how i remain intentional online | December Bearblog Carnival
Ahoy there!
This month for the Bear Blog Carnival, my friend on the platform Moose is hosting the prompt How I ___. For this entry, I'm wanting to talk about how I remain intentional online.
It's easy to get swept up in the general everything that is the online space. It can be tempting when I'm bored at work to doomscroll on reddit on my laptop, but I refrain from doing that because I recognize that it leaves me worse off than when I began. I'm sure it's not a shock to anyone that being constantly fed the worst news for hours isn't great for one's mental health.
In this, I try to be intentional with my internet usage. So, how do I do that?
Well, for one, I've made the internet a physical place again. I don't have a smart device in my pocket all the time trying to sap away my attention.
If I have a question that pops up, I write it down in my notebook and then return to it later. Often times I don't return to it, which means it wasn't really all that useful of information to begin with. I stopped trying to get immediate answers to everything, because most of the time it's not useful information anyway.
The internet for me is only accessible on one of my laptops, my desktop PC, or when I'm at work.
I don't watch youtube like I used to. I've gotten to the point where I don't care to see the exact same topic reiterated to death from the same 10 youtubers. I will often add videos to my "watch later" when I'm in a spot where I choose to watch Youtube as opposed to doing something else.
I don't sit and rot watching YouTube all day, because there's other things I'd rather be doing.
I enjoy being bored. When I'm bored that's when I get the spark of creativity and start messing around with stuff.
When I go online, it's not because I'm doing it out of habit. It's because there's a blog article I want to write, or I wanna ask my friend to draw pixel art of Captain Bones from Crashbox sitting in a chair smoking a joint, or I wanna doodle, or work on my website, etc. I go online because there is something online I'm wanting to do deliberately, not just get lured into a vortex out of manipulated habit.
I will say that urge to doomscroll on reddit does hit when I'm bored at work. My brain is craving SOMETHING to do. Sometimes I'll indulge in it, but that's just it I've chosen to indulge. I've chosen a specific subreddit from a list of saved ones. I don't just let Reddit's algorithm feed me whatever bullshit it wants to throw at me.
I used to lie to myself and say I'm going on to "stay informed", but what more do I need to be informed about? It's always the same stupid shit, my president says/does something mindbogglingly evil/dumb, some shit is going on somewhere else in the country, some celebrity is in some drama I don't care about.
It's easy to not get sucked into these social media spirals on other apps because they demand I make an account to see their content, well I'm not gonna put in the effort to make an account, so I guess that makes that easy.
I generally rely on a dopamine menu (a little trick I learned from the YouTube channel How To ADHD). I have a selection of options in the event I'm bored and want something to do so I'm not just watching the clock at work. These include, but are not limited to:
- Checking out what I've saved to my Watch Later (more on that later)
- Checking what my subscriptions are (since my extension reroutes the home screen to my subscriptions feed)
- Doodle
- Write (either a blog or some other creative project)
- Read people's blogs
- Check out people's websites on Neocities/Nekoweb
- Chat with my friends on Discord
Going to my watch later, how do I find videos I want to watch? I don't usually have a ton of time to sit and watch a bunch of videos. So if I have some time and think "let's see if there's something I'll wanna watch later", I manually turn on the home feed. Look around for a bit for videos to watch, add what I want to the playlist, then close it back up again. This gives me something more curated rather than just fed to me on a silver spoon. I don't care to watch the same topic rehashed by the same 10 people, give me something new, something else to chew on.
After maybe 2-3 good scrolls, I close it up and think "welp, guess there's nothing for me to watch". then I try and find something else.
I'm at the point now, where I can't NOT be intentional with my internet usage. It's hard for me to get sucked into the spiral because of the amount of friction I've placed between me and the websites that desperately want my attention.
Social media apps demand I have an account, I'm not going to make an account. I get secondhand glimpses of what is trending and that siren song to return to social media quickly becomes pepper spray and I'm reminded why I don't go on social media ever.
It's like trying to go to a restaurant you know will have you sitting on the toilet, butt-naked, begging for death in a cold sweat because "wElL mAyBe ThErE wIlL bE sOmEtHiNg GoOd". No. fucking. thanks.
Anyway, that's largely how I remain intentional online. It's kinda all I can be online at this point as there's nothing to ensnare me anymore.
Pirate is wearing Overstimulated shirt from Cool Shirtz and black joggers
Pirate is feeling tired
Pirate is listening to American Idiot
Pirate is playing Halo 2 multiplayer
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