Internet breaks, internet addiction, others, me, and related thoughts

So, I stumbled across this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve37Bg4-hPc

titled "We Quit the Internet for a Month, Here's What Happened."

I also know CGP Grey is taking a big internet break. 

https://twitter.com/cgpgrey

I've also heard about this sort of idea from others.

I wanted to share my thoughts on this, and why I feel its both part nonsense, part "does not apply to me", and part "what I need to do".

Stealing Time

I feel this idea is nonsense. I understand the argument and actually agree with it, but the way in which its being interpreted by those going on these breaks - and there are far more than the two of them that I've linked here -  is hyperbole of the level of a conspiracy theory. Its not a conspiracy theory. It simply is presented as one. 

The basic idea is this: Twitter, Facebook, Youtube; the internet as a whole, is designed for a single purpose - attention. They want your attention, demand it, require it to do their job. And this is a job; twitter, facebook, youtube; all businesses, businesses that require your watch time and engagement to make cold hard cash and pay their employees and investors. 

This means they have a vested self interest in trying to draw in and keep your attention, and in trying to use psychological tricks to keep you watching and reading. Things like like ratios and retweets give you a high and make you feel important, its a score you can use to compare and compete with others. 

This is usually where it is implied that this is evil. Nefarious. Malicious. People usually point out all the bad things this can lead to and how to use of tricks, TRICKS, are very very bad.

Probably the most well used psychological trick is ending prices in $.99 and if you bought something today, it probably ended in a $.99 or something similar. Just because a "trick" like this is used does not mean its 'evil'. Implications that twitter is somehow more evil than your local grocery store because both want to use you to get rich are laughable to me. Sure you can point to other business practises Twitter has (such as who it bans, and who it does not) and say that it is evil; but in terms of these "tricks", saying Twitter is worse than your local grocery store is just not on for me.

Wasting Time

This tends to be, when/after people do it, one of the biggest things people comment on. This I feel is the key difference between me and the vast majority of the people who are making these "I need/took a break from the internet" comments. 

Most of these people, literally, have better things to do. They have families of their own, a large number of friends; they have houses that require upkeep, books they'd like to read, TV shows they'd like to watch, and so on. Quite simply; if they have better shit to do than to sit on twitter all day.

I don't.

I maintain a blog with a tiny readership base. I probably could clean my apartment more than I do now. That's about it. I don't really have 'friends' (likely due to the autism) and have no 'family' of my own (I'm unmarried, without children) still being attached to the one I was born into. I don't enjoy reading books (likely due to the autism) and keep up with a very small number of TV shows. If I'm not on twitter, then I'm probably playing video games, or gabbing away in a chat room.

Not because these are time wasters. Because this is all I have to fill my time with. Without them, I literally have nothing to do; and I know this, because when the internet goes down, I have a perfect sample of the things I can do and can't do. 

My time is, in large part, already spend efficiently.

Mindless Time

This is something I do feel applies to me. CGP Grey put it well when he referred to it as "looping". Using his words and my experience, I will explain what "looping" is.

This is a picture of my bookmarks bar (or at least part of it):

The red box with an arrow is Youtube. The blue bird is Twitter. The Green arrow on the right is Imgur. 

Sometimes I catch myself clicking Youtube, to see if there is anything new. There is not. Clicking Twitter to see if there is anything new. There is not. Clicking Imgur to see if there is anything new. There is not. and then.... clicking Youtube, to see if there is anything new. There is not. Then Twitter. Then Imgur. Then back to Youtube.

This is mindless time. I don't even 'know' what I'm clicking. I've had times where I've gotten mad at myself for being back on twitter for the 10th time in the past 30 mins. Not because I actually want to be on twitter right now but because I am bored and don't know what else to do.

Leaving the entire Internet will help me not do this; but will also be far more harmful to me than otherwise. 

Quite simply; to fix this problem I simply need to be mindful of when I start "looping". I need to watch out for those times I'm back on youtube checking for new videos when I just did that 5 mins ago, and just did it 5 mins before that. 

When that happens I need to tell myself that there's nothing here and I need to find something else to do. Perhaps make a map, play a game, or do something I've been meaning to do for some time like tidy up the apartment. 

In short; while all of this "taking a break from the internet" may be useful to some people; to me, it would only cause more harm than good. I only hope that others like me are able to look at their own lives and see where their faults are and not use someone else's method wholesale and then wonder why that other persons method did not fix their life.