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NYT Reporter 'Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain' (msn.com)
"It's an unnerving sensation, being alone with your thoughts in the year 2019," writes New York Times technology columnist Kevin Roose, in an article shared by DogDude. "I don't love referring to what we have as an 'addiction.' That seems too sterile and clinical to describe what's happening to our brains in the smartphone era."
We might someday evolve the correct biological hardware to live in harmony with portable supercomputers that satisfy our every need and connect us to infinite amounts of stimulation. But for most of us, it hasn't happened yet... [S]ometime last year, I crossed the invisible line into problem territory. My symptoms were all the typical ones: I found myself incapable of reading books, watching full-length movies or having long uninterrupted conversations. Social media made me angry and anxious, and even the digital spaces I once found soothing (group texts, podcasts, YouTube k-holes) weren't helping...
Mostly, I became aware of how profoundly uncomfortable I am with stillness. For years, I've used my phone every time I've had a spare moment in an elevator or a boring meeting. I listen to podcasts and write emails on the subway. I watch YouTube videos while folding laundry. I even use an app to pretend to meditate. If I was going to repair my brain, I needed to practice doing nothing.
Another science journalist helped him through "phone rehab," and "now, the physical world excites me, too -- the one that has room for boredom, idle hands and space for thinking." After a final 48 hour digital detox, "I also felt twinges of anger -- at myself, for missing out on this feeling of restorative boredom for so many years; at the engineers in Silicon Valley who spend their days profitably exploiting our cognitive weaknesses; at the entire phone-industrial complex that has convinced us that a six-inch glass-and-steel rectangle is the ideal conduit for worldly experiences...
"Steve Jobs wasn't exaggerating when he described the iPhone as a kind of magical object, and it's truly wild that in the span of a few years, we've managed to turn these amazing talismanic tools into stress-inducing albatrosses. It's as if scientists had invented a pill that gave us the ability to fly, only to find out that it also gave us dementia."
Mostly, I became aware of how profoundly uncomfortable I am with stillness. For years, I've used my phone every time I've had a spare moment in an elevator or a boring meeting. I listen to podcasts and write emails on the subway. I watch YouTube videos while folding laundry. I even use an app to pretend to meditate. If I was going to repair my brain, I needed to practice doing nothing.
Another science journalist helped him through "phone rehab," and "now, the physical world excites me, too -- the one that has room for boredom, idle hands and space for thinking." After a final 48 hour digital detox, "I also felt twinges of anger -- at myself, for missing out on this feeling of restorative boredom for so many years; at the engineers in Silicon Valley who spend their days profitably exploiting our cognitive weaknesses; at the entire phone-industrial complex that has convinced us that a six-inch glass-and-steel rectangle is the ideal conduit for worldly experiences...
"Steve Jobs wasn't exaggerating when he described the iPhone as a kind of magical object, and it's truly wild that in the span of a few years, we've managed to turn these amazing talismanic tools into stress-inducing albatrosses. It's as if scientists had invented a pill that gave us the ability to fly, only to find out that it also gave us dementia."
For others of us, it happened a long time ago. I grew up computing, I met my first girlfriend in a BBS chat way way back in 1993 or so, and the internets are my happy place. Maybe that's the difference?
I find I can still do all of those things happily, but the people around me can't manage any of them. And I'm plugged in more or less constantly.
You're using them wrong. Stop watching stuff that pisses you off.
That would drive me nuts. My memory has always been craptacular, and I'd forget what I wanted to look up while I was thinking about "what else".
How about just selectively omitting the outrage porn that seems to be the big problem for most people? Drop Vice first, bunch of sensationalist wankers. Gawker used to be the big problem, but then HULKAMANIA RULED.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Happy medium ... keep the phone as a communication device, ditch the data plan. Meaning that "going online" is no longer effortless -- outside of your usual spaces (work, school, home), you have to make an effort to seek out public WiFi and connect to it.
He did what? He put his phone away?
and then WROTE ABOUT IT?
cutting edge journalism
For me, my phone literally only serve as a way to help pass time when I literally have nothing better to do and I'm out of the house. And even there, all I do with it is just read novels. I tried getting into a few games over the years, never could get into it. I'd play maybe a few hours in the first day or two, and then never touch it again. I don't understand people who spend all their time playing craptastic mobile games... or spend hours and hours watching youtube/netflix on their tiny screen instead of using a large TV/monitor.
I can already predict the defensive hue and cry against this reporter's message.
Bitch it's a facebook appliance. A $250 laptop is five times the "computer" your phone is.
at the engineers in Silicon Valley who spend their days profitably exploiting our cognitive weaknesses
If they were that good at that, I bet the 'socially awkward nerd' stereotype would have reversed itself a decade ago. It's not the engineers you have to worry about.
And not your phone? It should be just a tool?
Get up!
I even use an app to pretend to meditate. If I was going to repair my brain, I needed to practice doing nothing.
Practicing doing nothing is, well, a part of actually meditating. So:
Are all NYT reporters this full of themselves? Or is this particular person just pretending because it makes for a more dramatic essay?
Try to print that article and see how really bad it is.
from the summary: "I also felt twinges of anger -- at myself, for missing out on this feeling of restorative boredom for so many years; at the engineers in Silicon Valley who spend their days profitably exploiting our cognitive weaknesses..."
You're weak and in more ways than cognitively. Don't blame engineers or others for your weakness.
Someone with a serious lack of self control who wants to blame their devices rather than themselves.
Notice since the midterms there's suddenly a cry from the right that we need to all just get along, be bipartisan, understand each others' viewpoints, etc? Trumptards, like Dogdoo, are losing and they know it. Now they're all crying about the kids and social media and how we need to "detox". Bullpussy! Social media is where all the dissenting and unapproved news is coming from. They want you to go outside into the "real" world so they can feed you the offical "correct" news from their ads, their newspapers, their radio, and their TV. They want don't want you to know what's really going on. They're losing the battle for the young voters and they know their days are numbered. You didn't hear this shit from the right when they had all the power. They didn't 2 turtle shits what you cared about, they did whatever the fuck they wanted. Now they can't and they're throwing a shit fit and trying to broker false peace. Fuck em.
CRY MOAR TRUMPTARDS!
Trustin Timber on YouTube. Professional photographer. Travelled the world. Met tons of powerful, intelligent, beuatiful people. And many more who were not.
Gave it up to live in a tree farm in Canada who now builds his own stuff.
And there are many, many, manyyy more like him.
Social media and devices used to connect people to them were set up, knowingly or not, with drug dealing networks business models. To get introduced to it is free, then after a time you are charged for it. The "ideal" path is to get you addicted to it so that when you are charged for it, you won't stop using it. The trick is to obfuscate its addiction and/or downplay it and to take efforts to continually update its addictive elements so that a tolerance doesn't build up.
Younger people who have grown up experiencing social media tend to have one of two approaches to it. It is either not a problem at all (narcissist stage/playground) or it is incredibly scummy but necessary as most of the rest of society utilizes and idolizes it and the amount of money people can make off it.
Old people tend to ignor it as they don't usually fully appreciate what it is. See a Twitch stream of a girl in Russia playing a video game. It's harmless they think. They don't know that that girl is likely a part of a group that are all forced to live together and sleep paired up in rooms. A modern version or prostitution completel with male pimp/handler overseeing all the girls streaming video. And from there, when viewership drops, they get get shuffled into actual prostititution, complete with introduced drug problems.
The Russian (or whoever, it is just as likely in the US) girl is a part of a "legitimate" side of organised crime. The goal is to get money, IDs, addiction to the product.
"It's an unnerving sensation, being alone with your thoughts in the year 2019," writes New York Times technology columnist Kevin RooseM
No, it's not...unless you don't have a brain that can amuse or entertain itself.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Old people tend to ignor it as they don't usually fully appreciate what it is.
Or maybe we see it for exactly what it is, which explains our lack of interest.
By and large I see social media as a relatively uninteresting, shallow, and not very well done. Honestly, I just don't see the point. (??)
However, if that's your thing, I say bravo to you and carry on. Whatever floats your boat.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Breaking News: Guy goes without his phone for a while, doesn't actually die; film at 11.
Oh wait, he already uploaded it to Twitter, Youtube and Instagram, never mind.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
You are trapped in here with me!
Brain is not going to recover no many how many phones they lose. Reporters and the like are a vile species.
This story is so amazing, It'll be hard to put my phone down. Wonder how things will work out? Will the author of the article ever know? I'd send a postcard, but that seems too much... What to do...
" I found myself incapable of reading books, watching full-length movies or having long uninterrupted conversation"
It's not you, it's the movies that suck.
"By and large I see social media as a relatively uninteresting, shallow, and not very well done."
So, exactly like most face to face interaction!
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Welcome to the club! There's room for more, come on in!
> NYT Reporter: How I Ditched My Phone ... ... and met a wild Bunny Girl senpai.
Now I can kind of understand the unexpected success of AoButa anime, which answered real-life problems that modern young people struggle with. Smartphone throw shown at 1m24s:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1PWA11Ec3E
"By and large I see social media as a relatively uninteresting, shallow, and not very well done."
So, exactly like most face to face interaction!
I suppose my definition could apply to me as well, at least according to my first wife.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Actually 4.5 inch glass-and-steel rectangle is the ideal conduit for worldly experiences. 4 inch is too small, 5 inch too big.
How did this advocate of the wrong screen size even get on /. ?
Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
They learned a lot while reading Gawker I guess, this is the style of writing on most clickbait sites. Asserting a viewpoint as if you're the first one to ever think that, acting like you're a shining knight by witnessing to those who read and scolding those who would not heed your gospel.
... that Kevin Rose has this problem. He's a fairly successful silicon valley founder and investor and as such is used to solving problems by taking action. The problem he describes however was being unable to chill the f*ck out. Strong measures such as ditching your smartphone are a good way to get closer to that goal.
One of his buddies is the author Tim Ferriss (4-hour Workweek, etc.). Just the other week I listened to the Tim Ferriss Show Podcast were he interviews Greg McKeown and listen in to a roughly 2 hour podcast that turns into something of a coaching/therapy session for Ferriss. Very interesting. These types have a psychological condition that most of us nerds have but only roughly 10 times as much.
Since I'm trying to advance my career I'm treading slightly in similar territory and find that one of the big problems with doing everything at once, all the time, has to do with overinflating ones own importance. A trap a founder like Kevin Rose or a super-successful author and self-marketeer as Tim Ferriss probably fall into on a daily basis.
Conclusion:
I totally get decomissioning a smartphone. Whenever an update is due, I always also consider going back to a robust and cheap feature phone that - on the plus side - doesn't need recharging all the time - and a Filofax and be done with it. The critical communication I need done can be done once or twice a day from whatever computing device is at hand, I really don't need a smartphone to survive. Maps and directions, work-related chat and zero-fuss linked calender and todolists do keep me with the smartphone camp though, as the convenience is a huge difference. And I feel that I can handle my addiction. To an extent that it's not an overwhelming problem that is.
My 2 cents.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Funny, because I ditched the NYT and it "Unbroke my brain".
objects people could love. Jonathan Ivie understood why people find a thing imitably attractive; by design.
SteveJobs hated his cell phone. It had a keyboard whose keys would malfunction and break. Its screen was too small to read. It required buying a new cell phone to get the latest feature. Steve Jobs hated features. Features were an artifact leftover from the automobile industry. He thought features were a bullshit way to treat customers; a leftover from the industrial age. Built in software, he could design a phone without the marketing feature gimmicks industrialists sold. People would love a phone that was all screen, love it if buttons didn't break and had features that came "for free"; as in free beer - a software update. He expected it to be his sandbox, until developers convinced him they could make applications for Apple's iPhone. SteveJobs ever the businessman thought apps might be like songs people buy on iTunes. Pivot. AppStore gave people what they needed, smartphone apps in waves of utility. It wasn't intended to give them what they wanted – iTunes was; AppStore was its clone.
SteveJobs understood that success was a function of under stating promises and exceeding expectations. Once apps became better written, the AppsStore literally had " an app for that" - anything you wanted. The best became extensions of our lives enabling time shift efficiency, remote presence and geometric progressions of power and influence. The iPhone was exceeding all expectation.
People feed on memes, the state of culture has become this state-of-the-art competitive meme driven marketplace that without smartphone enhancement people would literally be lost, at a loss or lose out completely in business, social and professional life. Memes are addictive, they feed on our insecurities, promise us what we want and succeed beyond expectations. So the cycle continues...
These devices and services are designed to keep people captive. It's entirely intentional and this goes way back in this series of toys we have. I've also suffered from these side effects. I can barely watch a TV program without checking my damn phone, it's bothersome. I need to practice more "me" time, and it's not as easy as you might think.
First of all, "social media" only exists to collect data so it can be sold to advertisers. Second, the designers od "social media" sites deliberately design them to be as addictive as possible...the more that you use these data mining sites, the more data that they can collect...and the more $$$$$$$$$$ that they can make!
Third, "smart" phone addiction is a real thing, and it doesn't depend on the "social media" data mining sites. A while back, I had a room mate move out suddenly, and some friends were kind enough to rent me a room until I could find another place that I could afford. I ended up staying with these people for a little more than a year. And I saw "smart" phone addiction first hand! These people were using their phones every minute that they weren't doing something else...literally! In some cases they would put off things that needed done so that they could be on the internet on their phones. They did not even put their phones down to use the toilet! They became anxious if their phone battery was running low, and there was no place immediately available to charge it! They installed new outlets in their home that have built in USB charging ports! They all now have power banks (as they are called), basically a battery pack that can be plugged into a phone to run/charge it.
And what were they doing on their phones? Usually watching Youtube videos, Netflix, or playing online games.
I think that Trump is a treasonous, stupid, nasty, piece of shit human. You're confused, AC, whoever you are.
I don't respond to AC's.
It's nice to see the slashdot crowd chiming in with another round of entirely predictable commentary.
I only realised I had a problem when two hour films that were not about superheroes became impossible to watch. After the gateway drug that was online news, I discovered the heroin of Reddit and the the hundreds of inane but amusing daily updates. Judging by the percentage of original comments on sites like Reddit (and here) I see that I'm not alone. The opportunity to communicate at any time of day is pretty compelling but actual brain stimulation is negligible!
If you want to cure your "phone addiction," just downgrade your plan from unlimited data to something more restrictive.
You'd be surprised how little importance all these distractions have once they start costing you real money to use.
I use my phone to check the weather, look up bus schedules, occasionally check e-mail or texts of the "arriving soon" nature, and a few other useful things, but all the other bandwidth-sucking distractions are out.
Requiem for the American Dream
Old people tend to ignor it as they don't usually fully appreciate what it is.
Or maybe we see it for exactly what it is, which explains our lack of interest.
No, you dont.
I know plenty of old people who have adapted, embraced modern technology and ideas... OTOH there are always those who just don't want to change, rejecting new ideas and technologies. The latter group are the ones left behind, fortunately the former are more numerous.
By and large I see social media as a relatively uninteresting, shallow, and not very well done.
RIKKI RIKKI RIKKI RIKKI.... Ugh.. I can still remember that bollocks from 20 fucking years ago.
What you have described is popular culture. It's always been shallow, uninteresting and never very well done (or even medium rare). Seriously, go and watch some Rikki Lake from the 90's and tell me that was better, more interesting, less shallow.
The difference is now I can choose not to be subjected to it, the tables have turned on broadcasters who used to decide what we could and couldn't watch.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
I'm reminded of the quote:
"Well, things aren't so bad. Food's a lot better; we used to boil everything. No polio is good. Internet, so helpful. I've been reading that a lot trying to catch up."
It's like "there is two internets" (tensing and pluralization intentional). A large number of people think that WEB is the whole internet and it's where you go to share information. Sharing information, in this case, is reading other peoples opinions and sharing yours . . . disproportionately. Taking a good hard look at Facebook, it reads like a discussion forum got turned on it's head and it's impossible to get any straight chain of thought. It's also a thousand times easier to be ignored, feel rejected than, say, IRC.
Then there's the rest of us. I (finally) like how the telematics integrate with with my car (aftermarket stereo setup), I can find the name of a tune or show that I have stuck in my head in a matter of minutes, vs asking everyone I know over a week or two, and it allows me to safely get/send direct data to someone else while driving.
It's all about expectations.
Trump Derangement is beyond imaginary, it's extreme IRONY to the point of upsetting intelligent informed educated people .... trolling them into an emotional response (and likely a healthy venting of negative emotion) which is then cited as an example of them being the emotionally unstable person... adding to the IRONY.
Sadly, trying to explain the irony to people who do not see it is a lot like trying to explain to a cult member that their in a cult. (yes, it's a poor analogy because it's hardly an analogy at all.)
I know plenty of old people who have adapted, embraced modern technology and ideas...
Yes, like me. I'm a pretty techy guy and I use it daily. I'm in a tech field doing tech stuff. When I go home there's lots of fun tech stuff to play with (for example, I just got a 3D printer and I'm in the process of tricking it out).
But here's the thing: tech doesn't rule my life, and I don't start to shake if I can't find my phone or if the battery is low. I don't fondle my phone 24/7 like a lot of people do.
There's a difference between embracing technology and giving it blowjobs.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
OP AC here: Not confused at all. I read your posts. Walk like a duck, quack like a duck, but you're not a duck, you're a libertarian. You know what that means right? Libertarians are such selfish pricks they can't even get along with each other. Your posts (in many articles) indicate you support the majority of the repub platform. You certainly won't claim to be liberal, and I know you think Democratic Socialists are just Commies. Your only "excuse" might be that you aren't even from the US, though I recall differently. Be aware I'm not talking about this singular article. I'm talking about anything you've posted through the years here. We don't forget what a person's UID is when we go to bed and we know what you're up to; I stated that in my OP.