Comment by jackdoe | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jackdoe | Hacker News Reader

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Yes!

I am using old nokia phone for 3 months now, I am not going back to my iphone. (means no whatsapp, banking, uber, reddit, hn, whatever)

It took almost 1 week to get rid of the cravings "I am slightly bored, I *MUST* look at my phone"

Now, I am just bored, I had forgotten how nice it is to be bored, I just stare at things, poke something with a stick, look for patterns, ask questions, have ideas.. etc; when I have a meeting and the other person doesn't show up on time, I just watch the world and wait.

I also noticed I can watch movies properly, I have more patience, I dont look at my phone at the first "less exciting" moment. It is really nice especially for things like Star Trek where they have not algorithmically optimized every frame to keep you engaged because they were not competing with instagram for your attention.

I even bought a walkman. When the song is not very good, I just wait it out. Very quickly I got my sense of time back, just after few days I can measure time in 'songs' or 'cassette sides'.

I have also blocked all socials except hn on my local pihole.

If you survive the first week of cravings after that it gets nicer every day!

Some people say I am doing those things because of "nostalgia" but this is incorrect, I just want to be able to be bored.

That’s excellent to hear! Alas, I have not gotten to the point of replacing my iPhone (being in IT means I’ve long been married to a smartphone of some variety), but I’m with you on a lot of the above. For example:

> I also noticed I can watch movies properly, I have more patience, I dont look at my phone at the first "less exciting" moment.

I’ve started leaving my phone in the bedroom when I’m playing games or watching movies in the Living Room. It’s a PITA to extract myself from the sofa to retrieve it, and I find myself far more engrossed leaving it physically in a different space. The eventual goal is to have a designated “phone drop” for folks to drop the device on to charge that’s far away from living and sleeping areas, to further break that habit.

> I even bought a walkman.

Same! I turn off WiFi except for OS updates (it’s one of Sony’s new Android-based Walkmans), and have no streaming apps on it. It’s just my microSD card of music from my NAS, and it’s blissful. I need to use it more, but writing synchronization scripts has been a PITA.

> I just want to be able to be bored.

I’ll confess to using an “herbal” crutch for this of late, because of (diagnosed) OCD making it impossible to pause or stop on my own in most cases. Combined with an outdoor walk, I’ve developed a newfound appreciation for just laying on a bench and watching the clouds and planes go by in the sky, or watching cars on the highway. It’s helped me appreciate humanity more, forcing myself into a sort of bored observation of others instead of constantly rehearsing new work tasks, new project ideas, or new contingency plans.

More people need to be bored.

when hungry eat, when tired sleep; as the poet said, no need to rush

I also have severe ocd, maybe I should try the herb

PS: I am on call for 25 years, so far I have no issues because of no smartphone, opsgenie just calls me and then I get my laptop few minutes later

Canceling streaming, on-demand media subscriptions and replacing them with cable is my next step in this process. The practices cable TV cultivates and requires seem healthier and more civilized than those streaming services cultivate.

I love the idea that media consumption is tied to a specific place, which the whole house shares, and that if I want to watch something, I may need to plan for it and know when it'll be available. Moreover, not always getting exactly what I want, when I want it, in the largest possible dose, seems the right way to consume media.

Cable is a good downgrade but still insidious. I personally would recommend just a hard drive full of whatever media you want to store on it.

Sure, cable has huge downsides, such as cable news, reality television, and countless other sources of unconscionable garbage. On the other hand, I grew up with these and survived the onslaught of dreck with my wits basically intact, and I discovered a number of things through TV that I wouldn't otherwise have.

I really think that part of what's healthy about cable is precisely that you don't control when or how much of something is available.

That full hard drive doesn't hold much appeal for me.

Hey, it's OK to use the fast forward button. Just because you want to hear Back in the USSR and While My Guitar Gently Weeps doesn't mean you have to sit through Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da, it's not good for you like eating your vegetables. And it's not good to let things bore you, you're mixing up being bored with being patient, the distinction matters.

Edit: but if you have actual OCD as you say below, that puts a different slant on things.

I do use fast forward :) just not a lot, but also really like cassettes that two good songs happen to be on the opposite sides of each other.

I am using 'bored' quite loosely, I mean allow yourself to not be constantly engaged, the content creators, the algorithms, the advertisers all are trying to keep me at this extreme state so that I could be sold. The bar is really high, in order to be patient I had to re-learn how to not be engaged all the time. Some times I think of nothing, but most of the time I am having fun with stuff either real or not.

PS: yea I do have ocd, my bored or patient probably mean different things to other people

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