3 ms·

My "problem" is more with Youtube: lots of quality (to me) content that I find educational (history, science) and entertaining.

amelius 10mo ago
I hope those kids in Australia still have access to that kind of content.
- klatchex_too 10mo ago
  They mostly do. They just can't log in or comment. Anything that you can see without logging in, they will still have access to.
lordleft 10mo ago
The irony is if I quit social media, I start devouring youtube, including both high quality video essays and general video slop. If I quit youtube, I'm inclined to binge watch TV. I sometimes wonder if I need a more dramatic act of "unplugging." As writer Manu Joseph says on substack: "Yet, I do not believe it is true that attention spans have changed significantly over the decades. People’s minds have always wandered. They have always struggled to focus. And most of them couldn’t bear to spend too much time with their own minds. The real world, outside the phone, is so glorified today. But consider this thing that happens in the real world. You’re at a party and someone comes up and says that inane but useful thing, “What’s up?” And even as you answer, he looks behind you for something more interesting, which is never there. This has happened for decades, and not just in conversations. In everything people did, they looked beyond to see if there was something more interesting, which they never found." ... "I don’t say there is no substance to the lament about modern attention spans. The fact that human attention was always fragile does not diminish the fact that the modern world has created extraordinary tools to facilitate distraction. A distraction is a kind of boredom that looks like entertainment, which saves you momentarily from another kind of boredom. Today, a slab of metal and glass at nearly everyone’s disposal captures the wandering mind and carries it far away, to some limbo. You could be working and reach for your phone, or an icon on your laptop, and suddenly ten minutes of your life are gone just like that." https://manujoseph.substack.com/p/the-world-is-wrong-about-your-attention https://manujoseph.substack.com/p/the-world-is-wrong-about-y...
- mjow 10mo ago
  That rings true to me as an observation, but the trouble with the smartphones and social media is not just that we happily consume it and have always been susceptible to mindless distraction, it's that the devices and services are actively designed to pull you back in and for as long as possible as much as possible. Books don't do that, TV does that poorly if it does try.
- seec 10mo ago
  Yep, it's just that the world is extremely competitive, and you are constantly forced to think about your “productivity.” If you are not hustling and generating some value, you are “wasting time.” Of course, that's nonsense. You are living your life to do whatever you want with it, and if that's spending a lot of time on social media, you just need to be OK with that (as in, it is a conscious choice, not an addiction).
kamaal 10mo ago
>>lots of quality (to me) content that I find educational (history, science) and entertaining. This seems to be a tug of war- that is- information vs distraction I remember in the 1990s India it was quite common to view kids from homes that had TV/Cable TV as kids who were bad at academics, and distracted without focus. OTOH, as time passed people realised those kids had better english speaking skills, vocabulary and general awareness of the world. So extreme focus didn't quite work out as well as people though it would. In the modern context I know quite a few people with laser sharp productivity and get lots of work done. But here's what 'wasting' time on Twitter has led me down rabbit holes in the Stock market that has opened up newer earning opportunities. So its not as simple as saying social media is distracting. Extreme focus does work when your work is individually measured and judged. And the pay off is immense. Other wise you are better off doing something to keep the wheels spinning while finding more things that can be rewarding.
- seec 10mo ago
  Pretty much. People seem to think progress is linear and need razor-sharp focus on a single thing at once. I don't think it's the case at all; in fact, most good things seem to have come from mistakes or luck.
mjow 10mo ago
I also consume a lot of youtube content and after the first on-ramp became wary of just how much time I was spending with it. Here's a solution that worked magic for me for controlling it: use adblock origin or another plugin to block the video thumbnails from loading on the landing page. Ever since I've done this I've felt so much more in control of my youtube consumption. I land on the homepage, I click on each individual subscription that has new content and decide whether I want to watch it now or later and typically that's it. Sometimes I'll go, I wonder if someone has done an interesting piece on the latest F1 news and specifically search for that.

amelius 10mo ago

I hope those kids in Australia still have access to that kind of content.

klatchex_too 10mo ago
They mostly do. They just can't log in or comment. Anything that you can see without logging in, they will still have access to.

lordleft 10mo ago

The irony is if I quit social media, I start devouring youtube, including both high quality video essays and general video slop. If I quit youtube, I'm inclined to binge watch TV. I sometimes wonder if I need a more dramatic act of "unplugging." As writer Manu Joseph says on substack: "Yet, I do not believe it is true that attention spans have changed significantly over the decades. People’s minds have always wandered. They have always struggled to focus. And most of them couldn’t bear to spend too much time with their own minds. The real world, outside the phone, is so glorified today. But consider this thing that happens in the real world. You’re at a party and someone comes up and says that inane but useful thing, “What’s up?” And even as you answer, he looks behind you for something more interesting, which is never there. This has happened for decades, and not just in conversations. In everything people did, they looked beyond to see if there was something more interesting, which they never found." ... "I don’t say there is no substance to the lament about modern attention spans. The fact that human attention was always fragile does not diminish the fact that the modern world has created extraordinary tools to facilitate distraction. A distraction is a kind of boredom that looks like entertainment, which saves you momentarily from another kind of boredom. Today, a slab of metal and glass at nearly everyone’s disposal captures the wandering mind and carries it far away, to some limbo. You could be working and reach for your phone, or an icon on your laptop, and suddenly ten minutes of your life are gone just like that." https://manujoseph.substack.com/p/the-world-is-wrong-about-your-attention https://manujoseph.substack.com/p/the-world-is-wrong-about-y...

mjow 10mo ago
That rings true to me as an observation, but the trouble with the smartphones and social media is not just that we happily consume it and have always been susceptible to mindless distraction, it's that the devices and services are actively designed to pull you back in and for as long as possible as much as possible. Books don't do that, TV does that poorly if it does try.
seec 10mo ago
Yep, it's just that the world is extremely competitive, and you are constantly forced to think about your “productivity.” If you are not hustling and generating some value, you are “wasting time.” Of course, that's nonsense. You are living your life to do whatever you want with it, and if that's spending a lot of time on social media, you just need to be OK with that (as in, it is a conscious choice, not an addiction).

kamaal 10mo ago

>>lots of quality (to me) content that I find educational (history, science) and entertaining. This seems to be a tug of war- that is- information vs distraction I remember in the 1990s India it was quite common to view kids from homes that had TV/Cable TV as kids who were bad at academics, and distracted without focus. OTOH, as time passed people realised those kids had better english speaking skills, vocabulary and general awareness of the world. So extreme focus didn't quite work out as well as people though it would. In the modern context I know quite a few people with laser sharp productivity and get lots of work done. But here's what 'wasting' time on Twitter has led me down rabbit holes in the Stock market that has opened up newer earning opportunities. So its not as simple as saying social media is distracting. Extreme focus does work when your work is individually measured and judged. And the pay off is immense. Other wise you are better off doing something to keep the wheels spinning while finding more things that can be rewarding.

seec 10mo ago
Pretty much. People seem to think progress is linear and need razor-sharp focus on a single thing at once. I don't think it's the case at all; in fact, most good things seem to have come from mistakes or luck.

mjow 10mo ago

I also consume a lot of youtube content and after the first on-ramp became wary of just how much time I was spending with it. Here's a solution that worked magic for me for controlling it: use adblock origin or another plugin to block the video thumbnails from loading on the landing page. Ever since I've done this I've felt so much more in control of my youtube consumption. I land on the homepage, I click on each individual subscription that has new content and decide whether I want to watch it now or later and typically that's it. Sometimes I'll go, I wonder if someone has done an interesting piece on the latest F1 news and specifically search for that.