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Comment by cindarin | Hacker News Reader

I feel like I have read this same article two dozen times, each by a different author.

The internet and I grew up together; it's nearly always been a part of my life. I use the internet every day for several hours. My career involves constant use and access to the internet. I also get my news and communicate with friends via the internet.

All that said, I spend time away from the internet every day and not as some forced action to distance myself from it. I don't see the internet as some perverse addiction that I need to break. If I'm not working for a stretch of days, there's a good chance that I will not use the internet simply because no situation comes up that calls for it.

The idea that 3 days away is life and mind altering is deeply concerning to me.

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Speak for yourself, man, cause it can get bad. During the work week I can sometimes go from unconsciousness to TikTok to podcasts to web development to Zoom to Twitter to Spotify to YouTube and back to TikTok and then to sleep without any real breaks in between. One can get into this habit of exhausted yet nervous information seeking -- "doing without doing".

I think three days off might be just what I need.

There's some distinction between 'using the internet' and 'social media' (which is a somewhat nebulous term, possibly).

Could I go 3 days without 'social media' or 'socializing online'? Yeah - it might be a bit tough as it's definitely a habit, but... it's not 'vital'. I went to the beach last year and ... just sat and read a book. Got a phone call from my wife, which ... perhaps that's 'social media' in some sense? But I had a bit of time away from the standard online social places (including HN) and it was definitely doable.

Three days without 'internet access'... including driving navigation, banking, access to my health information, etc? That would be harder. Doable, but would definitely be a lot more noticeable. Would ideally plan for it a bit in advance :)

Okay then what's stopping you from deleting TikTok and quitting Twitter? Sounds like a hell you've created for yourself.

My opinionated guess is many people are afraid of being alone with their thoughts.

Or, maybe these platforms have A/B tested dopamine hits for its users? Nothing to do with being alone just engineered technology tapping into our normal brain function.

    Dave, your behavior indicates a possible existential crisis in the next hours.
    How about watching people making food in the most ridiculous way on TikTok?

To be fair, being alone with your thoughts can be scary. That's why even before the Internet we read cereal boxes during breakfast, or shampoo bottles in the toilet.

I bet you could find some science to back up that opinion because I deeply suspect that's by-design.

Put down the Heroin, John.

I am speaking for myself.

My concern is that when I read these articles, the authors often seem to be speaking for more than themselves. It seems as though they are projecting an unhealthy addiction on all members of society. I see that as likely incorrect and potentially harmful.

I'm not certain what's unhealthy about what you listed other than the self-imposed exhaustion. Humans have been exhausting themselves unhealthily long before the internet came about. If you feel you're doing so, by all means, find the way to give yourself the rest you need.

> It seems as though they are projecting an unhealthy addiction on all members of society. I see that as likely incorrect and potentially harmful.

There are always some folks who show up in these threads who seem to have perfect control. Or maybe a well developed ability to delude themselves, I have no idea.

But out in the real world, my observation is that probably better than 90% of random citizens are addicted to their phones and spend damn near every waking minute on them if there isn't something else to entertain them.

"But out in the real world" - What a dismissive thing to say. The commenter is in the real world. There are multiple types of people in the real world who deal with things differently. Why would you say that?

The only attitude here is yours. "The real world" means "not on HN", in other words out in public.

> Why would you say that?

Because it's true. Go out in public and tell me what fraction of people are buried in their phone. To a rough approximation, all of them.

I know I personally don't have anything near perfect control.

I'm not sure if I'm more likely than the regular person to be addicted to the internet because I'm so plugged in to the industry or less so because I "know how the sausage is made" and have been very conscious of my usage patterns over years.

Still, I agree that it seems to be a pervasive thing, and I do believe a little reset period like the author describes would, on average, do the population some good.

I think a lot of these articles come from a place of surprise more than necessarily projecting that everyone has the same issues: they recommend everyone try it because it becomes a surprise how much online activities have become the background radiation of our lives. We live with such things as absolutely normal every day things, "addicted" or not, and have stopped questioning their general place in our lives because they are just so "normal". It probably is fine that all of these things have so quickly become "normal", but it is noticeable how shocking it can feel when you take a break from the current "normal", and that probably is worth reminding people to try to take such breaks if only to also experience such "culture shocks". (Whether or not you projecting that as a societal "problem" or not.)

More than 50 years ago one prominent philosopher anticipated an increasing problem with "Future Shock" where the world has just changed so much so rapidly that people would have a harder and harder time dealing with technological life. (This was a spark that ignited a lot of Cyberpunk tropes in the 80s among other things.) With hindsight, it seems clear that we've intentionally and/or inadvertently "boiled the frog" better than philosopher's like that one anticipated. We made technological life the background normal of a huge populace. So much so that it is perhaps a lot more noticeable this sort of "Past Shock" where someone disconnects for long enough to feel it.

Speaking only for myself, about a decade ago I started taking advantage of some of my vacation time to entirely disconnect for at least a week. (In my case, by doing Caribbean cruises where data plans are so expensive to not be worth it.) It is shocking. It does feel healthy and useful to me and my mental health. I don't consider myself an "addict" and have taken a lot of steps to eliminate some of the worse "addictions" of modern internet life (I left Twitter for slower Mastodon feeds, Discord chats with chosen communities, and a broader return to RSS; I dropped all non-comedy news sources; as a couple examples), but there's still so much I take for granted in the current "normal" that is lovely to have at least one, shocking, week long break from each year. I would recommend it to other people. Not because I think other people are "addicted", quite the contrary, I think other people are "normal" and maybe just don't realize how hot the water is all around them (whether or not that's fine to be in such generally hot water; to abuse the metaphor a bit, as my vacations also remind me sometimes it's great to be in a hot tub or sauna for longer than is "strictly healthy" per posted signs, it feels normal and fun and if you don't dehydrate yourself or accidentally heat stroke in the process what was the harm).

(ETA: given some of the other comments in related threads, it may say something that for me it takes at least a full week to really feel the shock. Three days does seem too short to me. I don't know if that says my attempts to eliminate some "addictive" sources have worked better than I think they have or not, but anecdotally, it is interesting data to add.)

> to TikTok

That's your problem. I once logged into tiktok and found myself clicking next for four hours without blinking. Never again have I logged into this addictive platform. It's engineering to keep eyes on screen, scary.

> The idea that 3 days away is life and mind altering is deeply concerning to me.

I agree. I was left with the impression that the author could benefit from a therapist. It is a strange and unsettling concept to me that someone should be so emotionally vested in being connected to the Internet as much as possible.

Yeah, that sums it up pretty nicely. It's like tap water, I'm used to it being there and I use it without thinking about it. But there's no problem just going on a weekend (or week long) trip without any internet connectivity (unless you depend on your phone for navigation, but you get what I mean).

I am the same. Grew up with the Internet in the beginning of 90'. I have my phone always on silent and notifications mostly disabled. I work on a computer and online all day and have no issues with 'going away' from it. When on holiday I don't check personal email for a few days and work email - never.

When in company I find it disturbing that people pick up their phones to check messages/notifications, etc.

I still remember the time when it was not polite to talk in public on your mobile. Phone ringing in public was frowned upon. Much changed :)

I grew up before internet, but was an early adopter. I don't have a bad relationship with my phone/devices, but I am interested, when you say 'without internet', what do you mean?

For example: WhatsApp, Messenger, iMessage, Netflix, a lot of cable services (I just changed providers, their tv service now runs over wifi to the router with no option for a physical cable to connect to your tv) that now run on the 'internet'. You mean if you are not working, you don't interact with any of these services?

I don't mean that at all. That's the point. I happen to not use any of those services you listed, but I do use discord to communicate with friends, and I enjoy listening to podcasts/audiobooks for entertainment. It's more common than not that I am listening to a podcast or audiobook when I take my dog on long walks in the evening, but I just don't see that as a sign of an unhealthy addiction.

I think it might be worth making a distinction here between the Internet as a venue for communication and information, and the internet as a connection method. I wouldn't consider text messengers or cable services that connect over the internet as part of the Internet, any more than I would consider a VoIP landline to be part of the Internet.

I gave up my smartphone for several years. When I rejoined the smartphone world last spring it was weird to me how so many apps expected a constant connection, since I had grown accustomed to only having internet access at home and (sometimes) at work. My feature phone had a browser in the old-school mobile sense (Opera mini over 2G) but unless I really needed an answer to some question right away I would wait until I got home.

The main thing I noticed was that if there was something I wanted to learn more about, or look up an answer to, I need to remember it until computer time--and write it down if it's important. Usually it's not that important, and I ended up becoming more okay with not binging information immediately every time I had a craving for it.

It's possible that you are underestimating how much time you spend on the Internet and how often it punctuates your day.

I also don't like to think of myself as Internet addicted and like to believe I'm pretty self disciplined about my usage.

Even so, doing a 24-hour no media with my family led to an experience very similar to what the author describes here. I had no idea how often I was throwing away little five minute slices of my life to staring at my phone.

Not use the internet including to check email or chats or messages or Google random stuff or map to anywhere on your phone?

I've certainly been places where I've been out of cell reception for days at a time. Not frequently but I also wouldn't consider it some weird anomaly.

I can't hardly be bothered to check email when it's relevant to do so.

If the people I care to talk to are in the room with me at the time, I don't need to get on my phone. That's not always the case. Sometimes I will stick my nose in my phone in a public setting, and it's not intended as a slight. I just have a fancy in my head about something I'd like to go read about.

However, this is more to my point. My separation from the internet has never needed to be some all-encompassing effort. I have never thought about needing to make sure that there is absolutely 0% access for an extended period. If I go on a multi-day backpacking/camping trip, it's not to escape the internet, it's because I like being outdoors.

If I go on a backpack, I'll make sure I have paper and downloaded maps, have checked the weather forecast, have maybe told someone where I am, maybe have a paperback with me, etc. but mostly I won't have researched if I'm likely to have cell reception or not and that wouldn't factor into my decision about where to go in any case.

It's an offline weekend, shouldn't be that transcendent. There are places where you can take a vacation mostly offline, and a week or two like that should be enough to detoxify you of online addiction. Unfortunately, a week or two back can be enough to retoxify you.

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