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I found this hard truth by myself. I noticed how my attention spans were decreasing. I've always been a really distracted person, but social media made it worst
by santiagobasulto 10y ago
I found this hard truth by myself. I noticed how my attention spans were decreasing. I've always been a really distracted person, but social media made it worst.
I ended up adding Facebook, Twitter,9gag, Reddit and other sites to my /etc/hosts (0.0.0.0). Was the only way to fix it.
While I work I leave my phone at a distant table, with notifications turned down. The only thing that I get are phone calls.
I remember Simon Sinek saying something like: "if there's a person that the first thing he does when he wakes up in the morning is drinking a glass of whiskey, you'd say he's an alcoholic". What does that make you if the first thing you do when you wake up is checking Facebook?
- thenomad 10y agoI'm not a big fan of social media, but the argument here seems specious. Here's another way to put it - "If the first thing a person does when they get up is eat, you'd say they're a glutton". True? (Or indeed "if the first thing a person does when they get up is go to the toilet, you'd say they're incontinent.")
- sixstringtheory 10y agoThe "first thing in the morning" idea is pulled from the CAGE assessment for addiction, as the "E" which stands for "eye-opener", the others being "cut down", "annoyance" and "guilt" https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/johns_hopkins_healthcare/downloads/cage%20substance%20screening%20tool.pdf https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/johns_hopkins_healthcare/dow... You're right that this one thing alone doesn't spell addiction, but if someone talked about how they should use the bathroom less, felt bad about how many times a day they went, and annoyed everyone by the bathroom constantly being occupied and the person being absent/late due to their use, in addition to using it first thing in the morning, then... maybe they're addicted to social media and using the bathroom as a way to get their fix ;)
- thenomad 10y agoHeh, well put!
- johan_larson 10y agoThanks for sharing that link. The test seems to be setting the bar pretty darn low, however. It's enough that you think you should be doing less of something, and others have criticized you about it to the point of annoying you. That includes things I would put in the category of bad habits rather than clinically actionable disorders.
- santiagobasulto 10y agoIs "eating" the first thing you do in the morning? Would it be ok to leave a sandwich in the table next to the bed to take a bite as soon as you wake up? Of course this is a matter of opinion. I don't want to get too picky about the details. I used to wake up and check Facebook right away, and I considered it not to be really healthy. But again, just my preference.
- ethbro 10y ago> What does that make you if the first thing you do when you wake up is checking Facebook? Under 30?
- teach 10y agoMore like 25-35. I'm a high school teacher and most of my current crop of students spend virtually no time on Facebook. Twitter and Snapchat, on the other hand....
- santiagobasulto 10y agoIs twitter still heavily used by teenagers? I didn't know that, thanks for the tip. I did know Snapchat was standard. And also Instagram, right? (I feel old)
- majewsky 10y agoI'm also feeling at old (at 27), but I would guess that they use Twitter to follow their celebrities, while using Snapchat and Instagram to connect to each other.
- xexers 10y ago> to my /etc/hosts (0.0.0.0). Was the only way to fix it. I like that fix! I tried to limit myself awhile ago by getting a chrome plugin to limit my access to only lunchtime... but I would simply get around it by opening firefox instead :(