

What Happened to Downtime? The Extinction of Deep Thinking & Sacred Space - minouye
http://the99percent.com/articles/6947/what-happened-to-downtime-the-extinction-of-deep-thinking-sacred-space

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wccrawford
If you have that much trouble disconnecting sometimes, you need help.

I'm a loner by nature and I find it extremely easy to get alone time even
without 'disconnecting'. My computers stay on, my phones stay on, everything
stays on.

-I- am in control. I don't let devices or other people control me. I make the decisions on what to do and when.

~~~
kkowalczyk
You've made 452 comments here, a 3.86/day average for the 117 days since
you've registered.

Somehow that doesn't strike me as a behavior pattern of someone fully in
control of his web browsing habits.

~~~
patio11
I think I win, or lose, depending on your point of view. Most people consider
me fairly well-adjusted and successful. (Quote my aunt, to my cousin: "See,
you can like geeky things and still grow up to be a productive member of
society.)

Nobody says boo about someone who watches 3.86 thirty minute episodes of TV a
day, or who writes 3.86 pages of email a day, by the by.

------
mkramlich
This is one of those "speak for yourself" articles. Meaning, it assumes that
everybody has this problem. When they don't. And for those folks who do feel
like they have this problem, well, they have a lot of options and control at
their fingertips to fight against and probably make it go away, or at least
reduce it. There have been times where I've felt overwhelmed or had a hunger
for solitude and it's almost always possible to deal with it. There are knobs
you can turn. Leave your cellphone at home. Stay away from Twitter or Facebook
or web forums (like HN) for a day or a week. Check email only once a day
rather than 20 times a day. Plan a weekend vacation, offline, someplace quiet.
And so on.

~~~
kkowalczyk
You're criticizing a strawman. Nowhere in this article you'll find a claim
that "everyone has this problem".

It just states pretty obvious facts about the combined effects of new streams
of information (mail/rss feeds/twitter/facebook) and new means of accessing
those streams (laptops, smartphones) which leads to a growing addiction to
frequent checking those streams.

This is not a novel or controversial point. There've been many articles about
this effect in the past and there will be many more in the future.

I can observe this addiction in myself, when I pull out my iPhone to check my
Twitter during lunch with my coworkers. I can observe this addiction in my
coworkers when I glance and their monitors when I pass by and see the browser
opened on Facebook or Twitter. I can see that in people on the street, who
walk looking at their iPhones or Droids. I can see that in people in cafes,
drinking their lattes with a laptop lid open and browser set on YouTube. I can
see that in people like myself, checking Hacker News several times a day.

There is a problem, it is widespread and there is no easy solution. That's all
that article is saying.

------
thingie
I wish this was a problem. What is completely missing (at least in my life) is
offline "downtime" and solitude. People in large openspace in the office,
crowded tram, crowded shop, people everywhere in the park, people around my
favourite walking trail, and of course, roommates, everywhere. There's no
escape, no opt-out, no nothing. It actually drives me mad.

~~~
snowwindwaves
there is an abundance of empty space here in canada

~~~
deffibaugh
I really think that more and more people will start leaving the cities as
communication continues to improve. The reason people conglomerated was so
they could be in constant contact and physical space is not limiting factor to
that any more.

~~~
pyre
The more remote the area, the more expensive supplies will be. Land might be
cheap, and communications networks may be available, but you'll have to pay
the extra for shipping things like food in.

~~~
lovskogen
Well, you're kinda extreme in getting away from the city buzz if you have to
move someplace that needs to _ship_ food supplies.

~~~
deffibaugh
Even if you live in the boondocks today it is still only a 30 minute trip Wal-
Mart. There just isn't any traffic.

------
mark_l_watson
Good advice. My favorite down times and introspection times are short
meditation periods when I first get up and in the late afternoon. A key to
good meditation is not worrying if you can't always clear your mind or random
thoughts occur. I live in the mountains in Central Arizona, so short 20 minute
walks by myself on the trails behind my house also form what I call walking
meditation. I also find sitting outside for 5 minutes, again not thinking
directly about work, helps me get a good perspective on whatever I am doing
that day.

When I lived in San Diego I had a window office looking out over La Jolla Cove
and I found a few times a day using 10 minutes with my door shut, looking at
the ocean helped.

The subconscious mind is a powerful problem solver. I believe this is why it
is common to wake up in the morning with an unsolved problem, worked out.

~~~
deffibaugh
"The subconscious mind is a powerful problem solver. I believe this is why it
is common to wake up in the morning with an unsolved problem, worked out."

Have you read anything about this? I do this all the time with my course work
and I thought I was just strange. I can't tell you how many times I have
banged my head against the wall with an assignment until I went to bed and
then proceeded to get up an hour before it was due and finish it with no
problem.

~~~
mark_l_watson
I can't recall reading anything specific about this. I was just relating
personal experience. I assumed that this is a common occurrence for everyone.

------
hoop
Take a long, hot shower and bring a beer in with you.

------
deffibaugh
I must be a counter example to the people with the problems this article
describes. Maybe it is natural for a person about to graduate college with no
idea what I am doing or where I am going but I can not stop thinking about my
big problems. Moreover, my constant thought about myself is almost crippling
and keeps me from actually doing anything. I do think that maybe this stems
from the "self esteem" work this article talks about...

~~~
AlexandrB
I was in this state a year ago and I found that external self-esteem boosters
are pretty useless. The nagging self-doubt still lingers no matter what others
say.

What I found helped was doing the task equivalent of
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt-snowball_method> \- starting with a list of
stuff I wanted to do/improve I did the easiest[1]/fastest things first. This
builds confidence quickly and you can start working up to harder tasks - it
also keeps you focused on nice short term goals, which reduces how much you
worry about the big problems.

Not sure if this helps... good luck.

[1] I literally had things like "buy new shirt" in the list that were very
easy, but we're constantly getting forgotten/put off because of the constant
worry about the big problems.

~~~
deffibaugh
Thanks a lot I will have to try this. I have started using todo lists and they
have seemed to help. I do worry I might be slightly depressed. However, I
think this problem is something different because I have not had any problems
with meeting people and making new friends recently. Quite the contrary
actually. Did you happen to smoke a lot of marijuana before this onset? I
really think the intense reflection I do while high led to my conscious mind
getting stuck somehow... I am just theorizing though.

~~~
AlexandrB
I did not smoke marijuana, but I tend to fall into a state of intense
reflection when I'm stressed and at some point I wasn't able to come back out
even though the stress went away.

My biggest cause of stress is procrastination. When I put off things I need to
do I stress myself out and then start down this path - maybe that's why the
todo list thing helped.

------
j_baker
My way of thinking about it is this: if I can't resist twitter and/or my email
long enough to get something done, is it _really_ worth doing?

