I want to be more mindful about how much I use the Internet. Despite not using* most “mainstream” social medias like Instagram, Facebook or TikTok, I feel like the time spent isn’t spent productively.
* I have accounts on a few of these which I a very long time ago, being naïve about the privacy implications
Scroll, scroll, scroll
The infinite scrolling on sites is both convenient and easy to get sucked into. I don’t mind the format, but combined with recommendation algorithms a lot of time is spent trying to get past things you don’t want to see.
I really like Mastodon’s homepage. The feed is chronological with posts/boosts from only people who you follow. That way I know where to stop reading because I know what I’ve already read, kind of like an RSS reader. I check this a few times a day, but there’s no loss if you check it less often, because you can scroll down as far as you like.
The good thing about the explore tab is that it changes slowly, but it still has the problem I was describing: Having to scroll almost endlessly to find something you’re interested in. While I come across posts that I like to see, sometimes I don’t want to follow that account because they post other unrelated things, or I don’t want my entire feed full of their posts.
I’ve thought about followed hashtags, but these aren’t as reliable as following. The proportion of posts with hashtags will be much higher than from those I follow, and it’s not guaranteed that people use the hashtag in the first place.
My plan is to try and follow more people so I check the explore tab less often. Also, I have downloaded the Mastodon app to my phone and logged in to avoid looking at the explore tab.
Reddit, out of all the other sites, is better because it encourages discussion with the ability to reply to any comment. I created an account purely because I take an interest in reading posts from specific subreddits, and only use it on my laptop.
On the other hand, r/popular (the default for people not signed in) is a mixed bag. There are many UK based posts (where I live) but everything else feels like generic content to gain as much attention as possible. “Karma farming” is common and some posts are literally made by bots.
I’ve only posted once on Reddit and never voted on anything. Unless you are on an very small subreddit, posting just feels like a race for attention. I don’t like upvotes/downvotes because they are arbitrary, unlike boosting on Mastodon where it’s clear what the action is.
My Phone
Ironically, I haven’t changed much on my phone apart from installing Mastodon. Despite not spending much time on it, I’ve always seemed to automatically reach for it when I am waiting for something. I don’t think think this is a bad thing - even with others around it ultimately depends on what they are doing, but I do notice taking it out and try not to.
Planning
A lot of the time wasting can be solved by knowing what I want to do. Whether it being some work to do or doing something in C# or Godot, I know that if something’s clear in my mind, I can usually sit down and achieve it.
So if it’s not impossible for me to complete things, doesn’t that make my intention to spend less time online useless? I don’t think so, because the problem lies in my intentions and after all, the time has still been spent.
I’ve used Obsidian for a while and have set myself a Todo list in my main notes vault, but I seem to have lost the habit of using it. Syncing the notes with my phone is useful, and I can use it for other tasks like shopping. All that’s needed is for me to open it more often.