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Maybe that’s true, but it doesn’t provide me with any comfort. I’m only going to live once. When I’m old and bound to a chair (hopefully due to frailty and not because a psychiatrist strapped me to it), I want to feel like I achieved something more than a passive human existence.

All these hours spent consuming forgettable garbage on Reddit, YouTube, Facebook, and in video games… these are hours not spent learning recipes, making music, writing programs, lifting weights, or practicing Spanish. If I could channel my energy towards these things, then the long-term payoff would be much more enriching. Not only that, but I’d probably be a happier person if I was disconnected from whatever daily drama social media wants me to care about.

If I spend the next 10 years of my life the way I spent the last 10, I’ll approach my midlife with no discernible talents, ambitions, or meaningful lived experiences.

> All these hours spent consuming forgettable garbage on Reddit, YouTube, Facebook, and in video games… these are hours not spent learning recipes, making music, writing programs, lifting weights, or practicing Spanish. If I could channel my energy towards these things, then the long-term payoff would be much more enriching. Not only that, but I’d probably be a happier person if I was disconnected from whatever daily drama social media wants me to care about.

I do all those things and I still waste a ton of time on Youtube.

And it's fine; your brain cannot dedicate all of its waking time to high-intensity intellectual endavours, you just end up burning out.

I worked full-time and studied for a few years. Remarkably, I still had a share of free time, but I couldn't do anything "productive" with it as I had no mental energy to do perform these tasks. You _have_ to just hang out and do nothing.

The most productive people I know waste a ton of time outside of their chosen specialty, and it's not a coincidence.

This is such a key insight. For me at least, “time management” is really about managing my energy levels more than anything.

You should spend as much time as possible on your phone / the internet. When you die you won't have access to it.

There are plenty of people who consider the alternative activities you listed just as meaningless.

But if you ACTUALLY want to do those things and you don't because of internet addiction. Then you need to break it.

Positive and / or negative reinforcement.

By some snack or drug or something you really like and set a goal of no scrolling for whatever is a reasonable time limit. If you achieve it have the treat. Gradually up the time limit and increase the reward.

Negative reinforcement would be harder. It has to be something you actually don't like and drive no sense of purpose from. A lot of people will do something like pushups, but then they just see it as the cost.

Possibly since your fear is wasting time, when you catch yourself doing it. Then purposefully waste time without scrolling. Like time out.

Your positive reinforcement can't be related to the addiction though.

You’re saying one thing and doing another.

It’s not on anybody but you if you end up living a passive human existence. Either change what you’re doing or accept that your dreams will stay dreams.

Their comment doesn't blame anyone for their situation.

If they see their comment as a negative thing (which I think it’s clear that they do), then lack of blame is exactly what you don’t want to see. They need to be blaming themselves, not nobody.

Self-blame doesn’t help in most cases. Self-recrimination easily leads to guilt, self-loathing, and defeatism.

I think most people would like if they could be productive 24/7 (or more realistically, consistently productive during their waking hours), but I think there is some amount of "waking rest" that humans need, or at least that modern human existence makes it hard to avoid.

This same post could have been written 30 years ago, but it would be about mindlessly switching channels on the TV, watching vapid sitcoms interrupted by a handful of commercials you've seen dozens of times.

Maybe before that people would read the local fish-wrap newspaper or same stupid book they've read dozens of times.

I agree with this. Not to mention that being idle still involves complex thought processes, like treating traumas and understanding concepts.

>Watch some livestreams of lions on youtube, what do they do? 99% of the time they just sit under a tree doing absolutely nothing, and I bet they don't feel guilty about it

Lions are at peace with the world. They sit around with clear minds, watching nature go by. They are content with the world and their place within it.

This is absolutely not the same as a human who spends 4 hours a day doomscrolling through twitter and reddit and can't help checking their phone every 5 minutes.

> Lions are at peace with the world. They sit around with clear minds, watching nature go by. They are content with the world and their place within it.

Maybe for an adult lion at the peak of its powers. An elderly lion will end his days alone, cast out from the pack, surviving on its fading wits until....

The point is that lions are chasing down prey 100% of the time, and so humans also don’t need to be actively doing something 100% of the time either. Doomscrolling isn’t a great example, but is comparable to the leisure of lions.

The point I was trying to make is that even within "unproductive time" there are extremely healthy, and extremely unhealthy ways to spend it.

Someone introduced me to the idea of "mental diet" a while ago. I find it to be an interesting concept. We know not to spend hours of our time eating junk food because it's not good for our physical health, why do we never consider our mental health in a similar way?

Doomscrolling is just filling your brain up with mental junk. Most content on the modern internet is just mental junk honestly. And spending hours reading and getting invested in all of this crap really does affect your headspace for the rest of the day.

Lions, by comparison, have a very pure and healthy mental diet.

I feel like you are romanticising animal nature.

Maybe they're doomscrolling the environment or their own mind?

Do lions ignore prey if they're not hungry? I know younger cats usually want chase something if given the opportunity, regardless of whether they've eaten or not, or have access to food 24/7.

Older cats tend to just sit around and watch the environment, perhaps waiting for something to happen?

> People used to walk labyrinths for hours and hours, just to kill time.

I walk and ride bicycle just to kill time to this days

Excellent points and a fresh perspective.

We should be happy we have a few hours to "waste". Enjoy it instead of punishing yourself pointlessly.

If you wish to force yourself into a habit of doing something else instead -- take steps but also question the intent.

agreed. We are not a robot, but a living creature.

However, I think key part is how to shorten that idle time.

I am trying meditation for now, but I cannot see any improvement, unfortunately. Maybe I am missing something.

Return to monke. That is the solution.