The tycoons of social media have to stop pretending that they’re friendly nerd gods building a better world and admit they’re just tobacco farmers in T-shirts selling an addictive product to children. Because, let’s face it, checking your “likes” is the new smoking.
CAL NEWPORT
The inspiration for this post comes from my wife who has recently been focused on living a life that she calls "analog." Essentially, this means spending the daytime hours away from the internet and getting things done while enjoying old school pleasures like the radio or a physical book. Neither of us possesses a smartphone, so we live a relatively distraction free lifestyle. It is not an internet free lifestyle.
The dumbphone guru Jose Briones admitted that ditching his smartphone did not end his addictive attachment to the internet, but it certainly lessened it. He replaced time on his smartphone with time on his computer. It may surprise some Gentle Readers, but you can still access the internet with a desktop PC or laptop computer. These devices are how I use the internet while I use my flip phone to call and text.
Other people on the dumbphone reddit choose to dumb down their smartphones because they still want to access email, Google Maps, and other apps they find necessary to function in life. They mostly choose to delete social media apps.
I do not believe the device is the cause of the problems of the internet so much as what is on the internet. I had a Twitter addiction while using a desktop PC. Having a smartphone on me 24/7 would have been catastrophic. Regardless, Twitter was the problem and not the device.
Social media is part of what I refer to as the "addictive" internet. This is opposed to the "boring" internet that I use which would be my Gmail account, Google News, and my Inoreader feed reader. I read mostly news content. Beyond these three services, I use YouTube and Spotify to find new content like podcasts or gardening videos. This audio/visual content would bore most everyone else to tears.
I got on the internet sometime in the late 1990s. I never regretted it. By 2007, that changed. Facebook was becoming a thing. Before that time, I was into the boring internet. I did not realize that I was becoming hooked to the addictive internet. At some point, this frog jumped out of the boiling pot. I had been scalded and vowed to never let it happen again.
I stick with the boring internet now. I have found that the addicting part of the addictive internet is the social interaction. We post things and then recheck to see if it was liked. People crave this feedback. Likes are small doses of validation. Dislikes are hits of adrenaline. Realizing this, I practice anti-social media with this blog. I have no clue if the Gentle Reader likes or dislikes the content here. If I go down that road, this blog will be nothing more than memes and cat videos.
Because I use the boring internet, I tend to not go on it much except to read email, check the weather, and catch up on the news. This usually happens in the morning for a brief bit and after 8 p.m. each evening. The rest of my day is internet free with my wife's radio filling my mental space. I am not intentional on this whatsoever. I just don't find the internet that interesting to waste my whole day on it. That is the power of the boring internet.
I think it is a great idea to trade in your smartphone for a dumbphone. An even better idea is to delete all of your social media accounts. That kills the addictive internet. This is what happened to me when I kicked the Twitter habit. I have not had a problem with wasted time on the internet since then. I don't have pangs of remorse and guilt over countless hours wasted on the internet.
I also don't have FOMO because I am not missing out on anything. I read the news daily. I do not have a reddit account which some consider to be social media. I just read the reddits I find interesting on my Inoreader. Without the account, I post nothing, so I have no compulsion to visit the site. I just consume the content the reddit community produces for free. Unlike Twitter or Facebook, this content is useful. Reddit reminds me of the old school messageboards I used to read back in the day.
I encourage the Gentle Reader to reject the addictive internet and embrace the boring internet. The first step is to quit social media. The next step is to get a dumbphone or dumb down your smartphone to essential tools and apps. The third step is to push time on the internet to the margins of your day. For me, this is first thing in the morning for an email, news, and weather check then deeper reading after 8 p.m. each evening. Finally, if you find yourself doomscrolling on YouTube, this is essentially the same as channel surfing on television. Turn it off and go to bed.
When you embrace the boring internet, you will become calmer in your mood. You will have more quality time in your day. You won't worry about missing anything because it will be waiting for you when you get back like a book with a bookmark. And, it will be boring stuff. It won't be the FOMO of what your friends are doing on social media. It may take some time to kick the habit, but it will be worth it.
