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I have commented on it in my main thread, but I want to make a specific thread on this topic as it seems extremely important to me.
THE PROBLEM
Since the growth of the Internet more than a decade ago, I have seen how I gradually spent more and more time on the phone, browsing aimlessly ... and I've never had social networks.
This increased in 2020 when I launched my online business, which I started supported by a Twitter account. Having to enter Twitter, coupled with a quarantine, caused the hours spent on mobile to increase substantially.
As the subject began to worry me more and more, I looked for books that analyzed the subject in depth and I came to "The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains" by Nicholas Carr. This book tells us that the intensive use of the Internet is changing our brains, as the Internet requires you to disperse your attention to hundreds of points of attention, which makes us more superficial.
The latest versions of iPhone tell you how much time you consume per day, and once a week you receive a notification of the average consumption per day. This was the trigger.
I saw that I was spending between 4 and 5 hours a day on the phone. How important it is to measure. If they had asked me, I would have said that I spent an hour or two. At first I deceived myself and said to myself "you are working with the telephone and you need it", but I soon recognized that my professional tasks with the telephone could be programmed on the computer, with 10 minutes a day, and I would not even need the telephone to my business.
FIRST SOLUTION ATTEMPTS
So I tried to decrease my use of the phone. Thinking that I just needed willpower (which I have enough in other aspects of my life), without a strategy.
I just decided to be less on the phone. This evidently did not work. We have the best engineers in the world, investing billions of dollars to get your attention, unless you have a strong and clear strategy you have no option to beat them.
So I read several digital detox books. While all of them indicated the benefits of it, and the need to do so, none gave me a real guideline to achieve it, beyond "don't use your mobile for a few days a week."
THE FINAL SOLUTION
Due to my purchase history of digital detox books coupled with having read Cal Newport's recommended "Deep Work" (book that deals with techniques for working in depth), Amazon recommended the following Newport book, "Digital Minimalism."
This is the only book I have found that, apart from describing the harms of intensive mobile use and the benefits of detoxifying from them, defines a plan to unhook yourself.
As the title indicates you have to minimize the use of technology, to improve your life. Each person will have a different situation. In my case, I observed where I was spending more time: WhatsApp, Twitter and Chrome. I uninstalled Twitter (the only social network I have - for business), Chrome, Gmail, and several others.
My mobile use has dropped from 5h to 1h a day.
I have thought about eliminating WhatsApp, anyway it can be used on the computer and for urgent matters you can tell your contacts to call you by phone or send you an SMS.
FUTURE
At the moment I am going to keep with this solution and see how I progress, but I don't rule out switching to a basic mobile like the Nokia 3310 if necessary, although the benefits of Google Maps and Uber would be lost.
What is at stake is our attention and time and unfortunately there is no other way than to be sharp and aggressive with our strategies since the rival we compete against is brutal.
The change has to come from large companies and many writers and philosophers are working on this path. I leave you an article about it:
www.theguardian.com
But we cannot wait for large companies to change their business model focused on capturing our attention, we have to start with our individual resistance.
I call this the "2022 meta goal", because if I release 4 hours a day, I can dedicate it to any other goal.
And that's a lot:
I can't think of a better goal for this coming year.
Let's go for it.
THE PROBLEM
Since the growth of the Internet more than a decade ago, I have seen how I gradually spent more and more time on the phone, browsing aimlessly ... and I've never had social networks.
This increased in 2020 when I launched my online business, which I started supported by a Twitter account. Having to enter Twitter, coupled with a quarantine, caused the hours spent on mobile to increase substantially.
As the subject began to worry me more and more, I looked for books that analyzed the subject in depth and I came to "The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains" by Nicholas Carr. This book tells us that the intensive use of the Internet is changing our brains, as the Internet requires you to disperse your attention to hundreds of points of attention, which makes us more superficial.
The latest versions of iPhone tell you how much time you consume per day, and once a week you receive a notification of the average consumption per day. This was the trigger.
I saw that I was spending between 4 and 5 hours a day on the phone. How important it is to measure. If they had asked me, I would have said that I spent an hour or two. At first I deceived myself and said to myself "you are working with the telephone and you need it", but I soon recognized that my professional tasks with the telephone could be programmed on the computer, with 10 minutes a day, and I would not even need the telephone to my business.
FIRST SOLUTION ATTEMPTS
So I tried to decrease my use of the phone. Thinking that I just needed willpower (which I have enough in other aspects of my life), without a strategy.
I just decided to be less on the phone. This evidently did not work. We have the best engineers in the world, investing billions of dollars to get your attention, unless you have a strong and clear strategy you have no option to beat them.
So I read several digital detox books. While all of them indicated the benefits of it, and the need to do so, none gave me a real guideline to achieve it, beyond "don't use your mobile for a few days a week."
THE FINAL SOLUTION
Due to my purchase history of digital detox books coupled with having read Cal Newport's recommended "Deep Work" (book that deals with techniques for working in depth), Amazon recommended the following Newport book, "Digital Minimalism."
This is the only book I have found that, apart from describing the harms of intensive mobile use and the benefits of detoxifying from them, defines a plan to unhook yourself.
As the title indicates you have to minimize the use of technology, to improve your life. Each person will have a different situation. In my case, I observed where I was spending more time: WhatsApp, Twitter and Chrome. I uninstalled Twitter (the only social network I have - for business), Chrome, Gmail, and several others.
My mobile use has dropped from 5h to 1h a day.
I have thought about eliminating WhatsApp, anyway it can be used on the computer and for urgent matters you can tell your contacts to call you by phone or send you an SMS.
FUTURE
At the moment I am going to keep with this solution and see how I progress, but I don't rule out switching to a basic mobile like the Nokia 3310 if necessary, although the benefits of Google Maps and Uber would be lost.
What is at stake is our attention and time and unfortunately there is no other way than to be sharp and aggressive with our strategies since the rival we compete against is brutal.
The change has to come from large companies and many writers and philosophers are working on this path. I leave you an article about it:
Your attention didn’t collapse. It was stolen
Social media and many other facets of modern life are destroying our ability to concentrate. We need to reclaim our minds while we still can
But we cannot wait for large companies to change their business model focused on capturing our attention, we have to start with our individual resistance.
I call this the "2022 meta goal", because if I release 4 hours a day, I can dedicate it to any other goal.
And that's a lot:
- 4 hours a day
- 28 hours a week
- 112 hours per month
- 1,344 hours per year
I can't think of a better goal for this coming year.
Let's go for it.
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