doomscrolling and reddit
Inspired by Post-Human Posting's posts:
Intro
R&R's post, 12, shows a sentiment that I have felt multiple times before:
i was writing a longer post about misconceptions about ai and ml, but ehh. i know how it works and how i use it, i am happy with that. good luck to all of you!
I also resonate with applying their sentiment toward people using the Internet in hostile ways that can be, but mostly aren't, de-escalated.
However, as with posts I published prior on similar topics, I believe I have valuable points to share that people would appreciate. Here goes nothing.
The bar is in Hell
Does anybody else feel like doomscrolling goes untreated despite diagnosis, similar to other solvable problems like accepting pesky advertisements? Reversing neglect of user agency could be more critical than attacking the content found within, such as the "AI-generated slop" so many complain about. I would think that people facing these issues want to change their environment and modify their behavior to maximize positivity, optimism, and fun. I don't know if that's the case for most.
While I understand convenience can sometimes be inconvenient to achieve, I have seen firsthand how much extrinsic initiative people require to do something as simple as block ads. I'm talking about standards as low as installing a browser extension or a new browser. Fast forward and watch as those minute fixes rot untouched unless maintenance is prompt and regular.
I give a man a fish as he won't teach himself how to fish despite wanting to fish. Afterward, he reverts to old habits and continues to starve. I feel this way about the above, encrypted messengers, smartphone usage, and other apparently difficult asks. Responsibilities and emotions get abdicated to things outside personal control, while preventative measures get readily neglected.
Most people do not curate, filter, or otherwise sanitize their online experience, to the point that they become an ambassador what they supposedly hate. Then again, my job isn't finding the many. Finding the few that can best reciprocate navigating a fulfilling life with me is what I can seek instead.
Feeding neglects passions
People grow so blind to solutions that they inadvertently feed problems toward becoming monsters and demons. Self-proclaimed doomscrollers wielding coveted knowledge that trolls feed on attention makes me wonder how much undue attention they give to the opposite of what they want. Be careful what you wish for with your see-food Internet diet.
Taking ownership of yourself as someone who has been doomscrolling and can choose to do something else can be powerful. The same trick can apply to your emotions too, even with the exception of initial emotional pangs. You can save your blame toward external boogeymen like bot accounts on Reddit. You are capable of transforming yourself.
Use tools how you want to, so as to mitigate using them how you don't want to. Removing doomscrolling from your repertoire can be a gradual approach, spearheaded by usage of other tools that inspires you. If you find encountering ruses problematic, could ignoring or filtering them assist your experience?
The Internet is too abundant, exciting, and adaptive to self-sabotage yourself into doomscrolling echo chambers. Although, if you genuinely want that for yourself, be my guest. I do get impressions from people that they wish to avoid these traps though.
Instead of writing out what you detest, I suspect you can afford to share your passions? I would like to read more about what captivates people as a result of happiness, excitement, and love. I want to hear out what people like, enjoy, and appreciate. Instead of creative excuses creating vicious cycles of the same, can applied creativity toward optimism and opportunities create desired virtuous cycles?
If you want further reading on this subject, you may appreciate my sentiment toward digital detox december or Ava's admission that it may not just be the damn phone.
Navigating Reddit's pitfalls
As for saner approaches to doomscrolling and Reddit, I found a number of replies from the self-promoted Hacker News repost worthwhile to cross-post here.
Recover from doomscrolling
hoppp presents alternatives to the doomscrolling which enables sub-problems like falling prey to advertisements:
Stop doomscrolling. I am guilty of it too. Go out, enjoy a walk, do some sports, or play video games. Any of these things will help you stop bad habits. Doom scrolling is addictive like smoking and will make you miserable.
qoez gives it to us straight:
If Reddit gets to the point of being frustrating rather than entertaining, just teach yourself to turn it off. Heal your addiction.
Tenoke, in my opinion, advocates for designing a more habitable ecosystem of comments and general surroundings:
And if you want more than this level, you have to curate better.
Make Reddit hospitable
m0llusk shares his niche Reddit experience which mimics my own:
Kind of interesting that I spend way too much time on Reddit but have not seen this. This is likely because I mostly read small and specialized subreddits and avoid junk like I am allergic to it or something. I would never have found the fake book link in the article, for example. Just a contrast, but given that some are saying the Internet is gone and it is necessary to leave it is potentially interesting to note that it isn't that way for all. Possibly some psychosocial equivalent of buoyancy and swimming ability?
geuis promotes discovery beyond default offerings:
"The trick to Reddit is to audit your subreddits. There are thousands of interesting, well run, topic specific subreddits. Find communities around your interests and only subscribe to them. Get rid of the default ones that are mostly just cesspools these days."
zamadatix outlines great content discovery questions worth generalizing:
Just be aware of what you're wanting to get out of content and where/how you're actually going to find that. If you're going to Reddit or HN (or any other aggregate site) where you put in low effort to consume large variety of content quickly you're most likely not going to make any deep connections or associations with ideas or people in that session.
Pikamander2 shows how to improve Reddit's user experience in a way that I can cosign:
Switch to Old Reddit, download the Reddit Enhancement Suite, and use filters liberally to hide bad users and subreddits when they appear.
If that isn't possible or maintainable for you, then my above advice for prioritizing your wants comes into play here.
Outro
Speaking of wants, how can you help yourselves and I find optimists sharing their passions and making the Internet cooler, one agential interaction at a time?