My new commitment this year is in reclaiming my mornings. I'm getting up at 5:30 every morning with my husband. He goes to the gym. I do yoga and then free write (yes, on my computer, but I open a single document. No browsers.) until I need to get my kids up. I get them breakfast, make their lunches, and get them off to school. I do all of this before I touch my phone.
Prior to adopting this very new routine, I would check my phone constantly for notifications. Walk across my bedroom to claim it the minute I woke up in the morning. Walk across my bedroom to check it any time I woke up in the middle of the night. UTTER MADNESS!!!
I'm already noticing an improvement in my human levels with this small change.
I also decided, after much deliberation regarding my potential success as a YA author, that I will NOT be "getting on TikTok." I'll find another way.
I love what you're doing, and I look forward to keeping up with you on your progress. And to being an item in your notebook when we get around to podcasting. :-)
Screen free mornings? A bridge too far, but good luck with that! I know my limits! What’s next for you, a Monk’s vow of silence? (Said with affection for your project because I do understand your original need for the Notebook method.)
Julia Cameron can protest all she likes, but I love freewriting on a screen. I use an app called focuswriter that eliminates distractions and just pour words out on the "page," often typing with my eyes closed. In general, I love the idea of going analog and do some analog journaling as well but computer freewriting will always have a place in my heart.
I also love freewriting on a screen. But it's apples and oranges to me. My brain works altogether differently depending on the medium I'm using. Writing on a screen is faster, which allows for a much higher rate of idea processing. But analog tools like pen and paper force me to more deeply examine every idea as I go.
In any case, The Notebook Rule isn't really about the writing at all. It's about erecting a barrier between myself and the tidal wave of distractions always threatening to drown me whenever I'm face to face with a screen.
I waste time online. I had two major problems, now just one. The first problem was arguing with people online. I gave that up a long time ago and it's been a huge improvement. My rule, which I nearly always follow, is to interact with people online to agree, not to disagree. It's made me a better person and citizen.
But the other major problem hasn't gone away. And that's my craving for distraction. I scroll reddit, the news, substack. These things aren't bad, but I read way too much of them and that's bad. I have no idea how to manage it. I stop in bursts, or try to be more intentional, but before I know it I'm back to endless scrolling late at night.
Yeah, I'm discovering that the problem isn't "bad" behaviors on the internet (although there's certainly plenty of that), but rather just compulsive behavior in general. Stuff that is objectively fine, or even great!, can still ruin your life when you lose control over when and how much to do it. And it's been my experience that almost every digitally mediated thing has been designed to twist into an addiction as soon as possible.
My poor nervous system is fried by the effects of trying to build a tiny business towards the end of the 2010s, and all the social media use that seemed to need.
No more.
I am here on Substack, and here only now. I deleted all my business and personal Facebook and Instagram accounts in January last year. Best move ever!
Huzzah! Yeah, I think the commonly accepted necessity of social media for starting and running businesses is starting to shift. In the ongoing war for attention, the things that win the most important battles, and actually keep ground, will be quieter and more sophisticated. Everyone is starting to realize that only authentic connection is valuable for more than 15 seconds. Everything else is noise.
I really like this. I’ve been giving the notebook a go for a couple of days and it's already been enlightening/horrifying. It's quickly shown me that my approach to work is entirely erratic. Rather than dispassionately choosing the best course of action based on what needs to be done, I flutter between emails, Teams, to-do lists, open documents, basically looking for a hit. I’m like a moth repeatedly headbutting a light bulb.
Just as I thought deleting an app or some other idea would retrieve my agency, I'm now realising that perhaps I have a deeper addiction to needing a hit or a thrill from everything I do.
I'll persevere with the notebook for sure. I think reclaiming your intention is just a great idea. Let's see how it goes. Thanks again!
"my approach to work is entirely erratic..." I feel all this so hard. And the moth/lightbulb is a great metaphor. I actually realized, a few days into this practice, that I had been battling this strange mix of anxiety and anticipation every time I approached my desk. It was an unholy mix of hunger for dopamine (new emails, notifications, etc) and fear that I'd fall into some kind of rabbit hole and get no real work done. The battle was so exhausting, but I didn't even realize it was happening until I took a real step back from it. And then, suddenly, I was so much less anxious about sitting down at my desk again. I could, if I wanted, just sit there. Think. Breathe. Maybe take out my notebook and jot down a thought or concern. Then, crucially, *decide* what I wanted/needed to do next.
Good luck, and keep me posted on how this progresses for you!
The Notebook strategy fits well into the "Return" section of Peco's and my post on the 3Rs of Unmachining https://schooloftheunconformed.substack.com/p/the-3rs-of-unmachining-guideposts. The method you suggest is simple, but serves to raise awareness and deliberation of actions you plan to take. These few seconds are helpful to make a conscious choice, rather than act on an automatic impulse. Hari mentions in his book Stolen Focus that algorithm developers knew that they could help people by prompting them to click at the bottom of the page (giving people time to consider whether they want to continue) rather than have an endless scroll function. They chose not to, because it would give them more "eyeball" time.
Everyone needs to understand that the apps and technologies they interact with are not designed with humanity's best interest in mind. Of course this shouldn't surprise us at all. And yet we go along with the popular fiction that things are being "optimized" for us, as they are ceaselessly optimized, instead, for the people who profit off our use of them.
Mindfulness is our superpower. Digital dope is our kryptonite.
Thanks for writing this! I can relate to it on every level. I write about my own experiences with screen addiction and the negative changes I’ve noticed over time. Your essay feels like an answer to what I was describing.
Great post. And I'm glad this resonates. I have the sense that there is a broad awakening to how dire our situation is, but very few people seem to have any workable ideas to improve it.
I too love this post from The Obsolete Man. I think Johann Hari's _Stolen Focus_ is going to suggest workable ideas, but I'm not that far yet. Eager to find out. Meanwhile, we do well to try our own. 🎯
As an addict, I commend you for recognising and implementing. I'm not addicted to my phone as much as some, but I do lament the time I do spend on it but it's mainly substack, so I feel that I'm doing something good, at least. I don't know... I would love it if smart phones were never invented to be honest.
I understand the sentiment, but I'm sure people who loved theatre felt the same way about cinema. Every technology challenges and threatens to completely undermine basic human virtues. It's up to us to make sure we're the ones using the hammer, and not the other way around.
I think my life's better in someways with computers & smartphones and worse in others. But there's no point in illuminating the details because I am the same greedy & procrastinating person with or without computers & smartphones. (So it's a choice of setting priorities and schedules and other tecniques to manage my many addictions.)
Here are some examples about my "greediness" and it's a lifelong problem long before even when I started with "mainframes" in the 60's before personal computers in the 80's's. ("Procrastination" will need no examples because I assume most of us would rather do something pleasurable than not pleasurable.)
I get the exact same "pleasure" from going to libraries, book stores, department stores, fabric stores, food shopping, dancing, any interaction with people I care about such as at parties, watching TV or movies, reading books or magazines, as I do using any kind of computer, photography, making art of any kind, writing, or even a "dumb phone", etc. Internet is not even needed for me to get the pleasures. It is the pleasure of "losing myself" in a different world as compared with the unpleasant other parts of my life or not wanting to deal with certain terrible people or situations in my life. "Losing myself" in ANY pleasurable activity is likely no different than why many take drugs to escape and to feel better. And and I am greedy and hungry for knowledge and understanding of complex issues and for wanting to be a part of important issues and situations.
So I have to have a plan ahead of time-- not much different than "the notebook rule" in substance: an artificial and rational way to control my worst impulses of wanting "to play" and "not work" or not have to deal with anything personally unpleasant and of wanting to be involved in various "worlds". So I have to set timers and place artificial limits on doing something pleasurable for more than a set amount of time on the clock or per a calendar, or in not spending more than a pre-set amount of money and then I simply walk away.
Examples: Whether it's a bookstore online or brick and mortar, I splurge once a year and spend no more than $100. If I go to a casino to play the slots, I spend no more than $50 of initial "seed money". (I won $600 in quarters once that way. Todays's digital winnings though, are not as pleasurable as quarters spewing into buckets.) I spend no more than two hours in a library for fun maybe 1-2 times a year, and no more than 1 hour in a fabric store where I spend no more than $200 a year. I spend no more than 5 minutes scrolling through comments to each article I read at NYT or WAPO and I have to limit how many articles I read. And so forth. I even have to time myself on Wikipedia.
There are so many ways of "escaping" these days that I found myself not washing dishes or taking showers. So now I have the TV or radio on to do dishes or sweep or do laundry or even to take showers. (And yes, I know there's actual pleasures in the process of washing dishes in hot soapy water and seeing clean ones pile up, but I like the anchors in MSNBC, for example, or the columnists in newspapers and like the subject matter and opinions so I have the articles read to me while I wash dishes. There is pleasure in seeing swept up dog fur, etc. And while I am terrified about what Trump is doing, I do not want to miss how others are trying to deal with the awfulness so I can also put it in historical or current perspective. And so even when I am paying bills, I have a TV or radio on or have a newspaper or magazine read to me.
I am having a harder time with Substack because the pleasures are varied: the writing, the reading, the interactions with people, the racking up of "hearts"or comments, or the gaining of knowledge of seeing the variety of opinions and creativity and angles from which people approach different issues There is sheer enjoyment and admiration for what others are producing: it's all,a candy shop.
I just really started with "Sub S" a few months ago and I am planning a newsletter. I am just a greedy and likely obsessive-compulsive and anxious person and "I want it all" in SubS world in the same way that I want it all in every other pleasurable part of my life. So I am feeling my way around how to handle SubS.
(I was the same on Quora that is less pleasurable in a number of ways that I'll explain more at another time, but I became obsessed with answering questions and having them read and even enjoyed or admired: who would not want that? So at this point when I don't even write much there anymore I still have more than 750,000 people around the world reading what I've written and even years after I've written many of the entries there are still people reading the older answers.)
So I am glad to learn about the Notebook technique, thanks! I may try that with Substack or combine it with using a clock.
“I vividly remember borrowing my mom’s boyfriend’s gameboy when I was eight or nine, and playing nonstop like my life depended on it.”
I borrowed a friend’s Gameboy, played a truly insane amount of Tetris, and then had a vivid auditory hallucination after I turned the machine off.
I could still hear the Tetris music.
I don’t mean “hearing” it in my mind’s ear like when you get a song stuck in your head. No. I heard a real sound coming from the device, even though it was turned off.
I gave up Tetris after that. But I have been addicted to various games off and on over the years. And I am definitely addicted to scrolling for information.
"...addicted to scrolling for information" -- ever learning and never coming to a knowledge of the truth.
I grew up believing that one of the highest human virtues is curiosity, and I still believe it is, but the so-called Information Age has corrupted it into a vice. How many times has my own curiosity led me down wikipedia rabbit holes, only to suffer from near total amnesia on the other side?
Or reading and reading whether books or articles, listening to podcasts, attending webinars, but never actually studying anything or integrating it into life! Just information to fill a void? Looking outside for answers instead of inside. Argh! It’s real, and I’m working on it.
I’m so old I remember the original Mattel? handheld electronic football game - it was just lines, representing football team members and it was so addictive, ah… how we have moved from there. (Always nice to “meet” another Claudine.
J.E.: I celebrate your plan! I love that hand writing comes first. I've been figuring out how to reclaim attention also. My experiment is to write short sketches with intense focus on one small thing, so the writing draws my attention where I'd rather put it. Thanks to a recommendation from Dee Rambeau ("Of a Sober Mind"), I'm reading the book _Stolen Focus_ by Johann Hari. Loving it. (Hari has TED talks about both attention and addiction.) Nice to find your work. I agree with you that this is one of the big problems of our time. My attention series started here: https://open.substack.com/pub/tarapenry/p/introducing-the-attention-chronicles?r=1mk0zn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Thanks for sharing! I read Hari's Chasing the Scream, and loved it. He's really good at capturing the major themes bubbling up in the collective unconscious.
Great initiative and post- I also started tracking this as my infinite scrolling became incessant. I got to the point where I bought apps to stop me going on other apps?! Screens just became an avoidant behaviour where I need to didn't think.
Last year something switched where I commited to being a reader and writer. Nothing else was stopping me except time, and guess where my time was being spent? Right! I'm still on the path but having commitments to self, desk rules and tracking intent seems to be building up to some more consistent habits.
Generally it just seems if human beings become more intentional, everything we want to do basically lines up how we want. Curiousity, consistency, productivity.
Yes to this. I retired a year and a half ago at 60. I worked as an attorney. I used the computer, Kindle, phone almost as much after retirement but NOT for work. I scrolled. And got more and more anxious and depressed, ending up in therapy and barely eluding my mainstream doctor's well meaning attempt to put me on Lexapro or Effexor. Although I write on Substack, I am now addicted to checking stats and how many opened my email. I paint - but not as much now that I'm retired. I need to pick this back up and stay away from the implements of doom. I wrote a similar column about my Twitter problem. I sort of like my comparison of Twitter to thousands of earthworms crammed into a bait chest instead of roaming acres of land. Hah! https://rightfootforward.substack.com/p/ground-control-to-major-tom
1) Let’s start a group for “Compulsive Attorney’s Anonymous”: I’ve been one since 1981! And a painter /photographer/cartoonist/sculptor, etc. since 1963!
One thing I’ve noticed doing that raises red flags for my own media misuse is what Instagram has become. I’m not going to delete it. What I’m into could and should be healthy: I love & save a ton of cool stuff artsy people paint, sew, sculpt, etc. Everyday. Mornings. Throughout the day. When I can’t sleep...I scroll, “save,” & briefly think about so much cool stuff...But, I DO very little of it!
It should be a fabulous resource, not an end unto itself. As a baby boomer, I really can’t afford to waste the time left to me for producing!
I serve at the church I grew up in as Director of Internet Ministries, which means I manage our social media channels and our website. A broader job description would be “doing ministry on the Internet” as myself, not just managing our church accounts. I tell myself that I *need* to be active on social media since it’s my area of ministry, which is valid enough if I had the discipline to be consistently ministering through content of my own, actually being social, etc. But of course it’s all too easy to consume rather than contribute, especially on my phone... This year I’ve deleted all social apps off my phone in an attempt to make it as dumb as possible. Eventually I’ll probably delete them off my iPad, too, but having to take it out and power it up has proven to be a good barrier anyway. I like this idea from you, though! Looking forward to following along.
Crucial addition--I forgot a second key part of my strategy-- to what I wrote above about when I go to a casino and have to limit myself because I have an addictive personality: In addition to my limit of "$50 seed money", I also have a ore-set limit if what I am willing to lose: $50. In that fashion, it's no more than what I might have spent going to the movies and having snacks & drinks / paying for gas if need be So whether the movie is good or bad, and that's always a gamble too, I know my budget allows for whatever the costs of all of that. So at a casino, win or lose, I've had a fun night out and might have even won more than I was willing to lose. Without going with a strategy, I might be tempted to keep "pulling the slot machine handle" literally or electronically and keep doing it until I win and I could lose big time.
My new commitment this year is in reclaiming my mornings. I'm getting up at 5:30 every morning with my husband. He goes to the gym. I do yoga and then free write (yes, on my computer, but I open a single document. No browsers.) until I need to get my kids up. I get them breakfast, make their lunches, and get them off to school. I do all of this before I touch my phone.
Prior to adopting this very new routine, I would check my phone constantly for notifications. Walk across my bedroom to claim it the minute I woke up in the morning. Walk across my bedroom to check it any time I woke up in the middle of the night. UTTER MADNESS!!!
I'm already noticing an improvement in my human levels with this small change.
I also decided, after much deliberation regarding my potential success as a YA author, that I will NOT be "getting on TikTok." I'll find another way.
I love what you're doing, and I look forward to keeping up with you on your progress. And to being an item in your notebook when we get around to podcasting. :-)
ROCK. ON.
The importance of screen free mornings really can't be overstated. There will be a whole post on this soon, probably.
Screen free mornings? A bridge too far, but good luck with that! I know my limits! What’s next for you, a Monk’s vow of silence? (Said with affection for your project because I do understand your original need for the Notebook method.)
Yes! The mornings! I seem very susceptible to screen fever in the morning and then that casts darkness over entire day.
Julia Cameron can protest all she likes, but I love freewriting on a screen. I use an app called focuswriter that eliminates distractions and just pour words out on the "page," often typing with my eyes closed. In general, I love the idea of going analog and do some analog journaling as well but computer freewriting will always have a place in my heart.
I also love freewriting on a screen. But it's apples and oranges to me. My brain works altogether differently depending on the medium I'm using. Writing on a screen is faster, which allows for a much higher rate of idea processing. But analog tools like pen and paper force me to more deeply examine every idea as I go.
In any case, The Notebook Rule isn't really about the writing at all. It's about erecting a barrier between myself and the tidal wave of distractions always threatening to drown me whenever I'm face to face with a screen.
Ha! I can quit anytime I like! It’s easy! I’ll show you ...as soon as I’m done watching this TikTok of a guy chopping wood...
oh oh send me a link
I waste time online. I had two major problems, now just one. The first problem was arguing with people online. I gave that up a long time ago and it's been a huge improvement. My rule, which I nearly always follow, is to interact with people online to agree, not to disagree. It's made me a better person and citizen.
But the other major problem hasn't gone away. And that's my craving for distraction. I scroll reddit, the news, substack. These things aren't bad, but I read way too much of them and that's bad. I have no idea how to manage it. I stop in bursts, or try to be more intentional, but before I know it I'm back to endless scrolling late at night.
Yeah, I'm discovering that the problem isn't "bad" behaviors on the internet (although there's certainly plenty of that), but rather just compulsive behavior in general. Stuff that is objectively fine, or even great!, can still ruin your life when you lose control over when and how much to do it. And it's been my experience that almost every digitally mediated thing has been designed to twist into an addiction as soon as possible.
My poor nervous system is fried by the effects of trying to build a tiny business towards the end of the 2010s, and all the social media use that seemed to need.
No more.
I am here on Substack, and here only now. I deleted all my business and personal Facebook and Instagram accounts in January last year. Best move ever!
Huzzah! Yeah, I think the commonly accepted necessity of social media for starting and running businesses is starting to shift. In the ongoing war for attention, the things that win the most important battles, and actually keep ground, will be quieter and more sophisticated. Everyone is starting to realize that only authentic connection is valuable for more than 15 seconds. Everything else is noise.
I really like this. I’ve been giving the notebook a go for a couple of days and it's already been enlightening/horrifying. It's quickly shown me that my approach to work is entirely erratic. Rather than dispassionately choosing the best course of action based on what needs to be done, I flutter between emails, Teams, to-do lists, open documents, basically looking for a hit. I’m like a moth repeatedly headbutting a light bulb.
Just as I thought deleting an app or some other idea would retrieve my agency, I'm now realising that perhaps I have a deeper addiction to needing a hit or a thrill from everything I do.
I'll persevere with the notebook for sure. I think reclaiming your intention is just a great idea. Let's see how it goes. Thanks again!
"my approach to work is entirely erratic..." I feel all this so hard. And the moth/lightbulb is a great metaphor. I actually realized, a few days into this practice, that I had been battling this strange mix of anxiety and anticipation every time I approached my desk. It was an unholy mix of hunger for dopamine (new emails, notifications, etc) and fear that I'd fall into some kind of rabbit hole and get no real work done. The battle was so exhausting, but I didn't even realize it was happening until I took a real step back from it. And then, suddenly, I was so much less anxious about sitting down at my desk again. I could, if I wanted, just sit there. Think. Breathe. Maybe take out my notebook and jot down a thought or concern. Then, crucially, *decide* what I wanted/needed to do next.
Good luck, and keep me posted on how this progresses for you!
The Notebook strategy fits well into the "Return" section of Peco's and my post on the 3Rs of Unmachining https://schooloftheunconformed.substack.com/p/the-3rs-of-unmachining-guideposts. The method you suggest is simple, but serves to raise awareness and deliberation of actions you plan to take. These few seconds are helpful to make a conscious choice, rather than act on an automatic impulse. Hari mentions in his book Stolen Focus that algorithm developers knew that they could help people by prompting them to click at the bottom of the page (giving people time to consider whether they want to continue) rather than have an endless scroll function. They chose not to, because it would give them more "eyeball" time.
Everyone needs to understand that the apps and technologies they interact with are not designed with humanity's best interest in mind. Of course this shouldn't surprise us at all. And yet we go along with the popular fiction that things are being "optimized" for us, as they are ceaselessly optimized, instead, for the people who profit off our use of them.
Mindfulness is our superpower. Digital dope is our kryptonite.
Thanks for writing this! I can relate to it on every level. I write about my own experiences with screen addiction and the negative changes I’ve noticed over time. Your essay feels like an answer to what I was describing.
https://open.substack.com/pub/theobsoleteman/p/i-cant-read-anymore?r=ohdic&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
Great post. And I'm glad this resonates. I have the sense that there is a broad awakening to how dire our situation is, but very few people seem to have any workable ideas to improve it.
I too love this post from The Obsolete Man. I think Johann Hari's _Stolen Focus_ is going to suggest workable ideas, but I'm not that far yet. Eager to find out. Meanwhile, we do well to try our own. 🎯
It is an uncompromisingly personal journey.
As an addict, I commend you for recognising and implementing. I'm not addicted to my phone as much as some, but I do lament the time I do spend on it but it's mainly substack, so I feel that I'm doing something good, at least. I don't know... I would love it if smart phones were never invented to be honest.
I understand the sentiment, but I'm sure people who loved theatre felt the same way about cinema. Every technology challenges and threatens to completely undermine basic human virtues. It's up to us to make sure we're the ones using the hammer, and not the other way around.
Indeed. I get really annoyed when I see my husband on his phone for ages.... It makes me sad and judgmental.
I think my life's better in someways with computers & smartphones and worse in others. But there's no point in illuminating the details because I am the same greedy & procrastinating person with or without computers & smartphones. (So it's a choice of setting priorities and schedules and other tecniques to manage my many addictions.)
Here are some examples about my "greediness" and it's a lifelong problem long before even when I started with "mainframes" in the 60's before personal computers in the 80's's. ("Procrastination" will need no examples because I assume most of us would rather do something pleasurable than not pleasurable.)
I get the exact same "pleasure" from going to libraries, book stores, department stores, fabric stores, food shopping, dancing, any interaction with people I care about such as at parties, watching TV or movies, reading books or magazines, as I do using any kind of computer, photography, making art of any kind, writing, or even a "dumb phone", etc. Internet is not even needed for me to get the pleasures. It is the pleasure of "losing myself" in a different world as compared with the unpleasant other parts of my life or not wanting to deal with certain terrible people or situations in my life. "Losing myself" in ANY pleasurable activity is likely no different than why many take drugs to escape and to feel better. And and I am greedy and hungry for knowledge and understanding of complex issues and for wanting to be a part of important issues and situations.
So I have to have a plan ahead of time-- not much different than "the notebook rule" in substance: an artificial and rational way to control my worst impulses of wanting "to play" and "not work" or not have to deal with anything personally unpleasant and of wanting to be involved in various "worlds". So I have to set timers and place artificial limits on doing something pleasurable for more than a set amount of time on the clock or per a calendar, or in not spending more than a pre-set amount of money and then I simply walk away.
Examples: Whether it's a bookstore online or brick and mortar, I splurge once a year and spend no more than $100. If I go to a casino to play the slots, I spend no more than $50 of initial "seed money". (I won $600 in quarters once that way. Todays's digital winnings though, are not as pleasurable as quarters spewing into buckets.) I spend no more than two hours in a library for fun maybe 1-2 times a year, and no more than 1 hour in a fabric store where I spend no more than $200 a year. I spend no more than 5 minutes scrolling through comments to each article I read at NYT or WAPO and I have to limit how many articles I read. And so forth. I even have to time myself on Wikipedia.
There are so many ways of "escaping" these days that I found myself not washing dishes or taking showers. So now I have the TV or radio on to do dishes or sweep or do laundry or even to take showers. (And yes, I know there's actual pleasures in the process of washing dishes in hot soapy water and seeing clean ones pile up, but I like the anchors in MSNBC, for example, or the columnists in newspapers and like the subject matter and opinions so I have the articles read to me while I wash dishes. There is pleasure in seeing swept up dog fur, etc. And while I am terrified about what Trump is doing, I do not want to miss how others are trying to deal with the awfulness so I can also put it in historical or current perspective. And so even when I am paying bills, I have a TV or radio on or have a newspaper or magazine read to me.
I am having a harder time with Substack because the pleasures are varied: the writing, the reading, the interactions with people, the racking up of "hearts"or comments, or the gaining of knowledge of seeing the variety of opinions and creativity and angles from which people approach different issues There is sheer enjoyment and admiration for what others are producing: it's all,a candy shop.
I just really started with "Sub S" a few months ago and I am planning a newsletter. I am just a greedy and likely obsessive-compulsive and anxious person and "I want it all" in SubS world in the same way that I want it all in every other pleasurable part of my life. So I am feeling my way around how to handle SubS.
(I was the same on Quora that is less pleasurable in a number of ways that I'll explain more at another time, but I became obsessed with answering questions and having them read and even enjoyed or admired: who would not want that? So at this point when I don't even write much there anymore I still have more than 750,000 people around the world reading what I've written and even years after I've written many of the entries there are still people reading the older answers.)
So I am glad to learn about the Notebook technique, thanks! I may try that with Substack or combine it with using a clock.
“I vividly remember borrowing my mom’s boyfriend’s gameboy when I was eight or nine, and playing nonstop like my life depended on it.”
I borrowed a friend’s Gameboy, played a truly insane amount of Tetris, and then had a vivid auditory hallucination after I turned the machine off.
I could still hear the Tetris music.
I don’t mean “hearing” it in my mind’s ear like when you get a song stuck in your head. No. I heard a real sound coming from the device, even though it was turned off.
I gave up Tetris after that. But I have been addicted to various games off and on over the years. And I am definitely addicted to scrolling for information.
"...addicted to scrolling for information" -- ever learning and never coming to a knowledge of the truth.
I grew up believing that one of the highest human virtues is curiosity, and I still believe it is, but the so-called Information Age has corrupted it into a vice. How many times has my own curiosity led me down wikipedia rabbit holes, only to suffer from near total amnesia on the other side?
Or reading and reading whether books or articles, listening to podcasts, attending webinars, but never actually studying anything or integrating it into life! Just information to fill a void? Looking outside for answers instead of inside. Argh! It’s real, and I’m working on it.
I’m so old I remember the original Mattel? handheld electronic football game - it was just lines, representing football team members and it was so addictive, ah… how we have moved from there. (Always nice to “meet” another Claudine.
Handheld electronic poker for me, when I was 11 or something. If I could get addicted to that, what hope do I have against what's on offer today?
None, except for...The Notebook Rule :D
Discussion of Tetris song at 43.16:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4BpjFoovyOBzKFXH05TdVD
This is Ian Lynch of Lankum's excellent folk music podcast Fire Draw Near
J.E.: I celebrate your plan! I love that hand writing comes first. I've been figuring out how to reclaim attention also. My experiment is to write short sketches with intense focus on one small thing, so the writing draws my attention where I'd rather put it. Thanks to a recommendation from Dee Rambeau ("Of a Sober Mind"), I'm reading the book _Stolen Focus_ by Johann Hari. Loving it. (Hari has TED talks about both attention and addiction.) Nice to find your work. I agree with you that this is one of the big problems of our time. My attention series started here: https://open.substack.com/pub/tarapenry/p/introducing-the-attention-chronicles?r=1mk0zn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Thanks for sharing! I read Hari's Chasing the Scream, and loved it. He's really good at capturing the major themes bubbling up in the collective unconscious.
Yes, I agree!
Great initiative and post- I also started tracking this as my infinite scrolling became incessant. I got to the point where I bought apps to stop me going on other apps?! Screens just became an avoidant behaviour where I need to didn't think.
Last year something switched where I commited to being a reader and writer. Nothing else was stopping me except time, and guess where my time was being spent? Right! I'm still on the path but having commitments to self, desk rules and tracking intent seems to be building up to some more consistent habits.
Generally it just seems if human beings become more intentional, everything we want to do basically lines up how we want. Curiousity, consistency, productivity.
Felt so hard. Apps to get off apps. Screens as a means of avoidance.
Great awareness, and keep going!
Yes to this. I retired a year and a half ago at 60. I worked as an attorney. I used the computer, Kindle, phone almost as much after retirement but NOT for work. I scrolled. And got more and more anxious and depressed, ending up in therapy and barely eluding my mainstream doctor's well meaning attempt to put me on Lexapro or Effexor. Although I write on Substack, I am now addicted to checking stats and how many opened my email. I paint - but not as much now that I'm retired. I need to pick this back up and stay away from the implements of doom. I wrote a similar column about my Twitter problem. I sort of like my comparison of Twitter to thousands of earthworms crammed into a bait chest instead of roaming acres of land. Hah! https://rightfootforward.substack.com/p/ground-control-to-major-tom
Love that analogy!
Go paint more :)
1) Let’s start a group for “Compulsive Attorney’s Anonymous”: I’ve been one since 1981! And a painter /photographer/cartoonist/sculptor, etc. since 1963!
2)
One thing I’ve noticed doing that raises red flags for my own media misuse is what Instagram has become. I’m not going to delete it. What I’m into could and should be healthy: I love & save a ton of cool stuff artsy people paint, sew, sculpt, etc. Everyday. Mornings. Throughout the day. When I can’t sleep...I scroll, “save,” & briefly think about so much cool stuff...But, I DO very little of it!
It should be a fabulous resource, not an end unto itself. As a baby boomer, I really can’t afford to waste the time left to me for producing!
Thanks for this essay. It’s a wake-up call.
I serve at the church I grew up in as Director of Internet Ministries, which means I manage our social media channels and our website. A broader job description would be “doing ministry on the Internet” as myself, not just managing our church accounts. I tell myself that I *need* to be active on social media since it’s my area of ministry, which is valid enough if I had the discipline to be consistently ministering through content of my own, actually being social, etc. But of course it’s all too easy to consume rather than contribute, especially on my phone... This year I’ve deleted all social apps off my phone in an attempt to make it as dumb as possible. Eventually I’ll probably delete them off my iPad, too, but having to take it out and power it up has proven to be a good barrier anyway. I like this idea from you, though! Looking forward to following along.
Digital ministry seems like the equivalent of doing missionary work on the Vegas strip.
"Easier to consume than contribute" - this is the entire business model of the Internet.
Good luck!
I want to get off this crazy merry-go-round of glowing squares. I feel like you’ve thrown me a life rope. I am doing The Notebook Rule.
Hells yeah! Get it.
Crucial addition--I forgot a second key part of my strategy-- to what I wrote above about when I go to a casino and have to limit myself because I have an addictive personality: In addition to my limit of "$50 seed money", I also have a ore-set limit if what I am willing to lose: $50. In that fashion, it's no more than what I might have spent going to the movies and having snacks & drinks / paying for gas if need be So whether the movie is good or bad, and that's always a gamble too, I know my budget allows for whatever the costs of all of that. So at a casino, win or lose, I've had a fun night out and might have even won more than I was willing to lose. Without going with a strategy, I might be tempted to keep "pulling the slot machine handle" literally or electronically and keep doing it until I win and I could lose big time.