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Ehh, I don't like current state of the Internet In last months I've started wondering why do I even pay my internet bills 60% of the reason I still do it is t

Ehh, I don't like current state of the Internet In last months I've started wondering why do I even pay my internet bills 60% of the reason I still do it is that I need internet for my job the rest is HN, two or three subreddits, music and some video games, wiki/google/maps and the fact that I still need to learn a lot in order to advance in career. It's insanely hard to avoid that main stream media content (celebrities, dramas, dramas, dramas and $bad_stuff/propaganda) that affects the mood, even when I don't use "normal" social medias.

MisterTea 5y ago
Internet is just a big IP network. I use it to talk to certain servers like email, my vps, or my personal home server. The other servers I talk to I dont own so I spend as little time sending them requests as possible. If you stop sending strange servers requests for unwanted data you'll feel much better :-)
- haswell 5y ago
  What you’re saying absolutely makes sense. The difficult part is that it requires intentional habit changes and quite honestly, a grieving process at the same time. As someone who grew up while the Internet was just getting off the ground (mid 30s), I remember the absolute joy of exploring the net, and for the most part, it could feed me as much interesting content as I could stand. I felt this reverence for it, like I did for great libraries. It’s not really possible to use the Internet that way any more, and that sucks. Yes, it’s still a gigantic library, but the ability to explore unbounded is no more, at least if you want to avoid the problematic parts. And this is where the grieving part comes in. Your advice to use the net more carefully/intentionally is good, but is also a stark contrast to the way things were. It makes me sad.
  - gabereiser 5y ago
    Ahh the good old days of web rings and IRC chatrooms and such. Now it's a bazaar of monopolies, disinformation, vanity, and photo-sharing. The issue is we no longer rely on some server in some guys basement. A BBS out of a college dorm closet. Or a network of like-minded individuals for the sake of learning off each other. Everything is owned by a select few companies that add tracking cookies to advertise to you. It's become a giant mall for the minds of the world.
  - LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago
    It's called https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavioral_therapy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavioral_therapy
    - haswell 5y ago
      How do you believe CBT applies here? As a person-in-therapy for upwards of 4 years now, I'm not seeing the connection.
      - LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago
        I referred to 'What you’re saying absolutely makes sense. The difficult part is that it requires intentional habit changes and quite honestly, a grieving process at the same time.' While I have no personal experience with CBT, I'd guess some form of that is needed, if you don't manage to change that behaviour on your own. As in learning to let go of what is stopping your 'flow'. Or simply overcoming bad habits. edit: While I don't know your personal situtation, and don't want to be rude, or 'diss' you in any way, 4 years seems harsh. I would long have quit that, because it would seem ineffective to me. Like talking to a wall, parking meter, or something like that. Maybe change therapist?
        haswell 5y ago
        While CBT is certainly related to changing habits and behaviors, and while it's conceivable that Internet use by some individuals might become so problematic that a therapist needs to get involved, CBT is not necessary to be intentional about things. My general point was: the Internet has changed, so if you're still using your old habits, you'll probably need to change those. If a person finds they cannot muster the will to do so, perhaps then they should see a therapist and consider CBT, but this also doesn't need to be that complicated. Sometimes awareness is all that is required. > While I don't know your personal situtation, and don't want to be rude, or 'diss' you in any way, 4 years seems harsh. I would long have quit that, because it would seem ineffective to me. Like talking to a wall, parking meter, or something like that. Maybe change therapist? I've seen a few therapists during that time, and each has been really instrumental in my progress. I'll probably be seeing someone for the majority of my adult life. I've spoken about this openly in other threads, so feel free to dive deeper into my comment history if you are curious, but I'm working through deep seeded issues stemming from complex trauma that spanned the entirety of my childhood. One does not unravel decades of trauma in a year, or four years, for that matter, and I'm eternally grateful for the trauma-aware therapist I'm working with now - someone who I will probably continue seeing for many years to come. I'm a very different person than I was four years again, or even a year ago. These things take time. Please take this in the sprit it is intended, but I would recommend not handing out recommendations related to mental health without understanding the situation. I'm concerned at where this thread started (mis-application of CBT) and is ending. Again, please don't take this the wrong way, but I'd be careful not to derail others who may be earlier in their journeys, not yet sure how to navigate all of this.
- WaitWaitWha 5y ago
  Love to, except as OP stated it is often hard to do so. There are government and business sites that will refuse to load or function unless I permit third party stuff, including the unwanted ones.
- LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago
  It's called https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavioral_therapy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavioral_therapy
jkereako 5y ago
Agreed. It is difficult to wade through the advertisements, biased news, vanity and negativity. It’s just not worth the effort and time. HN is the only bright corner of the internet that hasn’t changed.
- deleted 5y ago
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- deleted 5y ago
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- padastra 5y ago
  I don’t know, maybe this is just nostalgia, but HN used to be a “oh cool, you managed to do this / build this / achieve this” and “look at what they’re doing that’s interesting” — and now it’s become much much more like reddit where it’s “you / they were only able to do this because of X, and my life is miserable because of A, B, and C factors outside of my control, society sucks, I’m sure I would have had a better life as a hunter-gatherer[1].” [1] Not even joking, this is an actual reply.
  - cloudfifty 5y ago
    > I’m sure I would have had a better life as a hunter-gatherer[1]. [1] Not even joking, this is an actual reply. No, you just seem to be unwilling accept that reply that argued that we worked less than today - which is true. So your suggestion that the "natural state of nature" is struggle and hardship fell flat.
    - padastra 5y ago
      Yes, you’re right. I’m sure the archeologists have very high confidence about how life 30k was years ago, when disability, a dry summer or a shitty winter, childbirth gone anything other than perfectly well, or a bad encounter with a predator meant death, was so much easier than your tech job making $300k to move your fingers a little bit. Any survivalist will tell you how much of their downtime is around tool prep, shelter setup, clothing repair, etc. etc. Some future archeologist might conclude tech people only work an hour or so a day because that’s all the time spent actually typing code, but that’s not to say your work hours were truly limited to that time period. It’s true that the weeks spend huddled in a cave, when it’s snowing outside, without a good source of food and water, and absolutely nothing you can do about it, counts as “not working” but it’s not clear that means leisurely frolicking and fucking.
helen___keller 5y ago
> It's insanely hard to avoid that main stream media content (celebrities, dramas, dramas, dramas and $bad_stuff/propaganda) that affects the mood, even when I don't use "normal" social medias. an annoying trend is that, over time, almost every webpage or program controlled by corporate interests will come to include a "feed" that tries to lure you back into the modern news/outrage cycle e.g. opening a tab in microsoft edge, clicking the weather widget in windows 10, "pocket" in firefox, the "keep with the times" inlined video section on youtube, of course social media sites like facebook and twitter, the list goes on it's not enough to have a wide-reach product, every company needs to put a feed in it
- kwertyoowiyop 5y ago
  It’s time to release my Taboola plug-in for VS Code.
  - adolph 5y ago
    One weird trick that every developer should know, it will be. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_weird_trick_advertisements https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_weird_trick_advertisements
- _jal 5y ago
  For a long time it was, "Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can.”[1] Now it is, "Every program attempts to expand until it can read Twitter. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can.” There is a world of difference between those. [1] http://catb.org/jargon/html/Z/Zawinskis-Law.html http://catb.org/jargon/html/Z/Zawinskis-Law.html
hereforphone 5y ago
Email, online bill pay, stock quotes, monitoring your security cameras, one can make good use of the Internet while avoiding most of the web. I think that (some) people eventually mature beyond contentious and arguably toxic things like reddit (I know I am, slowly but surely)
- Moru 5y ago
  Just hope you don't run any of the security cams with known remote exploits.
sandworm101 5y ago
>> It's insanely hard to avoid that main stream media content Really? I spend a not-small amount of time online. I'm typing this at work right now. But I don't feel any pull to celeb culture whatsoever. Then again, I do not use facebook/twitter/Instagram. I watch YouTube but haven't ever commented or liked a video. The only real internet "drama" I am following currently is the Blizzard-Activision thing, and then only because NerdCubed put out a video about it. But I haven't really played let alone purchased a AAA title in a long while. (I think the latest game I bought was Subnautica 2.) The internet is as bad/good as you want it to be. If you don't like the content you are exposed to stop exposing yourself to it. Go read something else. There are lots of horrible books in this world, far more bad than good, but few people talk about abandoning reading. Short answer: Until a celebrity or pop culture story hits the BBC New front page, it isn't worth my time.
- cableshaft 5y ago
  Subnautica is amazing. The natural unease in exploring the depths of an ocean is something I didn't realize I would love until I finally got that game a few months ago. Also constructing your base in a modular way is good fun as well.
  - sandworm101 5y ago
    Subnautica 1 yes. Subnautica 2 (below zero) is far less epic. The world is smaller and denser. There aren't the big open spaces, much less deep water. It's prettier and has some better features here and there, but lacks the majesty of the original.
    - cableshaft 5y ago
      That's unfortunate. I hadn't picked it up yet, still working through the first one.
      - sharps1 5y ago
        Subnautica 2 is add-on DLC for the first game. It just doesn’t feel like a new game.
SavantIdiot 5y ago
> It's insanely hard to avoid that main stream media content (celebrities, dramas, dramas, dramas and $bad_stuff/propaganda) that affects the mood, even when I don't use "normal" social medias. It's f---ing trivial: don't visit sites that traffic in it. I mean seriously, show some willpower.
- tester34 5y ago
  even on programming forums it's hard to avoid it. there's always some politics or stuff like covid
FpUser 5y ago
>"It's insanely hard to avoid that main stream media content (celebrities, dramas, dramas, dramas and $bad_stuff/propaganda) that affects the mood, even when I don't use "normal" social medias." I personally do not have this impression. I truly do not give a flying fuck about "mainstream" (whatever that means) and just read what I want.
misiti3780 5y ago
which subreddits?
grae_QED 5y ago
>It's insanely hard to avoid that main stream media content It's very easy. I modify my hosts file with lists such as Steven Blacks [1] or the EnergizedProtection host lists [2] which are both continuously updated files containing know ad server URL's and whatnot. I can honestly say that I haven't seen an ad in years, let alone any form of divisive content. But I also might just not visit many websites where they show that stuff. The best solution to that is to avoid those sites if possible. [1] https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts [2] https://github.com/EnergizedProtection/block https://github.com/EnergizedProtection/block
sunshineforever 5y ago
This is why I switched to "unlimited" data via Mint mobile. It's enough of a connection to satisfy the small amount of internet that I still use. The downside is that if I torrent a lot of files I can theoretically reach the 30 GB limit.
LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago
Funny finding that on a news site :-) [1] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/apr/12/news-is-bad-rolf-dobelli https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/apr/12/news-is-bad-ro... And related 'Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse': [2] http://www.sutjhally.com/articles/advertisingattheed/ http://www.sutjhally.com/articles/advertisingattheed/

MisterTea 5y ago

Internet is just a big IP network. I use it to talk to certain servers like email, my vps, or my personal home server. The other servers I talk to I dont own so I spend as little time sending them requests as possible. If you stop sending strange servers requests for unwanted data you'll feel much better :-)

haswell 5y ago
What you’re saying absolutely makes sense. The difficult part is that it requires intentional habit changes and quite honestly, a grieving process at the same time. As someone who grew up while the Internet was just getting off the ground (mid 30s), I remember the absolute joy of exploring the net, and for the most part, it could feed me as much interesting content as I could stand. I felt this reverence for it, like I did for great libraries. It’s not really possible to use the Internet that way any more, and that sucks. Yes, it’s still a gigantic library, but the ability to explore unbounded is no more, at least if you want to avoid the problematic parts. And this is where the grieving part comes in. Your advice to use the net more carefully/intentionally is good, but is also a stark contrast to the way things were. It makes me sad.
- gabereiser 5y ago
  Ahh the good old days of web rings and IRC chatrooms and such. Now it's a bazaar of monopolies, disinformation, vanity, and photo-sharing. The issue is we no longer rely on some server in some guys basement. A BBS out of a college dorm closet. Or a network of like-minded individuals for the sake of learning off each other. Everything is owned by a select few companies that add tracking cookies to advertise to you. It's become a giant mall for the minds of the world.
- LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago
  It's called https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavioral_therapy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavioral_therapy
  - haswell 5y ago
    How do you believe CBT applies here? As a person-in-therapy for upwards of 4 years now, I'm not seeing the connection.
    - LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago
      I referred to 'What you’re saying absolutely makes sense. The difficult part is that it requires intentional habit changes and quite honestly, a grieving process at the same time.' While I have no personal experience with CBT, I'd guess some form of that is needed, if you don't manage to change that behaviour on your own. As in learning to let go of what is stopping your 'flow'. Or simply overcoming bad habits. edit: While I don't know your personal situtation, and don't want to be rude, or 'diss' you in any way, 4 years seems harsh. I would long have quit that, because it would seem ineffective to me. Like talking to a wall, parking meter, or something like that. Maybe change therapist?
      - haswell 5y ago
        While CBT is certainly related to changing habits and behaviors, and while it's conceivable that Internet use by some individuals might become so problematic that a therapist needs to get involved, CBT is not necessary to be intentional about things. My general point was: the Internet has changed, so if you're still using your old habits, you'll probably need to change those. If a person finds they cannot muster the will to do so, perhaps then they should see a therapist and consider CBT, but this also doesn't need to be that complicated. Sometimes awareness is all that is required. > While I don't know your personal situtation, and don't want to be rude, or 'diss' you in any way, 4 years seems harsh. I would long have quit that, because it would seem ineffective to me. Like talking to a wall, parking meter, or something like that. Maybe change therapist? I've seen a few therapists during that time, and each has been really instrumental in my progress. I'll probably be seeing someone for the majority of my adult life. I've spoken about this openly in other threads, so feel free to dive deeper into my comment history if you are curious, but I'm working through deep seeded issues stemming from complex trauma that spanned the entirety of my childhood. One does not unravel decades of trauma in a year, or four years, for that matter, and I'm eternally grateful for the trauma-aware therapist I'm working with now - someone who I will probably continue seeing for many years to come. I'm a very different person than I was four years again, or even a year ago. These things take time. Please take this in the sprit it is intended, but I would recommend not handing out recommendations related to mental health without understanding the situation. I'm concerned at where this thread started (mis-application of CBT) and is ending. Again, please don't take this the wrong way, but I'd be careful not to derail others who may be earlier in their journeys, not yet sure how to navigate all of this.
WaitWaitWha 5y ago
Love to, except as OP stated it is often hard to do so. There are government and business sites that will refuse to load or function unless I permit third party stuff, including the unwanted ones.
LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago
It's called https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavioral_therapy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavioral_therapy

jkereako 5y ago

Agreed. It is difficult to wade through the advertisements, biased news, vanity and negativity. It’s just not worth the effort and time. HN is the only bright corner of the internet that hasn’t changed.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
padastra 5y ago
I don’t know, maybe this is just nostalgia, but HN used to be a “oh cool, you managed to do this / build this / achieve this” and “look at what they’re doing that’s interesting” — and now it’s become much much more like reddit where it’s “you / they were only able to do this because of X, and my life is miserable because of A, B, and C factors outside of my control, society sucks, I’m sure I would have had a better life as a hunter-gatherer[1].” [1] Not even joking, this is an actual reply.
- cloudfifty 5y ago
  > I’m sure I would have had a better life as a hunter-gatherer[1]. [1] Not even joking, this is an actual reply. No, you just seem to be unwilling accept that reply that argued that we worked less than today - which is true. So your suggestion that the "natural state of nature" is struggle and hardship fell flat.
  - padastra 5y ago
    Yes, you’re right. I’m sure the archeologists have very high confidence about how life 30k was years ago, when disability, a dry summer or a shitty winter, childbirth gone anything other than perfectly well, or a bad encounter with a predator meant death, was so much easier than your tech job making $300k to move your fingers a little bit. Any survivalist will tell you how much of their downtime is around tool prep, shelter setup, clothing repair, etc. etc. Some future archeologist might conclude tech people only work an hour or so a day because that’s all the time spent actually typing code, but that’s not to say your work hours were truly limited to that time period. It’s true that the weeks spend huddled in a cave, when it’s snowing outside, without a good source of food and water, and absolutely nothing you can do about it, counts as “not working” but it’s not clear that means leisurely frolicking and fucking.

helen___keller 5y ago

> It's insanely hard to avoid that main stream media content (celebrities, dramas, dramas, dramas and $bad_stuff/propaganda) that affects the mood, even when I don't use "normal" social medias. an annoying trend is that, over time, almost every webpage or program controlled by corporate interests will come to include a "feed" that tries to lure you back into the modern news/outrage cycle e.g. opening a tab in microsoft edge, clicking the weather widget in windows 10, "pocket" in firefox, the "keep with the times" inlined video section on youtube, of course social media sites like facebook and twitter, the list goes on it's not enough to have a wide-reach product, every company needs to put a feed in it

kwertyoowiyop 5y ago
It’s time to release my Taboola plug-in for VS Code.
- adolph 5y ago
  One weird trick that every developer should know, it will be. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_weird_trick_advertisements https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_weird_trick_advertisements
_jal 5y ago
For a long time it was, "Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can.”[1] Now it is, "Every program attempts to expand until it can read Twitter. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can.” There is a world of difference between those. [1] http://catb.org/jargon/html/Z/Zawinskis-Law.html http://catb.org/jargon/html/Z/Zawinskis-Law.html

hereforphone 5y ago

Email, online bill pay, stock quotes, monitoring your security cameras, one can make good use of the Internet while avoiding most of the web. I think that (some) people eventually mature beyond contentious and arguably toxic things like reddit (I know I am, slowly but surely)

Moru 5y ago
Just hope you don't run any of the security cams with known remote exploits.

sandworm101 5y ago

>> It's insanely hard to avoid that main stream media content Really? I spend a not-small amount of time online. I'm typing this at work right now. But I don't feel any pull to celeb culture whatsoever. Then again, I do not use facebook/twitter/Instagram. I watch YouTube but haven't ever commented or liked a video. The only real internet "drama" I am following currently is the Blizzard-Activision thing, and then only because NerdCubed put out a video about it. But I haven't really played let alone purchased a AAA title in a long while. (I think the latest game I bought was Subnautica 2.) The internet is as bad/good as you want it to be. If you don't like the content you are exposed to stop exposing yourself to it. Go read something else. There are lots of horrible books in this world, far more bad than good, but few people talk about abandoning reading. Short answer: Until a celebrity or pop culture story hits the BBC New front page, it isn't worth my time.

cableshaft 5y ago
Subnautica is amazing. The natural unease in exploring the depths of an ocean is something I didn't realize I would love until I finally got that game a few months ago. Also constructing your base in a modular way is good fun as well.
- sandworm101 5y ago
  Subnautica 1 yes. Subnautica 2 (below zero) is far less epic. The world is smaller and denser. There aren't the big open spaces, much less deep water. It's prettier and has some better features here and there, but lacks the majesty of the original.
  - cableshaft 5y ago
    That's unfortunate. I hadn't picked it up yet, still working through the first one.
    - sharps1 5y ago
      Subnautica 2 is add-on DLC for the first game. It just doesn’t feel like a new game.

SavantIdiot 5y ago

tester34 5y ago
even on programming forums it's hard to avoid it. there's always some politics or stuff like covid

FpUser 5y ago

>"It's insanely hard to avoid that main stream media content (celebrities, dramas, dramas, dramas and $bad_stuff/propaganda) that affects the mood, even when I don't use "normal" social medias." I personally do not have this impression. I truly do not give a flying fuck about "mainstream" (whatever that means) and just read what I want.

misiti3780 5y ago

which subreddits?

grae_QED 5y ago

>It's insanely hard to avoid that main stream media content It's very easy. I modify my hosts file with lists such as Steven Blacks [1] or the EnergizedProtection host lists [2] which are both continuously updated files containing know ad server URL's and whatnot. I can honestly say that I haven't seen an ad in years, let alone any form of divisive content. But I also might just not visit many websites where they show that stuff. The best solution to that is to avoid those sites if possible. [1] https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts [2] https://github.com/EnergizedProtection/block https://github.com/EnergizedProtection/block

sunshineforever 5y ago

This is why I switched to "unlimited" data via Mint mobile. It's enough of a connection to satisfy the small amount of internet that I still use. The downside is that if I torrent a lot of files I can theoretically reach the 30 GB limit.

LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago

Funny finding that on a news site :-) [1] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/apr/12/news-is-bad-rolf-dobelli https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/apr/12/news-is-bad-ro... And related 'Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse': [2] http://www.sutjhally.com/articles/advertisingattheed/ http://www.sutjhally.com/articles/advertisingattheed/