6 ms·
It's not just news. I cut out mainstream media several years ago, and noted a definite improvement in my psychological well-being. As of the end of last year,
by donw 9y ago
It's not just news. I cut out mainstream media several years ago, and noted a definite improvement in my psychological well-being.
As of the end of last year, I stopped engaging in mainstream social media. So much better.
I still keep a Facebook account for Messenger and Events, but don't post, read timelines, or participate.
Not only do I have more time to read books and learn new things -- made pita bread from scratch for the first time this week -- but I am in general, notably happier and more focused.
I suspect that information hygiene is going to be one of the great underrated skills of the digital age.
Hacker News is an exception that I indulge in maybe once a week or two -- today's the day! -- as most of what ends up on here is worthwhile, and the moderation team has done an excellent job of keeping the signal-to-noise ratio high.
Quora also tends to be good, between Be Nice Be Respectful (BNBR), and the Real Name policy, although they recently went downhill by interleaving the standard cesspool that is mainstream news in the Quora feed.
Reddit... there are a few gold nuggets (/r/writingprompts), but overall it's just a crapfest.
- nealdt 9y agoI like your term 'information hygiene'. Very relevant to staying focussed.
- darepublic 9y agoI feel like the signal to noise ratio has suffered in recent weeks because of the mainstream media attack on tech companies
- FLUX-YOU 9y agoWe've been in breaking news hell ever since Trump was elected and because eleventy billion scandals are being found.
- ryandrake 9y agoHate to point it out but the 24 hour news cycle and hell of continuous breaking news predates the Trump presidency by several decades. I recall being disgusted by it during the late nineties when cable news started being a big thing, but it probably started even before that.
- iambateman 9y agoYeah. continuous breaking news made Trump, not the other way around. He is the physical manifestation of "what if someone indulged the news-appetite of a whole population every day."
- sjapkee 9y ago>maybe once a week or two -- today's the day! What a coincidence.
- godelmachine 9y agoAgree with your Quora opinion. Adding newsfeeds makes it looks just like another newspaper website.
- Taylor_OD 9y agoI'm in a similar boat. I felt very over whelmed and addicted to social media and news in general in college. I've got rid of all my social media other than twitter and linkedin which I use for work. Facebook I only use for messenger. I check reddit once or twice a day but rarely do I scroll past the first page. My overall mental health is much better. I feel a little bit of sadness when I see friends who HAVE to check their phones (social media) after being without it for a hour. It's great in moderation but I think most people get too sucked in.
- kuerbel 9y agoIt's hard to get rid of it though. I suffer from this, when I get up the first thing I do is open reddit. I am actually thinking about blocking the entire site in the host file, on pc as well as android...
- tvanantwerp 9y agoI used to charge my phone overnight on my bedside table. Recently I moved it into another room so I'm not tempted to use it first-thing in the morning.
- Jemmeh 9y agoYou could use Stayfocusd to limit the hours during which you have access to it?
- ForRealsies 9y agoProtip: change your phone's display to 'Monochrome'. Colorful images trick our fruit-loving monkey brains. Make your phone visually boring.
- CogitoCogito 9y agoHearing so many people complain about the time they spend on facebook has gotten me thinking of how I spend my own time on the internet. I don't really sit on facebook or any other common social media sites to any significant degree and many friends think I'm almost a luddite. But simultaneously I feel like I'm waaaaaaay too distracted by information online. But for me it's no different than it was 20 years ago. There are a million forums out there with super interesting information. In fact over the years I've only become more specialized in my information consumption in ways that are _almost_ good. I.e. I tend to keep up on different technical news and read into technology in general pretty deeply and this has had positive effects on my career. And so it's sometimes good because I get some good knowledge, but at the same time if I'm reading about how to implement stuff in FPGAs to avoid doing my taxes I'm definitely not making much sense in the long run. I'm trying to get myself more organized and to instead focus on slightly longer projects with determined goals, but I really have a hard time breaking my habits of information ingestion. In many ways the internet has helped me grow intellectually so much, but simultaneously I feel like I lose any sense of present and physical presense. And it's just so hard for me to focus and do the mundane things that I find uninteresting. I think I'll post this and then close out HN for a bit. Traveling for the weekend so maybe I can sucessfully limit myself to only actually necessary internet usage and avoid any consumption of unimportant crap. We'll just have to see...
- debt 9y ago"...but don't post..." This is the key. If you start posting it becomes a waiting game for the conversation to begin. I feel the need to monitor and wait for responses. It's fun but obviously mentally taxing. An online conversation keeps me constantly engaged but distracts me heavily from other things. It's extremely hard for me to not want to openly opine and share on the various social networks about subjects I care about.
- AJRF 9y agoDo you listen to music? I get that stopping watching movies and TV would improve your mood, but I love how music makes me feel and I think (though haven’t tested) that if I stopped listening to music id be a little less jolly.
- ropable 9y ago/r/writingprompts is my new favourite way to waste time on the Internet.