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Comment by watercooler_guy | Hacker News Reader

Opinions such as the author’s are often mocked or attributed to an older, less tech-savy generation (see the “not a cell phone in sight, just people living in the moment” copypasta[0]). But I really think there’s something to this, as the author has found: having an internet-connected phone on you at all times makes it too easy to waste hours doing nothing in particular, instead of living your life. I’ve recently made it a personal policy to catch myself doing non-purposeful activity on my phone and put it away. And at least for me, my quality of life is better when my mind is not constantly abuzz with stimulation.

[0] https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/not-a-cell-phone-in-sight

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I occasionally find myself going in a feed-refresh cycle between apps. Anything new in this reddit group? What about RSS on theoldreader? Nope, HN? Podcasts? Oh well, back to reddit. It's almost impossible to pull myself out of, it has to be a real conscious effort.

Another stupid time-waster is reading about a thing I want to do, instead of just doing the thing. Such as reading opinions about some video game I already own, instead of just playing the game, or watching videos about playing guitar instead of actually doing it. I get cross at myself for how easily manipulated I am.

If you block them with an ad blocker, it gives you a second to rethink this reflex.

I'm blocking everything on DNS level, so I'm adding friction. If I really need to use some app / website, I have to unblock it – so it must be really worth it.

It happens to me when I have to study something new. I wasted so much time trying to find the perfect note-taking method, the perfect memorization method, debating digital vs paper notes, spaced repetition, blah blah blah. I find myself thinking that doing a slovenly job at learning would have been more productive that spending so much time "learning how to learn" to use the buzzwords du jour.

I used to be at the bleeding edge of tech and I refuse to move to a smartphone simply because of the distraction it causes. I have a real problem dealing with distractions as it is and adding such a device would make my life much harder. Tech is here to serve us, not the other way around and in the end what matters is whether or not a given piece of technology improves your life so much that the downsides are more than balanced out. For smartphones in my life that would be a net negative. Of course for others that equation works out differently.

I almost do nothing on my phone. When I go outside, it's natural for me to daydream when I'm sitting down on a bench or whatever. I think it's partly because of how shitty the web browsing experience on a phone is (I don't have any social media apps installed).

> catch myself doing non-purposeful activity on my phone and put it away

Then what do you do?

one reason i dont like using the internet is because i have to read this same "oh nooo the internet is distracting" shit over and over, even on a site about programming

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