Thanks Ted. One of the best things I ever did, probably 5 years ago now, is turn off all notifications on my phone. It’s hard enough to pry oneself away from apps which have spent billions in R&D to keep you there - but to allow them to beckon to you via a nudge like a notification seems rather silly.
The other thing which helped is to keep all social media apps off the Home Screen. You might open your phone to use the calculator, but the little red dots reminding you to check in, can be difficult to resist - so move them off entirely.
Finally, if/when you open the apps, do so consciously, with a set time in mind to allocate. Once the time is over, wrap it up. This can be difficult, as you’ve already explained- but maybe set a limit on the app and if you want to be more ruthless, ask a partner or friend to set the parental limit passcode 😂
Agree - turning off all notifications is absolutely essential. For me, even though I deleted the apps, because so much of my friend-network social activity was shared through social media, I found it impossible not to keep going back even after I'd deleted the apps (in my case, Facebook and Instagram). I would use the mobile browser once in a while, then more often, and then just as often as with the apps. Then I would re-install the apps, and then delete them again...
THEN, a friend showed me this technique, which has served me exceptionally well. It sounds ridiculous, because it "breaks" the very associations that these apps are built upon, which is your friend/follow list.
For Facebook, simply unfollow ALL of your non-essential friends and public profile Pages. Yes, Unfollow 98% of your friends. This is different from unfriending, as the people are not notified. You simply stop seeing their posts.
I unfollowed nearly 2000 people and another 500 pages, leaving just a handful of people whose posts I could NOT miss, and pages which offered unemotional (except funny) content. An easy way to do this over time, is to watch the birthday alerts each day, and simply to unfollow the friends whose birthday is that day. After 365 days, my Newsfeed was so boring that I only checked it once every few weeks, which was just like the good old days before I was addicted.
The other key is NEVER to Like or comment on others' Posts. Even when it's extremely compelling. And only Post if it's essential news. And if you must Post, ignore the comments. Otherwise the cycle begins again.
BTW I was an early employee at Facebook, where we used it for our entire lives and work, and even after leaving I was so addicted that it took me 2 years to find this healthy pattern
Even better, avoid the apps. I use the browser for everything (firefox android is the secret weapon - add ublock origin for near-perfect ad blocking). All the info is there, but most of the addictive mechanisms are not. Turn notifications off for the whole browser, and no site can even ask to nag you.
I did these three and they've worked great, and put the Kindle app where Twitter used to be so I'm reading more. Also in reading, for several years across ebooks and physical, I've deliberately chosen longer/more challenging books that require more concentration of me as a reader.
I run 4 or 5 days a week, and now consciously do at least one of those without music/podcast accompaniment.
I did a similar thing with my running. I recently noticed there's a lot of talk around water-proof speakers/earphones for swimmers, and I've always seen swimming as such a meditative quiet practice. We need to allow room for boredom.
Boredom, you got to love it. I have a ritual in the morning, rebounding while giving thanks. This activates the body, the lymphatic system that gets rid of toxins and gives me a good perspective. While doing it, One of my self created mantras, In Italian, is "nei momenti di noia si può amplificare la gioia" (in moments of boredom you can amplify joy).
Yes, 'boredom' is seen as a great mistake even for 7 year old students. They hate boredom. I teach them how it's a personal gift, and they need to create their own thoughts. Think for themselves. Set loose their imagination. Here's some paper. Write sentences and draw pictures. "It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see." ~ Henry David Thoreau
Unfortunately substack doesn't offer the option to turn off all notifications. I've tried, but no matter what I do, there's that red circle with the number in it begging for my attention...
So do I. I don't have the app, but there's no way to turn off all notifications on the web version either. (I'm talking here not about push notifications, but about the inter-website notifications -- that when I log in to do something on my own account, there's still a red circle with a number indicating that there are prizes for playing waiting for me. The slot machine effect.)
Oh that one, you're right I see it too, right now there's a green "16” at the top right on top of the hamburger menu. I don't know what 16 things could possibly be waiting for me there and I couldn't care less, bc I get notified of new posts in my RSS reader, that's the one I pay attention to.
If you want to turn those 16 things off: when you're on desktop, if you click on the little three lines next to your profile photo on the top right there's a dropdown menu. In that menu, click Settings towards the bottom. Within Settings, scroll down to Notifications and you should be able to toggle off just about anything you don't want to be notified of.
PS Oh, yeah, it might be green, which is a touch better than red. I have all my tech set to grayscale (highly recommend), so I just assumed it was red.
If you really like reading on the Substack phone app (as I do) but can’t resist the little “Unread” number in the corner of the icon (as I cannot), here’s another idea: put Substack in a folder. Put other distracting apps in that folder too, I have found no limit to the number of apps I can confine to one folder, and you only see 9 of them at a time when you page through that folder. This makes it easier to skim them fairly without always being drawn to the ones with “unread” badges, AND it hides all those badges until you are actively choosing to seek them out.
IG was on the third “page” in a folder on my home screen and I forgot about it for months! ;-) But when my daughter messages me on IG with grandbaby photos, it’s easy to find.
I don't have the app, (by choice for just that raeson). I just read on my browser. What I'm referring to is the notifications within the inbox/dashboard structure of substack and those can't be completely turned off.
(Ah, just checked and there is a badge on the folder, but it aggregates all the “unread” from all the apps in that folder. Sometimes the little circle is blank, sometimes it has a normal number (less than 10), sometimes it gets ridiculously high. But you know it’s a total and you don’t know how much is spam, how much is interesting but timesucking, and how much is photos of grandkids. Not knowing this defuses the urgency of it, the temptation. My brain screens it out so that in no longer notice it— but only because it is attached to a FOLDER not a specific app.
Hi Faith - This is a phone setting not an app setting. On iOS, you head over to settings>notifications and turn it all off - apps can't override this! Hope it works out!
Again, no it doesn't. I'm talking about in the actual dashboard/inbox, which is where I currently am. I've never had any kind of pop up notifications on my phone, that's not the issue. I'm referring to the internal notifications that substack gives me when I'm on the platform -- someone liked this, someone responded to that, etc. There seems to be no way to turn those off -- again, internally to substack. (And I'm on a laptop, not a phone.)
Yep. Thanks for the tip, though -- I do know a lot of people who don't seem to realise you can turn ALL notifications off on your phone. That's almost literally the first thing I do when I get a new one.
Faith, when you're on desktop, if you click on the little three lines next to your profile photo on the top right there's a dropdown menu. In that menu, click Settings towards the bottom. Within Settings, scroll down to Notifications and you should be able to toggle off just about anything you don't want to be notified of.
Absolutely! The decision making/willpower drain on one's energy level is relentless. A point Ted doesn't make about the power of ritual and repetition is how in addition to providing a reassuring rhythm it preserves one's energy by not requiring everything to be invented or decided anew.
I work in an art gallery and we not only ask folks to refrain from taking photos and making calls in the gallery (duh), we ask them to put the phones completely away and not even have them in their hands. For any reason they can think of. If phone use is needed, do it outside. I get the same reaction as asking a smoker for their cigs. Same exact. Some folks absolutely cannot manage just taking a 15 minute break from the phones. Cannot do it. It's amazing.
I never take pictures. My girlfriend and I always walk through a certain room and study the artworks after which we pick 1 to take a photo of that we like most.
I wish art galleries would offer phone-free evenings, or phone-free anything. Make them membership events to ensure compliance, have people check phones like they do at some concerts, and revel in the peace of contemplation, instead of endless impromptu photoshoots. There are so many of us who want to rein in phones, and this is going to become a status display at some point, don't you think?
Ugh. Wait until the things are implanted right into brains, and pics are taken just with a convenient bob of the head or something. An art gallery full of clout-chasing, chicken-bobbing narcissists. All sooo important and impressive to their fellow doomscrollers. I recall when folks were opposed to being wiretapped? I'm glad I'm not any younger I guess.
I wonder if it will be ten or twenty years before we, as a society, are able to regulate SM in a similar way or at least have people think to themselves, “Can you believe we used to let young kids spend hours consuming this stuff like it was no big deal?”
What we find is that if one phone comes up, then pop pop pop everybody's phones are out. It's just like smoking in the old days. I appreciate your more tactful use of the phone but it just doesn't work for us :-( I would have to say oh hey sir, can I help you, regarding your phone? Or something,.it's super awkward as hell. Ugh.
With regards to immersive experiences in music, I will highly recommend just listening to an album - ANY album - from start to finish instead of just the "good songs".
This can of course be hard to do, when the skip button and a new song is right there in front of you, but if you can find away around that, you are on the way to a better relationship with tech.
I'll drop in and recommend going back to vinyl. The tactile nature of it, the slowness, the ritual, reconnects to the power of music in a way that digital can't. It's not about the sound, per se -- I don't notice a difference there although others will insist they do and maybe that's so -- for me, it's about the mindfulness. And the practicality that it's hard to skip songs on a vinyl record, so it lends itself to listening all the way through.
Amen, sister. All of my original Beatles albums are in mono, even Sgt Pepper. It cost less at the time. Not only were they recorded for listening on mono and vinyl, vinyl analog music has a wholly different effect on brain that a digital CD. Vinyl best replicates live music. Besides, nowhere else can you get that messy “Cavern Club sound” but on mono vinyl.
I have the mono boxset on CD, but nothing on vinyl in mono yet -- because I confess, I adore Giles Martin's new mixes, even when they're stereo to mono (I output to a mono speaker)... Someday, I will have the complete catalog in original mono pressings... when it doesn't cost more than my trips to Liverpool...
I am very much in agreement here. I have a functional vinyl setup (not great, but decent), and it's an absolute pleasure to do "the ritual". One thing that DOES gnaw at me from the back of my mind though, is that playing the vinyl, ever so slightly degrades it. Not much, but enough to matter if one lives long enough.
CDs on the other hand are 100% "regeneratable". Every part of the jewel case and even the disc itself can be made "new" again with some basic skills, backups and spare parts.
This is also ritual. One which I presume is not for everyone, but I like keeping my library "shiny" :)
For me at least, that the vinyl degrades with play makes each play that much more meaningful. I'm aware of the record (if not the music itself, fortunately) as a finite pleasure.
I'll agree, and disagree. I had a collection of about five hundred LPs, the vast majority of which were only played once to record them on cassette. Two reasons: I love listening to good tunes on a good sound system in the car, and I could never get over the fact that, even when brand-new and played on my linear tracking turntable there were the inevitable pops and crackles. I now have about two hundred LPs and more than five hundred CDs. I do like being able to hear the whole album without having to run to the turntable and flip the platter.
We all have our hobgoblins, I get it!! Mine is the sound of stereo -- I just can't listen to music stereo because it hurts my brain. So everything is mono, which I know would drive other people insane.
Wow... That's interesting, and strange to me. I love a well-engineered recording that places you in the middle of the sound stage, one guitar on the left, backup singers all around, a drum roll from left to right, that all sound as if they're in a huge space. But, as you, I can relate.
I agree, treating albums like a good book to be consumed and enjoyed as a total experience is very rewarding. The tracks are in a certain order for a reason. We left the 70s-90s where people would buy entire albums and then in the 00’s with iTunes and Napster people would buy (or steal) songs, now in the 20s with Insta and TikTok people only listen to short selections of a song often sped up. It’s like offering up a book in chapters (or paragraphs) in random order or serving up a movie trailer and treating it like it’s the entire film.
I have a few millenial friends whose new big thing is collecting physical media. Yes, some vinyl, but more so CDs, DVDs and Blu-Rays. They are rediscovering the ritual of putting an object into a tray and pressing play. It's kind of sweet that some people have never done this. (I think 8-tracks would make their head explode.)
That is sweet :) I am actually not surprised though, as re-discovery of "a thing" usually happens organically after 10-20 years, if "the thing" is something that brings meaning or joy.
Exactly. I have a 2000 or so CD's loaded on to YouTube Music. I only listen to my library of CD's and a whole CD at a time. Although YTM keeps trying to tempt me to build playlists of favorite songs and listen to this person's playlist or that one.
The only time I listen to individual songs is when I listen to radio through the phone using the Radio Droid 2 app. Then I let someone choose the music for me.
I believe the "playlist pushing" is what Ted is trying to address.
I guess you could say I had an addiction to "music discovery" at some point, and decided I needed to scale it down in favor of actually listening to music in order to keep my sanity.
Agreed, that was my first thought when reading Ted's commentary. Albums are forty to fifty minute, or two twenty minute songs if you're listening to an LP. Listening to the "hits" leaves out to many of the really good songs that were never pushed by the record companies, and for me an leaves an incompleteness that seems like an itch I can't scratch.
Agree completely! There are an awful lot of 'good songs' on the B-side or buried in the middle of the album somewhere. I think one of the best hat tips to this idea is Jimmy Buffett's 'Songs You Know by Heart' which was followed up years later by 'Songs You Don't Know by Heart'!
You are correct about those "hidden gems." I am a bona fide Buttett fan. I have every studio album he released except "Buffett Hotel," and the only important (to me) live album, "You Had to Be There."
On a personal note, I've lost three very close friends since last May. Two from college who I had known for over forty years (one last Friday), and one (JB) who I'd known over fifty years "And on the eighth day God created... PIZZA!" (JB, "Bank of Bad Habits," on "Barometer Soup."
IF you listen to classical music none of those problems arise. When I want to spend and hr. listening to music, I listen to a Mahler symphony. Not for everyone, it's just an example and what I do. I used to listen to Jazz, but now it all sounds the same.
You can take the phone with you in Nature. It's good for taking photos. Just keep it in your pocket and make a policy NEVER to read/answer emails or texts or have conversations while on the trail.
The phone is also good for tracking hike metrics, like distance, altitude gained, heartrate, etc. I use free Strava with a chestband. I do 1000-1200 miles a year of hiking/jogging typically, all tracked on my phones.
I'm a wildlife tracker and there are certain apps that are really helpful for me--bird ID apps such as Merlin, iNaturalist to log sightings and track and sign, CalTopo or Gaia to record routes and such. What I like about these, though, is they just do their thing and are otherwise not intrusive, nor trying to get you to check them every 30 seconds. (There's a social aspect to iNaturalist but it's very low-key.) Plus photos of course. But using the phone just for these things and not to check socials or whatever is nice.
Yes. Phones now have the most amazing cameras. As an SLR user back in the day and a DSLR owner today, I am constantly amazed by the quality of photos you can get from a phone with knowledge of the most basic techniques. I have an extensive photo collection of amazing fungi, insects, leaves, bark, you name it that I've photographed on my walks.
My Mom had a lot of good sayings, like "This too, shall pass." She had another that, after reading your comments today you might consider helpful: "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."
Ever since Facebook introduced a TikTok like feature called Reels, it's captivated me. And especially when my brain is tired from my writing, I've been sucked into wasting hundreds of vain hours going from one little clip to another to another and another. In the Reels coma, I compulsively watch clips from TV shows that I never would have watched. (I don't even watch TV.) I watch clips that tout mineral oil as a miracle . . . Some of the interest is anthropological: How can these people waste their time thinking about these things they are filming (ignoring my own time wasting)? How can they make recipes hat would make you sick if you ate them? Years ago, I had another struggle with certain online games, that I would sometimes play all night long, which I finally beat. There really is a "they" out there, and they are inventing new seductions all the time. The problem is real.
If I didn't have Facebook, I would not be in contact with faraway friends and family. By managing FB pages, I earn part of my living. I don't have any truck with shorts on Youtube. Suggestion 3, might be a good idea. 4. I don't have any apps to delete. P.S. I am not asking for well-meaning advice. I was responding to Ted's observations with examples from my own life. I guess this will teach me that if I do reveal a weakness, the fixers will come out in droves.
My "advice" wasn't really targetted at you, despite being in response to your comment, but meant more as a generality. I guess intention is never quite clear in the written word. When I quit Facebook in 2015 I sent a DM to all of my closer contacts telling them that I was quitting and if they wanted to stay in touch I was happy to do so via text and email. Only a small handful responded. I initially sent them all short emails after that but only one of those actually has kept in touch. We have never met in person and we have an amazing friendship. As for the rest, doesn't matter, they weren't real friends to start with. My family stay in touch via text and I share cartoons and cat memes on Instagram (an app I use very sparingly) with my favourite niece, you could say it's our love language. Doomscrolling is real and I did get sucked down that tube when FB started to turn ugly. I'm an introvert and live in a very remote location. I realised I was socialising way more online than I ever would in real life and that it was sucking the life out of me. I also hated that I was going down link rabbit holes and wasting time. It was a deep personal realisation that I had been sucked in and that it wasn't what I wanted. From then I deleted FB and only stay on IG to post my art works.
I must say - I feel so out of all of this. (And I don't mind) A phone has never been more than a phone to me. But nowadays I don't get many calls & usually 2 out of 3 are unrecognized numbers I don't answer. I do send & receive a couple texts in an average day - from my kids or family or bizz things. Thats it. No apps. I have always taken all the garbage off any PC or phone I have gotten. No notifications . Location off when ever possible (imagine that).
I was on my My Space ages ago. Was told it would enhance Business. It didn't. Have never been on any other social media since that waste of time. I'm not what you call your standard Luddite. Had one of 1st PC's back in 85. Way back when, before the mass phone addiction - I was the guy who family & friends always came to for help when they screwed up something in their PC. Always used tech in Music & Art. I have always enjoyed Tech stuff. What is called tech nowadays isn't really tech to me , it is just mass psychosis / mass phone addiction
Winner winner, chicken dinner! You win the Ted G. interweb for the day. I've never had a cell "more advanced" than a flip phone. True story: My boss was pissed because an irate client sent an e-mail one weekend and I didn't respond because flip phone. He wanted me to get one. My response was that he could provide one for me, but I'd turn it off every day at five o'clock, on at eight a.m., and it would remain off between Friday afternoon and Monday morning... Unless he wanted to pay me as much as a heart surgeon makes. He never brought it up again. And I, as you, rely on technology and embrace it. There's no way to be a registered architect without it. Finally, sometimes I miss the nuts-and-bolts simplicity of DOS, being able to tell the OS how you want it to work, instead of it doing mysterious things for unknown reasons.
I've learned an awful lot from watching videos. From how to tile my bathroom and kitchen, to woodworking, various art techniques and current affairs presented by independent journalists. I wouldn't get rid of access to videos for anything. Just because some video content is of the "look at me while I pose in my filter-afflicted body" variety, doesn't mean it's all garbage. Ever heard the term, "throwing the baby out with the bath water"?
You're spending an awful lot of time commenting on other people's comments. And seemingly in the middle of the night, so not practicing what you preach. Troll?
I got sucked in to reels as well. For FB, I added the "Newsfeed Eradicator" extension. When you log in, all you see is a pithy/inspirational quote. You can still check out all of your groups, friends, & pages, but you have to actively go look for them.
That might help. My feed used to be manageable. Now it goes on and on and on, and I keep trying to catch up so as to not miss interesting posts from friends. How can i get that?
I really appreciate your honesty and take on how your life & habits relate to this article. I found it to be very relatable! Even those of us with awareness and good intention can get sucked into endless scrolling. Your awareness is inspiring!
Hey Roseanne, wasn't going to comment until I saw all the other comments, and sheesh! people are being so rude to you! Thanks for sharing your struggle. I have the same problem, those reels are insidious! And one thing I have learned is that the kind of shame that these other commenters are trying to spread is actually counterproductive. These apps were specifically designed to be irresistible so they are very difficult to resist. Who'da thunk?
The reality is that to function in society you need a smart phone. So how do you stay sober when you're pretty much required to carry around the addicting substance at all times? Asking for a friend.
That was my point. I am an example of how well the purveyors of addiction are succeeding. But I haven't lost the battle. And you're right about the shaming from those who feel above it all. Doesn't help. But then consider how unable they seem to be to refrain from offering advice when it isn't called for in what I thought was a discussion among intelligent people.
I am not blaming. And I'm not asking for advice. You seem to be hectoring me. I was responding to Ted's theses by giving specific examples from my own life. Your righteous indignation about my failings, which I share with many, mean you apparently are immune, and so practical minded you incisively can get right to the core of how to fix my problems—with an irrelevant solution. I need my phone. I don't do any addictive behavior on my little screen. I think you mean well. But. Thanks, anyway.
I work on a computer. When I get tired, it's easy for me to start randomly looking at reels. I'm not going to smash my computer. However, to avoid random compulsive tv watching I simply don't have any TV reception.
Beat ya! I stopped watching the idiot box in 1993, and still don’t feel like I have missed anything significant. I can’t participate in nostalgic recollections of Seinfeld and Happy Days episodes, but it is a price I am willing to pay.
Taking yourself back from this addiction will involve doing lots of things that are not easy. You smell smoke, and there is a fire. It's your life! How did we all survive without Reels before?
Because the device isn’t the problem, it’s the apps that are designed to be addictive that are the problem. With your analogy we would get rid of all syringes even though they are very necessary for administering medicines, blood tests, etc. We do tons of unhealthy things each day (eating refined sugar, manufactured food products, sitting in chairs for too long, typing too much) where banning them from society would be impossible, unnecessary or extreme.
You talk about destroying devices as if that were a rational solution. I’m not muddling anything—and protecting oneself from endemic technologies is not always as simple as opting out.
Assuming that the only reason I disagree with your flawed logic is because I have a social media problem, is not only incorrect it’s obtuse. Eliminating smartphones for those who you feel lack the fortitude to resist SM’s ills still doesn’t address the ubiquity of it’s influence and it’s naive of you to believe that you are invulnerable simply because you don’t log in. Social media is responsible for shaping elections, invoking financial collapses, and triggering mental health emergencies all of which affect those who also choose to opt out. These tools are here to stay, but their detrimental impact on society will change as we find new ways to use them differently and learn to create better protections. I do take issue with your earlier attack on an internet stranger simply because she self-identified herself as being susceptible to a known and designed feature of social media. To believe that simply removing (or destroying) the screen addresses anything is thick.
I remember reading a while back about a person who, before he went on the internet in any capacity, wrote down on a piece of paper what he was going online for. He'd cross things off like a checklist and then log off.
At that time, I thought it was a little nutty, but in the years since, it's increasingly wise. I don't do it every time, but having a clear sense for why I'm logging on and what I'm logging on to accomplish helps me to remember the technology is supposed to be there as a tool to help me with an intended purpose or task.
I had the fortune of living for one winter in a small coastal town walking distance from a library open only limited hours and no internet at home. That's what I did and it was lovely.
We left the city about 6 years ago (when it was still affordable to buy a couple acres). There is just too much to do, and no time to waste it “scrolling”. The beauty of life is in the mundane - feeding the chickens, picking the weeds, learning extreme patience through watching the carrots grow, throwing a ball to the dog. We figured out how to live on one income (mine, a remote-worker, secretary), and I have to tell you - it is a blissful life. You figure out how to be content with what you have. Please put the phones away, there is so much to do!!
I knew for me it was getting out of hand. I called rotting my brain. I made the decison to do a social media fast and logged out of my accounts. I really do not miss it. I find myelf enjoying other activities and not wasting my day. The fast was supposed to last a week, I am on week 4.
I appreciate your article and how it is a growing problem and it's very real.
This Edward Abbey quote is long, but it is spot on. Substitute “cell phones “for desk calculators”.
“One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast....a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards.”
1. Audit your day. Write down everything you do, no matter how small. Then, go to your devices, and list the ones you used that day. Finally, look at your usage history of those devices. Write down all the apps you used.
2. Write down all activities and apps used into one column. Create three on the right beside this one labeled "reality," "technology" and "dopamine." Make a check mark beside each activity to indicate what kind of activity it is.
3. Look at your list. Lopsided? Look back at the "technology" and "dopamine" ones, and ask how you can do an analogous activity in reality. Some examples:
Instagram -> photo walk
LinkedIn -> Go see a talk, or speak with a colleague in-person
Video games -> Convert to couch multiplayer to play with friends in the same room
Spotify -> Vinyl
It's not practical to never use these apps or do these technology-aided activities again. The point is to get some direction as to how to mix it up for the sake of your humanity.
Also: learning the names of the trees/flowers/plants that you encounter every single day is a fantastic way to combat the tendency to be a Screen Zombie. I call it "Considering the Lilies" in this short piece https://shannonhood.substack.com/p/considering-the-lilies
I use tech. It's a tool. A very useful tool but it's a means to an end not an end in and of itself. I use it for accessing the goods and services that are of use to me in my real life. Then I put it to one side and go outside and listen to the birds sing.
Oh I agree wholeheartedly and it's too early to see clearly how it will pan out in the short or long term other than it will undoubtedly cause seismic change. I practise a strict arms length stance with many aspects of the net. I keep my exposure to a bare minimum. No social media with this being the single exception and I am not going to utilise this space for anything other than occasional comments on others posts.
> But my goals here are very limited—we can’t change the world.
Wrong!
> So I am speaking to you person-to-person about what we can change in our own lives.
That's how you change the world. When some of us change ourselves, the world changes. The change overall may be small but everyone who changes represents a change in a part of the world.
I often find I need to make this point and it's weird for me since it seems so obvious. "We can't change the culture here." and I reply "Yes, we can. When you and I change how we behave, the culture has changed."
Thank you for your concern :^) No, I think not. I don't want to seem all wet but I'll risk it: We are the world, the society, the community or whatever. It is up to us.
It is terrifying to consider but also hopeful and empowering. This way of thinking also reminds me of my responsibility to change myself and to use my influence to change others, if I can.
In addition to dopamine addiction to scrolling, I think there is also a dopamine addiction to arguing in comments and some folks throwing stones at the people struggling with scrolling are living in some shiny glass houses.
So much right on the mark. I agree with your suggestions, most of all the one about cultivating skills in the real world. And playing an instrument, even if only as a basic amateur - but one that responds to body motions; programming music doesn't do it.
For my online life, I've just followed my intuition. When social media (Fb and the rest) came up and became big, I had a look and viscerally rejected it. So I just keep browsing the web as if social media had never been invented. No X, no Fb or Insta or TikTok. No feeds at all, and no recommendation systems (with one exception below). I read a bunch of substacks but treat them like old fashioned blogs, and I get them via RSS. Feedly (RSS reader) is my daily hub to find what's new in the places I've chosen to sub. Discovery goes the slow old fashioned way, via links from one author to another.
The one exception is Youtube, which I use only for music and talks on specific subjects. I regularly discover music thru YT suggestions, but the cardinal rule there is: autoplay off.
That could sound a bit too radical or luddite-ish, so let me temper a bit: I'm not against any particular communication channel, it's only some interaction dynamics that I reject.
So of course if I needed Fb to keep in touch with some people, I would do just that - at times I've had to join a Fb page to be part of some group. What I do then is open it only in an incognito tab on the computer, for as long as I need.
Here also browser extensions are an under-appreciated ally. You can use them to remove unwanted stuff from the big websites, e.g remove all feeds and suggestions, and leave just what you are following.
It won’t be feasible, affordable or even desirable to some but one way to reduce news based doomscrolling etc is to mostly limit current affairs consumption to reading a good old fashioned newspaper/magazine (for all their faults). The medium feels a lot calmer and is obviously without the addictive properties of a smartphone whatever.
Thanks Ted. One of the best things I ever did, probably 5 years ago now, is turn off all notifications on my phone. It’s hard enough to pry oneself away from apps which have spent billions in R&D to keep you there - but to allow them to beckon to you via a nudge like a notification seems rather silly.
The other thing which helped is to keep all social media apps off the Home Screen. You might open your phone to use the calculator, but the little red dots reminding you to check in, can be difficult to resist - so move them off entirely.
Finally, if/when you open the apps, do so consciously, with a set time in mind to allocate. Once the time is over, wrap it up. This can be difficult, as you’ve already explained- but maybe set a limit on the app and if you want to be more ruthless, ask a partner or friend to set the parental limit passcode 😂
Came here to say the same thing. Turning off Badges, Notifications, etc. makes a huge difference, and is a great place for people to start.
Agree - turning off all notifications is absolutely essential. For me, even though I deleted the apps, because so much of my friend-network social activity was shared through social media, I found it impossible not to keep going back even after I'd deleted the apps (in my case, Facebook and Instagram). I would use the mobile browser once in a while, then more often, and then just as often as with the apps. Then I would re-install the apps, and then delete them again...
THEN, a friend showed me this technique, which has served me exceptionally well. It sounds ridiculous, because it "breaks" the very associations that these apps are built upon, which is your friend/follow list.
For Facebook, simply unfollow ALL of your non-essential friends and public profile Pages. Yes, Unfollow 98% of your friends. This is different from unfriending, as the people are not notified. You simply stop seeing their posts.
I unfollowed nearly 2000 people and another 500 pages, leaving just a handful of people whose posts I could NOT miss, and pages which offered unemotional (except funny) content. An easy way to do this over time, is to watch the birthday alerts each day, and simply to unfollow the friends whose birthday is that day. After 365 days, my Newsfeed was so boring that I only checked it once every few weeks, which was just like the good old days before I was addicted.
The other key is NEVER to Like or comment on others' Posts. Even when it's extremely compelling. And only Post if it's essential news. And if you must Post, ignore the comments. Otherwise the cycle begins again.
BTW I was an early employee at Facebook, where we used it for our entire lives and work, and even after leaving I was so addicted that it took me 2 years to find this healthy pattern
Even better, avoid the apps. I use the browser for everything (firefox android is the secret weapon - add ublock origin for near-perfect ad blocking). All the info is there, but most of the addictive mechanisms are not. Turn notifications off for the whole browser, and no site can even ask to nag you.
Me too!
I’ve turned off my notifications on my phone for a couple of years now. It really removes a lot of anxiety as well.
I did these three and they've worked great, and put the Kindle app where Twitter used to be so I'm reading more. Also in reading, for several years across ebooks and physical, I've deliberately chosen longer/more challenging books that require more concentration of me as a reader.
I run 4 or 5 days a week, and now consciously do at least one of those without music/podcast accompaniment.
I did a similar thing with my running. I recently noticed there's a lot of talk around water-proof speakers/earphones for swimmers, and I've always seen swimming as such a meditative quiet practice. We need to allow room for boredom.
Boredom, you got to love it. I have a ritual in the morning, rebounding while giving thanks. This activates the body, the lymphatic system that gets rid of toxins and gives me a good perspective. While doing it, One of my self created mantras, In Italian, is "nei momenti di noia si può amplificare la gioia" (in moments of boredom you can amplify joy).
Yes, 'boredom' is seen as a great mistake even for 7 year old students. They hate boredom. I teach them how it's a personal gift, and they need to create their own thoughts. Think for themselves. Set loose their imagination. Here's some paper. Write sentences and draw pictures. "It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see." ~ Henry David Thoreau
Unfortunately substack doesn't offer the option to turn off all notifications. I've tried, but no matter what I do, there's that red circle with the number in it begging for my attention...
I just read it in the browser - mobile or pc. Replacing a lot of apps for browser tabs gives them a good defang.
So do I. I don't have the app, but there's no way to turn off all notifications on the web version either. (I'm talking here not about push notifications, but about the inter-website notifications -- that when I log in to do something on my own account, there's still a red circle with a number indicating that there are prizes for playing waiting for me. The slot machine effect.)
Oh that one, you're right I see it too, right now there's a green "16” at the top right on top of the hamburger menu. I don't know what 16 things could possibly be waiting for me there and I couldn't care less, bc I get notified of new posts in my RSS reader, that's the one I pay attention to.
If you want to turn those 16 things off: when you're on desktop, if you click on the little three lines next to your profile photo on the top right there's a dropdown menu. In that menu, click Settings towards the bottom. Within Settings, scroll down to Notifications and you should be able to toggle off just about anything you don't want to be notified of.
You'd think, but from what I've been able to tell, it only turns off email notifications, not the ones internal to substack.
PS Oh, yeah, it might be green, which is a touch better than red. I have all my tech set to grayscale (highly recommend), so I just assumed it was red.
You have clearly passed the marshmallow test, whereas I... do not. 😎
If you really like reading on the Substack phone app (as I do) but can’t resist the little “Unread” number in the corner of the icon (as I cannot), here’s another idea: put Substack in a folder. Put other distracting apps in that folder too, I have found no limit to the number of apps I can confine to one folder, and you only see 9 of them at a time when you page through that folder. This makes it easier to skim them fairly without always being drawn to the ones with “unread” badges, AND it hides all those badges until you are actively choosing to seek them out.
IG was on the third “page” in a folder on my home screen and I forgot about it for months! ;-) But when my daughter messages me on IG with grandbaby photos, it’s easy to find.
I don't have the app, (by choice for just that raeson). I just read on my browser. What I'm referring to is the notifications within the inbox/dashboard structure of substack and those can't be completely turned off.
(Ah, just checked and there is a badge on the folder, but it aggregates all the “unread” from all the apps in that folder. Sometimes the little circle is blank, sometimes it has a normal number (less than 10), sometimes it gets ridiculously high. But you know it’s a total and you don’t know how much is spam, how much is interesting but timesucking, and how much is photos of grandkids. Not knowing this defuses the urgency of it, the temptation. My brain screens it out so that in no longer notice it— but only because it is attached to a FOLDER not a specific app.
I hope this helps!
Same for me. I’ve removed the Substack app and use the browser on my phone and iPad.
Hi Faith - This is a phone setting not an app setting. On iOS, you head over to settings>notifications and turn it all off - apps can't override this! Hope it works out!
That's all I did. I don't see anything now, thank the gods. I check when I choose to, not when some algorithm decides I have had enough peace!
Thank you for this!
Again, no it doesn't. I'm talking about in the actual dashboard/inbox, which is where I currently am. I've never had any kind of pop up notifications on my phone, that's not the issue. I'm referring to the internal notifications that substack gives me when I'm on the platform -- someone liked this, someone responded to that, etc. There seems to be no way to turn those off -- again, internally to substack. (And I'm on a laptop, not a phone.)
Ah, right, gotcha. Once you're in, you're doomed it seems!
Yep. Thanks for the tip, though -- I do know a lot of people who don't seem to realise you can turn ALL notifications off on your phone. That's almost literally the first thing I do when I get a new one.
Same :) !!
Faith, when you're on desktop, if you click on the little three lines next to your profile photo on the top right there's a dropdown menu. In that menu, click Settings towards the bottom. Within Settings, scroll down to Notifications and you should be able to toggle off just about anything you don't want to be notified of.
Absolutely! The decision making/willpower drain on one's energy level is relentless. A point Ted doesn't make about the power of ritual and repetition is how in addition to providing a reassuring rhythm it preserves one's energy by not requiring everything to be invented or decided anew.
😂 lemme guess, you’re Amish?
You do you, doc! 🥂
I work in an art gallery and we not only ask folks to refrain from taking photos and making calls in the gallery (duh), we ask them to put the phones completely away and not even have them in their hands. For any reason they can think of. If phone use is needed, do it outside. I get the same reaction as asking a smoker for their cigs. Same exact. Some folks absolutely cannot manage just taking a 15 minute break from the phones. Cannot do it. It's amazing.
I’ve seen many visitors to art galleries take pictures of paintings and then walk off without actually looking at the painting itself! It’s insane!
I never take pictures. My girlfriend and I always walk through a certain room and study the artworks after which we pick 1 to take a photo of that we like most.
I wish art galleries would offer phone-free evenings, or phone-free anything. Make them membership events to ensure compliance, have people check phones like they do at some concerts, and revel in the peace of contemplation, instead of endless impromptu photoshoots. There are so many of us who want to rein in phones, and this is going to become a status display at some point, don't you think?
Ugh. Wait until the things are implanted right into brains, and pics are taken just with a convenient bob of the head or something. An art gallery full of clout-chasing, chicken-bobbing narcissists. All sooo important and impressive to their fellow doomscrollers. I recall when folks were opposed to being wiretapped? I'm glad I'm not any younger I guess.
Loved the cigarettes metaphor.
I wonder if it will be ten or twenty years before we, as a society, are able to regulate SM in a similar way or at least have people think to themselves, “Can you believe we used to let young kids spend hours consuming this stuff like it was no big deal?”
The AI drivel being cranked out for TODDLERS now is alarming. Yikes.
What we find is that if one phone comes up, then pop pop pop everybody's phones are out. It's just like smoking in the old days. I appreciate your more tactful use of the phone but it just doesn't work for us :-( I would have to say oh hey sir, can I help you, regarding your phone? Or something,.it's super awkward as hell. Ugh.
This is great. Thank you from the heart!
With regards to immersive experiences in music, I will highly recommend just listening to an album - ANY album - from start to finish instead of just the "good songs".
This can of course be hard to do, when the skip button and a new song is right there in front of you, but if you can find away around that, you are on the way to a better relationship with tech.
I'll drop in and recommend going back to vinyl. The tactile nature of it, the slowness, the ritual, reconnects to the power of music in a way that digital can't. It's not about the sound, per se -- I don't notice a difference there although others will insist they do and maybe that's so -- for me, it's about the mindfulness. And the practicality that it's hard to skip songs on a vinyl record, so it lends itself to listening all the way through.
Amen, sister. All of my original Beatles albums are in mono, even Sgt Pepper. It cost less at the time. Not only were they recorded for listening on mono and vinyl, vinyl analog music has a wholly different effect on brain that a digital CD. Vinyl best replicates live music. Besides, nowhere else can you get that messy “Cavern Club sound” but on mono vinyl.
I have the mono boxset on CD, but nothing on vinyl in mono yet -- because I confess, I adore Giles Martin's new mixes, even when they're stereo to mono (I output to a mono speaker)... Someday, I will have the complete catalog in original mono pressings... when it doesn't cost more than my trips to Liverpool...
BTW, if you haven't stopped by the Abbey yet, please do. You'd be most welcome. Here's a piece on that Cavern Club sound... https://www.beatlesabbey.com/p/knee-tremblers-and-mystery-cults
Also BTW, no "even" about Sgt Pepper at all. Until the 2017 remixes, mono was the ONLY way to listen to that album, by a wide margin.
I am very much in agreement here. I have a functional vinyl setup (not great, but decent), and it's an absolute pleasure to do "the ritual". One thing that DOES gnaw at me from the back of my mind though, is that playing the vinyl, ever so slightly degrades it. Not much, but enough to matter if one lives long enough.
CDs on the other hand are 100% "regeneratable". Every part of the jewel case and even the disc itself can be made "new" again with some basic skills, backups and spare parts.
This is also ritual. One which I presume is not for everyone, but I like keeping my library "shiny" :)
For me at least, that the vinyl degrades with play makes each play that much more meaningful. I'm aware of the record (if not the music itself, fortunately) as a finite pleasure.
I'll agree, and disagree. I had a collection of about five hundred LPs, the vast majority of which were only played once to record them on cassette. Two reasons: I love listening to good tunes on a good sound system in the car, and I could never get over the fact that, even when brand-new and played on my linear tracking turntable there were the inevitable pops and crackles. I now have about two hundred LPs and more than five hundred CDs. I do like being able to hear the whole album without having to run to the turntable and flip the platter.
I rarely hear the crackle, but when I do, I smile because it's so... real. #embracethecrackle 😎
Sorry, I just can't due to my overbearing OCD and anal retentiveness. They're a part of me that can't be removed... Which drives my wife crazy.
We all have our hobgoblins, I get it!! Mine is the sound of stereo -- I just can't listen to music stereo because it hurts my brain. So everything is mono, which I know would drive other people insane.
Wow... That's interesting, and strange to me. I love a well-engineered recording that places you in the middle of the sound stage, one guitar on the left, backup singers all around, a drum roll from left to right, that all sound as if they're in a huge space. But, as you, I can relate.
I agree, treating albums like a good book to be consumed and enjoyed as a total experience is very rewarding. The tracks are in a certain order for a reason. We left the 70s-90s where people would buy entire albums and then in the 00’s with iTunes and Napster people would buy (or steal) songs, now in the 20s with Insta and TikTok people only listen to short selections of a song often sped up. It’s like offering up a book in chapters (or paragraphs) in random order or serving up a movie trailer and treating it like it’s the entire film.
I have a few millenial friends whose new big thing is collecting physical media. Yes, some vinyl, but more so CDs, DVDs and Blu-Rays. They are rediscovering the ritual of putting an object into a tray and pressing play. It's kind of sweet that some people have never done this. (I think 8-tracks would make their head explode.)
That is sweet :) I am actually not surprised though, as re-discovery of "a thing" usually happens organically after 10-20 years, if "the thing" is something that brings meaning or joy.
Exactly. I have a 2000 or so CD's loaded on to YouTube Music. I only listen to my library of CD's and a whole CD at a time. Although YTM keeps trying to tempt me to build playlists of favorite songs and listen to this person's playlist or that one.
The only time I listen to individual songs is when I listen to radio through the phone using the Radio Droid 2 app. Then I let someone choose the music for me.
I believe the "playlist pushing" is what Ted is trying to address.
I guess you could say I had an addiction to "music discovery" at some point, and decided I needed to scale it down in favor of actually listening to music in order to keep my sanity.
I have written about it here:
https://backtobasic.substack.com/p/music-may-yet-save-our-humanity
Create your own lengthy playlists.
Agreed, that was my first thought when reading Ted's commentary. Albums are forty to fifty minute, or two twenty minute songs if you're listening to an LP. Listening to the "hits" leaves out to many of the really good songs that were never pushed by the record companies, and for me an leaves an incompleteness that seems like an itch I can't scratch.
Not any album. I flat refuse to listen to side B of Tarkus.
Agree completely! There are an awful lot of 'good songs' on the B-side or buried in the middle of the album somewhere. I think one of the best hat tips to this idea is Jimmy Buffett's 'Songs You Know by Heart' which was followed up years later by 'Songs You Don't Know by Heart'!
You are correct about those "hidden gems." I am a bona fide Buttett fan. I have every studio album he released except "Buffett Hotel," and the only important (to me) live album, "You Had to Be There."
On a personal note, I've lost three very close friends since last May. Two from college who I had known for over forty years (one last Friday), and one (JB) who I'd known over fifty years "And on the eighth day God created... PIZZA!" (JB, "Bank of Bad Habits," on "Barometer Soup."
IF you listen to classical music none of those problems arise. When I want to spend and hr. listening to music, I listen to a Mahler symphony. Not for everyone, it's just an example and what I do. I used to listen to Jazz, but now it all sounds the same.
I’m with you on the Mahler symphonies. What a great way to deeply enter a space for over an hour.
Take a walk in nature without your phone and you might be surprised at how much is going on.
You can take the phone with you in Nature. It's good for taking photos. Just keep it in your pocket and make a policy NEVER to read/answer emails or texts or have conversations while on the trail.
The phone is also good for tracking hike metrics, like distance, altitude gained, heartrate, etc. I use free Strava with a chestband. I do 1000-1200 miles a year of hiking/jogging typically, all tracked on my phones.
I'm a wildlife tracker and there are certain apps that are really helpful for me--bird ID apps such as Merlin, iNaturalist to log sightings and track and sign, CalTopo or Gaia to record routes and such. What I like about these, though, is they just do their thing and are otherwise not intrusive, nor trying to get you to check them every 30 seconds. (There's a social aspect to iNaturalist but it's very low-key.) Plus photos of course. But using the phone just for these things and not to check socials or whatever is nice.
Yes. Phones now have the most amazing cameras. As an SLR user back in the day and a DSLR owner today, I am constantly amazed by the quality of photos you can get from a phone with knowledge of the most basic techniques. I have an extensive photo collection of amazing fungi, insects, leaves, bark, you name it that I've photographed on my walks.
Walking in nature doesn’t seem to do much for you in terms of engaging civilly with other humans but thanks for your observations.
My Mom had a lot of good sayings, like "This too, shall pass." She had another that, after reading your comments today you might consider helpful: "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."
Like mother, like son. Apparently.
If, in your opinion, everyone here is such a moron, why do you continue to argue?
👆🏻toxicity 👆🏻
Ever since Facebook introduced a TikTok like feature called Reels, it's captivated me. And especially when my brain is tired from my writing, I've been sucked into wasting hundreds of vain hours going from one little clip to another to another and another. In the Reels coma, I compulsively watch clips from TV shows that I never would have watched. (I don't even watch TV.) I watch clips that tout mineral oil as a miracle . . . Some of the interest is anthropological: How can these people waste their time thinking about these things they are filming (ignoring my own time wasting)? How can they make recipes hat would make you sick if you ate them? Years ago, I had another struggle with certain online games, that I would sometimes play all night long, which I finally beat. There really is a "they" out there, and they are inventing new seductions all the time. The problem is real.
Here's a couple of pieces of advice:
1) get off facebook- it is a cesspool
2) block shorts on youtube
3) Ask yourself, will watching this enrich my life? No? Don't watch
4) If you are compelled to watch reels on any other social media, and you literally can't resist, delete those apps.
There, problem solved.
If I didn't have Facebook, I would not be in contact with faraway friends and family. By managing FB pages, I earn part of my living. I don't have any truck with shorts on Youtube. Suggestion 3, might be a good idea. 4. I don't have any apps to delete. P.S. I am not asking for well-meaning advice. I was responding to Ted's observations with examples from my own life. I guess this will teach me that if I do reveal a weakness, the fixers will come out in droves.
My "advice" wasn't really targetted at you, despite being in response to your comment, but meant more as a generality. I guess intention is never quite clear in the written word. When I quit Facebook in 2015 I sent a DM to all of my closer contacts telling them that I was quitting and if they wanted to stay in touch I was happy to do so via text and email. Only a small handful responded. I initially sent them all short emails after that but only one of those actually has kept in touch. We have never met in person and we have an amazing friendship. As for the rest, doesn't matter, they weren't real friends to start with. My family stay in touch via text and I share cartoons and cat memes on Instagram (an app I use very sparingly) with my favourite niece, you could say it's our love language. Doomscrolling is real and I did get sucked down that tube when FB started to turn ugly. I'm an introvert and live in a very remote location. I realised I was socialising way more online than I ever would in real life and that it was sucking the life out of me. I also hated that I was going down link rabbit holes and wasting time. It was a deep personal realisation that I had been sucked in and that it wasn't what I wanted. From then I deleted FB and only stay on IG to post my art works.
No, keep sharing. =)
I don't even remember how we all kept in touch before.
Thus spake the Lord of Judgement!
Amish Dr. Oz here... Damn it's a different level of narcissism, to respond with more opinions, after being told their opinions were not needed.
Well, no one's opinion is "needed." Those with opinions, need to opine. It's also, as long as you don't take yourself seriously, self-entertaining.
Every once and a while an outside opinion is needed... At which point it is frequently not heeded
I must say - I feel so out of all of this. (And I don't mind) A phone has never been more than a phone to me. But nowadays I don't get many calls & usually 2 out of 3 are unrecognized numbers I don't answer. I do send & receive a couple texts in an average day - from my kids or family or bizz things. Thats it. No apps. I have always taken all the garbage off any PC or phone I have gotten. No notifications . Location off when ever possible (imagine that).
I was on my My Space ages ago. Was told it would enhance Business. It didn't. Have never been on any other social media since that waste of time. I'm not what you call your standard Luddite. Had one of 1st PC's back in 85. Way back when, before the mass phone addiction - I was the guy who family & friends always came to for help when they screwed up something in their PC. Always used tech in Music & Art. I have always enjoyed Tech stuff. What is called tech nowadays isn't really tech to me , it is just mass psychosis / mass phone addiction
Winner winner, chicken dinner! You win the Ted G. interweb for the day. I've never had a cell "more advanced" than a flip phone. True story: My boss was pissed because an irate client sent an e-mail one weekend and I didn't respond because flip phone. He wanted me to get one. My response was that he could provide one for me, but I'd turn it off every day at five o'clock, on at eight a.m., and it would remain off between Friday afternoon and Monday morning... Unless he wanted to pay me as much as a heart surgeon makes. He never brought it up again. And I, as you, rely on technology and embrace it. There's no way to be a registered architect without it. Finally, sometimes I miss the nuts-and-bolts simplicity of DOS, being able to tell the OS how you want it to work, instead of it doing mysterious things for unknown reasons.
I called it my electronic leash. Retired now I am off leash in a walled garden.
I've learned an awful lot from watching videos. From how to tile my bathroom and kitchen, to woodworking, various art techniques and current affairs presented by independent journalists. I wouldn't get rid of access to videos for anything. Just because some video content is of the "look at me while I pose in my filter-afflicted body" variety, doesn't mean it's all garbage. Ever heard the term, "throwing the baby out with the bath water"?
You're spending an awful lot of time commenting on other people's comments. And seemingly in the middle of the night, so not practicing what you preach. Troll?
I got sucked in to reels as well. For FB, I added the "Newsfeed Eradicator" extension. When you log in, all you see is a pithy/inspirational quote. You can still check out all of your groups, friends, & pages, but you have to actively go look for them.
That might help. My feed used to be manageable. Now it goes on and on and on, and I keep trying to catch up so as to not miss interesting posts from friends. How can i get that?
If you use Chrome for your browser, it should be available as an extension.
I love it! You can turn it on at will for 5, 10, or more minutes. And it's helping me a lot!
I’m happy to hear it!
All working as planned.
Recognizing a problem is the first step to solving it.
I really appreciate your honesty and take on how your life & habits relate to this article. I found it to be very relatable! Even those of us with awareness and good intention can get sucked into endless scrolling. Your awareness is inspiring!
Hey Roseanne, wasn't going to comment until I saw all the other comments, and sheesh! people are being so rude to you! Thanks for sharing your struggle. I have the same problem, those reels are insidious! And one thing I have learned is that the kind of shame that these other commenters are trying to spread is actually counterproductive. These apps were specifically designed to be irresistible so they are very difficult to resist. Who'da thunk?
The reality is that to function in society you need a smart phone. So how do you stay sober when you're pretty much required to carry around the addicting substance at all times? Asking for a friend.
That was my point. I am an example of how well the purveyors of addiction are succeeding. But I haven't lost the battle. And you're right about the shaming from those who feel above it all. Doesn't help. But then consider how unable they seem to be to refrain from offering advice when it isn't called for in what I thought was a discussion among intelligent people.
I am not blaming. And I'm not asking for advice. You seem to be hectoring me. I was responding to Ted's theses by giving specific examples from my own life. Your righteous indignation about my failings, which I share with many, mean you apparently are immune, and so practical minded you incisively can get right to the core of how to fix my problems—with an irrelevant solution. I need my phone. I don't do any addictive behavior on my little screen. I think you mean well. But. Thanks, anyway.
Okay I like Roseanne here! Even added a bit of empathy at the end.
Best to ignore, I'd suggest.
I work on a computer. When I get tired, it's easy for me to start randomly looking at reels. I'm not going to smash my computer. However, to avoid random compulsive tv watching I simply don't have any TV reception.
I stopped watching TV about 11 yrs. ago. Every now and then I look at something to remind me that watching TV makes me feel stupid.
Beat ya! I stopped watching the idiot box in 1993, and still don’t feel like I have missed anything significant. I can’t participate in nostalgic recollections of Seinfeld and Happy Days episodes, but it is a price I am willing to pay.
Taking yourself back from this addiction will involve doing lots of things that are not easy. You smell smoke, and there is a fire. It's your life! How did we all survive without Reels before?
Because the device isn’t the problem, it’s the apps that are designed to be addictive that are the problem. With your analogy we would get rid of all syringes even though they are very necessary for administering medicines, blood tests, etc. We do tons of unhealthy things each day (eating refined sugar, manufactured food products, sitting in chairs for too long, typing too much) where banning them from society would be impossible, unnecessary or extreme.
You talk about destroying devices as if that were a rational solution. I’m not muddling anything—and protecting oneself from endemic technologies is not always as simple as opting out.
Assuming that the only reason I disagree with your flawed logic is because I have a social media problem, is not only incorrect it’s obtuse. Eliminating smartphones for those who you feel lack the fortitude to resist SM’s ills still doesn’t address the ubiquity of it’s influence and it’s naive of you to believe that you are invulnerable simply because you don’t log in. Social media is responsible for shaping elections, invoking financial collapses, and triggering mental health emergencies all of which affect those who also choose to opt out. These tools are here to stay, but their detrimental impact on society will change as we find new ways to use them differently and learn to create better protections. I do take issue with your earlier attack on an internet stranger simply because she self-identified herself as being susceptible to a known and designed feature of social media. To believe that simply removing (or destroying) the screen addresses anything is thick.
Preach on, oh god among men.
I remember reading a while back about a person who, before he went on the internet in any capacity, wrote down on a piece of paper what he was going online for. He'd cross things off like a checklist and then log off.
At that time, I thought it was a little nutty, but in the years since, it's increasingly wise. I don't do it every time, but having a clear sense for why I'm logging on and what I'm logging on to accomplish helps me to remember the technology is supposed to be there as a tool to help me with an intended purpose or task.
I had the fortune of living for one winter in a small coastal town walking distance from a library open only limited hours and no internet at home. That's what I did and it was lovely.
We left the city about 6 years ago (when it was still affordable to buy a couple acres). There is just too much to do, and no time to waste it “scrolling”. The beauty of life is in the mundane - feeding the chickens, picking the weeds, learning extreme patience through watching the carrots grow, throwing a ball to the dog. We figured out how to live on one income (mine, a remote-worker, secretary), and I have to tell you - it is a blissful life. You figure out how to be content with what you have. Please put the phones away, there is so much to do!!
I knew for me it was getting out of hand. I called rotting my brain. I made the decison to do a social media fast and logged out of my accounts. I really do not miss it. I find myelf enjoying other activities and not wasting my day. The fast was supposed to last a week, I am on week 4.
I appreciate your article and how it is a growing problem and it's very real.
This Edward Abbey quote is long, but it is spot on. Substitute “cell phones “for desk calculators”.
“One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast....a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards.”
Edward Abbey
Here's an exercise I developed thanks to Ted.
1. Audit your day. Write down everything you do, no matter how small. Then, go to your devices, and list the ones you used that day. Finally, look at your usage history of those devices. Write down all the apps you used.
2. Write down all activities and apps used into one column. Create three on the right beside this one labeled "reality," "technology" and "dopamine." Make a check mark beside each activity to indicate what kind of activity it is.
3. Look at your list. Lopsided? Look back at the "technology" and "dopamine" ones, and ask how you can do an analogous activity in reality. Some examples:
Instagram -> photo walk
LinkedIn -> Go see a talk, or speak with a colleague in-person
Video games -> Convert to couch multiplayer to play with friends in the same room
Spotify -> Vinyl
It's not practical to never use these apps or do these technology-aided activities again. The point is to get some direction as to how to mix it up for the sake of your humanity.
Very helpful suggestions.
Also: learning the names of the trees/flowers/plants that you encounter every single day is a fantastic way to combat the tendency to be a Screen Zombie. I call it "Considering the Lilies" in this short piece https://shannonhood.substack.com/p/considering-the-lilies
I use tech. It's a tool. A very useful tool but it's a means to an end not an end in and of itself. I use it for accessing the goods and services that are of use to me in my real life. Then I put it to one side and go outside and listen to the birds sing.
Absolutely !
As an early adopter I was very smug about the tool aspect as well. Thinking that I had control. AIG has changed the rules.
Oh I agree wholeheartedly and it's too early to see clearly how it will pan out in the short or long term other than it will undoubtedly cause seismic change. I practise a strict arms length stance with many aspects of the net. I keep my exposure to a bare minimum. No social media with this being the single exception and I am not going to utilise this space for anything other than occasional comments on others posts.
When you sup with the devil use a long spoon.
> But my goals here are very limited—we can’t change the world.
Wrong!
> So I am speaking to you person-to-person about what we can change in our own lives.
That's how you change the world. When some of us change ourselves, the world changes. The change overall may be small but everyone who changes represents a change in a part of the world.
I often find I need to make this point and it's weird for me since it seems so obvious. "We can't change the culture here." and I reply "Yes, we can. When you and I change how we behave, the culture has changed."
Be the change. Others who are ready may notice. If they don't, whatever, do it for your own life quality.
I agree with your sentiments, and I hope you're not going all Don Quixote... I suppose we all could be a little more Don Quixote.
Thank you for your concern :^) No, I think not. I don't want to seem all wet but I'll risk it: We are the world, the society, the community or whatever. It is up to us.
It is terrifying to consider but also hopeful and empowering. This way of thinking also reminds me of my responsibility to change myself and to use my influence to change others, if I can.
If I am not nothing, and I think that's the case (https://thefsb.substack.com/p/the-freedom-sucking-daemon) then it follows that I can be part of changing the world. And so can you, and Ted and, ...
In addition to dopamine addiction to scrolling, I think there is also a dopamine addiction to arguing in comments and some folks throwing stones at the people struggling with scrolling are living in some shiny glass houses.
So much right on the mark. I agree with your suggestions, most of all the one about cultivating skills in the real world. And playing an instrument, even if only as a basic amateur - but one that responds to body motions; programming music doesn't do it.
For my online life, I've just followed my intuition. When social media (Fb and the rest) came up and became big, I had a look and viscerally rejected it. So I just keep browsing the web as if social media had never been invented. No X, no Fb or Insta or TikTok. No feeds at all, and no recommendation systems (with one exception below). I read a bunch of substacks but treat them like old fashioned blogs, and I get them via RSS. Feedly (RSS reader) is my daily hub to find what's new in the places I've chosen to sub. Discovery goes the slow old fashioned way, via links from one author to another.
The one exception is Youtube, which I use only for music and talks on specific subjects. I regularly discover music thru YT suggestions, but the cardinal rule there is: autoplay off.
That could sound a bit too radical or luddite-ish, so let me temper a bit: I'm not against any particular communication channel, it's only some interaction dynamics that I reject.
So of course if I needed Fb to keep in touch with some people, I would do just that - at times I've had to join a Fb page to be part of some group. What I do then is open it only in an incognito tab on the computer, for as long as I need.
Here also browser extensions are an under-appreciated ally. You can use them to remove unwanted stuff from the big websites, e.g remove all feeds and suggestions, and leave just what you are following.
...and block the ads!
It won’t be feasible, affordable or even desirable to some but one way to reduce news based doomscrolling etc is to mostly limit current affairs consumption to reading a good old fashioned newspaper/magazine (for all their faults). The medium feels a lot calmer and is obviously without the addictive properties of a smartphone whatever.