Internet Used to Be a Place

About half a year ago, I saw a youtube video by Savah Davis Baker called The Internet Used to be a Place. It was a phenomenal video about how the internet was treated. Growing up I had a computer room, my dad’s office dedicated to the computer. If I wanted to access the internet we had to do it on that computer. When I was done with computer, I left the room and disconnected.

Somewhere down the line it changed, it might have been around the time Farmville came out on Facebook at the end of elementary school (around 2008). The timers on the games incentivizes you to check back when the game told you to, and then I’d refresh to see if you had a new poke, or a new interaction on the latest post I made, I was starting to feel be controlled by the site. Still it was reserved to the computer, when I went to school, there was nothing to check, nothing in the back of my mind taking up space.

That changed when I got a cellphone at the end of high school (around 2015). Now I can be reachable anywhere at any time. The connection grew and evolved, to the point where internet became part of my nervous system. It’s in the core of everything that I was interested in. I had a hobby? Better check the subreddit for news. Wanted a review? Let me check Youtube to see what someone had to say. I’m bored? I’ll let the algorithm feed more content to satiate the boredom. With that, everything became more and more connected to internet and cell phones. No more paper schedules to check bus times, use google maps, no more printable tickets, got to use the Ticketmaster app for that. The internet began or more accurately already had crept into being essential in everyday life now.

The Covid only exacerbated the issue. Being locked inside, Instagram and Tiktok gave me the content to cure my boredom. I looked for connection in groups on Discord. Thankfully I quit Tiktok but these habits never left when lock downs stopped. Don’t get me wrong, I love the ability to stay in touch with my friends on Discord, but I hate that I impulsively check to see if there is a new message in a channel. I would even walk around scrolling through Instagram reels and Reddit posts because just walking wasn’t stimulating enough anymore.

The worst of it began was when I started playing Pokemon Go more in 2022. I will leave that for a different post cause I have some a lot of thoughts about the game. The game runs on a gambling system that had be constantly checking it. I would play at least 1-2 hours a day, and even if I was working, part of my mind was on the game wondering if I caught anything. I would participate in the in person events too, those were a lot of fun and I made a couple of friendships that way! It was a fun way to connect with people over an activity but it didn’t take away from the fact I went overboard playing. I always knew I played a lot but I didn’t realize how much time it took away from my attention.

I could feel something wasn’t right, but I wasn’t making any actions to change anything either. That was until I listened to “How to stop being so phone addicted (without self-discipline or meditation)” from the podcast Search Engine with PJ Vogt. They talked about how push notifications become a revolutionary change for email. In the past, People would just check their email when they want to, but now they would be notified when they get one. It was groundbreaking for what seems so common now. As the push notification expanded to other apps, they continued to explain that the allure of notifications is so strong some of your brain focus will be on your phone just for being in your vicinity (Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity). That was a wake up call to how much I am constantly pulled to my phone.

Now I’m trying to stop it. As of about 2 weeks ago, I deleted any app from my phone that sends me push notifications that’s not for my utility. No more email, teams, Discord or Pokemon Go. I only keep 2FA, banking, phone and messaging on it. I have the distracting stuff on my iPad so if I want to check it, I can check it there. I wondered to myself, what if I get an email when I’m out? I have to remind myself, so what? I’m allowed to be inaccessible, this is boundary I’m setting for myself. I’ve also set points of friction to access these apps as well. Using the app ScreenZen, if I want to open Instagram or Facebook, I’ve got to wait 20 seconds before the app opens. Usually that’s enough time to realise it isn’t worth opening and I close the app.

So far this has been hard. There is a constant urge in the back of my brain for stimulation and it hard to tell it no. I have to remember this is kind of an addiction so I will relapse at some points and that’s okay. I can’t give up because I want to in charge of my phone and technology, not the other way around.