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I’m the most calm and happy I’ve been in a long time. I threw away almost all of my social media and news consumption. The more I’ve come to stand outside of i

I’m the most calm and happy I’ve been in a long time. I threw away almost all of my social media and news consumption. The more I’ve come to stand outside of it, the sillier and more crazed the culture has seemed. We really need a collective break and some wisdom building work. Laron Lanier’s book, Ten Arguments for Deleting your Social Media Accounts Right Now, is still a great read and one I often recommend to my friends. I think now that we’re mostly dealing with socially acceptable forms of addiction, and the sooner we realize that and start treating it like a public health crisis the better off we’ll be.

pksebben 3y ago
Suuuuper hard second. Getting of the facestagramitter was possibly the single kindest thing I've ever done for myself. Came with a news blackout, and as it turns out you can stay more or less exactly the same amount of informed because people will happily burst that bubble every time the rage machine hits critical mass. Not mad about it, any more. I do sometimes wish there were things to talk about that didn't come from the internet. HN is the last open-forum-ish place I can't really bring myself to get rid of, and I'm not sure I want to. Doesn't have the same stank as the rest, at least not bad enough to jump ship.
- m000 3y ago
  > Came with a news blackout, and as it turns out you can stay more or less exactly the same amount of informed because people will happily burst that bubble every time the rage machine hits critical mass. Not mad about it, any more. So, you're essentially relying on other people taking the toll on being on social media to keep yourself informed. No offence intended, but isn't this similarly selfish with being an antivaxxer? I.e. believing you have some sort of personal epiphany, while in reality you are just enjoying the benefit of everyone else being involved in a moderately risky activity? Again, I do not wish to be judgemental, everyone have their own tolerances that they are entitled to manage and keep personal. Just saying that if everyone gets off social media tomorrow, I don't think it will be for the best of humanity, even though social media do have the potential to be individually harmful. > I do sometimes wish there were things to talk about that didn't come from the internet. Before the internet discussion topics would just come from the news (TV or printed). However, TV and printed press have degraded so much in the past decades, that relying solely on them to set our discussion agenda would be a catastrophe. Social media, as tolling as they may be, seem to be the only thing that makes us aware of a global descent to a dystopic future.
  - pksebben 3y ago
    > So, you're essentially relying on other people taking the toll on being on social media to keep yourself informed. No offence intended, but isn't this similarly selfish with being an antivaxxer? I.e. believing you have some sort of personal epiphany, while in reality you are just enjoying the benefit of everyone else being involved in a moderately risky activity? I should clarify - there was a little sarcasm in there. The massive bulk of stuff that 'breaks' the collective pressure barrier isn't stuff I consider important to know. I just end up hearing about whatever Trump said that was dumb lately and feel worse off for it occasionally. > Before the internet discussion topics would just come from the news (TV or printed). Nope. You can talk about ideas, life, experiences, all kindsa shit that doesn't come from media. 'Keeping up with the times' is a nice thing to do just a little bit but these days it's gotten way out of hand. This is just my opinion, of course. YMMV et al etc. The point here being that fewer and fewer people have headspace for that stuff and I dunno, I kinda think that sucks.
loveparade 3y ago
I agree for personal usage, but I'm struggling to justify throwing away social media for work-related usage. A lot of opportunities and connections in my life have come from being active on social media.
- _heimdall 3y ago
  That step is a much tougher one IMO. I did it years ago, but it came with an acknowledgement that I very likely would miss out on opportunities that I would have otherwise had. The way I see it, I don't want most social media in my life so I likely wouldn't be happy with connections that I'd only find there either.
  - jondwillis 3y ago
    This has been my experience as well, and way to cope with the last bit of FOMO I still get when I imagine being “in the loop” of social media.
FredPret 3y ago
I started a new habit of going zero-tech for one day a week. Physical books and real human contact only. I feel better for days afterward
marttt 3y ago
+1 for Jaron Lanier's books. However, regarding this in your comment: "I’m the most calm and happy I’ve been in a long time. I threw away almost all of my social media and news consumption." -- I'm a former, but trained journalist, and during some dark transition phase in life, I had a ~2 year period where I consumed very little news. The result? I did feel "happier" -- or at least I thought I do for sure. After some more time passing, I started to realize that I don't quite understand what's going on in the society any more. Couldn't follow internal affairs, didn't bother to notice changes in the cabinet of ministers, etc. (I live in a small country that ranks in the top 10 of the World Press Freedom Index [1], so our journalism is considered quite good as compared to the average of what human beings produce on planet Earth -- so balanced news sources definitely are available over here.) In other words, while I surely did gain deeper insights in some fields of my preference (due to being very selective in what I read, and where from -- focusing on some geekier forums, etc), I slowly started to lose a kind of "general grasp" of how the society works. I was witnessing a kind of Marxian alienation [2] or smth happening with myself. I was becoming my own echo chamber. After realizing this, I slowly started to read more news again -- preferring the most neutral venues (our Public Broadcasting is very good IMO), but also understanding the importance of media diversity. I don't have to agree with everything that e.g. some certain private media venues write, but they still produce different angles to societal problems, even if they make mistakes occasionally. Also, there is something that regular news consumers don't quite grasp (and maybe don't have to): investigative journalism is very expensive, in particular in a smaller society -- so all venues that even occasionally produce high-quality investigations produce a huge value to the society. Long story short: would it be even possible to function well in a society in the long term when you read no news whatsoever? I actually doubt that. Newsrooms aren't perfect, but I do think human-filtered news, produced by creatures with an organic, not robotic brain, is still the best that we have, and it probably always will be. Good human-driven journalism is just as valuable as the scientific method -- despite occasional flaws, this, too, is the best we have. ("All models are wrong, but some models are useful" -- this also counts for journalism.) I did delete all of my social media accounts just recently, though -- admittedly, being heavily influenced by the arguments of Jaron Lanier. And I do feel much better; much less internal anxiety or anger. But if one doesn't want to become alienated from their society, a moderate daily dose of high quality news is a must IMO. After all, we do have to understand that because the world itself is not always nice, the purpose of news can also not be making you feel "happy". Good journalists try really hard to offer a balanced, well-investigated understanding of the world as it really is, or seems to be, to all of us. Let's not forget giving them the respect they deserve for this. It is really-really hard work. 1: https://rsf.org/en/index https://rsf.org/en/index 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marx%27s_theory_of_alienation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marx%27s_theory_of_alienation

pksebben 3y ago

Suuuuper hard second. Getting of the facestagramitter was possibly the single kindest thing I've ever done for myself. Came with a news blackout, and as it turns out you can stay more or less exactly the same amount of informed because people will happily burst that bubble every time the rage machine hits critical mass. Not mad about it, any more. I do sometimes wish there were things to talk about that didn't come from the internet. HN is the last open-forum-ish place I can't really bring myself to get rid of, and I'm not sure I want to. Doesn't have the same stank as the rest, at least not bad enough to jump ship.

m000 3y ago
> Came with a news blackout, and as it turns out you can stay more or less exactly the same amount of informed because people will happily burst that bubble every time the rage machine hits critical mass. Not mad about it, any more. So, you're essentially relying on other people taking the toll on being on social media to keep yourself informed. No offence intended, but isn't this similarly selfish with being an antivaxxer? I.e. believing you have some sort of personal epiphany, while in reality you are just enjoying the benefit of everyone else being involved in a moderately risky activity? Again, I do not wish to be judgemental, everyone have their own tolerances that they are entitled to manage and keep personal. Just saying that if everyone gets off social media tomorrow, I don't think it will be for the best of humanity, even though social media do have the potential to be individually harmful. > I do sometimes wish there were things to talk about that didn't come from the internet. Before the internet discussion topics would just come from the news (TV or printed). However, TV and printed press have degraded so much in the past decades, that relying solely on them to set our discussion agenda would be a catastrophe. Social media, as tolling as they may be, seem to be the only thing that makes us aware of a global descent to a dystopic future.
- pksebben 3y ago
  > So, you're essentially relying on other people taking the toll on being on social media to keep yourself informed. No offence intended, but isn't this similarly selfish with being an antivaxxer? I.e. believing you have some sort of personal epiphany, while in reality you are just enjoying the benefit of everyone else being involved in a moderately risky activity? I should clarify - there was a little sarcasm in there. The massive bulk of stuff that 'breaks' the collective pressure barrier isn't stuff I consider important to know. I just end up hearing about whatever Trump said that was dumb lately and feel worse off for it occasionally. > Before the internet discussion topics would just come from the news (TV or printed). Nope. You can talk about ideas, life, experiences, all kindsa shit that doesn't come from media. 'Keeping up with the times' is a nice thing to do just a little bit but these days it's gotten way out of hand. This is just my opinion, of course. YMMV et al etc. The point here being that fewer and fewer people have headspace for that stuff and I dunno, I kinda think that sucks.

loveparade 3y ago

I agree for personal usage, but I'm struggling to justify throwing away social media for work-related usage. A lot of opportunities and connections in my life have come from being active on social media.

_heimdall 3y ago
That step is a much tougher one IMO. I did it years ago, but it came with an acknowledgement that I very likely would miss out on opportunities that I would have otherwise had. The way I see it, I don't want most social media in my life so I likely wouldn't be happy with connections that I'd only find there either.
- jondwillis 3y ago
  This has been my experience as well, and way to cope with the last bit of FOMO I still get when I imagine being “in the loop” of social media.

FredPret 3y ago

I started a new habit of going zero-tech for one day a week. Physical books and real human contact only. I feel better for days afterward

marttt 3y ago

+1 for Jaron Lanier's books. However, regarding this in your comment: "I’m the most calm and happy I’ve been in a long time. I threw away almost all of my social media and news consumption." -- I'm a former, but trained journalist, and during some dark transition phase in life, I had a ~2 year period where I consumed very little news. The result? I did feel "happier" -- or at least I thought I do for sure. After some more time passing, I started to realize that I don't quite understand what's going on in the society any more. Couldn't follow internal affairs, didn't bother to notice changes in the cabinet of ministers, etc. (I live in a small country that ranks in the top 10 of the World Press Freedom Index [1], so our journalism is considered quite good as compared to the average of what human beings produce on planet Earth -- so balanced news sources definitely are available over here.) In other words, while I surely did gain deeper insights in some fields of my preference (due to being very selective in what I read, and where from -- focusing on some geekier forums, etc), I slowly started to lose a kind of "general grasp" of how the society works. I was witnessing a kind of Marxian alienation [2] or smth happening with myself. I was becoming my own echo chamber. After realizing this, I slowly started to read more news again -- preferring the most neutral venues (our Public Broadcasting is very good IMO), but also understanding the importance of media diversity. I don't have to agree with everything that e.g. some certain private media venues write, but they still produce different angles to societal problems, even if they make mistakes occasionally. Also, there is something that regular news consumers don't quite grasp (and maybe don't have to): investigative journalism is very expensive, in particular in a smaller society -- so all venues that even occasionally produce high-quality investigations produce a huge value to the society. Long story short: would it be even possible to function well in a society in the long term when you read no news whatsoever? I actually doubt that. Newsrooms aren't perfect, but I do think human-filtered news, produced by creatures with an organic, not robotic brain, is still the best that we have, and it probably always will be. Good human-driven journalism is just as valuable as the scientific method -- despite occasional flaws, this, too, is the best we have. ("All models are wrong, but some models are useful" -- this also counts for journalism.) I did delete all of my social media accounts just recently, though -- admittedly, being heavily influenced by the arguments of Jaron Lanier. And I do feel much better; much less internal anxiety or anger. But if one doesn't want to become alienated from their society, a moderate daily dose of high quality news is a must IMO. After all, we do have to understand that because the world itself is not always nice, the purpose of news can also not be making you feel "happy". Good journalists try really hard to offer a balanced, well-investigated understanding of the world as it really is, or seems to be, to all of us. Let's not forget giving them the respect they deserve for this. It is really-really hard work. 1: https://rsf.org/en/index https://rsf.org/en/index 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marx%27s_theory_of_alienation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marx%27s_theory_of_alienation