How to Design Internet Addiction Out of Your Life
Some notes on how to make the internet more like a book, magazine, or phone than a television. That is, more like a tool than a world:
1. Do not use iGoogle, FriendFeed or any other service that provides you with "status updates" from a number of services at once. This leads to a condition where "checking your email" becomes "checking everything". Every hour you will find new interesting things that will bifurcate your attention into many worlds. (However, I have the feeling that an iPhone/iPod Touch, which is in a sense a portable iGoogle, would be a positive replacement. Better to check constantly on a non-immersive device...?)
2. Do not invest yourself in social networks like Facebook. Don't join groups that encourage participation or frequently send out mass-messages. Don't friend anybody that you don't really want to read about. Use your profile as nothing more than a node (don't post anything to your profile that you might someday want to fiddle with). See it as a communication tool: glorified email/chat. Rather than making certain parts of your profile private, make everything public and make sure that anything anybody can see is something that anybody can see. (This means that you must occasionally un-tag photos and delete Wall posts.) Don't add any applications. Don't try to model your real-world social life.
3. Twitter is cool. It's addictive, but it doesn't take any time. <5 min. to check what your friends have written and update.
4. Blogs are cool. As long as you're producing content, there's nothing to feel guilty about. The point is not to stop doing drugs altogether, it's to make sure that every time you do drugs, you're using them to enhance your creativity and your relationships.
5. Use Times for aggregating feeds. Nothing compares. It frees you from the feeling that you have to read every article. Promotes quick scanning, just like a newspaper.
6. There's nothing to be done about email. It's addictive and time consuming and it's not going away. Make sure that you're not on any corporate mailing lists (Apple.com, stores you've bought stuff from). Filter mailing lists into folders. Practice self-discipline. Don't see yourself as somebody who 'replies within an hour'.
7. Create a habit of taking notes when you go on a tangent. This will force you to think deeply and remember what you've learned (plus you'll have it stored for future reference). It will also force you to slow down. I use an Instiki wiki running on my server so that I can access it from anywhere (though I'm considering switching back to desktop tools like VoodooPad and DevonThink).
8. Favor anti-design. Anytime you have any control over CSS, choose a white background with black text and blue links. Or find some other theme and stick to it. Remember, the internet is blue.
9. When you can, use UNIX (command line). It feels more like a tool for doing tasks than a world.
10. Make sure that Facebook sends only two types of notification to you: notification for Messages and Wall posts. This way checking your email means checking your email and also checking the only time-sensitive feature of Facebook at the same time, thus allowing you to ignore Facebook.
I've been thinking about how to make computers non-immersive for a few months now. I'd like to start crystallizing ideas now. Some problematics:
1. Ubicomp says that computers will decentralize. The personal computer will splinter into many devices like pens, hammers, and shoes. How can we do this without introducing more stuff into our lives and spending more money than we would need to if we just used a PC (which does everything)? (Adam Greenfield argues that the mobile device is the platform for ubicomp. Is he right? I hope not for some reason.)
2. Most people don't care that personal computers are fragmenting and hollowing out their lives. How will I make money making devices that are deliberately less attractive than the current norms?
3. Should the web-site just die? 50% of the internet is just applications now anyway (Facebook, Google, MySpace, Flickr, etc.) Why not replace the browser with applications like "Photo Sharing", "Communicating With Friends", "Writing Periodicals", "Researching Databases"? That sounds like a bad idea, but I think something like that needs to and will happen.
1. Do not use iGoogle, FriendFeed or any other service that provides you with "status updates" from a number of services at once. This leads to a condition where "checking your email" becomes "checking everything". Every hour you will find new interesting things that will bifurcate your attention into many worlds. (However, I have the feeling that an iPhone/iPod Touch, which is in a sense a portable iGoogle, would be a positive replacement. Better to check constantly on a non-immersive device...?)
2. Do not invest yourself in social networks like Facebook. Don't join groups that encourage participation or frequently send out mass-messages. Don't friend anybody that you don't really want to read about. Use your profile as nothing more than a node (don't post anything to your profile that you might someday want to fiddle with). See it as a communication tool: glorified email/chat. Rather than making certain parts of your profile private, make everything public and make sure that anything anybody can see is something that anybody can see. (This means that you must occasionally un-tag photos and delete Wall posts.) Don't add any applications. Don't try to model your real-world social life.
3. Twitter is cool. It's addictive, but it doesn't take any time. <5 min. to check what your friends have written and update.
4. Blogs are cool. As long as you're producing content, there's nothing to feel guilty about. The point is not to stop doing drugs altogether, it's to make sure that every time you do drugs, you're using them to enhance your creativity and your relationships.
5. Use Times for aggregating feeds. Nothing compares. It frees you from the feeling that you have to read every article. Promotes quick scanning, just like a newspaper.
6. There's nothing to be done about email. It's addictive and time consuming and it's not going away. Make sure that you're not on any corporate mailing lists (Apple.com, stores you've bought stuff from). Filter mailing lists into folders. Practice self-discipline. Don't see yourself as somebody who 'replies within an hour'.
7. Create a habit of taking notes when you go on a tangent. This will force you to think deeply and remember what you've learned (plus you'll have it stored for future reference). It will also force you to slow down. I use an Instiki wiki running on my server so that I can access it from anywhere (though I'm considering switching back to desktop tools like VoodooPad and DevonThink).
8. Favor anti-design. Anytime you have any control over CSS, choose a white background with black text and blue links. Or find some other theme and stick to it. Remember, the internet is blue.
9. When you can, use UNIX (command line). It feels more like a tool for doing tasks than a world.
10. Make sure that Facebook sends only two types of notification to you: notification for Messages and Wall posts. This way checking your email means checking your email and also checking the only time-sensitive feature of Facebook at the same time, thus allowing you to ignore Facebook.
I've been thinking about how to make computers non-immersive for a few months now. I'd like to start crystallizing ideas now. Some problematics:
1. Ubicomp says that computers will decentralize. The personal computer will splinter into many devices like pens, hammers, and shoes. How can we do this without introducing more stuff into our lives and spending more money than we would need to if we just used a PC (which does everything)? (Adam Greenfield argues that the mobile device is the platform for ubicomp. Is he right? I hope not for some reason.)
2. Most people don't care that personal computers are fragmenting and hollowing out their lives. How will I make money making devices that are deliberately less attractive than the current norms?
3. Should the web-site just die? 50% of the internet is just applications now anyway (Facebook, Google, MySpace, Flickr, etc.) Why not replace the browser with applications like "Photo Sharing", "Communicating With Friends", "Writing Periodicals", "Researching Databases"? That sounds like a bad idea, but I think something like that needs to and will happen.