Comment by jsemrau
16 hours ago
Over the last years, being "online" has become so stressful and toxic that I just don't want to spend much time there anymore. 2016 me would be ecstatic about this product. 2026 me just want to be in the real world.
16 hours ago
Over the last years, being "online" has become so stressful and toxic that I just don't want to spend much time there anymore. 2016 me would be ecstatic about this product. 2026 me just want to be in the real world.
You just have to put a bit of effort into curating what your online experience looks like.
How?
Not the parent commenter but I've found RSS feeds have replaced most of my desire to browse reddit, and other social media. You can even paste a YouTube channel into a feed reader to get a true channel subscriptions feed.
Install Cold Turkey site blocker; block all social media channels with a slop "feed". (Facebook, instagram, reddit, etc.)
Youtube subs only to Science, History, Cozy content. Aggressively unfollow click bait.
Discord only with close personal friends who are chill.
Play single player games, or multiplayer games only with close personal friends.
The internet doesn't have to connect you with hordes of terminally online droolers.
For starters, don't let other people control your diet of information. So get off social media, where random algorithmic feeds serve you slop you didn't ask for.
Instead, pick out your own internet information diet. Make it a project. If you're not afraid to use AI, it can help with this tremendously.
Then you need to build habits that replace your unhealthy browsing with healthy browsing. IMO it's best to just install tools that make it difficult or even impossible to do the unhealthy browsing.
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