Venting Love-hate relationship with internet

[Slumbercel]

On one hand, if I didn't had it I'd die of boredom. I've been spending basically all my time online since I got access to it, because I'm an outcast (before that, in early childhood, I was bookmaxxing, so it's not like internet ruined my social skills or something). On the other hand, it's a major source of anxiety for me. People are often mean and incel forums and imageboards are all about wallowing in despair which can't be great for your brain.

I abandoned the dream of stopping to use the computer years ago. It's just too useful for everything, abandoning its use would be making my life harder for no reason. No one cares about piracy in my small country, so I can get all the media I want for free and it's just a great multimedia center.

The best approach would seem to do what Luke Smith does: use your computer a lot, but be 99% of the time online. Connect once a day to check whatever social media, forums you want and download the content to consume and then turn it off and keep consuming your content and maybe write down whatever insight you get (or play with programming or whatever; I consider reading manuals "consuming content" as well). I've tried it and it makes things much more enjoyable as I can focus on the content and stop novelty seeking, but there's an elephant in the room: online forums and imageboards are my only source of social interaction. I'm a giant outcast and I doubt I'll ever find real life friends. Now the whole coronavirus situation makes finding anyone even less possible. This approach makes me feel lonely very quickly. I'm schizoid, so my socialization needs are much lower, but they're still there. When I reduce internet usage, my brain goes "I'm the last human alive, panic, panic". My current approach is slowly limiting it rather than going all the way. I try to turn it off for at least an hour every day and then I consume a book, a TV show, a movie or a pre-downloaded YouTube video (a lecture, edutainment). It's much better when I know I can't switch between tabs and consume 5 videos at the same time while also changing them every 10 minutes, because the recommendations are so tempting. I plan to slowly increase my offline time.

 

[liazi]

I don't know where to get help without forums. But yeah, I think our online presence is too bad.
I'm also planning some kind of "dopamine detox" from the socials.
I'm at a stage where I can hardly watch or read anything. But at the same time I'm looking for a job so I have to use the computer.
I don't want to be volneet.

I don't know what is the point of life anyway. Even if I had the intellect to learn how to program, what would I do with that knowledge?

 

[Box]

What else would you do without it? I ask myself this question all the time. It’s not like I’m WILLINGLY rotting at home, it’s just the natural state of things.

 

[FastBananaCEO]

Basically

On the one hand it's a good cope for lonely men

On the other hand, if we didn't have the internet in the first place then it would cause gynocentricism and hypergamy meaning us men wouldn't have to cope in the first place

 

[Guest]

Eh, I've taken long breaks from the internet and didn't feel all that different. I just did a lot of reading, watched some of my anime backlog, and other stuff like that. Ultimately browsing and posting on forums is just one of my copes. I'll keep forumcoping if I think it's worth it, but if it's causing me a lot of anxiety or something I'll just do something else.

 

[jaded jabble]

If i wasn’t on the internet I’d be watching tv tbh

 

[Nietzsche]

I agree with your sentiment, OP.

That anxiety when you turn off the internet is very important: listen to what it says. When the internet's off, you can no longer engage in instant gratification and distraction; that is, you have no choice but to truly exist.

 

[gigacel123]

Internet is gay and full of normie tards from all walks of life.

 

[FeminismIsCancer]

I love it for the infinity of content and because idk what else I’d do but I hate it because if tinder and social media which compounded my problems terribly.

 

[Zargrim]

The internet is literally a modern day library of Alexandria and most people spend their time on it either watching porn or posting selfies.

 

[bloomedwengts]

Lukesmithmaxxing is based

 

[Renko]

internet was way better bwfore the smartphone was widely used

 

[Ultraman]

I've spent half my life connected to the Internet. except in 2004 when I was two months without internet due to economic problems almost every day I have been connected at least once. and if the Internet had not existed, it would have been replaced by television, music, video games, reading, shortwave radio, etc. even when the internet was not known it was already rare for others.

 

[incelkingkong]

The internet is literally a modern day library of Alexandria and most people spend their time on it either watching porn or posting selfies.

anime cunny > knowledge

 

[『 』]

On one hand, if I didn't had it I'd die of boredom. I've been spending basically all my time online since I got access to it, because I'm an outcast (before that, in early childhood, I was bookmaxxing, so it's not like internet ruined my social skills or something). On the other hand, it's a major source of anxiety for me. People are often mean and incel forums and imageboards are all about wallowing in despair which can't be great for your brain.

I abandoned the dream of stopping to use the computer years ago. It's just too useful for everything, abandoning its use would be making my life harder for no reason. No one cares about piracy in my small country, so I can get all the media I want for free and it's just a great multimedia center.

The best approach would seem to do what Luke Smith does: use your computer a lot, but be 99% of the time online. Connect once a day to check whatever social media, forums you want and download the content to consume and then turn it off and keep consuming your content and maybe write down whatever insight you get (or play with programming or whatever; I consider reading manuals "consuming content" as well). I've tried it and it makes things much more enjoyable as I can focus on the content and stop novelty seeking, but there's an elephant in the room: online forums and imageboards are my only source of social interaction. I'm a giant outcast and I doubt I'll ever find real life friends. Now the whole coronavirus situation makes finding anyone even less possible. This approach makes me feel lonely very quickly. I'm schizoid, so my socialization needs are much lower, but they're still there. When I reduce internet usage, my brain goes "I'm the last human alive, panic, panic". My current approach is slowly limiting it rather than going all the way. I try to turn it off for at least an hour every day and then I consume a book, a TV show, a movie or a pre-downloaded YouTube video (a lecture, edutainment). It's much better when I know I can't switch between tabs and consume 5 videos at the same time while also changing them every 10 minutes, because the recommendations are so tempting. I plan to slowly increase my offline time.

I think this could be an amazing place to be, most forums have self hating people who compare themselves to others and get envious of those better than them and act mean to those that are lower

Being a NEET you realise that you can still enjoy life and some might call it a cope but whatever it's your life, do what you want.

Honestly taking a break from school and quitting work was the best thing I've done in a while

I support you my man

 

[Unemployed]

On one hand, if I didn't had it I'd die of boredom. I've been spending basically all my time online since I got access to it, because I'm an outcast (before that, in early childhood, I was bookmaxxing, so it's not like internet ruined my social skills or something). On the other hand, it's a major source of anxiety for me. People are often mean and incel forums and imageboards are all about wallowing in despair which can't be great for your brain.

I abandoned the dream of stopping to use the computer years ago. It's just too useful for everything, abandoning its use would be making my life harder for no reason. No one cares about piracy in my small country, so I can get all the media I want for free and it's just a great multimedia center.

The best approach would seem to do what Luke Smith does: use your computer a lot, but be 99% of the time online. Connect once a day to check whatever social media, forums you want and download the content to consume and then turn it off and keep consuming your content and maybe write down whatever insight you get (or play with programming or whatever; I consider reading manuals "consuming content" as well). I've tried it and it makes things much more enjoyable as I can focus on the content and stop novelty seeking, but there's an elephant in the room: online forums and imageboards are my only source of social interaction. I'm a giant outcast and I doubt I'll ever find real life friends. Now the whole coronavirus situation makes finding anyone even less possible. This approach makes me feel lonely very quickly. I'm schizoid, so my socialization needs are much lower, but they're still there. When I reduce internet usage, my brain goes "I'm the last human alive, panic, panic". My current approach is slowly limiting it rather than going all the way. I try to turn it off for at least an hour every day and then I consume a book, a TV show, a movie or a pre-downloaded YouTube video (a lecture, edutainment). It's much better when I know I can't switch between tabs and consume 5 videos at the same time while also changing them every 10 minutes, because the recommendations are so tempting. I plan to slowly increase my offline time.

Yes, I learned a lot when I decided to spend less time online.

I spent only 1,5 hours online a day, but I allowed myself to use the computer as much as I wanted
I downloaded all the books, manuals, videos, music etc. what I thought I would need during the 1,5 hour window.
Because I didn't have an unlimited amount of information, I had to focus on what I already had, not on what might be out there (less surprise mechanics, as EA and other tech companies trying to rob our time might say).

I kept contact with my friends
I had lots of time to think about what I want to say to my friends.
When our time is limited, we want to use it efficiently.

I really thought about my messages and what I'm going to say to my friends.
This meant that I appreciated their company.

I know that the people who love to bark at the people on the other side are worthless.
If you care about the others more than you care about yourself, you're a loser.
It's clear that you don't value your time.
If you did, you wouldn't spend an hour a day on the internet trying to find stuff you deem stupid.

No reasonable person wants to read negative shit that doesn't nourish your mind, or make you smarter.
If you think that it's fun to spend time reading stupid shit on sites like Reddit, 4chan, psl forums, or in the newspapers, you've lost your mind.

Spending less time online made me care about the physical world more
Empty soda cans and dirty socks didn't bother me when I spent most of days looking at the monitor.
This changed when I forced myself to live in the real world, disconnected from the internet.
Only then I realized how dirty my apartment was.

My monitor made me blind to my real surroundings.
I'm not an unclean person; my apartment was a mess, because I spent so little time there.

If you have empty soda cans and dirty socks laying around everywhere, it might because you spend more time on the internet than you do in the real world.

I watched this documentary last week and it's pretty damn good.



Y'all should watch it when you have time.
Though, I'm sure lots of things here aren't completely new to programmers and designers.
It's still a good documentary.

 

[vomit]

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