This was a fantastic read. "Scrolling algorithmically-sorted feeds (especially those with ads and inserted content) is ultimately surrendering control over our own sense of reality to for-profit big tech companies." ooof. That's a hard but important truth that everyone needs to hear.
Love the bit about boredom especially. Did you see the interview with Michael Cera in the Guardian? The reporter asked him what does he do when he has a spare 30 seconds and needs to satisfy boredom, and he replied that he just... allows himself to be bored. Imagine a world where we don't know how to be bored for 30 seconds.
Throughly enjoyed the passion and sarcasm used in the writing of this post!! Thank you for providing some nourishment in a sea of digital junk. Much, much appreciated
Truly one of your best posts! Especially the whole bit about creativity. I may watch TikTok more than TV but most of my time is spent reading books, articles and Substacks. Not off Facebook or Twitter but news readers. I will stop reading in the middle, let my mind wander and digest what I just read. But yes, boredom is also great.
Having spent a lot of time on early 2000s Internet forums, I've always thought departing from chronological ordering was a mistake. I'm reading more and more about user curated social media and apps from the "Fediverse". Seems like this is the way. Haven't yet found a great introductory piece that gives a good overview. For some reason I tend to find it quite overwhelming. Maybe I'm just lazy.
Awesome, looking forward to it! I think it's mostly being overwhelmed with all the options and advantages not being clearly communicated.
You hear about Mastodon, for example, part of this larger thing, with all these other services like Lemmy... If we keep your food analogy, it's like if someone addicted to junk food wants to start eating clean and get fit. A doctor tells them "well you need complex carbohydrates, less sugar, you could be eating *this* *this* *this* ..." Looking at the Fediverse feels like looking at the food pyramid. Technically, they have all the info they need, know of healthier food options, but we're still essentially saying to an addict "heal yourself!" What they'd really benefit from is a nutritionist helping them come up with a plan how to actually implement a change in diet.
"Looking at the Fediverse feels like looking at the food pyramid." Excellent. I'm totally stealing this analogy.
When I'm feeling down about the pressure on individuals to "fix themselves", I think about how smoking took nearly a century to go from mass-market socially acceptable product to generally frowned-upon (and that's just in America). The majority people using social media daily don't even pause to consider WHY they're using it, or that it could be hurting them. Thankfully the social momentum appears to be changing much faster than it did with smoking. Probably in part because social media itself can be used to spread awareness about... itself.
I don't know that much about them myself. Mastodon and Lemmy are mentioned in the post. They're sort of like Twitter and Reddit, i think? Advantage of all of them is they're open source, so no shady algorithmic meddling with what you see in your feed. They supposedly take more effort to configure than your conventional social media apps.
Andreessen went on Sam Harris’s podcast and, in response to Harris’s point that these algorithms hack human brains like junk food, his response was along the lines of “I don’t know, people do what they want.” There is a major gap between the people investing and building these technologies and the rest of us. I don’t know when this gap will be bridged.
As Cory Doctorow has often said: "It's impossible to get a CEO to understand something when his quarterly earnings call depends on him not understanding it."
The part about how social media incentivises rage-bait stuck with me. I often end up really upset after a bout of TikTok scrolling because the app kept lining up stories about true crime, and these stories would upset me because of the injustices done in them. I found myself going through the comments and the hashtags, glued to the screen, because I am especially sensitive to this type of injustice-induced rage. It's extremely effective because on one hand, this type of content deludes you into thinking you're doing something beneficial: you're making yourself aware of how 'evil' the world can be. Yet, at the same time, I forget about it after a while, only until the next video pops up on my For You page. These videos are recommended to me because I keep watching them, but more so, because everyone keeps watching them.
Simply consuming news through this cycle of rage-swings do nothing to help either my mental state, or the victims. It just raises my cholesterol and has me upset right before bedtime. In fact, it actually prevents us from making any real-life impact. Instead of researching how to, for example, help out people in need, we're just stuck on a 2739 page Facebook thread of people arguing about who is more wrong.
Somehow I missed your comment when you made it, but you're absolutely right. I often think about how on airplanes they tell people "in the event of an emergency, put on your own oxygen mask before helping others put on theirs". It's good to care, but trying to help without being able to help, often makes things worse overall despite good intentions.
I really dig your posts and it is always a very inspiring read.
I wonder what setup you use to minimise distractions and „getting sucked back in“. I have tried a l lot of different approaches in the past to stay away from unhealthy apps and newssites, but havent found a modus operandi that works for more than a few days. The internet is just too „sticky“ these days. Im currently planning on using an apple watch with celluar without a smartphone when I leave the house, and leaving my phone in the desk for most of the day as well. I feel MUCH BETTER when I reduce surfing to a minimum througout the day, but living completely off the grid is not manageable because of my job. So im wondering, whats your long term solution to staying somehow connected and using essential apps without the added addictive stressors of smartphones, tablets and most websites in general?
Have you looked at the AIR method yet? (AirMethod.net) it's my guide for how I managed to "un-stick" all entertainment off of my smartphone.
I'd be curious to hear how your watch experiment works. On one hand (hah) having the device out all the time seems like it has potential to be more distracting, but on the other, the small screen must surely prevent some degree of scrolling.
Im planning to just install (on the watch) the most essential apps like maps, paypal, mail, whatsapp etc and afterwards even delete safari and appstore to not get tempted. Also I'm planning on putting the watch in my bagpack or pocket and not checking for new notifications. If I feel the watch simply adds to the problem rather than minimising it I will not hesitate to sell it. My original plan was to find a suitable dumbphone, but there is no fitting device that has all the functionality I need that is affordable and readily available where I am. I will report back in a few months how its going.
Havent checked out AIR so will do that now. Thx for your reply btw! :)
This was a fantastic read. "Scrolling algorithmically-sorted feeds (especially those with ads and inserted content) is ultimately surrendering control over our own sense of reality to for-profit big tech companies." ooof. That's a hard but important truth that everyone needs to hear.
Love the bit about boredom especially. Did you see the interview with Michael Cera in the Guardian? The reporter asked him what does he do when he has a spare 30 seconds and needs to satisfy boredom, and he replied that he just... allows himself to be bored. Imagine a world where we don't know how to be bored for 30 seconds.
I hadn't until your comment just now! Thanks for the heads-up, it's a great interview. Always nice to see influential speaking on this topic.
"That’s the triumph of the Apple corporation. It has done a good job of making people feel they can’t exist without its product." Damn.
Here's the link if anyone else is interested: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/jul/17/fame-makes-you-paranoid-michael-cera-on-barbie-drunk-fans-and-not-owning-a-smartphone
Throughly enjoyed the passion and sarcasm used in the writing of this post!! Thank you for providing some nourishment in a sea of digital junk. Much, much appreciated
Truly one of your best posts! Especially the whole bit about creativity. I may watch TikTok more than TV but most of my time is spent reading books, articles and Substacks. Not off Facebook or Twitter but news readers. I will stop reading in the middle, let my mind wander and digest what I just read. But yes, boredom is also great.
Having spent a lot of time on early 2000s Internet forums, I've always thought departing from chronological ordering was a mistake. I'm reading more and more about user curated social media and apps from the "Fediverse". Seems like this is the way. Haven't yet found a great introductory piece that gives a good overview. For some reason I tend to find it quite overwhelming. Maybe I'm just lazy.
I'm actually working on a "Fediverse for Dummies" style post. It's not as difficult to understand as most people assume, I think!
Awesome, looking forward to it! I think it's mostly being overwhelmed with all the options and advantages not being clearly communicated.
You hear about Mastodon, for example, part of this larger thing, with all these other services like Lemmy... If we keep your food analogy, it's like if someone addicted to junk food wants to start eating clean and get fit. A doctor tells them "well you need complex carbohydrates, less sugar, you could be eating *this* *this* *this* ..." Looking at the Fediverse feels like looking at the food pyramid. Technically, they have all the info they need, know of healthier food options, but we're still essentially saying to an addict "heal yourself!" What they'd really benefit from is a nutritionist helping them come up with a plan how to actually implement a change in diet.
"Looking at the Fediverse feels like looking at the food pyramid." Excellent. I'm totally stealing this analogy.
When I'm feeling down about the pressure on individuals to "fix themselves", I think about how smoking took nearly a century to go from mass-market socially acceptable product to generally frowned-upon (and that's just in America). The majority people using social media daily don't even pause to consider WHY they're using it, or that it could be hurting them. Thankfully the social momentum appears to be changing much faster than it did with smoking. Probably in part because social media itself can be used to spread awareness about... itself.
Tell me more about this user created social media please.
I don't know that much about them myself. Mastodon and Lemmy are mentioned in the post. They're sort of like Twitter and Reddit, i think? Advantage of all of them is they're open source, so no shady algorithmic meddling with what you see in your feed. They supposedly take more effort to configure than your conventional social media apps.
All of this is second-hand knowledge, though.
Well I hope I like Lemmy thanks
Andreessen went on Sam Harris’s podcast and, in response to Harris’s point that these algorithms hack human brains like junk food, his response was along the lines of “I don’t know, people do what they want.” There is a major gap between the people investing and building these technologies and the rest of us. I don’t know when this gap will be bridged.
As Cory Doctorow has often said: "It's impossible to get a CEO to understand something when his quarterly earnings call depends on him not understanding it."
The part about how social media incentivises rage-bait stuck with me. I often end up really upset after a bout of TikTok scrolling because the app kept lining up stories about true crime, and these stories would upset me because of the injustices done in them. I found myself going through the comments and the hashtags, glued to the screen, because I am especially sensitive to this type of injustice-induced rage. It's extremely effective because on one hand, this type of content deludes you into thinking you're doing something beneficial: you're making yourself aware of how 'evil' the world can be. Yet, at the same time, I forget about it after a while, only until the next video pops up on my For You page. These videos are recommended to me because I keep watching them, but more so, because everyone keeps watching them.
Simply consuming news through this cycle of rage-swings do nothing to help either my mental state, or the victims. It just raises my cholesterol and has me upset right before bedtime. In fact, it actually prevents us from making any real-life impact. Instead of researching how to, for example, help out people in need, we're just stuck on a 2739 page Facebook thread of people arguing about who is more wrong.
Somehow I missed your comment when you made it, but you're absolutely right. I often think about how on airplanes they tell people "in the event of an emergency, put on your own oxygen mask before helping others put on theirs". It's good to care, but trying to help without being able to help, often makes things worse overall despite good intentions.
Hi Justin
I really dig your posts and it is always a very inspiring read.
I wonder what setup you use to minimise distractions and „getting sucked back in“. I have tried a l lot of different approaches in the past to stay away from unhealthy apps and newssites, but havent found a modus operandi that works for more than a few days. The internet is just too „sticky“ these days. Im currently planning on using an apple watch with celluar without a smartphone when I leave the house, and leaving my phone in the desk for most of the day as well. I feel MUCH BETTER when I reduce surfing to a minimum througout the day, but living completely off the grid is not manageable because of my job. So im wondering, whats your long term solution to staying somehow connected and using essential apps without the added addictive stressors of smartphones, tablets and most websites in general?
Looking forward to your next post.
Cheers from germany
Chris
Have you looked at the AIR method yet? (AirMethod.net) it's my guide for how I managed to "un-stick" all entertainment off of my smartphone.
I'd be curious to hear how your watch experiment works. On one hand (hah) having the device out all the time seems like it has potential to be more distracting, but on the other, the small screen must surely prevent some degree of scrolling.
Im planning to just install (on the watch) the most essential apps like maps, paypal, mail, whatsapp etc and afterwards even delete safari and appstore to not get tempted. Also I'm planning on putting the watch in my bagpack or pocket and not checking for new notifications. If I feel the watch simply adds to the problem rather than minimising it I will not hesitate to sell it. My original plan was to find a suitable dumbphone, but there is no fitting device that has all the functionality I need that is affordable and readily available where I am. I will report back in a few months how its going.
Havent checked out AIR so will do that now. Thx for your reply btw! :)
Chris