De-Digitalization. Do you make an effort to stay offline?

[Ban]

Perhaps an odd topic to post on a website, but I have long tried (and often renegotiated with myself) to limit my online interactions so I'm spread less thin. I feel that many websites such as youtube devolve into endless timesinks if left unchecked. I am in luck that true social media has never been a draw for me, so I'm saved that drain, but my online activities remains costlier in terms of screen time than I wish.

I wonder if others make an effort to limit their time and activities online. One thing I am attempting now is to block youtube altogether and replace it with regular films. If I'm going to watch something, I might as well get to the long backlog of movies I have yet to view. There's more use in it as a writer, and greater cultural capital to accrue.

 

[Finchbearer]

I deleted my insta after 10+ years. Haven’t looked back. I don’t watch much TV at all. I spend too much time here

 

[pmmg]

Absolutely. I am never online if I have people around, and I am usually offline when actually writing. I limit my website visitations. Pretty much here, and you tube are my usual haunts. And youtube has nothing to offer after I've seen my talking head show.

I dont play any video games, dont watch TV in favor of getting it written.

This was a choice I made many years ago. Brought on by a feeling of emptiness about it all, and that I had Kids who had more of a right to my attention.

 

[pmmg]

I deleted my insta after 10+ years. Haven’t looked back. I don’t watch much TV at all. I spend too much time here

I wont say I spend too much time here, mostly at work. I just do drive byes. It serves as a good break. If I was busy, I would not be on.

If you are thinking of taking the plunge, all I can say is, you wont miss it as much as you might think you would. You are not on this earth to watch youtube and play video games.

 

[Finchbearer]

Taking the plunge to do what?

 

[pmmg]

Plunge as in giving up screen addictions.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

For me it's not addiction, it's my business. Plus, with living in the middle of the literal forest, it's where I've found my tribe.

 

[Ned Marcus]

Yes, I make efforts sometimes. I declutter my favourites of things like YouTube and Instagram. I still use them, but less than before. This is the first time I've checked in here for a while. Too busy recently. But as I earn money online, it's impossible to block, just simplify a bit.

 

[Finchbearer]

Perhaps an odd topic to post on a website, but I have long tried (and often renegotiated with myself) to limit my online interactions so I'm spread less thin. I feel that many websites such as youtube devolve into endless timesinks if left unchecked. I am in luck that true social media has never been a draw for me, so I'm saved that drain, but my online activities remains costlier in terms of screen time than I wish.

I wonder if others make an effort to limit their time and activities online. One thing I am attempting now is to block youtube altogether and replace it with regular films. If I'm going to watch something, I might as well get to the long backlog of movies I have yet to view. There's more use in it as a writer, and greater cultural capital to accrue.

One question for me is the why? Apart from gaining ‘cultural capital’ are there any other reasons for staying offline more? Do you feel like your attention span is suffering, or that you just end up procrastinating? Or is it making you unhappy?

 

[CupofJoe]

Perhaps luckily for me, my elderly laptop has Wi-Fi connectivity issues so if I am not actively using the web it disengages from the internet.
When this started [after the annoyance] I was amazed at how much more I wrote when I didn't get side tracked into endless Wiki-wanderings.
Sundays I try not to go online too much or at all I usually fail at the "at all" but I make an effort.

 

[Prince of Spires]

I personally believe that not all wasted time is wasted, contradictory as that may sound. You can't be focussed and productive all the time. Your brain needs a break every now and then. So a bit of mindless tv or youtube or just walking in a forest is good for you.

As with everything though, moderation is important, and you need to be efficient about it. My average weekday has me get up, rush the kids to school, work for 8 hours, pick the kids up again, cook dinner, get the kids to bed, drink a cup of tea and then write for an hour. After that I have between half and hour to an hour left before it's time for bed. I firmly believe that using that time as actual downtime is healthy. So I usually waste it on youtube or watching some silly series. It keeps me mentally healthy.

What you want to avoid in my opinion, is to waste a lot of time there while not kowing what you actually did or why. If you've found yourself scrolling through facebook for an hour and you have no idea what you actually did there and why, then perhaps it's time to reevaluate what you're doing. And watching films or a series for entertainment can help keeping you up to date on storytelling conventions etc.

 

[Finchbearer]

I think what you hit on there Prince of Spires is a fairly balanced routine. If you have a lack of routine in your life, and you’re spending all your time online, I’m unsure as to whether that could be deemed healthy. Plus with having children, as you know, having that downtime can be extra important, where you’re just doing ‘nothing’, playing a game or watching YT. It is healthy for humans to just ‘do nothing’.

I’ve had this conversation with a few people, about when humans were hunter gatherers, they would spend most of their time ‘doing nothing’, which might have been sitting around a fire or telling stories, and so I think we are hardwired to need that in our lives. Obviously nowadays the wonders of the internet has kind of replaced that in many ways, but the downsides of spending too much time on it are inevitably a shorter attention span, boredom, lack of delayed gratification and the light from the screen can affect your melatonin levels. Things like TikTok (I don’t have it, it scares me) are made to capture your instant attention, and because each clip is so short, it designed to keep you watching. As you say, you’ve been online for an hour and that is an entire hour of your life you ain’t gonna get back.

 

[Ban]

One question for me is the why? Apart from gaining ‘cultural capital’ are there any other reasons for staying offline more? Do you feel like your attention span is suffering, or that you just end up procrastinating? Or is it making you unhappy?

All of it, though cultural capital is a main reason, with educational worth a close second. Take the latter. I am subscribed on youtube to a number of news channels, geopolitical analysis channels, culinary channels, MMA analysis channels and theological/philosophical channels. These are all interests of mine, yet I never learn half as much from such videos as I do from simply reading an article on the subject, or engaging with the subject matter itself in case of MMA. Alike a siren's call, flashy visuals and soothing voices end up distracting instead of strengthening the substance, to the point where sound and sight become detrimental. If these mediums demand more time from me and provide less educational worth, with a smaller percentage of retention, it ought to be pruned.

 

[Finchbearer]

I’ve personally limited what I watch on YouTube. That’s the main thing I watch, and really only now it’s channels that are no frills, people with actual knowledge and skill, or relaxing videos. I don’t watch half as much as I used to, and if a video has long segments of pleading the viewer to subscribe or sponsorships that feel out of place or not genuine that I instantly switch off.

Maybe I should add that people making money off of having absolutely no talent or skill other than being a sub-par QVC channel is my pet peeve.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

When it comes to social media, I have to force myself to be there rather than force myself away. I'd be more apt to get lost in Great Courses/Wondrium (ancient history stuff is my weakness) than Youtube. I find all that muck to be, well, muck. TikTok is heinous. XTwitter is interesting for about 5 minutes, heh heh. My biggest digital time sink lately is editing video ads and trying to catch up on advertising on various platforms.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

I guess I'm lucky that flashy visuals and soothing voices annoy the shit out of me. I have no idea how people I know, who are otherwise sane, can watch hours of youtube videos... it's as mysterious as how people can dislike semicolons, heh heh heh.

Gaming used to be a weakness, but that wore off. I'm done with that outside of VR Swordsman that I use for a bit of exercise.

All of it, though cultural capital is a main reason, with educational worth a close second. Take the latter. I am subscribed on youtube to a number of news channels, geopolitical analysis channels, culinary channels, MMA analysis channels and theological/philosophical channels. These are all interests of mine, yet I never learn half as much from such videos as I do from simply reading an article on the subject, or engaging with the subject matter itself in case of MMA. Alike a siren's call, flashy visuals and soothing voices end up distracting instead of strengthening the substance, to the point where sound and sight become detrimental. If these mediums demand more time from me and provide less educational worth, with a smaller percentage of retention, it ought to be pruned.

 

[Ban]

I guess I'm lucky that flashy visuals and soothing voices annoy the shit out of me. I have no idea how people I know, who are otherwise sane, can watch hours of youtube videos... it's as mysterious as how people can dislike semicolons, heh heh heh.

Gaming used to be a weakness, but that wore off. I'm done with that outside of VR Swordsman that I use for a bit of exercise.

Growing up with the distraction might make it a more appealing black hole to gaze into, since we're conditioned to enjoy the muck. As for gaming, I still have a long backlog of steam titles I could spend time on, but I'm not much of a gamer anymore. The exception being chess. I have ran through hundreds of stunningly mediocre chess matches on chess.com in the past few months. 2100 more elo and I ought to be the next Kasparov haha.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

I'm also lucky to have too short of an attention span for chess because it could be a weakness. 2-3 minutes and I figure I have better things to be doing. If I had a pool table or a dartboard in my house, that could be trouble.

I blame MTV for the flash and bang addiction. I tend to think it's less generational, lots of older people get addicted than the fact I just don't don't give a shit what people and their cats are doing... to abuse a youtube video cliche. Borderline functioning sociopath might be useful... I'm not gonna say whether I'm borderline functional or borderline sociopath, heh heh.

 

[Ban]

Silly folks with their cat videos. I would never!

Now of course, I could easily spend an hour watching videos of Yorkshire Terriers being little Napoleons, but that's an entirely separate matter.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

My wife is allergic to cats... so I can't post any. I love cats, adore them! but watching cat videos is not something a cat would do, and I am a bit like a cat.

Silly folks with their cat videos. I would never!

Now of course, I could easily spend an hour watching videos of Yorkshire Terriers being little Napoleons, but that's an entirely separate matter.