Hacker News Reader

Comment by fleddr | Hacker News Reader

Or how NOT to spend it.

Before the smartphone, a significant amount of time per day was spent on nothing. Could be staring out the window during a commute, an actual break at work, waiting for somebody or something.

We mostly lost that. Zero rest for our brains, it's bombarded with information relentlessly.

View on HN

It's Monday, and a school holiday. It rained in the morning, but now it's just cold and overcast. It's quiet in the living room. You know the phone isn't going to ring, because who would call? You could walk to the library or a used bookstore. You could go to the 7-Eleven around the corner if you had any money, which you don't, and you haven't had for some time. You could walk the river path again. There's a TV, but it's only got 2.5 channels, and you don't like to watch Donahue or Days of Our Lives. You can hear the clock ticking, and each grain of dust falling to the floor.

Poetry from simpler times, which I'm glad I experienced.

Where is this from?

My memories of the late 80s and early 90s.

They will make a game where you do that now.

My great grandma played solitaire to while the hours away. With actual cards.

Not sure if that's a case for or against screen time.

Indeed. It sounds soul-crushingly boring to me. She worked in a sweatshop, back when that was legal in the US. She couldn't afford the entertainment that's been available to me for my entire life. Used paperbacks were always affordable, even on my preteen allowance; it wasn't until adulthood that I learned that I was taking my comparative wealth for granted. When she could afford yarn or string, she'd crochet or tat... but she claimed to actually enjoy the solitaire. To me, it seems to be a monastic, meditative passtime. There's virtue in enjoying simple pleasures... but I'd probably lose it.

My grandma cheated at solitaire.

I did too if I was losing.

I’ve started taking saunas every day as part of my gym routine. It’s been a nice side effect that for at least 15 minutes a weekday I am not reading, watching, or listening to anything. I believe it’s a big part of why I’ve felt more refreshed after exercising of late.

People had radios in the background (at work, at home) for that.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com