Comment by HSO | Hacker News Reader

Comment by HSO | Hacker News Reader

Abstaining from "social media" is for amateurs!!! ;-)

Many years ago, I threw my TV out and it was one of the best decisions I've ever made.

Internet is the new TV.

I see the irony of writing this on HN but I really try to find the internet analogue for throwing out the TV.

The problem is that you need services like maps, online banking and tickets, mobile payments, etc.

What I want to get rid of though, completely, is news and noise. I tried and tried but self-regulation is too hard; I still waste so much time and poison my brain with all this crap; I think the time has come to try self-binding.

My current setup is to not have internet at home (where I work) except for a mobile connection, and to pull the SIM card out by default. I only put it back in when I need to do something specific (or when I am on the go, for maps).

Obviously, this is not a perfect solution yet (as I somehow found my way back to HN, grrr…) but I'm working on it.

I should probably get a dumbphone for emergencies, and I also want to habituate myself to a weekly rhythm where I bunch all the stuff (like emails, software updates, articles to be downloaded, references to be checked, etc) to one day a week (say Sat) and do all my "internet errands" in one go.

The rest of the time, I rely on my books and articles and downloaded documentations and offline Wikipedia. If I want to watch something, I can make a note and download the movie or entire season along with the other "internet groceries". To keep in touch with current events, I can read weekly news magazines. That also dials down the noise. Something like that. Interestingly, since I got a big tablet, I read news magazines like The Economist or Die Zeit in PDF format and it seems to also affect me somehow. There is no outside clicking and endless linkbait anymore, and I feel less monitored and stressed (even though I already have all these adblockers and Little Snitch and whatnot). It also gives me back a feeling of a natural end to my reading session when I reach the final pages of the PDF. On the web or online, the next article or curiosity is always right behind.

> What I want to get rid of though, completely, is news and noise.

Why? I'm being serious.

Everyone assumes that our lot in life is to be productive. For Americans it seems we need to be as productive as possible. It's untenable.

The most productive person is the one who dies at 40 because they didn't get enough sleep because they drank too much caffeine and augmented themselves with other drugs to maximize wakeful productivity. Is that worthwhile?

I can definitely see a problem with spending considerable amounts of time keeping up with social media because ultimately the thoughts, pictures, and videos posted by your "friends" aren't important. You, them, and everyone else will have long since forgotten what was posted in a week and nothing of value will be lost.

On the other hand, "keeping up with the news"--especially news in your industry--is important. There's a lot of things going on all the time that could make a huge difference in our lives and careers. Things we need to stay on top of not just because we care but because they have impact.

I don't know about you but at my job it is a common occurrence for me to solve problems with tools and techniques I've learned about through sites like HN. Keeping up with these sorts of things also gives you insight on how to schedule things. For example, if you just read that the next release of ProductX will include a feature that you need you probably won't bother to spend time writing your own implementation since it will be obsoleted soon.

Then there's the entertainment aspect: What's wrong with "wasting" time if you're enjoying yourself? I enjoy reading the news and the occasional entertaining Reddit post. When I laugh at a meme was my time truly "wasted"? Or perhaps the time I spent trying to discover "something good" was wasted?

"Getting things done" in spite is the opposite of happiness.

The main problem with this is - news(and social media) are optimized to grab your attention and sell you ads, not to help you with your work. And generally you only recall a small percent of the news anyway.

So there must be a better way.

>Then there's the entertainment aspect: What's wrong with "wasting" time if you're enjoying yourself?

About the entertainment aspect. I think the point here is following: modern web media/pics/etc is too attractive and people can't focus on things what really matter. Every website with "funny cats" tries very hard to retain you as user and your attention -> entertain you more. I think many people (myself included) fall in risk group and can't actually measure/control time spent on procrastination while browsing infinite number of subreddits or something for interesting stuff. Even when i really need things to be done - there is something that can immediately capture my attention. And I have to say I am not alone.

The root cause here is inability to focus on important things and finally quit procrastination.

I agree. When I watch TV now and see adverts they seem so transparent in their desire to manipulate me. And the people on the shows look ridiculous. Why are americans orange on TV? It's spread to the UK now - orange-itus.

Best thing I ever did was to get rid of TV. Having one is like inviting the worst people in the world round your house.

I think the internet might be next. I think I might offline things I want to learn. My phone can do for maps when I need it but for the rest it's a pain. I really should learn my TV lessons WRT the internet.

I'd say we should get an analog mailing list together for like-minded people, but I think we've all become too accustomed to 23ms response times to allow 1-3 days between messages.

Short answer to why people are orange: simplistic color correction schemes, overzealously applied during video editing. Priceonomics did a wonderful exposé of this trend recently.

http://priceonomics.com/why-every-movie-looks-sort-of-orange...

Interesting, but I was thinking more of USA orange news-casters.

Whilst I'm on my high horse, because I don't watch tv when I see CNN in our building lobby I always find it so weird how the reporters, especially the women, employ body language to emphasize their point. There is no volume on just the image and they are nodding so vociferously and making hand gestures. They look deranged.

They obviously all get taught this as a way to get their point across but look quite mad.

There are things you can cut out because much of the internet is self-perpetuated and relies on an odd combination of societal inclusion and apathy to continue to grow. Do you need to peruse others cat pictures endlessly everyday...no. TV is put there to placate people and much of the social internet is equally useful. But here I am posting this to HN but I can say that as a person without a facebook account so it is a matter of priority. I think Neal is right on!

I think the internet has a wonderful side - I've learned a tremendous amount on it. It also has a side similar to TV. You have to choose but sometimes the edges blur (as in my post TBH).

Agreed. For the last two years or so I've found myself weighting text-heavy websites like HN, or Reddit much more positively.

What I find disconcerting is that this shorthand seems entirely about ornamentation--the worry is that maybe some future TimeCube-like site will be subtle enough that it won't trigger my "is the author a kook" filter.

We have a TV but we don't get broadcast television, only on-demand. You don't have to invite the worst people in - for example we've sat down and watched the RI Christmas lectures (http://www.rigb.org/christmas-lectures) together.

We also use the TV for gaming/DVDs.

Initially we went cold turkey on the TV but then we used one for DVDs only and eventually slipped back to watching shows (primarily via BBC iPlayer). Partly because we hadn't accounted for the cost of the hobbies we dreamt of filling our time with; instead we continue to live vicariously through the on-screen experiences of others.

Sure - I also have a monitor so in a similar boat. And yes that is what TV is for - a mechanism to stoke demand and supply information.

I find a nice equivalent is to get rid of the browser. I'm still connected to the internet, but I find that non-browser based internet activity is usually higher-quality activity. I'm trying to move as much of what I do as possible out of the browser, into "something else". If there's no way to get it into "something else", that's often a good sign I don't need it.

I had the exact same idea. Problem is that on iOS there is no way to get rid of the browser. Also, I fear that even if it is possible on Android, I would be too weak: As long as it's "just software", I'll find a way around (like downloading the browser again if I feel the urge to check something, undoubtedly important and urgent, on the web).

On the flipside of the coin, physical nudges seem to work quite well for me. I can usually not be bothered to get up and fiddle with the SIM card. It's an experiment, we'll see how it goes.

You can get rid of Safari though. In Settings > General > Restrictions you can enable / disable Safari, Camera, iTunes Store etc. You can also block certain sites in Restrictions > Websites.

I use this feature to block news sites, forums, hn etc. It will prompt you for the restrictions pass, but I've found it's still enough for me to close the tab and do something else.

Just have someone else enter the passcode that enables the restrictions, that way you don't actually know it to be able to disable them.

Use your device's parental controls, set yourself up as the child, and pick some other random person to be the parent.

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