Hacker News Reader

Comment by ethnologica | Hacker News Reader

•You are what you consume - People, music, news, etc. If you mostly consume the “positive” side of life, your mindset will follow. •Moving upwards in society is not as easy as I thought. “Classes” reproduce themselves in the dress of habitus. •You can only rely on yourself. “Friends” are stage of life companions. •Finding a partner in crime seems like a tough task - don’t settle with someone, who you are only with to not feel lonely. •Your phone won’t make you happy. Risk a glance to the left and right. •Politics will make you depressed. If you are not going to be a politician let things be.

View on HN

> You are what you consume

I'd like to highlight this – especially for those searching for insight in the comments.

Pick and choose what media & content you consume. The adage "you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with" applies directly to media.

Over the past ~6 months I've filtered a lot of stuff I read. I don't read online arguments. I don't read much political content. I try not to read anything that won't leave me feeling better afterwards.

This has lead to a marked improvement in my attitude and approach to life – I'm a much more positive person. Attitude changes have huge run-on effects in your life – my personal and professional relationships benefited hugely.

>> I don't read online arguments.

Don’t you simply bored with those? I genuinely find them incredibly formulaic and then I just stop reading - most of the opinions are barely worth a dime unless the author actually did some homework supporting what they say.

Especially on YouTube, there are quite a lot of people whose opinions are not calculated, fact-backed and experience-baked, who merely say things because they gotta say it.

> Politics will make you depressed. If you are not going to be a politician let things be.

Unfortunately, while you are ignoring politics your boss, your landlord, your insurance company etcetera aren't. So by ignoring politics you are leaving it to them. And that is something you probably can't afford.

I think it is a sliding scale where local politics are more important and national/global politics are a backdrop. Heck, when I was in California, my state vote mattered none due to how districts were drawn. My vote very much does not matter at the national level. However, my voice and vote can be important locally (city, county).

>> "Politics will make you depressed. If you are not going to be a politician let things be."

I would suggest a modification: follow newsletters for organizations focused on rights you consider important. I follow the ACLU so I know when politicians try to legislate people I care about out of public life (or life period). The EFF is important for the same reason since digital rights are key to advocacy in the 21st century.

SCOTUSBlog's newsletter is good too. They track cases that made it all the way through to the highest court and have the biggest potential impact.

You either pay attention or find yourself on the boot end because you weren't paying attention as everyone less safe got carted away. Politics can't be avoided, but you can set boundaries on how you stay informed.

Related to your first point: I added the following to my hosts file 4 months ago and haven't looked back.

0.0.0.0 www.youtube.com

0.0.0.0 youtube.com

0.0.0.0 googlevideo.com

0.0.0.0 ytimg.l.google.com

0.0.0.0 ytimg.com

0.0.0.0 youtube-ui.l.google.com

0.0.0.0 ytstatic.l.google.com

0.0.0.0 youtubei.googleapis.com

0.0.0.0 youtu.be

0.0.0.0 l.google.com

0.0.0.0 m.youtube.com

If someone sends me something, I'll watch it on my phone and I have a timer to limit YouTube on my phone to half an hour a day. My mental health has improved dramatically as a result.

YouTube is actually the one major social media network that has a more positive than negative psychological effect:

https://www.psychalive.org/worst-mental-health-instagram-fac...

It depends a lot on the person. I don't get distracted at all by anything on YouTube; it's about as entertaining as a library to me. Same with something like TvTropes. My distraction channels are forums like Reddit and FB.

Different people have different closed loops.

>>You are what you consume - People, music, news, etc.

Real life > HN > tech news > political news >= crazy uncles on antisocial media

A lot of HN is political and it has it's fair share of crazies.

A lot of the world is political and has its fair share of crazies. HN is a part of the world.

Maybe I haven't been here long enough to see the worst of it, but even with the political stuff I usually find the discussion is fairly nuanced and nowhere near as angry as the rest of the internet. But if there's another forum that you would recommend, I'm always open to recommendations.

I actually enjoy HN's crazies as they're from an angle that doesn't appear elsewhere.

Sometimes they are interesting, mostly it's just annoying.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com