Three suggestions to regain the lost time and and maybe become more productive!
One of the most daunting problems encountered by anyone who has tried to stop their internet addiction is simply this: What do I do in my free time?
Today, while I was sitting in my chair—half asleep and half irritated by the torturous summer—I found myself perplexed. How did I spend my time when I was young? The Internet came to India a little late. When I was younger, I couldn’t afford a personal computer. In fact, I got my first one while I was in college. Before that, I was content with my life. I never realized how anxious I would feel if someone took away my internet.
Today, I can’t sit alone without checking my mobile. We all do. It turns out—everybody, irrespective of nationality, is checking their phone compulsively. Why? It only took 25 odd years to plunge a whole generation into a strange addiction that we were sold as harmless.
Nowadays, many of us are becoming aware of the addiction problem and are genuinely trying to fight it. The issue is that society has restructured so quickly that if you aren’t carrying your “dog collar” (i.e., your mobile) with you, people will label you crazy.
It’s not just that you can get away with a dumb phone; the whole ecosystem of digital payments ensures it isn’t possible to discard your smartphone. Also, we all need two-factor authentication. Bundling our mobiles with payment mechanisms and authentication systems has made us more paranoid and anxious because we are genuinely afraid that if we lose our mobile, we might lose parts of our lives.
And what a life it is. All our lives are documented by Google. It’s easy to say “de-Google your life,” but in poorer countries like India, it’s almost impossible to afford an Apple phone due to economic conditions. So, Google knows who we are, where we go, when we go, and probably where we will be going tomorrow. When mobile phones were sold to us, they were promised as a convenience. Now, they are tracking devices that are almost impossible to get rid of.
And if you carry your mobile with you all the time, you’re more likely to interact with it because we do get bored easily. We’ll take out our phone and browse mindlessly through news and social media just to kill time while we wait for another pointless struggle. And while we browse through news or social media, we get anxious, angry, and agitated by the constant stream of rage baits.
Audit Your email accounts
One thing I started doing was trimming down my email addresses. As it turns out, I carry a lot of them that even I can’t keep track of. It all started with free Yahoo accounts. Over the last 25 years, I made and deleted so many Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft accounts that my life could be found in emails. Go through your email accounts and delete what you don’t need; your sanity will thank you.
Unfollow people on Social media
Try to unfollow as many people as possible on social media. Currently, everyone is trying to grab attention. Everybody is posting rage-bait content without actually verifying the factuality of the news. In the garb of activism, whole social media has become a battleground for politics. I have only one Instagram account secured for this website, just for the name. Other than that, I have no social media—no Facebook, no X (Twitter). Also, I’m debating whether to keep the Instagram or not, but that decision will be taken later. Also, you’ll be free of content creators who made social media basically a pornographic website. Right now, we have no idea whether an Instagram creator is genuinely talking about fashion or just trying to attract eyeballs through vulgar dresses. It’s better to let go of social media altogether.
Be careful of Reddit
One thing I have to mention specifically is Reddit. It’s one weird site where genuinely provocative intellectual discussions take place while the user is drowning in controversial, vulgar pornography. Reddit has a toggle to hide NSFW subreddits, but truth be told, that’s a barely workable solution. It’s a strange idea to allow so much porn on a mainstream website without any supervision, and nobody seems bothered by it. The problem is if you want genuine information, many times you will end up in Reddit. Many subreddits are age-restricted; for example, defense subreddits. You need an account for that. But once you’re within the Reddit site, you’ll encounter adult content one way or another, even if your content settings are restricted. I am seriously debating letting go of Reddit, even though I really need it for my writing work. If you can, get rid of Reddit; you will do your sanity a lot of good.
Stop AI addiction
AI is a tool. The problem is now every company is pushing AI without any regard for ethics or boundaries. Not to mention it’s an unstable technology not yet fit for use by the average population. Currently, it’s a wild, wild West of artificial intelligence where no provider-side regulation exists, nor any consumer-side protection. On top of that, many companies are employing unethical practices to make you addicted.
I will elaborate on the problem of depending on AI in a separate post. AI is a tool, so be very careful when using it.
It’s not easy to go back where we were as a society 25 years ago. We have fundamentally changed, but we have to reclaim our sanity.