I recently listened to Dopamine Nation, it wasn’t all that relevant to my life, but it got me thinking a lot about how much time I waste every day consuming media.
I’m looking for book recommendations on how to make changes with my media habits - I’d like a bit more balance with hobbies, chores, projects, etc. Basically just not feeling like all I do after work anymore is watch YouTube.
More details about my specifics below, but feel free to skip if you’re in a hurry and just want to drop your book :)
So Dopamine Nation was mostly about drug abuse, or people with actual debilitating addictions. The stories are kinda insane and fun to listen to. But I haven’t quite ruined my life with internet addiction (yet). Some insights were useful, but I want things a bit more specific to my situation. Not advice for how to get off heroine.
Lately I’ve been frustrated that I’ve had little free time to work on my projects. It feels like after work I just have to chill out and recover - which is mostly just eating and watching YouTube. When I run out of interesting YouTube videos, I watch dumb ones. And hours pass in an instant. Just last night I started a 20 minute funny video compilation and thought to myself, “I won’t finish this cause I have to go to bed soon” and my literal next thought was, “oh it’s over, did 20 minutes really pass?” And yeah, they had.
Meanwhile on nights that new bike parts come in the mail and I spend three hours in the garage after work role-playing a bike mechanic, it feels like an entire Saturday occurred just after work. And I’m not absolutely exhausted like I’d have predicted. Time just feels slower. I think I’ve always known this, I just refused to accept how significantly different life feels watching TV vs being engaged with something.
So I resolved to change a few weeks ago, and quit YouTube, but I don’t think I’ve actually gone a single day where I watched less than an hour of videos… One of the scary parts of Dopamine Nation was the evidence that high-dopamine activities shorten our abilities to think long-term; and a result of that is addicts constantly telling themselves “I won’t always be this way” or “I’ll quit someday for sure” but having zero commitment to a timeline. I feel like that’s where I’m at. “Yeah, I wanna quit and reclaim my time, but I can watch videos while I eat, right?” which leads to a lost evening. It’s like I have the clear desire to go cold-turkey, but then in the moment I can’t relate to those old desires and I habitually am looking for something to watch.
So I’d love a book that has guidance on managing internet addiction. Whether that’s some sort of balance, or advice on how to quit a bad habit.
Some books I’ve got on my radar:
- Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
- I LOVED his book Deep Work - it definitely changed my life in college.
- It seems like an obvious choice for me, but reviews seem to say it’s not that revolutionary. More like some loose ideas on the benefits of using your phone less.
- I’d love if someone here had a glowing review for the book or thought it might actually be what I’m looking for :)
- Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky
- And I’ve been looking through lists online, like this one:
Maybe not exactly this, but I recently read How To Break Up With Your Phone and really loved it. Short read, and even if you don’t follow the whole 30-day routine she outlines (I didn’t), it’s full of great prompts/thoughts on more responsibly looking at your consumption habits and I came away with several practices that have made a big difference for me.
I don’t have one but I can share my personal experience. I deleted almost all my social media accounts. No followers, no likes, no posting. > I have this lemmy account that I use when a poop and one Youtube account that I lind of need for my job and hobbies. I removed all apps from my phone too even youtube! Only watch it on the tv or pc for specific searches. I left only lemmy because i follow very few communities and it’s a lot less intense.
For me it was life changing and after a week you don’t even miss it
Same. A cold turkey social detox has left me much happier and I really don’t miss the constant agitation and engagement . I’m starting to read more too.
This might be the way. I’ve actually been un-googling this week, maybe I should just delete my YT account as well… I think I was just hoping a book would warm me up to the idea, or have insights I hadn’t considered. But I don’t really see even an hour a day of videos daily as something I want in my future.
If you don’t need youtube, do it. Anytime you need it for something you can use it as a guest, that way the algorithm won’t hook you in
I definitely don’t need it for anything. I might just note down some of my ambient music playlist that I like to work to. I’ll have to figure out a new news source for political news, maybe this weekend I’ll try setting up an RSS reader to aggregate some sources. But yeah, political news I think is what got me to start using YouTube a lot more since I’d be waiting to hear about updates to all this craziness (in the USA).
Groind news has political US and world news from all newspapers. I think it’s kind of nice
Yeah I was thinking about checking them out. I looked at their pricing model and was really confused and put off by it. Makes it seem like you have to pay more to be better informed. The lowest paid tier for example doesn’t show the factuality score of a publisher, which I feel like would be important to me, but who knows maybe it doesn’t come into affect with how they show the news.
Does seem like they support RSS feeds which is sweet
I ise the free one. lol never paid for it
Sadly, I do not. And the fact that your Teams notification is giving me anxiety probably means I could use some recommendations too.
I know! Sometimes I’ll hear Teams notification sounds in YouTube videos and get a huge spike in stress/anxiety. Kinda hate it 🙃
IMHO “hearing” a book isn’t much different from other forms of electronic media consumption.
So my recommendations is: Read a real book. And then some more.
I read most of my books, but I also enjoy audiobooks. I usually read series I love, and listen to the “meh” stuff. Sometimes I’ll even stop an audiobook and go buy the book version if I like it enough.
I 100% agree that audiobooks are another form of media, but I disagree that they’re comparable to algorithmically addicting media (which I have a problem with). You can listen to a book and have your life changed, meanwhile, it is doubtful I’ll remember anything I scrolled through yesterday, or watched in YouYube compilations.
I’m sure someone could waste a bunch of time listening to books they didn’t even want to, but I don’t struggle with anything like that. I read basically daily, but I go through regular audiobook slumps. And especially when it comes to attaining new information (I’m thinking a biography, not a math textbook), I think reading and listening are both fine enough. I mostly read fantasy though, for what it’s worth.
But yeah I suppose I read the things I love because I do notice some sort of difference. Can’t put my finger on it right now, but I will continue to do both with my arbitrary distinction :P
Not everyone absorbs information the same way. I can read a page 3 times and not remember what I read. Audiobooks I remember everything. Don’t knock it because it’s not what you enjoy
Not everyone absorbs information the same way.
I know that very well. And still I recommend that, because the act of listening to an audio book is so different from the act of reading a book (and because the former has so many similarities to using other electronic media).
It has many aspects, not just absorbing the information.
Such as?
Weak, elitist take. No meaningful difference between “hearing” a book and “seeing” a book (it’s kinda weird putting a word in quotes that the OP didn’t even say)
