A calmer web

[cc_spicuous]

For technical reasons, I turned off javascript, video, and images from the web, during most of the 2010s and COVID, because it has reduced my bandwidth consumption on a smartphone connection. I did mostly text and consumed mostly (academic) PDFs. After switching to a higher bandwidth in the last two years, like someone stuck in a bunker for decades going out, I felt the “real” web as very, very, very unpleasant, I also felt there is some kind of brain rot happening. The emotional imagery and way of speech is agitating and outright misleading, the video watching turns the synapses off, essentially watching TV with 24/7 programming for aggression, violence, drama, shock value, porn, death, destruction, hate.

That’s why I’m back to turning off images.

Also, I’m not using TikTok, Facebook, and the like.

And finally, I have a list of 2000 words for a profanity filter, which can be seen in action here:

Words get replaced by a wave, certain “news” sites turn out to have quite a number of said waves.

EDIT: And in terms of RSS news feeds, I’m a subscriber to about 300 channels, blogs, sites and what not, and that allows them, the newsrooms and writers, to shovel a lot of content to my screen, I’m using word “rules” to filter those articles and videos, it’s possible to delete new posts outright, or to assign negative points that push the articles to the end of the stack, positive points for raising the articles to the top, often it’s the best choice not to subscribe at all. I think headlines like, “I was shocked by this, what happens next?”, are clickbaits and not worthwhile. I have many political names, country names (pairs of enemies), ideological words in the “rules”, and buzzwords like “AI”.

Apart of reducing bandwidth and not being spoiled into expecting military-grade internet connections, the biggest upside to the practice seems to be a calmer life.

An afterthought: Many people turn to gambling and addictive social media platforms, because they can relax and get into the zone, a state of psychological blizz. That’s the driving force behind casinos which are now online and part of the social media algorithms. You can read more about the mechanism in Addiction by Design, the book is a bible to social media programmers.

The Internet is Dying: AI, Bots, and The End of Human Content

[Archie1]

Enjoy your calmer life.

[cc_spicuous]

The web and entertainment nowadays is like McDonald’s—too much stimulation, zero nutrition. Look at what Marvel movies have done to Hollywood and science fiction, look at restaurants and partying these days—boring and a waste of money, and let’s not talk about dating (or divorce), shall we?

[eNdeavourer]

Looks comfy. I only use YouTube for watching specific old shows which aren’t available on torrents. I don’t use social media. I only have dedicated purpose accounts. I started opening this forum for chill content. I don’t like what the Internet has become. For some time I literally thought about renouncing technology - but technology is my oxygen, and it isn’t the issue. People are.

I have Internet issues in my current accommodation, but I suspect maybe I have a MoBo issue. Or maybe it’s a Linux issue. I don’t really care. I get 1/5th of my speed at best on my desktop, my phone has no issue getting 3-4/5th of the speed. I don’t like using my phone. I even thought of getting a flip-phone, but I wouldn’t even really need that, and some life essentials such as banking now require you to use their apps.

I wish I could just filter out certain stuff completely. Alas, we’re not there, so I just take from the past, using older media, from before the world went the way it is now.

I kinda like how desolate your website look. Good job!

[cactux]

Knowing myself and going by my own experience, this approach would be rather counterproductive for achieving the goal of combining an active online life and peace of mind.

To my experience, whenever I have ignored something unpleasant rather than facing it upfront and find a way to handle it, not only made the problem not to away but also would pave the way for it to come back at me with more force.

The more vehement I have fought it, the more vehement it would fight back.

I do use ad and content blockers in my web browsers, but I would never use a blocklist, for “censuring” unpleasant words. Words that I have knowingly put in a list myself. For the simple reason that each time I will come across symbols replacing words, on a subconscious level, the words would keep disturbing me all the same. Likewise for pictures, videos, audios etc.

This approach would be more exhausting to me on the long run than facing the unpleasant situations which our online and offline lives seem to be replete of nowadays and find a way to tackle it without loosing myself and my peace of mind.

I know this is easier said than done but the alternative of putting my head in the sand will not make the problem to go away.

That is only me. Whatever works for you, then it works for you. And it’s fine.

[cactux]

@cc_spicuous

It works best, if the words to block are not part of your vocabulary and thought processes to begin with.

With no intention of offending, this reminds me of “Newspeak” but with perhaps benevolent intention.

I’m not objecting to the intention but to the method.

Words exist for some reason. If there are disturbing words describing unpleasant aspects of the current reality we are living, by eliminating the word nothing would actually change.

Conversely, by reading about murder, rape, rubbery etc., that wouldn’t make me more prone to commit these crimes.

If we want real changes, then we have to act in a way to bring about changes to the actual reality. Once there, perhaps the words describing unpleasant realities, like genocide, ethnic cleansing, war or whatever, will fall in disuse automatically.

[erne.d.98]

For me, Newsboat is a must-have on Endeavour.
I am subscribed to quite a few news feeds, along with some Youtube channels.
I tend to launch browser mostly for chess (I had quite a long break recently – well, life) and EOS forum.
Social media? Well, mostly instant messaging like Discord and Messenger – time limit set for an hour on my Samsung phone.

---

Yet, the best remedium for modern Internet is to spend quality time offline. For extraverts to go out for a drink, for introverts to read a good book or whatever makes one happy.

[cc_spicuous]

describing unpleasant realities, like genocide, ethnic cleansing, war or whatever

You just called genocide and ethnic cleansing and war as—and I quote—unpleasant. An itch is unpleasant. Dismissed.

[Bink]

@cc_spicuous

An itch is unpleasant.

An itch is unpleasant, but it is telling of a reality, and it may be important and even beneficial not to erase it from awareness.

The itch may be indicative of a need, such as a need to address personal hygiene, or a need to investigate that rapidly growing and irritated skin blemish.

One could grant that ignorance it is bliss, but it may also be short lived.

[cactux]

@cc_spicuous

describing unpleasant realities, like genocide, ethnic cleansing, war or whatever

You just called genocide and ethnic cleansing and war as—and I quote—unpleasant. An itch is unpleasant. Dismissed.

If you choose to not address anything in my argument and instead bring up an “inadequate” wording for describing atrocious (is that better) realities and dismiss the whole thing, that’s on you.

It’s always easier to take the easy way out.

As I said before:

@cactux

Whatever works for you, then it works for you. And it’s fine.

However, buy censoring the representations of realities by artificial means on the screen of your computer, none of the things you are censoring will in reality change. And whenever you are seeing those mutilated webpages, you will still be reminded of them.

Dismissing things won’t make them disappear. And dismissing my argument makes it no less valid. At least as far as I am concerned. But you chose not to engage with it. That’s fine. I wouldn’t like to be a cause of disturbance in your calm corner.

¡Adiós!

[Archie1]

@erne.d.98

For me, Newsboat is a must-have on Endeavour.
I am subscribed to quite a few news feeds, along with some Youtube channels.
I tend to launch browser mostly for chess (I had quite a long break recently – well, life) and EOS forum.
Social media? Well, mostly instant messaging like Discord and Messenger – time limit set for an hour on my Samsung phone.

---

Yet, the best remedium for modern Internet is to spend quality time offline. For extraverts to go out for a drink, for introverts to read a good book or whatever makes one happy.

Thanks for your suggestion on Newsboat. Will try it out.

About setting time limit on your Samsung phone, how did you achieve that? Can you please provide details? I would love to see if it is possible to do the same or not.

[drunkenvicar]

@cc_spicuous

An afterthought: Many people turn to gambling and addictive social media platforms, because they can relax and get into the zone, a state of psychological blizz. That’s the driving force behind casinos which are now online and part of the social media algorithms.

in the academy they adore the correlations between addiction, tik tok, “social media” and dopamine and gambling. PhDs publish peer review about this (based on surveys which cheapen peer review to me).

except no one can define addiction. the closer to the university you get, the less you know sometimes.

an empty pile of piss for you who participate. I could give two shits about algorithms. They are the opiate for the easily distracted (as I can be for 15 minutes before reeling myself back). things suggested to me mostly barely match my tastes and rarely they are spot on. I’m looking at you, youtube. Spotify was so awful in identifying what I really love (high white noise jarring feedback in rock songs) -tons of artists do it including country folk metal avant garde– but their crappy algos can only match genres, time periods etc—-putrid AI. I never used it again when it turned clueless.

Point: I sure would not trust then giving me my news.

Digression yes.

But love everything about your first post, all the tuning out is fantastic. More power to you. The less stress on the body the better. It is complete brain rot.

The word filters are somewhere I’d never go, but getting away from the toxic part of this for your own sanity I applaud completely.

“After switching to a higher bandwidth in the last two years, like someone stuck in a bunker for decades going out, I felt the “real” web as very, very, very unpleasan”

–the conspiracy people would call that a correlation, eh?

two cents, great thread

[erne.d.98]

@Archie1

About setting time limit on your Samsung phone, how did you achieve that? Can you please provide details? I would love to see if it is possible to do the same or not.

Go to the phone’s settings, right there you should find a section called “Digital Wellbeing”. From there, you should be able to see the usage stats, but also there’s a setting to set the limits, both for individual apps and app groups. Once the limit is reached, the apps are being blocked and you can access them the next day.

@drunkenvicar

things suggested to me mostly barely match my tastes and rarely they are spot on. I’m looking at you, youtube. Spotify was so awful in identifying what I really love (high white noise jarring feedback in rock songs) -tons of artists do it including country folk metal avant garde– but their crappy algos can only match genres, time periods etc—-putrid AI. I never used it again when it turned clueless.

I had quite an opposite experience, when it comes to Spotify. Some of its recommendations – like Bell Witch and Mizmor – are now my all-time favourites. But to each their own.

[cc_spicuous]

It’s the equivalent to ignore dating.

Women LEARN Why MEN Don't Want Them ANYMORE

[Bink]

Interesting video @cc_spicuous, thanks for sharing.

[thefrog]

[jackkileen]

Yeah buddy, I’m up for that!!!

[cc_spicuous]

Please, see more reasons for the above: Slow learners win over fast learners that use ChatGPT: study - #17 by cc_spicuous

[ricklinux]

It’s all noise people! Don’t listen to the noise … don’t respond to the noise … don’t make any noise and it will be quite!

[Mike09]

Anyone remember Usenet and newsgroups**? Boy, they were such a quiet haven of friendly, welcoming interactions.

**Aging technomancers may also remember BBSs and FidoNet. Also havens of friendly, welcoming interactions.