Yet another internet promise to reduce time on the internet
I’ve sat at my computer. I still do it. I go on like Facebook or whatever and I’m like, “What am I doing? I’m going on a loop with these same four sites for no reason. I’m not genuinely interested.” Here’s a test: take your nightly or morning browse of the Internet, right? Your Facebook feed, Instagram feed, Twitter, whatever. If someone every morning was like, I’m gonna print this and give you a bound copy of all this stuff you read so you don’t have to use the Internet. Would you read that book? No! You’d be like, “This book sucks. There’s a link to some article about a horse that found its owner somehow. It’s not that interesting.”
The Promise #
The little social media as a hardcopy book example has stuck with me for five years, just like my social media habits. From observations around the house, we tend to read that imaginary book at the dinner table, while monitoring the toddler troll that stomps around the house, and those precious few minutes of peace in the bathroom.
Lately, I’ve transitioned from constantly refreshing the NYT, hacker news, and twitter to Brandon Sanderson audiobooks that follow me everywhere. It’s a hands free activity that frees up my eyeballs from the microscopic glowing dots they’re accustomed to. I haven’t quite made the jump to non-fiction yet (that part of my media consumption and doomscrolling is entirely occupied by a couple minutes of NYT reading) so the fictional problems of Kaladin Stormblessed and Shallan Davar will have to do for this year.