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I thought back on my time when I was really active in the nosurf subreddit. I used to be one of the three taking care of the project around 2018/19; I helped moderate the subreddit, build the site, write articles for the blog, make informative threads on the forum and so on.
I left at some point because of differing opinions about the project and personal issues. Right now I think the sub is leaderless, accounts deleted, website is no more, forum and blog are also gone, last time I checked.
What got me thinking about it is that I remembered the people who sold their devices, cancelled their internet and proudly proclaimed that they're only using the internet and computer at the library now, for useful purposes. Granted, those were the most extreme members, but they were always highly regarded and applauded for their bold actions. But I wondered what came of them during height of the pandemic, or now? Libraries were closed, education shifted online, socializing in person was almost impossible, and home office was necessary for many people.
It made me realize that drastic actions in regards to the internet, whether about privacy or addiction, is not wise, and often born out of sheer helplessness and panic. We have to think ahead. The internet is likely only growing its presence in our lives, and we cannot deal with our issues with it by shunning it completely. We can't fully outrun it forever. Pandemics likely will happen again and again in our lifetime. Remote work and the opportunities of remote learning can be an important step to get ahead and have more control over your time and career.
By banishing it all, it might be easy in the beginning, but do we really learn how to handle the temptation? What if you have to use a laptop at work, what if you get a work smartphone? What if your university relies on a lot of digital solutions and collaboration or research? What if you don't have a local library, or it closes? What if you start dating a person who has all these "temptations" lying around, and internet at their home? What if this makes you the odd one out, the one never in group chats, the one who is never in the know about events, the one who cannot be reached and therefore isn't included or invited?
After the pandemic and its lockdowns, I think differently about the advice we have given out back then. I still think we did well overall and did the best we could, however some of it was shortsighted, like admiring people with drastic steps, or posing the internet and its undoubtedly addictive design as the only issue. I think the issue around internet or smartphone addiction is a bit more nuanced.
Some people definitely profit from our approach of deleting some or all social media and installing blockers for certain sites that limit the time or block them altogether. That way, they are forced to be bored and finally get back into the hobbies or studies they enjoy, but kept putting off. They might see their enjoyment of these come back or see an increase in their ability to focus or their attention span. Maybe they also find more people in the offline world to do stuff with.
But for many others, the internet wasn't the reason they stopped doing things, and there might not be something to pick back up hobby-wise when they block it all and shut off the computer. It wasn't like the internet distracted them from their irl network and freetime activities as well as academic success, but instead, there might have been abuse, loneliness, social anxiety, a bad neighborhood, illness, poverty etc. that pushed them towards the internet as something that distracts you from all of these and is much cheaper than many hobbies or outside activities.
While the former might be sucked in by addictive design and just needs a little break from it to find the will for other things in their life again with their own perfect balance between offline and online time, the latter's internet addiction comes from external factors, and telling them to take breaks and shut it all off doesn't help. It can even be detrimental, I think. We should have encouraged them to build something up that they can go to when they decide to delete their accounts or take a social media break, before they take the plunge. A friend circle, a project, a hobby, a spot to volunteer at, a minijob, anything like that. Because otherwise, it's just gonna end in failure when you block the internet and lock the smartphone or entire laptop in a safe, but then recognize how empty your life is with no idea what to do or who to turn to; that will have you running back quicker, or even make you depressed and suicidal. I think with some people, we did not look out enough for this possibility and encouraged them to just cut it all off, ignoring that this also cuts off the only friends they had. We should have been more vocal about making sure you have an offline support network before you do this.
Instead, I think the entire space was full of this idea that once you block the internet, everything will fix itself - you will suddenly find friends, you will have so many hobbies and the drive to do them, you will instantly get better grades and finally go to the gym, you will be able to read 5 books a week etc.
But it takes so much more than cutting yourself off from your devices for these. You have to put yourself out there, you have to approach people, you have to be able to spend money on these things and yourself, you have to have the discipline and focus to pursue these goals. You have to do them even when you hate doing them, telling yourself even just 5 minutes are enough. You may even have to go to therapy, or try to get away from toxic people in your life.
In that way, I guess we offered a bandaid solution to a much deeper problem in people's lives; alienation, chronic illness, financial issues and domestic violence are all really common and can glue you to the screen, and we should have acknowledged that more, I think.
But for the people who were just stuck on a feed and had plenty of things to do offline and a support network, I like to think we did well.
I personally still use the Cold Turkey blocker for specific things or times, or block things on my phone, and I am very picky about my online time and accounts; but in my opinion, the biggest changes in your online behavior always come from offline things. The best cycle simply is when you're so (positively) busy in your offline life that the online life has no chance and you feel no desire to return for more than a few minutes, or at all. And you can't force this instantly, this is work and a little bit of luck. Instead of building a massive wall between you and the internet, it is worth building something you'd rather wanna do instead first. Or change what you give your time to on the computer. I might be online a lot more recently, but it doesn't feel like the feeds that made me depressed, sluggish, and wasted my time; instead, I've been enrolled in online university with great grades, and working on my website; I am learning to code, and I am having a really really good time with it. I work from home most of the week and that only works with internet access and some discipline.
The internet and the devices you use to access it really don't have to be bad, especially when you look beyond the socials and find the small web and your own little goals. And having found my balance, my do's and don'ts, my warning signs - I am ready for the next lockdown and increased online dependence, which will come regardless if I want it to or not.
𓇽 ° . ༻ 𓈒 ꒪ ๋ ° .𓏲⠀ ๋࣭ ♡ ͘ ࣭⠀⸰ ⋆ ֗ ִ ᨒ .⋆ﾟ. ͘ ࣭⠀⸰ ♡ 𓂂 ◌ 𓇽 ° . ๋ 𓂂 ⠀✼ 𓇽