How I quit internet and started the blog
Today is the day, when I finally gave up my whole internet activity. And started this blog. And there are some reasons why I did that.
Prelude: impact of the internet
Boring, stupid, unproductive, addicting. There are few adjectives about internet culture, quickly written down when I was planning draft of that post. And they summarize my problems with any online activity.
Some time ago (year? two maybe?) I deleted all my social media accounts: facebook, instagram, reddit and so on. All of them! This time I read some books about that (Digital minimalism written by Cal Newport, Ten arguments... by Larnier) and after reflection with slim examen I came to conclusion, that they are complete waste of time and energy without any value.
Now I am sure that I was totally right. Suspense any activity and taking step back is nice method to see entire picture of it. Today I see a great part of internet culture as just vacuous and incomparably foolish. Time wasted on social media I accomodated to academic work and that was disruptive moment of my promising, but still crawling research career. Deleting social media has much more advantages, but I don't want to multiplicate truisms.
And month ago I pointed out that I still have similar problems. I managed my attention to other nonsense activities: watching youtube, arguing in comments on imdb or goodreads, sometimes playing online games. This coincided with lecture of some other books (Postman's Technopoly and Privacy is power written by Veliz).
As a result now I am totally techno-pessimistic about Internet. I don't find it as at all useful and interesting for common people. Of course there are exceptions (construction tutorials on youtube, list of books on any subject and so on), but they are negligible compared with overhelming stupidity of the rest. And that significant activity is not major business of people. As a whole, Internet doesn't have any real value. Of course someone can use it in proper way, but this is tough. Especially tough for me, cause I am addicted as damn. What's more: looking back I was addicted for a long time.
Small decalogue
Few rules for leaving the internet with categorical effectuality. Cause I can't quit totally whole internet activity (as I quitted alcohol or smoking), it seems that I need some principles. Strict ones. There are them!
No more youtube on any device.
I don't use internet on phone (except situations I need gps and so on).
I don't comment anything on goodreads, imdb and other sites.
I only publish chapters on internet, don't browse and message.
Smartphone is permamently in minimalist mode.
I don't message with my girlfriend (max 10 messages per day).
(Here is my personal rule)
I check email twice a day (after morning anki session and before evening).
I try to use my computer with interned switched off. I write by offline text editor, do anki offline and so on.
I don't use any social media and any other site based on personal activity. Before signing up I think three times. I don't use any other communication apps but sms, phone and email.
Maybe above rules will inspire somebody to change. I wrote them with such that thought in my mind. Feel free to alter them.
Blog as a strategy
At first sight it seems idiotic, that I quitted my internet activity with new internet activity. But there are just appereances. I have some experiences with addictions and know, that it is impossible to quit immedietaly. Habits should be managed and slowly replaced by better ones. This is how the idea of this blog came to me.
Blog can fill my time spended on-line, accomodate strange feelings (I can't comment and interact anymore) and will probably be quite nice educating tool (cause I'm still learning English). Maybe it will be only temporal thing for me (form of a diary and place to share thoughts) and I will abandon it some day. Or maybe it will stay with me longer. We will see.