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Can anyone explain why there is a need to declare this and then talk about it? Are we at a point where it is considered similar to an alcoholic leaving the drin

Can anyone explain why there is a need to declare this and then talk about it? Are we at a point where it is considered similar to an alcoholic leaving the drink and following what happened next? I used to play games and now I don't. I used to watch film and now I don't. I had a facebook account once and now I don't. Isn't this mundane as fuck?

sbf501 4y ago
It is WSJ's equivalent of clickbait. What, did you think they were immune or too highbrow?
marricks 4y ago
Because alcohol has been around for thousands of years, theater for thousands of years, video games for half a century and super addictive social media for less than 20. Any time a big change happens to people's daily experience I think it's reasonable and good to have a lot of reflection on if that change is good or bad and what should be done.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
fleddr 4y ago
It's similar to a graduate with 6 months of work experience posting a Medium article "12 reasons why I quit Netflix".
stuntkite 4y ago
I don't mind and I think when people post about it, even if the blogs are like reading someone's dream journal (boring, aspirational, confusing, etc) in aggregate I think the posts produce kind of useful metrics about what's going on in the heads of people quitting the media. For some perspective, the type of person that is going to make a blog post about quitting social media was likely "highly online" in social media spaces and probably doesn't even fully understand the ingrained models of personal disclosure (almost no one does well as the problem is so new) that they realized was unsustainable that lead to them now quitting so they cope by making a blog post. It's ironic and more than a little bit funny. It's like when someone is new to Alcoholics Anonymous because of legal issues, losing a job, or a partner leaving and they get to step 4 "Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves." and write it all down and then they instantly hit steps 8, 9, 10. 8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. 9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. 10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. A drunk would give you a 2AM white knuckled call you don't care about for when they ripped you off 10 years ago, but the action of those steps is the same thing as the drug. I'm not an AA guy or anything but it's a relatable model. If anyone reading is struggling with substance or social media addiction check out SmartRecovery.org for rational group recovery. So I guess my take on the phenomena of the "I'm leaving" post is that they are the rattles of a person trying to change but the well worn paths to change (steps 4, 8, 9, and 10) are basically the user's DoC (Drug of Choice). Sure, the posts are self indulgent and suck, but what else do you expect from someone operating with a serious dopamine imbalance? To answer your question though, it is definitely not "mundane as fuck" to them. One's too many, ten's not enough. Yes, it is the same thing and I gather that you don't likely suffer from it in this context. I think we can all agree that you can just not read their posts Posts like this even if their content isn't profound or even that novel, that person is working to be a better person and tried to work out their feelings by putting pen to page and yelling into the void. Your question here is what a lot of people are thinking though and it's a valid question. I'm not trying to cast shade on you at all. Without you asking this question I wouldn't have been able to think about this stuff. Dopamine management is important to a life lived consciously. How we get off differs in a rainbow for each person. Hopefully our discussion here helps someone out in the future. It's basically impossible that it has zero effect. Cheers.

sbf501 4y ago

It is WSJ's equivalent of clickbait. What, did you think they were immune or too highbrow?

marricks 4y ago

Because alcohol has been around for thousands of years, theater for thousands of years, video games for half a century and super addictive social media for less than 20. Any time a big change happens to people's daily experience I think it's reasonable and good to have a lot of reflection on if that change is good or bad and what should be done.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

fleddr 4y ago

It's similar to a graduate with 6 months of work experience posting a Medium article "12 reasons why I quit Netflix".

stuntkite 4y ago

I don't mind and I think when people post about it, even if the blogs are like reading someone's dream journal (boring, aspirational, confusing, etc) in aggregate I think the posts produce kind of useful metrics about what's going on in the heads of people quitting the media. For some perspective, the type of person that is going to make a blog post about quitting social media was likely "highly online" in social media spaces and probably doesn't even fully understand the ingrained models of personal disclosure (almost no one does well as the problem is so new) that they realized was unsustainable that lead to them now quitting so they cope by making a blog post. It's ironic and more than a little bit funny. It's like when someone is new to Alcoholics Anonymous because of legal issues, losing a job, or a partner leaving and they get to step 4 "Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves." and write it all down and then they instantly hit steps 8, 9, 10. 8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. 9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. 10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. A drunk would give you a 2AM white knuckled call you don't care about for when they ripped you off 10 years ago, but the action of those steps is the same thing as the drug. I'm not an AA guy or anything but it's a relatable model. If anyone reading is struggling with substance or social media addiction check out SmartRecovery.org for rational group recovery. So I guess my take on the phenomena of the "I'm leaving" post is that they are the rattles of a person trying to change but the well worn paths to change (steps 4, 8, 9, and 10) are basically the user's DoC (Drug of Choice). Sure, the posts are self indulgent and suck, but what else do you expect from someone operating with a serious dopamine imbalance? To answer your question though, it is definitely not "mundane as fuck" to them. One's too many, ten's not enough. Yes, it is the same thing and I gather that you don't likely suffer from it in this context. I think we can all agree that you can just not read their posts Posts like this even if their content isn't profound or even that novel, that person is working to be a better person and tried to work out their feelings by putting pen to page and yelling into the void. Your question here is what a lot of people are thinking though and it's a valid question. I'm not trying to cast shade on you at all. Without you asking this question I wouldn't have been able to think about this stuff. Dopamine management is important to a life lived consciously. How we get off differs in a rainbow for each person. Hopefully our discussion here helps someone out in the future. It's basically impossible that it has zero effect. Cheers.