10 ms·

How 30 days without social media changed my life

196 points by stevencorona 14y ago

hammock 14y ago
I enjoyed this writeup and it's well-timed for me. I'm going to try it! Anything you would add to the blacklist that you didn't initially?
- stevencorona 14y ago
  * Facebook/Reddit/Twitter/HackerNews (sorry) * delete your twitter/facebook clients from your phone * delete RSS reader (I still checked Google Reader, but browsed selectively every 4-5 days)
- p4lto 14y ago
  Same, sounds like a good idea.
- uptown 14y ago
  RSS is the big time-sink for me. It never stops, and I feel the need to clean it out.
- charliepark 14y ago
  If 30 days is too much, we're launching a free app that lets you cut off social media for 30 minutes at a time. https://monotask.com https://monotask.com (downloadable now) We also have a pro version that lets you customize your whitelist and blacklist. We hope you use the time to make some awesome stuff!
  - tommi 14y ago
    Amazing! If you can charge 10 dollars a month for something which really doesn't do much and for which there are many free alternatives (some even provided by you) then I applaud. Do you have any paying customers at the moment?
    - charliepark 14y ago
      We're just launching the pro version now. The parent post is more promotion than just about anything we've done so far. But I'm a fan of transparency, and would be happy to share numbers in a month or three.
  - avirambm 14y ago
    Mac users can also use http://visitsteve.com/made/selfcontrol/ http://visitsteve.com/made/selfcontrol/
fmitchell0 14y ago
(spoiler) i lived life. the end.
- stevencorona 14y ago
  elegantly put. but it's funny how much of our lives we live with our eyes shut.
kanamekun 14y ago
This essay could also be called, "Life in the 80s (and early 90s) for most people." Back then, you had to be relatively informed to have access to "social media" (i.e. Usenet, gopher, BBS). It's amazing how much productivity has been disrupted by social media. There are of course huge upsides as well, but sometimes I wonder if the full downside is recognized. A lot of people I know do very little work in the workplace, as they spend all day on Twitter and Facebook. They get around IT bans by using their smartphones... sometimes I wonder if the only thing running corporations these days is automated software.
- dhughes 14y ago
  I was a news hound in the 80s which was great because TV news didn't suck. Another 80s early 90s information device was the magazine, there were tons of magazines which were mostly killed off by the Internet. Social media is a whole lot of everything and 1% substance on a good day. It's a habit it's like Entertainment Tonight you sit there and one day think "why am I watching this?". That actually happened to me in the late 80s I realized I had a half smile grin Joker sort of thing watching banal celebrity news. These days instead of a dumb smile it's my left elbow with osteoarthritis from leaning on it reading about cats, rage faces and other memes or arguing with strangers over things 5000km away.
  - timc3 14y ago
    It did suck, you just didn't have nothing to compare it to.
  - toemetoch 14y ago
    Ditched my TV last week and have been cutting back on my internet habit when I'm home for a while now. I suddenly have hours of free time every evening and I'm re-discovering magazines. But you're right, lots of them have been under pressure or have disappeared. One thing I found out about myself is that internet made me lazy. These days I find it easier to read short articles - online articles used to get bookmarked and never read. I'm also trying harder to work on stuff without the net. I'm in electronics/embedded and I used to click around for every little thing. Now I sit down with pencil & paper again until I crack it by hand.
sp332 14y ago
Paul Miller, one of The Verge's editors, is taking one year off from the Internet. He's blogging about it (via a USB stick that someone else publishes from) https://www.theverge.com/label/offline https://www.theverge.com/label/offline It's very interesting, especially "Ghost Limbs" and "Ignorance".
- keithpeter 14y ago
  I've been following this, there is a hacker news thread about it, and The Verge have published a P.O. box for Mr Miller. I'm hacking out a letter over the weekend (typed, on onionskin paper, on my uncle's Olivetti). I use Miller's page with teenagers (I'm a teacher); and the article here will be added to my collection. The pitch is 'control and focus your attention'.
will_lam 14y ago
Great post - I've been using RescueTime to be more mindful of how I spend my time and curb my social media use.. Great idea to have a 30 day challenge
Paul_S 14y ago
I was about to say I just spent my lifetime without social media but I had no idea Hacker News was social media too. I guess that's good. Means I'm getting on with the times and not living in the 80s as one commenter put it.
jmduke 14y ago
This is a great blog post -- I can't help but feel like its an argument less against social media and more about how we use social media. I think it's particularly ironic that he singled out Reddit for providing "absolutely 0 value to me", since Reddit's original use was a news aggregator devoted to separating signal from noise. Nowadays, its a place for people to spout memes.
- bostonpete 14y ago
  I dunno -- I haven't actively used reddit in a couple of years but I remember it always being pretty meme-heavy... (that and an unhealthy obsession with comparing reddit to digg, though I'm guessing that theme has fallen by the wayside)
- dwc 14y ago
  I use reddit, but I had to unsubscribe from most of the default subreddits, and also from a few subreddits that I'd hand picked. It's a shame, but it's difficult to get programming news from reddit these days. Apart from silly memes, it's sipping from a firehose. So these days I largely stick to the backwaters where there's a much smaller amount of total content and good signal:noise.
- graue 14y ago
  I'd argue though that a news aggregator can separate signal from noise and still provide no value. On HN I catch myself reading very well-written, thoroughly researched and fascinating articles... that have nothing to do with my life. That takes time away from _doing_ things, like the writing and painting OP accomplished on his info diet.
- jtrdk 14y ago
  > Nowadays, its a place for people to spout memes. You have to groom your subreddit subscriptions. My picks: askscience, 1000words, linguistics, science, somethingimade, DepthHub, books. All these largely contain interesting and productive discussions.
peterwwillis 14y ago
I ditched Facebook, and while I miss the ease of social engagement (getting invited to events via friend-spam was nice, since most people never invite me personally) i'm glad for no longer needing to constantly check my feed. However, I noticed that Twitter and Hacker News tend to replace Facebook in that way, so I may follow your lead and ditch those too. But I sometimes find myself in a bar, searching through the internet, trying to find something to read rather than make conversation with a stranger. So i'm going to go one step further and ditch my smartphone. (Protip: Google supports syncing contacts/calendars using SyncML and S60 devices) I'm not sure how well I will do without Google Maps and GPS to be my Hitchiker's Guidebook, but something tells me that not knowing where your going will lead to a more interesting destination. Or, since I live in Baltimore, getting shot. Either way it's an adventure.
- Tomis02 14y ago
  Baltimore, eh? Get to live your own Homicide - Life on the street moment.
mycodebreaks 14y ago
I understand the urge to keep away from facebook or twitter. However, Hacker News is very important resource for career and personal development IMHO. Since I came to know about Hacker News, my life has changed. Not only I stay away from social media such as facebook, twitter, but also I am away from news websites such as cnn and bbc.And, let me say, it is very good for mind and body to not consume so much news.
- sigkill 14y ago
  My sarcasm meter is faulty. Are you being sarcastic, or genuinely serious?
  - mycodebreaks 14y ago
    I am genuinely serious. You can trust your judgement that your sarcasm meter is faulty. :-)
    - edwinnathaniel 14y ago
      There will be a point where HN could hurt you. So it's like that bell curve where you feel reading HN would help you but one side of the bell curve is a downward side and that's where you'll learn that HN is becoming more and more like any other aggregation sites out there. - been here since late 2006
  - mhartl 14y ago
    I'm confident he's serious, and I feel much the same way. I use cperciva's Hacker News Daily (http://www.daemonology.net/hn-daily/ http://www.daemonology.net/hn-daily/) to help avoid spending too much time at Hacker News and to make sure I don't miss any big stories.
    - sigkill 14y ago
      Hey thanks for the link. It looks useful.
physcab 14y ago
I stopped using Facebook last November. It's been a fantastic experience. Whether you realize it or not, FB changes your emotional health. FB used to make me oddly depressed. Its like sitting in front of the TV and feasting on Sour Patch Kids for two hours. I would sit there staring at how awesome people's lives were and wonder why I wasn't doing such awesome things myself. I heard about the passing of family members from family friends before family members would have a chance to tell me personally. After I stopped going to FB my important friends started CALLING me. Can you believe that? They picked up the phone and CALLED me. I went out to dinner more. I stopped engaging in those destructive conversations like "Can you believe so-and-so's status message..." There have been some drawbacks though. I don't always hear about last-minute parties. I don't get to see the pictures my friends take from events. And I don't have the luxury of sending a message to someone I don't quite know very well who wouldn't have my phone number or e-mail, most likely through group activities like Crossfit that I'm a member of. But all things considered, ditching Facebook is highly recommended.
- mtgx 14y ago
  I think this whole "social networking" thing will start to fade soon, as people increasingly realize that it's not "cool" anymore, and that they don't really need it, other perhaps than checking their accounts twice a year. So this whole discussion about whether Google+ or other company can beat Facebook or not might be irrelevant, if the whole social networking "industry" collapses in the next 5 years.
  - gorydetails 14y ago
    I agree. This whole "Internet" thing is highly overrated. Also, "electricity" and "clean water."
    - eostyx 14y ago
      You ass. You can't compare things that are essential to a functioning economy to be compared to annoying background noise like '"social" networking'. It more closely related to TV and online media. Both of which are incredibly draining and mind numbing. Try going without TV for a year and take up a productive/creative hobby.
digitalzombie 14y ago
Giving values and more hobbies? OP sounds like he's doing PUA's inner game stuff. I guess I'm a bit on the high horse since, I can do social media, and still be able to Judo, workout (6 days a week with insanity,gym, and hiking), dance at clubs, hang out with friends, self help stuff, and study for fun. I don't think social media is the problem but his lack of discipline. And everybody is jumping on the bandwagon "Whooa he's right! It's all social media fault." Hello, what you do with your time is up to you, it's not social media fault at all. It's your lack of time management skill.
- justjimmy 14y ago
  Hmm… I don't think that what the author was getting at. I felt it was more closely aligned with the point that social media put some of wall/distance between us and our connections/relationships - in the sense that we are assimilating stories of our friends through status updates instead of a more personal face to face interaction. ie: Getting the news your friend is pregnant through status update vs. them breaking the news to you face to face and the emotions that happens as you congratulate and hug them.
- AznHisoka 14y ago
  Of course it's not social media's fault. he's just saying, it brings about certain tendencies in him that he wants to change. Just like being in a casino brings about tendencies to gamble, or being in a McDonalds brings about tendencies to eat unhealthy.
GrantCov 14y ago
I ditched Facebook for about 8 months (I've been back since January) last year and it was incredibly liberating. As a result of my complete withdrawal for such a long period I don't check nearly as much as I previously did, although I must admit I have been starting to slip back into old habits. Also when I re-activated my Facebook I also joined Twitter which I now spent far too much time on. Despite some regression, I still feel that by having taken such an extended hiatus I am far less addicted to receiving the constant stream of information, as I once was. This post has inspired me to take some steps to make sure I don't completely revert to the state I was ~1.5 years ago. I too plan to be more consciousness of my Twitter/Facebook/Reddit usage and not just spend large chunks of time mindlessly browsing them, when I could be doing some productive. Great post, thanks for the reminder!
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timc3 14y ago
Balance and moderation. You can still use it, just not be obsessive.
thebigshane 14y ago
I'm not sure which corporate internet filter application our building uses (I think Sophos?) or if they use their own custom rules or subscribe else where but, steve corona, your entire site is blocked to me as: Access to the web page you were trying to visit has been blocked in accordance with company policy. Please contact your system administrator if you believe this is in error. URL: stevecorona.com/how-30-days-without-social-media-changed-my-life Category: adult-and-pornography
- RobAtticus 14y ago
  Corona being a type of beer categorizes it as "adult" perhaps? Unfortunate.
- stevencorona 14y ago
  Maybe it's because of my running naked blog post, haha. That sucks though, I swear I'm not a porn site.
drivebyacct2 14y ago
Does anyone else spend like 20 seconds 5 times a day on Facebook or are we all really only capable of none or 3 hours a day?
- davegauer 14y ago
  Ha ha. I actually have a running joke now. I log into Facebook about once a day with a hearty, "time to check Facebook!" About 30-40 seconds later when I've skimmed the latest posts, I quit with a boisterous, "well, that was great!" I'm assuming that anyone who can spend more than ten minutes on Facebook has way more friends than I do, and/or those friends are much more prolific than mine.
  - drivebyacct2 14y ago
    Or more interesting. I have a small number of friends and an even smaller number that I allow to see updates from. And even then, I rarely do more than scroll to wherever I left off last time or lose interest before I even get there. I have the same reaction as you do most days. Oh well, sure glad I checked that! (not). Google+ is actually the opposite. There is such a tech focus from the people I follow that there are demo videos, technical papers, etc that I want to read but don't. Certainly not this, I'm happy because other people are, nonsense.
keiferski 14y ago
Meanwhile, in the real world, millions of people use Facebook to keep in touch with friends, share photos, and set up events, in addition to meeting in person. Defining yourself by not using something is no better than defining yourself by using it. Just let go and accept that it's a useful tool, nothing more, nothing less.
gwern 14y ago
I agree short breaks are good ideas: they can give you time to mull over the things you've learned and seen, for ideas to finally sprout, etc. But to extend this to any broader theses like 'you should quit social media' is unwarranted; for a counter anecdote, I'm reminded of Hamming's You and Your Research http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html > Another trait, it took me a while to notice. I noticed the following facts about people who work with the door open or the door closed. I notice that if you have the door to your office closed, you get more work done today and tomorrow, and you are more productive than most. But 10 years later somehow you don't know quite know what problems are worth working on; all the hard work you do is sort of tangential in importance. He who works with the door open gets all kinds of interruptions, but he also occasionally gets clues as to what the world is and what might be important. Now I cannot prove the cause and effect sequence because you might say, ``The closed door is symbolic of a closed mind.'' I don't know. But I can say there is a pretty good correlation between those who work with the doors open and those who ultimately do important things, although people who work with doors closed often work harder. Somehow they seem to work on slightly the wrong thing - not much, but enough that they miss fame.
giancarlofrison 14y ago
when you will discover the warm water, write a blog post and you will win the Pulitzer prize
pixie_ 14y ago
It's funny how he couldn't do any of these things before while using social media. This is BS. I knew even before clicking the link exactly what it would say. Incredibly cliche. Someone should write an article - Moderation. How does it work?
- rwallace 14y ago
  > It's funny how he couldn't do any of these things before while using social media. Yes, almost as if our brains evolved in an environment where social media didn't exist, such that social media constitute an exploit for a security vulnerability in our motivation systems. Oh wait, they do. > Incredibly cliche. So is "don't take drugs". Sometimes something is a cliche because it's both true and worth repeating. > Moderation. How does it work? Step one is to be lucky in the genetic lottery. Seriously, there are people who can indefinitely maintain a moderate habit with cookies, whiskey, cigarettes, cocaine, poker, television and Facebook; and there are people who can't, and need to go cold turkey. As it happens I'm one of the former (well I haven't tried it with cocaine, but I can do the others), but that doesn't make me a better person than the people who can't, just luckier. It's also worth noting some people have found going cold turkey for a while, was enough to break the addiction such that they could then go back cautiously, in moderation.
- stevencorona 14y ago
  ouch. so much negativity.
jakejake 14y ago
Giving up social media for 30 days (well except for using Facebook 5 times). That doesn't really sound like giving up social media at all.
- powerslave12r 14y ago
  I go to facebook.com probably 5 times in less than 5 minutes. To me, that is giving up social media. I'm sure I'm not alone.
100k 14y ago
Last week, I tried to make producing something instead of consuming something the first thing I did in the morning. Practically, this meant working on a bunch of blog posts that I've had queued up for ages, plus actually writing about those "a ha" moments you have at work. It was really great and I felt good all day. I was inspired by a Reddit comment I stuck in my Evernote a long time ago, but unearthed somewhat randomly: http://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/comments/pbjk1/what_are_the_small_lifestyle_changes_youve_made/c3o3ejr http://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/comments/pbjk1/what_are_the_...
- mitjak 14y ago
  Fascinating. I remember that comment very well, but have forgotten about it since reading it. Thanks the reminder.
bharad 14y ago
I use a plugin in firefox (my default browser) called leechblock [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/leechblock/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/leechblock/] and use a inspirational block page with links to my personal projects. ]The beauty of this plugin lies in the ability to configure time zones. You can say - block <insert your site here> after 1min, every six hours. I am sure there is an equivalent in chrome.
ToesByNoon 14y ago
Ditching Reddit was the best thing I've done in a while. I started feeling like I had to know every second what was going on. I found it really freeing.
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einhverfr 14y ago
I don't really know what social media is well enough to say I would go without it. I am simplifying it and getting off Facebook though (Strangely about a month ago I just quit signing on-- I suppose I should announce to people that I am no longer going to be there.) But social media can be a larger thing. Email lists, discussion forums like this, blogs, etc. Some of those are central to my ability to stay informed and some are central to my actual productive work. I don't know you can separate email lists from something like Hackers News. So I am separating things into three piles. 1) Discard: Facebook 2) Check 1-2 times/day (HN, a few blogs) 3) Check occasionally (LinkedIn, etc) I haven't gotten on the Twitter bandwagon, so I don't have any experience with that.
pazimzadeh 14y ago
But you're the CTO at Twitpic? Do you still want your company to do well?
chj 14y ago
It reminds me that Knuth was on an information diet since 90s -- no email at all.
cynthiaherald 14y ago
Facebook, like most other social media platforms, are tools. You can use tools to benefit or enhance your life or you can use it to destroy or negatively affect your life. Money is a tool, for example. Other than that though, this was a great article and I'd be interested to start a similar experiment. I do think you if you are more purposeful with social media, you can still be as productive and do cool things like the writer did.
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Danll 14y ago
I have yet to read an obituary (even one of a young person killed in an accident) where FB was ever mentioned as being a hobby or passion or an admirable part of the deceased's life.

196 points by stevencorona 14y ago

I enjoyed this writeup and it's well-timed for me. I'm going to try it! Anything you would add to the blacklist that you didn't initially?

stevencorona 14y ago
* Facebook/Reddit/Twitter/HackerNews (sorry) * delete your twitter/facebook clients from your phone * delete RSS reader (I still checked Google Reader, but browsed selectively every 4-5 days)
p4lto 14y ago
Same, sounds like a good idea.
uptown 14y ago
RSS is the big time-sink for me. It never stops, and I feel the need to clean it out.
charliepark 14y ago
If 30 days is too much, we're launching a free app that lets you cut off social media for 30 minutes at a time. https://monotask.com https://monotask.com (downloadable now) We also have a pro version that lets you customize your whitelist and blacklist. We hope you use the time to make some awesome stuff!
- tommi 14y ago
  Amazing! If you can charge 10 dollars a month for something which really doesn't do much and for which there are many free alternatives (some even provided by you) then I applaud. Do you have any paying customers at the moment?
  - charliepark 14y ago
    We're just launching the pro version now. The parent post is more promotion than just about anything we've done so far. But I'm a fan of transparency, and would be happy to share numbers in a month or three.
- avirambm 14y ago
  Mac users can also use http://visitsteve.com/made/selfcontrol/ http://visitsteve.com/made/selfcontrol/

fmitchell0 14y ago

(spoiler) i lived life. the end.

stevencorona 14y ago
elegantly put. but it's funny how much of our lives we live with our eyes shut.

kanamekun 14y ago

This essay could also be called, "Life in the 80s (and early 90s) for most people." Back then, you had to be relatively informed to have access to "social media" (i.e. Usenet, gopher, BBS). It's amazing how much productivity has been disrupted by social media. There are of course huge upsides as well, but sometimes I wonder if the full downside is recognized. A lot of people I know do very little work in the workplace, as they spend all day on Twitter and Facebook. They get around IT bans by using their smartphones... sometimes I wonder if the only thing running corporations these days is automated software.

dhughes 14y ago
I was a news hound in the 80s which was great because TV news didn't suck. Another 80s early 90s information device was the magazine, there were tons of magazines which were mostly killed off by the Internet. Social media is a whole lot of everything and 1% substance on a good day. It's a habit it's like Entertainment Tonight you sit there and one day think "why am I watching this?". That actually happened to me in the late 80s I realized I had a half smile grin Joker sort of thing watching banal celebrity news. These days instead of a dumb smile it's my left elbow with osteoarthritis from leaning on it reading about cats, rage faces and other memes or arguing with strangers over things 5000km away.
- timc3 14y ago
  It did suck, you just didn't have nothing to compare it to.
- toemetoch 14y ago
  Ditched my TV last week and have been cutting back on my internet habit when I'm home for a while now. I suddenly have hours of free time every evening and I'm re-discovering magazines. But you're right, lots of them have been under pressure or have disappeared. One thing I found out about myself is that internet made me lazy. These days I find it easier to read short articles - online articles used to get bookmarked and never read. I'm also trying harder to work on stuff without the net. I'm in electronics/embedded and I used to click around for every little thing. Now I sit down with pencil & paper again until I crack it by hand.

sp332 14y ago

Paul Miller, one of The Verge's editors, is taking one year off from the Internet. He's blogging about it (via a USB stick that someone else publishes from) https://www.theverge.com/label/offline https://www.theverge.com/label/offline It's very interesting, especially "Ghost Limbs" and "Ignorance".

keithpeter 14y ago
I've been following this, there is a hacker news thread about it, and The Verge have published a P.O. box for Mr Miller. I'm hacking out a letter over the weekend (typed, on onionskin paper, on my uncle's Olivetti). I use Miller's page with teenagers (I'm a teacher); and the article here will be added to my collection. The pitch is 'control and focus your attention'.

will_lam 14y ago

Great post - I've been using RescueTime to be more mindful of how I spend my time and curb my social media use.. Great idea to have a 30 day challenge

Paul_S 14y ago

I was about to say I just spent my lifetime without social media but I had no idea Hacker News was social media too. I guess that's good. Means I'm getting on with the times and not living in the 80s as one commenter put it.

jmduke 14y ago

This is a great blog post -- I can't help but feel like its an argument less against social media and more about how we use social media. I think it's particularly ironic that he singled out Reddit for providing "absolutely 0 value to me", since Reddit's original use was a news aggregator devoted to separating signal from noise. Nowadays, its a place for people to spout memes.

bostonpete 14y ago
I dunno -- I haven't actively used reddit in a couple of years but I remember it always being pretty meme-heavy... (that and an unhealthy obsession with comparing reddit to digg, though I'm guessing that theme has fallen by the wayside)
dwc 14y ago
I use reddit, but I had to unsubscribe from most of the default subreddits, and also from a few subreddits that I'd hand picked. It's a shame, but it's difficult to get programming news from reddit these days. Apart from silly memes, it's sipping from a firehose. So these days I largely stick to the backwaters where there's a much smaller amount of total content and good signal:noise.
graue 14y ago
I'd argue though that a news aggregator can separate signal from noise and still provide no value. On HN I catch myself reading very well-written, thoroughly researched and fascinating articles... that have nothing to do with my life. That takes time away from _doing_ things, like the writing and painting OP accomplished on his info diet.
jtrdk 14y ago
> Nowadays, its a place for people to spout memes. You have to groom your subreddit subscriptions. My picks: askscience, 1000words, linguistics, science, somethingimade, DepthHub, books. All these largely contain interesting and productive discussions.

peterwwillis 14y ago

I ditched Facebook, and while I miss the ease of social engagement (getting invited to events via friend-spam was nice, since most people never invite me personally) i'm glad for no longer needing to constantly check my feed. However, I noticed that Twitter and Hacker News tend to replace Facebook in that way, so I may follow your lead and ditch those too. But I sometimes find myself in a bar, searching through the internet, trying to find something to read rather than make conversation with a stranger. So i'm going to go one step further and ditch my smartphone. (Protip: Google supports syncing contacts/calendars using SyncML and S60 devices) I'm not sure how well I will do without Google Maps and GPS to be my Hitchiker's Guidebook, but something tells me that not knowing where your going will lead to a more interesting destination. Or, since I live in Baltimore, getting shot. Either way it's an adventure.

Tomis02 14y ago
Baltimore, eh? Get to live your own Homicide - Life on the street moment.

mycodebreaks 14y ago

I understand the urge to keep away from facebook or twitter. However, Hacker News is very important resource for career and personal development IMHO. Since I came to know about Hacker News, my life has changed. Not only I stay away from social media such as facebook, twitter, but also I am away from news websites such as cnn and bbc.And, let me say, it is very good for mind and body to not consume so much news.

sigkill 14y ago
My sarcasm meter is faulty. Are you being sarcastic, or genuinely serious?
- mycodebreaks 14y ago
  I am genuinely serious. You can trust your judgement that your sarcasm meter is faulty. :-)
  - edwinnathaniel 14y ago
    There will be a point where HN could hurt you. So it's like that bell curve where you feel reading HN would help you but one side of the bell curve is a downward side and that's where you'll learn that HN is becoming more and more like any other aggregation sites out there. - been here since late 2006
- mhartl 14y ago
  I'm confident he's serious, and I feel much the same way. I use cperciva's Hacker News Daily (http://www.daemonology.net/hn-daily/ http://www.daemonology.net/hn-daily/) to help avoid spending too much time at Hacker News and to make sure I don't miss any big stories.
  - sigkill 14y ago
    Hey thanks for the link. It looks useful.

physcab 14y ago

I stopped using Facebook last November. It's been a fantastic experience. Whether you realize it or not, FB changes your emotional health. FB used to make me oddly depressed. Its like sitting in front of the TV and feasting on Sour Patch Kids for two hours. I would sit there staring at how awesome people's lives were and wonder why I wasn't doing such awesome things myself. I heard about the passing of family members from family friends before family members would have a chance to tell me personally. After I stopped going to FB my important friends started CALLING me. Can you believe that? They picked up the phone and CALLED me. I went out to dinner more. I stopped engaging in those destructive conversations like "Can you believe so-and-so's status message..." There have been some drawbacks though. I don't always hear about last-minute parties. I don't get to see the pictures my friends take from events. And I don't have the luxury of sending a message to someone I don't quite know very well who wouldn't have my phone number or e-mail, most likely through group activities like Crossfit that I'm a member of. But all things considered, ditching Facebook is highly recommended.

mtgx 14y ago
I think this whole "social networking" thing will start to fade soon, as people increasingly realize that it's not "cool" anymore, and that they don't really need it, other perhaps than checking their accounts twice a year. So this whole discussion about whether Google+ or other company can beat Facebook or not might be irrelevant, if the whole social networking "industry" collapses in the next 5 years.
- gorydetails 14y ago
  I agree. This whole "Internet" thing is highly overrated. Also, "electricity" and "clean water."
  - eostyx 14y ago
    You ass. You can't compare things that are essential to a functioning economy to be compared to annoying background noise like '"social" networking'. It more closely related to TV and online media. Both of which are incredibly draining and mind numbing. Try going without TV for a year and take up a productive/creative hobby.

digitalzombie 14y ago

Giving values and more hobbies? OP sounds like he's doing PUA's inner game stuff. I guess I'm a bit on the high horse since, I can do social media, and still be able to Judo, workout (6 days a week with insanity,gym, and hiking), dance at clubs, hang out with friends, self help stuff, and study for fun. I don't think social media is the problem but his lack of discipline. And everybody is jumping on the bandwagon "Whooa he's right! It's all social media fault." Hello, what you do with your time is up to you, it's not social media fault at all. It's your lack of time management skill.

justjimmy 14y ago
Hmm… I don't think that what the author was getting at. I felt it was more closely aligned with the point that social media put some of wall/distance between us and our connections/relationships - in the sense that we are assimilating stories of our friends through status updates instead of a more personal face to face interaction. ie: Getting the news your friend is pregnant through status update vs. them breaking the news to you face to face and the emotions that happens as you congratulate and hug them.
AznHisoka 14y ago
Of course it's not social media's fault. he's just saying, it brings about certain tendencies in him that he wants to change. Just like being in a casino brings about tendencies to gamble, or being in a McDonalds brings about tendencies to eat unhealthy.

GrantCov 14y ago

I ditched Facebook for about 8 months (I've been back since January) last year and it was incredibly liberating. As a result of my complete withdrawal for such a long period I don't check nearly as much as I previously did, although I must admit I have been starting to slip back into old habits. Also when I re-activated my Facebook I also joined Twitter which I now spent far too much time on. Despite some regression, I still feel that by having taken such an extended hiatus I am far less addicted to receiving the constant stream of information, as I once was. This post has inspired me to take some steps to make sure I don't completely revert to the state I was ~1.5 years ago. I too plan to be more consciousness of my Twitter/Facebook/Reddit usage and not just spend large chunks of time mindlessly browsing them, when I could be doing some productive. Great post, thanks for the reminder!

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timc3 14y ago

Balance and moderation. You can still use it, just not be obsessive.

thebigshane 14y ago

I'm not sure which corporate internet filter application our building uses (I think Sophos?) or if they use their own custom rules or subscribe else where but, steve corona, your entire site is blocked to me as: Access to the web page you were trying to visit has been blocked in accordance with company policy. Please contact your system administrator if you believe this is in error. URL: stevecorona.com/how-30-days-without-social-media-changed-my-life Category: adult-and-pornography

RobAtticus 14y ago
Corona being a type of beer categorizes it as "adult" perhaps? Unfortunate.
stevencorona 14y ago
Maybe it's because of my running naked blog post, haha. That sucks though, I swear I'm not a porn site.

drivebyacct2 14y ago

Does anyone else spend like 20 seconds 5 times a day on Facebook or are we all really only capable of none or 3 hours a day?

davegauer 14y ago
Ha ha. I actually have a running joke now. I log into Facebook about once a day with a hearty, "time to check Facebook!" About 30-40 seconds later when I've skimmed the latest posts, I quit with a boisterous, "well, that was great!" I'm assuming that anyone who can spend more than ten minutes on Facebook has way more friends than I do, and/or those friends are much more prolific than mine.
- drivebyacct2 14y ago
  Or more interesting. I have a small number of friends and an even smaller number that I allow to see updates from. And even then, I rarely do more than scroll to wherever I left off last time or lose interest before I even get there. I have the same reaction as you do most days. Oh well, sure glad I checked that! (not). Google+ is actually the opposite. There is such a tech focus from the people I follow that there are demo videos, technical papers, etc that I want to read but don't. Certainly not this, I'm happy because other people are, nonsense.

keiferski 14y ago

Meanwhile, in the real world, millions of people use Facebook to keep in touch with friends, share photos, and set up events, in addition to meeting in person. Defining yourself by not using something is no better than defining yourself by using it. Just let go and accept that it's a useful tool, nothing more, nothing less.

gwern 14y ago

I agree short breaks are good ideas: they can give you time to mull over the things you've learned and seen, for ideas to finally sprout, etc. But to extend this to any broader theses like 'you should quit social media' is unwarranted; for a counter anecdote, I'm reminded of Hamming's You and Your Research http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html > Another trait, it took me a while to notice. I noticed the following facts about people who work with the door open or the door closed. I notice that if you have the door to your office closed, you get more work done today and tomorrow, and you are more productive than most. But 10 years later somehow you don't know quite know what problems are worth working on; all the hard work you do is sort of tangential in importance. He who works with the door open gets all kinds of interruptions, but he also occasionally gets clues as to what the world is and what might be important. Now I cannot prove the cause and effect sequence because you might say, ``The closed door is symbolic of a closed mind.'' I don't know. But I can say there is a pretty good correlation between those who work with the doors open and those who ultimately do important things, although people who work with doors closed often work harder. Somehow they seem to work on slightly the wrong thing - not much, but enough that they miss fame.

giancarlofrison 14y ago

when you will discover the warm water, write a blog post and you will win the Pulitzer prize

pixie_ 14y ago

It's funny how he couldn't do any of these things before while using social media. This is BS. I knew even before clicking the link exactly what it would say. Incredibly cliche. Someone should write an article - Moderation. How does it work?

rwallace 14y ago
> It's funny how he couldn't do any of these things before while using social media. Yes, almost as if our brains evolved in an environment where social media didn't exist, such that social media constitute an exploit for a security vulnerability in our motivation systems. Oh wait, they do. > Incredibly cliche. So is "don't take drugs". Sometimes something is a cliche because it's both true and worth repeating. > Moderation. How does it work? Step one is to be lucky in the genetic lottery. Seriously, there are people who can indefinitely maintain a moderate habit with cookies, whiskey, cigarettes, cocaine, poker, television and Facebook; and there are people who can't, and need to go cold turkey. As it happens I'm one of the former (well I haven't tried it with cocaine, but I can do the others), but that doesn't make me a better person than the people who can't, just luckier. It's also worth noting some people have found going cold turkey for a while, was enough to break the addiction such that they could then go back cautiously, in moderation.
stevencorona 14y ago
ouch. so much negativity.

jakejake 14y ago

Giving up social media for 30 days (well except for using Facebook 5 times). That doesn't really sound like giving up social media at all.

powerslave12r 14y ago
I go to facebook.com probably 5 times in less than 5 minutes. To me, that is giving up social media. I'm sure I'm not alone.

100k 14y ago

Last week, I tried to make producing something instead of consuming something the first thing I did in the morning. Practically, this meant working on a bunch of blog posts that I've had queued up for ages, plus actually writing about those "a ha" moments you have at work. It was really great and I felt good all day. I was inspired by a Reddit comment I stuck in my Evernote a long time ago, but unearthed somewhat randomly: http://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/comments/pbjk1/what_are_the_small_lifestyle_changes_youve_made/c3o3ejr http://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/comments/pbjk1/what_are_the_...

mitjak 14y ago
Fascinating. I remember that comment very well, but have forgotten about it since reading it. Thanks the reminder.

bharad 14y ago

I use a plugin in firefox (my default browser) called leechblock [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/leechblock/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/leechblock/] and use a inspirational block page with links to my personal projects. ]The beauty of this plugin lies in the ability to configure time zones. You can say - block <insert your site here> after 1min, every six hours. I am sure there is an equivalent in chrome.

ToesByNoon 14y ago

Ditching Reddit was the best thing I've done in a while. I started feeling like I had to know every second what was going on. I found it really freeing.

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einhverfr 14y ago

I don't really know what social media is well enough to say I would go without it. I am simplifying it and getting off Facebook though (Strangely about a month ago I just quit signing on-- I suppose I should announce to people that I am no longer going to be there.) But social media can be a larger thing. Email lists, discussion forums like this, blogs, etc. Some of those are central to my ability to stay informed and some are central to my actual productive work. I don't know you can separate email lists from something like Hackers News. So I am separating things into three piles. 1) Discard: Facebook 2) Check 1-2 times/day (HN, a few blogs) 3) Check occasionally (LinkedIn, etc) I haven't gotten on the Twitter bandwagon, so I don't have any experience with that.

pazimzadeh 14y ago

But you're the CTO at Twitpic? Do you still want your company to do well?

chj 14y ago

It reminds me that Knuth was on an information diet since 90s -- no email at all.

cynthiaherald 14y ago

Facebook, like most other social media platforms, are tools. You can use tools to benefit or enhance your life or you can use it to destroy or negatively affect your life. Money is a tool, for example. Other than that though, this was a great article and I'd be interested to start a similar experiment. I do think you if you are more purposeful with social media, you can still be as productive and do cool things like the writer did.

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Danll 14y ago

I have yet to read an obituary (even one of a young person killed in an accident) where FB was ever mentioned as being a hobby or passion or an admirable part of the deceased's life.