
On the Pleasures and Sorrows of Life Without Screens - quickben
http://www.calnewport.com/blog/2019/05/31/on-the-pleasures-and-sorrows-of-life-without-screens/
======
wortelefant
The article is quite optimistic about peoples' abilities to transform their
newfound boredom into something creative, but as in the example with books,
this digital minimalist "healthy" boredom also has its prerequisites to make
it work.

By likening social media use to addiction, only the negative effects are
highlighted. For example, the waiting line in the supermarket used to be full
of aggression, it has become much calmer with phones, and some people might
even revert to alcohol or other destructive habits when they feel
uncomfortable with being alone. In some cases, distraction can even be
beneficial, as playing Tetris reduces PTSD and flashbacks.
[https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/tetris-shown-
to-l...](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/tetris-shown-to-lessen-
ptsd-and-flashbacks/?redirect=1)

Perhaps a better metaphor might be travelling: When I travel too often and
move aroung all the time, there is a certain "up in the air" \- emptyness - it
feels as if I don't ever arrive anywhere, and I spend far too much time in
airports and in transit. When I travel less often, it is easier to enjoy the
ride and the experience has a positive impact.

~~~
ryanmercer
>the waiting line in the supermarket used to be full of aggression, it has
become much calmer with phones,

What?

Grocery lines used to be people reading magazines/tabloids/tv guides or
sending their kid to go get something they forgot, now it's people yacking
loudly on their phone or playing candy crush waiting for the person in front
of them to finish self checkout.

~~~
folkrav
I can't remember the last time I heard someone "yacking loudly" at their phone
in line at the supermarket. The Candy Crush part is accurate, but not very
different from reading magazines.

Not sure what was the point both you and OP were trying to make.

~~~
ryanmercer
I can't go to the grocery or my second gym without people shouting into their
phones or their bluetooth, or worse, sometimes having a conversation with the
other person on speaker (for that matter we have a few people that do that
here in my office in the break room).

Perhaps it is a midwest thing.

------
beat
I read _Digital Minimalism_ back in February, and did a cleanse in March per
his recommendations. One thing I noticed... I normally keep track of books
I've read. I jumped from reading two books a month to reading six. Was I
seriously reading four books a month in bullshit screen scrolling and arguing
with people who are wrong on the Internet? Apparently.

I still use the phone as distraction, but now I do it with the Kindle app. I
keep my phone Kindle loaded with books I can read in short bursts without
extended concentration (currently about to finish the financial planning book
_I Will Teach You to Be Rich_ , by Ramit Sethi), and carry my regular Kindle
around for books that require more engagement.

I already avoided video games; I've done so for years, because I recognized
that I have an addiction problem. When it comes to videogames, I'm like an
alcoholic that doesn't drink for fear of the consequences. What I didn't
realize is how carefully crafted the addictions of Facebook and Twitter are,
how they sucked me in worse than video games ever did.

I have a long ways to go to fully engage with the world again, but I'm getting
better.

~~~
p1esk
Wait, then why are you here?

~~~
beat
I thought about that. What I decided was to distinguish between social media
driven by deliberately addictive engagement in order to sell ads (Facebook,
Twitter), and social media that doesn't depend on ad revenue and invites
active engagement rather than passive scrolling (Hacker News, and a guitar
forum I read regularly). I don't need to give up _all_ online interaction,
just the ones that are actively and deliberately unhealthy.

~~~
p1esk
I don't know man. This sounds like:

"I used to have an alcoholism problem. I used to drink wine, beer, hard
liquer, you name it. But then I did a cleanse in March, and I stopped drinking
hard liquer and wine. I only drink beer now. But that's ok, because I actually
like the taste of beer!"

~~~
beat
Yeah, it does. And if I felt that HN was intruding on my ability to do other
things the way Facebook and Twitter do, I'd quit it, as well.

edit: Maybe a better analogy would be that HN can be chewing gum when I'm
trying to quit smoking.

------
mark_l_watson
Digital Minimalism was probably my least favorite Cal Newport book, not for
the subject matter but because of the reliance on third party stories. I like
to hear peoples’ stories first hand.

Even though I ended up being a partially failed case for using this book, I
still got value from it. I mostly did the thirty day digital detox but ended
up going back almost to my old routine. The difference is that I have perhaps
reduced wasted time on my devices by about 1/3\. I am more aware of how much
time I am spending, while I am spending it reading Twitter, HN, or playing
Chess or Go when I have short periods of non-busy time. I am considering
removing Chess and Go apps from all my devices.

If you are going to read just one Cal Newport book, I recommend choosing Deep
Work.

~~~
kashyapc
As I've noted here before[1], Newport is on a 3-book contract on more or less
the same topic with minor tweaks. And is likely to subtly market them to the
hilt at every opportunity.

Besides unsound fundamentals (relying too much "third party stories", and
other issues noted elsewhere), he focuses too much on "quantity" and
"productivity" than on _quality_ and _effectiveness_.

Sure, he _has_ something of value to say, but he should absolutely have
compressed it into _one_ book, and avoid the filler content. But my
(uncharitable?) conjecture is, as he values "productivity", he happily gives
into the demand of publishers to have X number of pages in a book, to sell,
lest it looks like a pamphlet.

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19047303](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19047303)

~~~
mark_l_watson
You make good points. I used major publishers like McGraw-Hill, J. Wiley,
Springer Verlag, etc. for the first ten books I wrote. You really give up a
lot of control over subject matter. I now use Leanpub, write whatever I enjoy
writing about. I pitch the advantages [1] of writing to people I know, and
usually suggest writing one or two books with a publisher and after that self
publish.

[1] largest advantage is getting to meet and get to know really interesting
people. I enjoy writing but being an author also opens up a lot of
opportunities.

------
scotty79
Funny how younger people don't even know how the true boredom looks like. They
think they get bored on their phones. Only after they go on screen detox they
realise how much more fucking boring the life is. Especially if you don't have
an obsessive hobby and do not want to bother other people just because you
personally are bored.

I feel bad for people older than me that never got adjusted to the smartphones
when they have to wait staring blankly into space or trying to start up a
monologue to random stangers because they can't stand how dull the inside of
their head is. Before smartphones your only salvation was a book and it was
limited tool also not for everyone.

Smartphone as entertainment devices are the greatest social invention so far.

~~~
jarfil
Maybe I'm just too old for it, but what is this "being bored" thing you're
talking about? I clearly recall staring blankly into space while solving
problems in my mind, or even just feeling the surroundings, as some of the
most interesting moments of my life. I don't recall ever getting bored, not
once.

~~~
scotty79
You are very lucky. I clearly recall intense boredom from pre-phone times.
Every time I was forced to stay in some place and do nothing, like while
waiting at the doctor's, using public transport, at school during some
classes, at family dinner, at couples dinner, in church, even at the funeral,
sometimes even in my own home.

There was a saying that intelligent people are never bored. Untrue. I have IQ
over 150 and boredom brought me to tears more than once.

I'd read to kill it, i'd play solitaire with real cards, I'd play one player
games with pen and paper.

Now when I'm older I can handle being bored much better. As I accumulated
scars I can reminiscence on how effed my life is and daydream of pleasure. Buy
I still prefer my phone wherever it's socially acceptable.

~~~
tmn
If you want people to take you seriously. Never cite your iq unless there is a
very good reason. This is not one

~~~
scotty79
I was providing data point disproving (dumb) claim I heard some people make.
If I just said I'm intelligent and bored you could just think I'm not that
intelligent. I thought it was better to tell you exactly how intelligent I am
so you can decide for yourself if that's intelligent enough or not. IQ is just
a number like height or age. I just stated it as it was measured by Mensa
membership test.

And I don't care much about people taking me seriously.

------
agentultra
Whatever you want to call it, I'm all for _digital minimalism_ these days.

I find modern computing to be filled with stress and anxiety. Computers, at
one time, used to sit idle until used. Using a computer was to use a tool to
help you get some task done that was previously menial and boring. These days
as soon as I sit down at a computer I start getting messages, advertisements,
pleas, bargains, warnings, requests... it seems like it never ends. I sit down
to get some work done and an hour later I've finally managed to get enough of
the messages down and distractions over with that I've nearly forgotten what
it was I intended to do in the first place.

And this experience has been following me in my pocket for more than a decade.
Since 2008 or so it has been getting louder, more obnoxious, and demanding.
Offers for new phones and data plans when I'm trying to bathe my kids vibrate
in my pocket waiting to be heard. Advertisements tailored to my interests and
desires follow me everywhere. Messages from people trying to contact me
whenever the whim comes to them. There is little room for silence in my days
anymore.

I have a dream inspired by the folks behind
[http://screenl.es/](http://screenl.es/) \-- a version of computing where
there screens are not the primary interface for computing. One that is
diverse, invisible, and intentional. I'd like a version of computing that is
controlled by me and bends around my needs and not the needs of product
designers, advertisers, and whims of others.

Until I can realize that dream or someone else gets it done I think I'm going
to continue my trend of cutting out as much technology from my life as
possible. I need more silence, solitude, and intentional, meaningful
interactions. I don't want a deluge of social opinion on every happening in
the world aimed right at my brain.

------
mancerayder
How about the pleasures of life without other people's music and TV, which
adults and children play aloud with no headphones in NYC, on a subway and in a
forced, enclosed space?

Should we thank the geniuses who designed phones with amplified speakers and
no headphone jack (some people are too poor/cheap for Bluetooth I suspect)? Or
do we thank Facecrook and Instascam for out-loud videos cranked up at a higher
volume on Android?

Or a breakdown of norms due to being a permissive, some call freer society?

Whatever it is, it's a quality of life detriment for those of us in dense
areas, and a personal pet peeve.

~~~
criddell
People playing their music loudly in public spaces isn't new.

What's new is that it's coming out of a tiny phone rather than a 12 D-cell
powered boom box.

~~~
Funes-
>What's new is that it's coming out of a tiny phone rather than a 12 D-cell
powered boom box.

And that makes _all_ the difference. You cannot possibly compare the number of
times you would be bothered by a boom box in the 90s in public transport, for
example, and how frequent it is now to be bothered by other people's phones on
the exact same circumstances. Let's get real.

------
pard68
I am a good dancer, well only Lindy and East coast swing. Not much weight for
me to lose. I have a black belt in Kenpo. But I am also a systems
administrator, enjoy my Switch, and generally spend at least a few hours
looking at a screen each day, more than 12 hours on a work day. So I fail to
see the correlation...

Seems like less about tech minimalism being the key and more, learning how to
have self control. I am not knocking that, I believe that if you do not have
the self control to manage a habit than you should remove that habit if it is
a detriment. Nonetheless, the article, IMHO, is off the mark.

~~~
ck425
I think the value of his work is in helping folk become aware of how much time
they waste. You sound like you have a good grip on that already, so probably
aren't the target audience.

------
JosephJoestar
Interesting topic but is this not just an advert for this guys book?

~~~
Veen
Is there information in the article that you find useful or interesting? Or
that someone else might? If so, then what does it matter that he wrote a book
on the same topic and mentions it? Would it have been better if he'd written
exactly the same article but not mentioned the book?

~~~
JosephJoestar
Fair point, I just worry about the prevalence of "stealth" advertising. For me
at least, the article seems to boil down mostly to "Look what my lifestyle
book did for this person". But if others are getting value from it then who am
I to judge :)

------
upofadown
If you want to distract yourself while not doing anything you will find a way
to do it. Before smart phones there were computers and video games. Before
that there was television. Before that there was printed fiction of many
sorts, most of it of no personal or social value at all.

It is good to strive to do worthwhile things. The worthless things you do to
fill your time are not preventing you from doing anything else. You do what
you do...

~~~
Bakary
Good point. I would say that modern day distractions have an extra oomph
however. I've never developed an addiction to books, crossword puzzles, or
television whereas I've come to the point where I can't have a healthy
relationship with video games.

~~~
asark
I think video games went from "fun for a while, but eventually you wanna stop
and go ride bikes" to "wait, what do you mean it's Monday morning?" at or a
little after the 16-bit console era. There were always people who could just
play Super Mario 3 all day or that one guy who did nothing but play Doom for
six months or whatever, but most kids (and certainly most adults) would knock
it off after a while. It wasn't a widespread issue, even among the small
segment of the population that played games, even if _some_ did have problems
even then.

There was the occasional eat-your-life-for-weeks-on-end game but they tended
to be confined to genres like 4x and RPGs (Ultima series, say) and you didn't
see multiple high-quality works of that sort every single year. The other big
exception was probably MUDs and other games where social, online multiplayer
was a major component.

I think a combo of 1) refining and focusing games to drive "engagement", 2)
games just getting better over time, in a lot of ways, 3) multiplayer and
social elements becoming more common, and 4) digital distribution putting
unlimited novelty at one's fingertips, has made the whole artform kinda scary,
unless you stick strictly to shortish, tight single-player games. Or local
multiplayer, I guess, since it's hard to binge that until 3AM on a regular
basis, for obvious reasons. Leveling concepts, lengthy turn-based games,
randomness of rewards, and online/social components are all especially
dangerous.

Actually point 4 goes for most things, now. It's kinda _too_ fast & easy to
get... well, almost everything. I think there's a reason an unfettered will
and easy gratification aren't usually things depicted as _improving_
characters in fiction, for example, and often do the opposite.

~~~
Bakary
I think your analysis is spot on. Regarding that last part, I would add
another disturbing argument. Some things are definitely easier to get, but the
things that matter the most such as strong relationships or a sense of being
useful and valued in a community are arguably harder to come by. Modern games
and porn mimic having access to these needs and draw people in but fail to
provide real satisfaction so the individual ends up like a moth on the
lightbulb that burns it. You are under the illusion that your life is going
well while at the same time you can sense that it isn't.

