Now I actually have to type a URL if I want distraction, which becomes something of a deterrent.
mesmerizingsnow 10y ago
What's clicked for me is: https://selfcontrolapp.com/ https://selfcontrolapp.com/ It's an open source project either: https://github.com/SelfControlApp/selfcontrol/ https://github.com/SelfControlApp/selfcontrol/ What I do is, essentially, the following: every day at around 0-1 am (before I go to sleep) I set a timer so that it would fire at 7-8 pm (that's when I would get home). This allows me to force myself from browsing unnecessary sites (facebook, twitter, HN, reddit etc.) that would otherwise distract me from doing meaningful work. As for the other devices, not long ago I would have twitter, facebook, VK, and a few others social media apps on my iPhone. I deleted everything except twitter which I check rarely (<= 10m a day). Deleting the facebook app contributed greatly to my smartphone's battery life either.
- m2qlaeldek 10y ago
  Is it really bad if you aren't doing meaningful work at 8 pm after you get home from work?
int_19h 10y ago
What I would say to this guy is this. Your "virtual" life is also real. The news that you read, happen in real world. The people whom you talk to are real people. There's no "real life" and "non-real life". Everything that happens to you is "real life" by definition. That includes social networks etc. The only thing that matters is whether it is a life that you're comfortable with, or not. And there is certainly a point that many people are not actually comfortable, but forced into comforming. Being uncomfortable about it because it's "not real" is a fallacy, though.
eanzenberg 10y ago
Not my problem you have shit kids.
- abrookewood 10y ago
  Mate, take your attitude somewhere else.
  - eanzenberg 10y ago
    No.
- dang 10y ago
  Personal attacks, which this is, are not allowed on HN. Please post civilly and substantively, or not at all. We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12552687 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12552687 and marked it off-topic.
thr0waway1239 10y ago
One suggestion for people who ask if there is a better way than cutting yourself off from social networks: Try to practice "memory walk meditation" - I made up the word to combine two things I have learnt about, essentially to combat distraction. (And I have been generally successful - but I also don't need it a whole lot) Next time you read a book, or just anything you feel would be good to remember - take the key points and associate them with objects in the room that you spend the most time in, or where you usually sit/stand when you interact on the social network. If you are completely unfamiliar with the field of memory training, I recommend picking up some old copy of any book written by Harry Lorayne to learn how people usually commit things to memory when doing memory training. (For example, creating outrageous and vivid images is key to retrieval. Learning the major system will help memorize arbitrary numbers) The actual memory walk meditation consists of traversing those objects first physically, then eventually mentally in a certain order - as you approach the object, use the image to retrieve the concept/idea associated with it. Hopefully you can identify at least 10 or so objects in your room. After a while, it becomes a bit (too) easy. Read another book, do it for something else you wish to learn. The point is, it is easier to move away from a bad habit like too much FB by building something else that you look forward to than using denial. A very nice advantage of this technique is that you can decide, for example, that you will at least go around the room (mentally) once before logging in to the social network, and increase it to two, three etc. So you can slowly build up your resistance, so to speak. A second advantage is that since the objects are usually right in front of your eyes, it gives you triggers all over the environment to help you build the habit.
philippeback 10y ago
I swim. Often. No phone. No internet for 2 solid hours. After that my mind is clear. And I do not want to reach for a smartphone. One great feature on this phone is the ultra energy saving feature. Basically turning it into a black and white display reminiscent of a Nokia 3310. Notifications are turned down for everything. My life is better. Walking the dog and looking at the scenery is feeling good. I like to have my life back from the social internet blackhole.

344 points by oscarwao 10y ago

I fixed my brain by cancelling my internet services. All I had was 1gb of cellphone data. Never been happier. Right now I am back with an internet subscription and I'm miserable. I am an internet addict and having internet at home is very bad for me. I strongly consider cancelling my internet suscription again.

ashark 10y ago
I've had good success putting my laptop away and only using an inconveniently-located desktop when I want to do Computer Stuff. I can still go spend a lot of time on it (sometimes you need to, sometimes you actually want to), but it's a conscious choice to go do that. I can't just carry the cancer that is the Internet around the house with me, flip the lid open "just to check something" and surface two hours later having accomplished nothing.
wott 10y ago
I have no smartphone, I don't use mobile Internet. Fixed Internet is enough of a problem for me. What I would love is to go back to dial-up times. I mean, paying by the minute/hour, or a limited plan + by the minute/hour after the limit, or a fixed limit in hours or Go per month. Something like this. That would help me a lot. People might tell me to implement it on my side, but I know it is not going to work for me: there's no way I pay full price to have a 24/24 connection and then limit myself. And as operators are not going to propose such schemes that would lower their income, I am screwed. Only satellite operators still have such systems. ---- I had an ADSL failure that lasted 8 days a few months ago. The first 2 or 3 days were tough (launching compulsorily the web or mail browser, wondering how the hell I am doing to do X or Y, having to remember that there is no point in doing X and to remember the 'old' way of doing Y), but then it was a relief. A breath of fresh air. We (the family) began to talk to each other. We even did things together! Then the ADSL was fixed and the Internet addicted behaviours started again, same as before..

tim333 10y ago

I rather like the internet connected version of living.

bernardino 10y ago
How so?
- tim333 10y ago
  Well at the everyday level you can keep in touch with your friends, catch Pokemon, access the world's information and the like. More speculatively you have the points made by Louis C.K in the article, that "Underneath in your life there’s that thing … that forever empty … that knowledge that it’s all for nothing and you’re alone …" "you just feel … kinda satisfied with your products. And then you die." As an engineering type I think a lot of that can be fixed by technology, that as computers equal and pass human brain capacities a lot of cool stuff will be possible maybe including fixing the alone and dying stuff and it's interesting to see things progress.

hitekker 10y ago

"I used to be a human being": I like this phrase. It captures, poetically, the existential despair of losing the conditions of humanity. Regardless of if the author's particular conditions necessitates the implicit drama, each of one us, I'm sure, have felt like we lost what made us "real" or "authentic" at some point or another.

pmoriarty 10y ago
People have complained about the loss of authenticity for much longer than the internet (much less social media) has been around. It happens around any time of great change. We happen to be living through a period of some of the fastest changes in human history, so it's not surprising a lot of people are confused and feel like they've lost something.
- marmot777 10y ago
  What have we lost? I don't doubt we have lost something, I just don't know what it is.
  - stnmtn 10y ago
    What have we lost? In my opinion, a big part of it is the illusion that people are more than just people With the internet, we've been able to confirm that everyone is, more or less, just like us. You can see this especially in up and coming new media stars. They use self deprecation as a crutch and irony is really funny. The internet released a hall of mirrors on society and now the illusion of authenticity is broken Why is that that 'Hipsters' reach out for things that they hope are real? Facial hair is real. Single-Speed Bikes are real. I'm talking about a stereotype here, obviously, but I think that a hipster is something who reaches for external authenticity I hope I don't sound like a cynical person, because I really don't think I am. I don't think this is a terrible thing, but it certainly makes navigating people much harder because the illusion of becoming one of 'The Greats' with a Capital G is something that doesn't seem very possible anymore
    - 10y ago

FuNe 10y ago

> The interruptions often feel pleasant, of course, because they are usually the work of your friends. Distractions arrive in your brain connected to people you know (or think you know), which is the genius of social, peer-to-peer media. Silly as it will sound I'd never thought of it that way. Cunning , brilliant and cunning again.

danblick 10y ago
A related thought: for any app, there's a question ~ "How do I get the user to open the app regularly? How do I turn checking the app into a habit?" Messaging apps have a nice solution to this: they allow your friends to summon you to the app by sending you a message.
- sdegutis 10y ago
  From a business point of view, that's an important goal. The more a user depends on your product, the more you stay in business. And the goal of a business is to survive indefinitely. But from a human perspective, I'd argue it's completely unethical. As a business, your goal isn't merely to encourage potential customers to choose your brand over another. It's also to get them to buy it even if they don't want it. And it's to get them hooked so they come back and buy more. Now, what if your product is vodka? Your job suddenly became to make as many high-functioning alcoholics out of customers as possible (high-functioning so that they can continue to buy). This may be a stretch from a mobile game or social media platform, but not much. They both have negative effects with real impacts on the health and happiness and sometimes even safety of the consumers.

jkot 10y ago

> I couldn’t check my email or refresh my Instagram > ... trying to describe what I was feeling. The two words “extreme suffering” won the naming contest in my head...

mcphage 10y ago
The "extreme suffering" was in relation to his emotional crisis, not because he was unable to use his phone.
- oldmanjay 10y ago
  Hyperbole makes a point weaker, not stronger.
  - crawfordcomeaux 10y ago
    And judging someone's self-described suffering as hyperbole misses the point altogether.
retbull 10y ago
Wow you took that out of context.

resetting 10y ago

I'd be interested to hear everyone's strategies to combat this, as I assume many of us that work in the industry encounter similar problems of distraction and inundation. First, I don't use any devices directly after waking up. I meditate for about 20 minutes upon waking and then try to read fiction for 40 minutes. So, all in, somewhere around an hour of no device distractions before starting my day. Slack is one of the biggest interrupting factors while coding these days, more so than IRC ever was for me, so I try to have chunks of time during the day with it closed. This is something I've struggled with recently as co-workers always expect to be able to get in touch, but often I really need 30-60 minutes of uninterrupted focus for real tasks. For personal things, I deleted Facebook and feel quite a bit better. I still scroll Instagram too much. I deleted the Twitter app from my phone and will only check it from time to time on the web. I try to turn on Do Not Disturb mode in the evenings, but it's hard when you have systems that potentially could go down and things could get escalated to you. On top of that I try to take psychedelics a few times per year, not in any type of party settings, but with people that are close to me. Screens tend to turn up this feeling of disgust when I look at them in that state, so I automatically disengage with them. I find that for at least a short while after the trip my usage of distracting Internet things goes down a lot as well. Interested to hear other strategies!

overcast 10y ago
I've done the same. Facebook was closed last year, Reddit this year, Twitter never really used, but deleted the app. I've added comment blockers in all of my browsers to get rid of all of the negativity on websites, especially YouTube. I don't use any other social apps besides the occasional Instagram for business purposes. My phone goes into Do Not Disturb about an hour before bed, and I place it face down on the nightstand. I read daily before bed to wind down. I've considered revisiting psychedelics, but it's been a long time since college! I exercise daily, mostly high intensity aerobic, pushups, pullups, situps, indoor rowing, or hiking. The phone stuff is really getting out of control, and I'm not sure what the solution is for less disciplined people. Dating sucks, going out socially sucks, going to concerts sucks, all because of the pervasiveness of the modern phone.
- 10y ago

simonbarker87 10y ago

I read somewhere recently that smart phones have essentially become random gratification engines in the same way as slot machines. Sometimes on a slot machine you win the jackpot, because of this every pull gives you an endorphin kick, each time we pick up our phones or get a notification it might be an important/interesting thing, therefore we get a little endorphin kick that keeps us checking. Because of this I turn off all notifications apart from phone calls and text messages. I don't have app badge counters or notifications for email either, if it is that important the person would ring me.

hammock 10y ago
Look up "Skinner box." Basically codified the psychology behind a slot machine. A mouse hits a single lever that either releases or doesn't release food. When the lever is set to Always release food, the mouse soon gets bored and only eats when he's hungry. When the lever is set to Randomly release food, the mouse gets addicted, compulsively hitting the lever all day without concern for how fat he is getting.
- achileas 10y ago
  To expand on this a bit, BF Skinner founded the behaviorist area of psychology (which is important in later fields like neuroscience for training animals on various experiments), he specifically investigated operant behavior (behavior where the organism does something to its environment) and various schedules of reinforcement. The schedule you're thinking of is one of the strongest schedules for inducing behavior, and that's the variable ratio schedule, where reinforcement occurs after a variable number of responses from the organism. Skinner was actually one of the first to try and bring more rigor to psychology.
  - marmot777 10y ago
    Being aware we're in a skinner box enables us at least the option of transcending it. It's on my "to do" list.
- qb45 10y ago

nxzero 10y ago

Just wait until machine learning gets really good at providing information that's of value that you "must have" to get through the day.

Retr0spectrum 10y ago
This service does a rather good job of summarising individual articles: http://smmry.com/ http://smmry.com/
- mcguire 10y ago
  I'm not sure nxzero (and I) think that is a good thing.
  - Retr0spectrum 10y ago
    I got the impression that nxzero thought it was a good thing. Filtering out the signal from the noise.
    - rhizome 10y ago
      There are two value judgements in there: that there is a such thing as "must have" information that could be provided by such technology, and that a technology's ability to provide that information means it's getting "good."

CMYK5 10y ago

The problem is that these technologies are increasingly necessary to function within normal society. Do we somehow regulate the allowable behaviors of apps? Is it on us to improve our self control so we can act as engaged, but distant participants? There's also the ethical question around people not being aware of their obsessions/addictions (especially in the mobile gaming space)

aquiles 10y ago

I can only laugh. I like when chaos and disaster starts to slowly creep into society. Makes me feel validated.

SandersAK 10y ago

This article could have been called "here's all the thoughts I have after watching anime for the first time"

ryandrake 10y ago

Did this really need a 7000+ word essay? If you don't like Facebook, don't use it. If you're concerned about "distraction overload" then remove things from your life you find distracting. Nobody is putting a gun to your head and forcing you to use smartphone apps and 10 different text messaging systems. If you want to live as a technology-free hermit, go right ahead. But don't try to argue that I should live like you. The author instead seems to be taking his personal opinions about technology and trying to apply them to everyone. It's not enough that he doesn't like these things. We should not like them either and here's why. Time with my kid is invalid because I also have the TV on? GPS leads me to stop remembering things? Emojis are unsuitable replacements for voicemail? The author imagines restaurants where smartphones must be surrendered upon entering. Cool, you've described a place I'll actively avoid. Where's that "stop liking things I don't like" GIF when you need it? "Our enslavement to dopamine?" -- how about YOUR enslavement to dopamine? Leave me out of it.

maus42 10y ago
> If you want to live as a technology-free hermit, go right ahead. That's very nice, but if you want to live as a technology-free non-hermit you naturally would try encourage other people to join you. You don't have to read their 7000+ word essays, either, if you have so aggressive reactions to their claims.
- marmot777 10y ago
  Yeah no kidding. I would regret my decision after about 45 minutes sitting up on cold mountain. Shit, I probably wouldn't get service even if I hadn't given my phone away. What now? People would spot me outside the library in town, resisting the urge to go inside... To return the edible plant id guide and maybe I don't know surf the web just a little.
te_chris 10y ago
Or, how about the writer has experienced something very personal which their editor thought would appeal to an audience as wide as that of NYMag? Perhaps, instead of just saying the writer is wrong, you could try and empathise with the position, see if you feel better after some time apart from the internet. Try and understand another perspective. Writing is 1 to many, the author was most certainly not writing just for you. No need to be so incensed.

RUG3Y 10y ago

I spent the weekend working on my Honda, replacing the timing belt, water pump, clutch cylinders. It's been a long time since I've come up for air, so to speak, and spending the entire weekend off the computer was immensely gratifying. I found more satisfaction in fixing my car than I have in anything for a long time. I found myself thinking that perhaps being on the internet constantly has caused me to lose some taste for life. I'm taking a vacation soon, 9 days with no computer will be a much needed reset.

marmot777 10y ago

I see his point and used to read his blog. But could he have been just as effective online while scheduling in a real life? That is, he could have achieved as much or more with some measure of balance. Easier said than done. I'm not saying I have a life but I'm hoping to get one real soon now.

mcphage 10y ago
> But could he have been just as effective online while scheduling in a real life? That is, he could have achieved as much or more with some measure of balance. I'd like to believe it's possible, but I think he had to accept the fact that, he didn't know how. Maybe he'll figure it out, now that he has some more free time?

jonstokes 10y ago

The number one thing I've found to be effective in combatting this is sleep. I have to get 8 hours of uninterrupted, unmedicated sleep. 9 hours is even better. And I have to do it for a few nights in a row. If I do anything at all that interferes with the quality of my sleep, I'm screwed, and The Stream will suck me in. Conversely, things that increase the quality of my sleep -- exercise, diet, not using gadgets after a certain hour -- all increase my ability to fight off Stream-induced distraction. So that's my recommendation. YMMV.

toddsiegel 10y ago
Yes. Lack of sleep weakens my discipline and makes it easier to get sucked in and it's a vicious cycle after that.
n72 10y ago
Absolutely my finding as well. On those days I'm tired I just get sucked in for hours. I guess I should pick up an easy to read novel on those days.
cortesoft 10y ago
If only my infant daughter would agree to this plan....
dohertyjf 10y ago
Indeed. I also leave my phone in another room and have a separate alarm clock. Really helps with quality sleep!
remarkEon 10y ago
I'll second this, but note that I wasn't getting the ~8 hours of truly restful sleep until I rejuvenated my exercise routine. Not to hijack this comment and turn it into a thread from /r/Fitness, but I simply couldn't turn off "the Stream" (a helpful metaphor, thank you) without actually going to bed tired. My knees are shot now, so running isn't an option. But if you're able I highly recommend swimming.

hprotagonist 10y ago

reminds me of the poem "The World is Too Much With Us", by William Wadsworth: >The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;— Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon; The winds that will be howling at all hours, And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers; For this, for everything, we are out of tune; It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

fmela 10y ago
I believe this is William Wordsworth.
- hprotagonist 10y ago
  Whoops. Edited to correct.

Disruptive_Dave 10y ago

Meditation, meditation, meditation. These devices/games/stimuli are training your brain, so it's up to you to actively combat that with your own training. That's how I view it - you are being programmed one way or another, either by outside forces or by your own doing.

kubernetizen 10y ago

Gossip + Random Rewards = Addiction

morgante 10y ago

To me, this reads like an alcoholic ranting about how everyone should stop drinking. Yes, technology can be addicting. That doesn't mean we're "helpless" or even that it's bad. I'm really sick of these hyperbolic luddites. Personally, it's not at all a problem. I'm not a technophobe—I have an iPhone, use Facebook, etc.—but it's done nothing but positively improve my life. I can keep in touch with friends around the world and work remotely from anywhere, all thanks to the beauty of these "distracting" technologies. However, even though my life is heavily entangled with technology I certainly don't feel "addicted" to it. I have no problem going out into the wilderness for a week and having 0 contact with the world. I certainly don't interrupt conversations to check my phone. If technology is hurting your life, the problem could just as easily be with you as it is with technology.

kelvin0 10y ago
I see what you mean, and you are quite possibly right. Please don't take it as an insult, but how do you know this technology is not causing similar issues in your life? We've all seen some people in our lives deny some facet of themselves only to realize they had a problem (after much introspection). I would really like to have your opinion on this.
- morgante 10y ago
  > Please don't take it as an insult, but how do you know this technology is not causing similar issues in your life? That's something I think a lot about. For me, the evidence that technology is not having that effect on my life: 1. At least once a year, I go on a hike of at least 1 week (without a phone). I'm consistently able to do this without feeling any sort of withdrawal. 2. I try to read a book on my Kindle for an hour every day. [0] 3. Whenever I fly, I never purchase wifi. If I'm able to consistently go 9-12 hours without any internet access, just reading or napping, it hardly seems like I'm addicted. 4. When I'm around other people, focus on them. If I go out to dinner with someone, I sit and talk to them instead of playing on my phone. It honestly boggles my mind that people think it's acceptable to stare at your phone while talking to someone. [0] The fixation on "printed" books really is ludicrous. Reading on the Kindle is no more or less distracting than reading a printed book. It's essentially an offline experience.

n72 10y ago

I'm considering writing a plugin which, much like an ad-blocker, removes click bait links. There would be various black lists one could use. Any feedback on implementation appreciated.

dredmorbius 10y ago
My thinking is leaning toward a few concepts: * Quantified content utilisation. I've been looking at measures of just how much content people can engage with in a day, and it's much smaller than you might think. Stephen Wolfram and Walt Mossberg both hit about 150 - 300 emails. The NY Times comment moderation crew tackle about 800 comments each per day. That latter means 36 seconds per comment, assuming an 8-hour day. At some point, your brain simply becomes full. I suspect a much smaller number of detailed items, and a small number (10-30) medium, and perhaps 100 or so trivial items, is about the sane limit. * A quality metric for content, based on some finite, depletable, periodically renewed resource. "Time" might be one such metric (you've only got 86,400 seconds today, but you'll have more tomorrow!). I have a 5-6 point ranking of content, from '0' (actually makes you stupid for having read it) to 5/6 (defines a field, 6 == extends it). Most news articles fall in the 1-2 range, a good news article perhaps 3, a solid technical paper a 3-4. Key is to not assign everything a top-of-the-scale range. * Assignment of reputations to sources based on those ratings. Both authors and publishers. Increasingly, I'm simply adding clickbait sites to my firewall's blocklist. https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/wgtaltzorrurzat3wf-lwa https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/wgtaltzorrurzat3wf-lwa Iwould very much prrefer to have that capacity on my tablet itself (Google and Samsung say I cannot, fuck 'em, fuck 'em hard), or in some brwoser-like tool (really a next-gen browser). https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/ubkidr7yuc7azg9hdnl7lq https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/ubkidr7yuc7azg9hdnl7lq
cartlonchew 10y ago
Would be interesting to see whether this would cause a retreat to "honest" titles, or an evolution to something completely different.

turkeysandwich 10y ago

I need to know where this fellow gets his weed. Because based on this article, it must be some dank shit.

agentcooper 10y ago

Shameless plug: I created a Chrome extension which makes me wait 1 minute before proceeding to the one of distracting websites, helps me a lot. Maybe it will help you too: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/better-things-to-do/begggblpkegcnammjagcmplfnpopocla https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/better-things-to-d....

fudged71 10y ago
Thank you so much! This is great

n72 10y ago

The best thing I found to combat this is make distraction difficult. To that end, the best two things I did was write an FF plugin to hide FB's news feed and removed the News feed from my iPhone. Now I actually have to type a URL if I want distraction, which becomes something of a deterrent.

mesmerizingsnow 10y ago

What's clicked for me is: https://selfcontrolapp.com/ https://selfcontrolapp.com/ It's an open source project either: https://github.com/SelfControlApp/selfcontrol/ https://github.com/SelfControlApp/selfcontrol/ What I do is, essentially, the following: every day at around 0-1 am (before I go to sleep) I set a timer so that it would fire at 7-8 pm (that's when I would get home). This allows me to force myself from browsing unnecessary sites (facebook, twitter, HN, reddit etc.) that would otherwise distract me from doing meaningful work. As for the other devices, not long ago I would have twitter, facebook, VK, and a few others social media apps on my iPhone. I deleted everything except twitter which I check rarely (<= 10m a day). Deleting the facebook app contributed greatly to my smartphone's battery life either.

m2qlaeldek 10y ago
Is it really bad if you aren't doing meaningful work at 8 pm after you get home from work?

int_19h 10y ago

What I would say to this guy is this. Your "virtual" life is also real. The news that you read, happen in real world. The people whom you talk to are real people. There's no "real life" and "non-real life". Everything that happens to you is "real life" by definition. That includes social networks etc. The only thing that matters is whether it is a life that you're comfortable with, or not. And there is certainly a point that many people are not actually comfortable, but forced into comforming. Being uncomfortable about it because it's "not real" is a fallacy, though.

eanzenberg 10y ago

Not my problem you have shit kids.

abrookewood 10y ago
Mate, take your attitude somewhere else.
- eanzenberg 10y ago
  No.
dang 10y ago
Personal attacks, which this is, are not allowed on HN. Please post civilly and substantively, or not at all. We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12552687 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12552687 and marked it off-topic.

thr0waway1239 10y ago

One suggestion for people who ask if there is a better way than cutting yourself off from social networks: Try to practice "memory walk meditation" - I made up the word to combine two things I have learnt about, essentially to combat distraction. (And I have been generally successful - but I also don't need it a whole lot) Next time you read a book, or just anything you feel would be good to remember - take the key points and associate them with objects in the room that you spend the most time in, or where you usually sit/stand when you interact on the social network. If you are completely unfamiliar with the field of memory training, I recommend picking up some old copy of any book written by Harry Lorayne to learn how people usually commit things to memory when doing memory training. (For example, creating outrageous and vivid images is key to retrieval. Learning the major system will help memorize arbitrary numbers) The actual memory walk meditation consists of traversing those objects first physically, then eventually mentally in a certain order - as you approach the object, use the image to retrieve the concept/idea associated with it. Hopefully you can identify at least 10 or so objects in your room. After a while, it becomes a bit (too) easy. Read another book, do it for something else you wish to learn. The point is, it is easier to move away from a bad habit like too much FB by building something else that you look forward to than using denial. A very nice advantage of this technique is that you can decide, for example, that you will at least go around the room (mentally) once before logging in to the social network, and increase it to two, three etc. So you can slowly build up your resistance, so to speak. A second advantage is that since the objects are usually right in front of your eyes, it gives you triggers all over the environment to help you build the habit.

philippeback 10y ago

I swim. Often. No phone. No internet for 2 solid hours. After that my mind is clear. And I do not want to reach for a smartphone. One great feature on this phone is the ultra energy saving feature. Basically turning it into a black and white display reminiscent of a Nokia 3310. Notifications are turned down for everything. My life is better. Walking the dog and looking at the scenery is feeling good. I like to have my life back from the social internet blackhole.