I am not sure why people worry about spending too much time in front of their computer. In "the old days", there wasn't one device that did everything for you. If you wanted to write, you got out your typewriter. If you wanted to read, you went to the library to find a book. If you wanted to shop, you went to the store. If you wanted to have a quick chat with someone, you would call them or find them in person.
Now, "the Internet" handles all that for you one one device. You are doing the same things that you always did, but what used to take several hours now takes a few clicks. This is a good thing, not a bad thing; you have more time to waste, and so you do it by reading news.yc instead of walking to the store.
The point is that some things naturally prey on our tendency towards addiction. There are a lot of people who (like this guy) get REALLY uncomfortable when they aren't pinging their inbox constantly.
And social sites are getting downright scientific about addictiveness. "How'd we do this week?" "Time on page is up by about half a second and return visits is up 0.3%".
So much innovation has happened around shortening the distance between you and something amusing/engaging... To the point where you could just surf around Facebook and the web and really never get tired of it. For a lot of people there is an "angel" sitting on their shoulder saying, "What the hell are you doing with your life? On your deathbed, are you going to look back at this and be proud/happy with how you spent your days?"
The problem is that the current computers have not enough bandwidth to satisfy your brain.
Cycling to the store and talking to a real human being gives you more diversified sensations. (Even if it does not feel as interesting at first as a computer game.) Also moving around on your own is good for your body.
The computer frees you to spend your time cycling to the lake instead of to the store, which is even better.
Nobody said, "never leave your house and always use your computer for everything." I just said that you can take care of necessary tasks so quickly that you have a lot more free time to spend as you wish; you don't need to combine recreation and chores anymore.
I've considered this a few times, but each time I do I eventually conclude that my internet/technology usage is well within normal limits (perhaps it was hubris that caused the resonance cascade after all). While I'm on my computer(s) at least 8 hours a day, those 8 hours are spent working. When I'm done with work I rarely pull out my laptop, unless I'm expecting something really cool via email...
As a developer I find it odd that I only like creating software, not using it.
Keeping up with new technology, and HN is a good place to do it (despite the sometimes entrepreneurial slant).
Being side-tracked for a few minutes, like making the comment above and this one now, is not a big deal. The point of the article is about getting side-tracked for hours, especially with something so dangerously addictive as technology.
Stepping back and taking stock of your activities is always a good idea.
I had no internet at home for about 3 months after moving to a new place once. I was a few blocks from my office and coffee shops, so it wasn't too hard to get online, but in my actual home I had none. I'm not sure I'd do it on purpose again, but it definitely had upsides. I went to bed at more normal times, read more books, cooked more, and cleaned more frequently.
I think the main difference is that, with the internet available, there is never really any time when I have nothing to do: there is always something interesting I could read, discuss, or do. But without the internet, there are all these bits of down time, e.g. I've finished breakfast but have 20 minutes before I need to leave to go somewhere.
Over the years, I've tried to limit what I get caught up reading. I've sworn off all local news, given up Slashdot recently and pretty much only read HN and whatever it or my Twitter feed links to.
Despite the overload of information on the net, very often I find myself sitting there in the evening, no new emails to look at, nothing new on Twitter or HN, and I think "Well, I've caught up on the Internet again." Then I wait five minutes and do another round of compulsively checking email, HN and Twitter. And another.
And next thing you know, hours have passed and I've done virtually nothing productive.
I'm about to move house and I am purposely leaving the phone/net connection until last so I'm forced to go a few weeks without the net at home until it's sorted out. I used to garden, cook, read, etc and more recently I barely find time for any of these things.
Sometimes, the busier you feel, the less you're getting done. At least, in my experience.
When I need to I've found that separating different activities helps me from getting "caught up" in the Internet. I use a HTPC to watch tv-series/web-tv and listen to music, an android phone for connecting with friends, e-reader to read books and documents. If I do need the computer I mainly use my laptop without wifi, and plug it in when I need to access the Internet briefly.
I do use my desktop computer for gaming, surfing the web and other purely recreational activities, but at least I'm not kidding myself when I do. Before I would tell myself that I was doing something useful, while I would get into the "loop" you're talking about. Now I read and watch video less, but I read and watch things I actually like.
That sounds great and I like the idea of isolating a work computer from the net. However, a lot of my work involves checking sites, FTPing here and there and so on.
Would still be useful for very specific days of intensive offline work.
Wondered about a net-jar (like a swear jar). Clock my non-work traffic at some outrageous rate, and my wife gets to spend the proceeds on shoes (well, more shoes)...
do another round of compulsively checking email, HN and Twitter. And another.
Me too and that is the problem I think a lot of us face (maybe most won't admit it?). It is so easy to loose focus.
The author mentioned the MacDowell Colony (http://www.macdowellcolony.org) and after checking it out I think something like this would be really cool for developers. I guess it is similar to YC in some ways, but more focused on taking away all outside distractions.
I don't really get it. It seems the author is using the Internet for all the right things: communicating with people, helping people, his bussiness is internet-based, which supports his family. It seems he's getting more out of the Internet than the time he inevitably wastes online?
Those of you who have Internet compulsion problems might like Mac Freedom: http://macfreedom.com/ , which is one of the most brilliant and simple programs I've found. You open it, it gives you a prompt with a number of minutes, and for that period of time you can't access the Internet (it's possible to get back on with rebooting, but that's enough of a pain that I suspect few people do it).
Just ask yourself "Am I really enjoying my time, or am I just procrastinating?"
For the former, go on and read Hacker News or play that flash game. For the latter, quit and do something worthwhile--either real work or at least real fun. (Of course just procrastinating and doing nothing really worthwhile can be fun every once in a while. But then at least admit it.)
1) We are all forced to use computers in a sort of arms race against our would be competitors in any job market or office place.
2) The browser and mobile phones are the ultimate swiss army knife and this will only get worse as all forms of media and communication get even more saturated.
3) People's reactions to his disconnection is exactly how I feel about my friend who refuses to get a cell phone. It is very annoying to communicate with him because it's like he has his own communication paradigm. He's always unavailable, barely returns calls, and always wants us to plan meticulously where and when to meet when going out, where as the rest of us just freestyle it because you can use your cell to freestyle it on the way. This reminds me of the new york times article on Cell phone refuseniks:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/technology/23cell.html
I swing back and forth in thinking that stuff like this is either fluffy navel gazing or serious introspection. I'd like to think it serious introspection.
I'm on my laptop a fair amount, and at home there's almost always a laptop open on the kitchen counter for checking email. My wife reads quite a bit online, and I do too. Our older son, who is 7, is just beginning to poke around on an old laptop. Do I spend a fair bit of time each day on my laptop? Yeah. I don't, however, carrying a mobile data device (yes, I have a cell phone, but no data plan), so if I'm not at home, or at work, I'm not "connected," and I don't feel anxious about that.
We're leaving shortly for a one month road trip. I'll be working periodically, and my wife has an iPhone, but I'm looking forward to being disconnected for days at a time. I'm not sure it'll be liberating, though, since I don't necessarily feel that I am a slave to anything.
I gave up the TV for the same reason, but now I don't bother getting any TV online. I just do without. I sometimes wonder if I could do without the (90%) pablum I read on the internet.
I gave up TV because it just became too tiresome. Haven't missed it at all. I just noticed the other day, when I turned on the TV to play some Wii, that the cable company still hasn't turned off the signal, I don't know if they are hoping to sucker me in?
When I was in university, that was pretty common. I think you're right, they're trying to get you back. Like the coke dealer who tells you the first one is free...
I gave up TV about 10 years ago as well because it was a big time waste. Unfortunately now I tend to waste as much time on the internet... (instead of meeting with friends in real life, spend time with my girlfriend...)
I don't know where you draw the line on that one. Lots of activities you do offline could be considered a waste of time too but, if you enjoy doing it, that's basically what life is for most people. Moderation is probably a much more reasonable way to deal with it.
I don't think I could ever quite quit the internet, but I am happy with my decision to stick with a twenty dollar internetless dumbphone, which at least guarantees that I won't be on the internet unless I'm at the office or at home.
Quitting the internet? How is that any less ridiculous than someone in the 1980s saying he's going to quit using the phone and reading the newspaper because he feels addicted to calling his friends and checking sports scores - and asking his acquaintances to contact him instead via telegram or pony express?
> Unless you go live in the jungle, you will just be reminded everyone is on the Internet.
I lived for six months at a very remote field station in the Amazon. We were more than a days travel from any village or town. We had electricity for only 4 hours a day. We bathed in the river. Dinner invariably involved spaghetti and a can of sardines. We had the internet. You can't get away, no matter where you go :)
I've also recently been feeling some internet fatigue.
It's occured to me that the internet encourages* bite-size pieces of content.
I sit on reddit and complain that it's getting too 4chan, with stupid lolcats, cartoons, FMLs, short bloggettes, and so on. Cheap, quick, unintellectual nuggets. But with some harsher self-observation, I realise that as I scan down the list I go for the cheap and quick nuggets. I open a pic, smirk, close tab, next. I open an 8 page article and think, crikey, tl;dr, close without reading. I open a 90 second youtube and will watch it, I open a 14 minute youtube and think "oh I can't be bothered to devote that long to this". Whereas in "real life" I will happily read a lengthy national geographic article in one sitting, and television tends to come in minimum 30 minute chunks.
I started reading the Baroque Cycle last month (not done yet, no spoilers please!), after Anathem before that, and it struck me how these 17th century RS people didn't have flushing toilets yet they were dedicated to knowing at least the fundamentals of philosophy, logic, maths, biology, chemisty, physics, rhetoric, etc as part of being a standard 'decently educated' person. I have a degree, too, and live in a pampered world of extreme convenience, but I have only the vaguest pop science grasp of E=mc^2, linguistic structuralism, the socratic method or whatever else. I ask myself why I'm letting myself sit on forums and get depressed by the deja vu of ever-repeating ill-informed / tabloid-level soundbites and debates, about, say, Iraq, instead of reading a serious book on the sociopolitical history of the middle east. Why am I skimming yet another "top 5 shiny css background examples" instead of thoroughly perusing a textbook of fundamental design principles? Why do I find myself link-surfing my way around WP to a biography of Russell, but never tackling Principia Mathematica?
So I'm now hoping to consciously curb my "just one more F5..." time-frittering, and spend more time bringing myself up to speed on all aspects of a well-rounded intellectual the old fashioned way: books.
* I say "encourage" rather than "force" because I am well aware the syndrome I describe comes down to personal choice and the reality is that it's my fault and not the internet's fault, so please don't argue with me on that basis, I know that. I know that in theory the internet, being an information-delivery-and-exchange medium, is capable of HELPING me in 'serious' self-improvement. I know that, for example, TED talks are highly regarded by many people as a means of engaging themselves with new areas of knowledge and learning. I can only speak for myself in saying I don't like videos, I don't seem to do well at reading long articles on screen, and I don't seem to be able to maintain attention span on the internet without ctrl-tabbing every 30 seconds. Much better for me personally to step away from the computer, recline on my sofa or bed and focus on some dead trees.
Now, "the Internet" handles all that for you one one device. You are doing the same things that you always did, but what used to take several hours now takes a few clicks. This is a good thing, not a bad thing; you have more time to waste, and so you do it by reading news.yc instead of walking to the store.