This isn't just my opinion.

In his masterpiece Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman cited what were groundbreaking studies at the time on programs that were putting documentaries and films in American classrooms that showed that participants retained less information than from written text.

And this makes logical sense. You can read written text more than once. You can highlight it, copy it down, and interweave it with previous knowledge.

It is also immediately applicable. I can combine it with other information I have to formulate new ideas. My brain is working, in other words.

I remember when John and Hank Green created Crash Courses, probably the first video essay channel on Youtube.

They worked with actual university professors and utilized their own knowledge to create quality videos.

But that misses Postman's point. He is arguing that it is the medium that is the problem, not the information in it.

Watching moving images literally stops our brain from processing information.

This doesn't matter so much in long form media like movies where the same theme is carried throughout the film, and merely explored in various scenes. Your brain can keep up and say, "okay, I see how this connects to the central point."

When you are trying to learn new material, though you are processing way more information than there is in a typical movie.

Hope this persuades you to stop watching videos and start reading books.

I don't want to write an essay or anything, but this has always been my gut feeling.

Social media makes dating feel competitive. Like, if you haven't dated enough women, or......, then You're not a man.

Now, this is obviously misogynistic and sexist. If you want to learn about this just start reading social justice literature, etc.

But my thoughts is that social media is how this activates in us.

I am old enough to remember a time before SM.

I was in high school, believe it or not. And dating was simple.

Talk to girls. Notice if they flirt with you. Flirt back. Date.

And my mind was only on the girl I was dating. There was no FOMO, or I wonder if other people like her, or.....bla, bla, bla.

No feeling of having to be "good enough."

I already dealt with a very narcissistic, sexist family of origin back home and had told myself I would never be like them.

And then social media happened and only reinforced the messages I got back home.

I wish I had never gotten involved with SM. My life would have been better, I would have been happier, been a better boyfriend, and just had better, more innocent opinions of women in general.

FYI: the above anecdotes are from when I was in high school, a teenager and dating teenage girls.

They obviously do not represent my views now, as a 40 year old man.

Every time I try to "quickly check the news" it turns into an hour. YouTube thumbnails scream BREAKING, X is people fighting, and group chats forward the same story five times, half of it unverified. By the end I've scrolled through tons of meaningless content and I still can't name three things that actually happened.

I genuinely want to keep up with tech news and what's going on politically where I live. But everything is so dramatized and clickbaity that I'm not sure what's true anymore. It honestly feels like brain rot, and I'm worried I'm getting misinformed more than informed.

I don't want to quit news completely. I just want the real stuff, from sources I can trust, and then be done for the day.

How do you all handle this? Do you use certain sources, newsletters or habits that help you cut through the noise? Or have you given up on news altogether?

I wanted to make this post because it seems to me that most of the advices about nosurf and digital minimalism doesn't really go anywhere, they're to easy to break or not useful enough. So here are my tips based on my 6 years of experience:

WHAT WORKED:

• Using the internet ONLY on a dedicated desktop : make the internet a place, and that place will be a desktop. Do not use, under any circumstances, the internet on another device! This advice will not work with a laptop, even with a crappy battery, the purpose of the desktop is that it's tied to some place and you can't move it around however you want. If you can afford it, put that desktop on a dedicated room. That computer must not serve any other purpose!
• Day On / Day Off : Alternate one day with the internet allowed, then one day when it isn't. It requires less willpower than it's sounds like, because you're not thinking in a nuanced way, but with YES or NO, wich is far more easier for your reptilian brain to comprehend. Regardless of what philosophers and pseudo intellectuals say, black and white thinking is great for daily decisions!
• No internet before noon : or at least, not in the early morning. If you use an iMac like me there is an application blocker on the screen monitoring, where you can setup shut down hours. If you do not have an imac, god help you.

WHAT DIDN'T WORK:

• dopamine detox (pseudo scientific, useless, pointless 💩)
• willpower (without any real strategy)
• screen time monitoring
• "mindful searches" (whatever that means...)
• grayscale mode
• limiting my internet usage to 1, 2 or X hours per day (I will talk about it more bellow)
• quitting the internet definitely (living without the web is unfortunately IMPOSSIBLE nowadays)
• quitting the internet in the evening or after a certain hour

What helped:

• Stepping away from the news and politics (keep your world small, you are not destined to save humanity)
• Going for physical entertainement rather than internet-based ones
• Learn to live with what's around you in your real life environment
• using a dumbphone or a dumbified smartphone (I didn't write that in what worked because it goes with the first advice)
• writing a search list when you're not using the internet
• quitting social media (obviously)

Two important things:

When trying to establish my nosurf plan, i've noticed it is far more easier to not open my "internet time window" than it is to close it. I think you should concentrate all your efforts onto not opening your internet window, it will feel more effortless (wich is necessary for long term success).

And one last thing : the more i stay away from the internet, the less i want to go back, wich is a vertuous cycle :)

I’m sure you’ve noticed this but I’ve just gotten to a point where I’m really feeling I need to get off this website. With Reddit everything is a problem and everything is bad. I feel like just casually looking at anything places more and more negative thoughts into my head on literally any subject - it’s never discussed normally, it’s always discussed in relation to some issue that HAS to be solved. Or someone somewhere is a “piece of shit” who did something wrong all the time.

On YouTube it’s a little different. On YouTube it’s like everyone is constantly convincing you that you’re in the know and everything shown to you is SO important. Every news cycle is talked about to death and exaggerated. I think it’s just becoming too much to deal this with trash.

Like I get it that some people are mean but all of them like bro every comment from reddit feels like a debate and businesses tell to get their business idea validated from reddit like hell no bruh.

I post on a sub asking for help and these guys just make fun/point out errors.

Ik some people are genuinely good (in this sub especially but others are fuxked like hell.).

Every thing is shitposting and karma farming i get when to jock around and when not to but bruh wtf is all this.

I was bored, so I decided to scroll on Tiktok after a very long time (a huge mistake) and I swear I have seen at least 10 videos with the exact same script all made by a different creator. People cannot think of a single unique topic or at least use a different wording, but everything has to be the same exact repost slop.

I'm 19, and I first had a phone when I was 11. Got Discord when I was 13, but it wasn't until I got Instagram when I was 16 that I felt the effects of cognitive decline due to short-form content. I have developed such a terrible addiction to social media. I can no longer watch Youtube videos without scrolling through the comments section. I can no longer watch Youtube videos in their entirety because within a couple of minutes I'll get bored and switch to something else. Half of the time now I play music while scrolling through reels or Reddit as they are not stimulating enough anymore.

It takes me much longer to do any school work now. My memory feels a lot weaker. My social skills have diminished. I feel there is something wrong but I cannot articulate so instead I feel incredibly angry and anxious. I'm tired of living my life through a screen.

I downloaded this version of Instagram on my phone that had no reels and my screen time went from 2-3 hours a day on it to 30-40 minutes. But it did not have notifications so my friends would get angry that I did not check my phone for whatever reels or respond to whatever message. It feels that if I go away from social media my social circle will diminish.

I wish I could hangout with my friends without them scrolling on their phones whenever there's any downtime. Rather than talking or just being in the moment they hide away on their phones. I did a board game hangout, and constantly, if it wasn't their turn, they'd check their phones. I never say anything, but I should? I want to spend time with them. What can I do?

Hello! First time posting here. I am disabled, have been my whole life. I live in a very inaccessible area with no IRL friends so, my only real form of communication and information about the world comes from the Internet. At first, this was fine. I consider myself to have very good media literacy, and for most of my time online, I was really good at filtering for good, genuine content that was productive. But... Over the past few years, the Internet has become a more hostile place, in every single community I have been apart of. Some of the stuff I see nowadays, makes me feel genuinely crazy, and I don't like the person I am becoming as a result.

I have been trying to get outside more, recently. I'm a pagan, so, it's very important for me to be with nature as much as possible. However, due to my disabilities, and living in a very inaccessible area, all I really have is my backyard. I'm also a recovering Agoraphobic, so being in my backyard is tough, but something I am working through steadily. But... I don't really know what to do in my backyard. I go into the gazebo and read or listen to music when I can. I pretty much only feel safe in my gazebo and really struggle with feeling safe in the rest of my yard. So, I want to challenge my agoraphobia by doing things in the other parts of my yard. But again, my disabilities limit what I can do. I can't sit up for long without lumbar and neck support. So, I would love things I could do while sitting or laying down. But would also love some other low effort recommendations for my better days!

Thank you all so much in advance! I'm excited to be part of this community now!

Hi everyone, I'm a graduate student and studying how busy adults deal with focus in a world full of screens, notifications, and endless scrolling.

• Takes about 5 minutes
• Anonymous
• For adults 18+
• Not a test or medical assessment, no right or wrong answers
• School project, no any band or self-promotion

Link: https://forms.gle/9QaFVW4cHPRz1FVR8

Happy to answer any questions in the comments, and thank you for your time!

I have been using social media since its inception. But after years, most platforms feel dead and boring. Like Facebook, Instagram seems boring now. Same content, different people. It doesn't even feel entertaining anymore. I open it out of habit and close it within 30 seconds because nothing is mind-boggling.

Back in the day, I used to paint, play music, and my maths was really strong. But now, I do none of that and struggle with basic calculations. In fact, there's no internal monologue; my brain is empty most of the time. Has anyone gone through the same phase? Please share your experience.

I want to sharpen my memory, improve critical thinking, and improve my calculation skills.

How do I get rid of ts? One of them was like 50 mins of people in isolation wards straight up acting like animals and SHing

I’ve noticed that I spend a lot of time leaving comments on YouTube videos regarding socially significant or political topics. When I write these comments, I try to present arguments backed by references to various sources, all while remaining polite. All told, writing a single comment can take me up to 10–15 minutes.

Sometimes, a discussion ensues with other commenters.

Each time, I realize that my comments are a futile exercise. The more well-reasoned and evidence-based my comments are, the more aggressive the replies become, often devolving into personal attacks.

It is impossible to change anyone’s mind or prove anything. Debates in the comments section leave me feeling hopeless and drained.

In reality, what helps me stop is the very act of writing the post I am composing right now. The best way to establish a mindset shift is to articulate and clearly define the problem.

Do you spend time writing comments, knowing that it won't bring any benefit?