Pass the MIC! (Mindful Internet Challenge)

I'm with you on the concept, I think a little more time can be put into designing it - certainly understanding it.

I no longer think amount of time, measured by the arbitrary metric of clock units is 'enough' - so to speak. Practically what this means is recognizing time itself as the interdependence of activities, it is no accident the inter-net is a "time waster" because you are connecting to way too many different thoughts that came from different minds. Simply put, we have a limit on the amount of attention we can pay to information. There is the concept of the attention economy for a reason. (or maybe more accurately distraction economy) As Herbert Simon said decades ago: "What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention, and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it." Certainly fitting today isn't it?

So think of it like money. We pay money for physical goods, and we pay in attention for information. Surfing the web is like always buying impulse items that are pretty much worthless, it's like the little impulse crap they sell at the check out stand is infinitely long and you end up buying NOTHING useful - but DO waste all your money.

The way to battle this is focused INtention. As a practical way to track this, we can imagine a simple spreadsheet of 2 or 3 columns. The two essential ones would be the activity you set out to do, and the intention for doing it. Those who are new, don't be surprised if you don't even know what that is - and that probably means it's one of those impulse items that's wasting your valuable attention and you're paying through the nose. A third column might be tracking how you feel when looking at that material or doing that activity, even if it's write and not read-only. For that matter it may be a good idea to first of all state how you are feeling in the first place, perhaps even before creating the to-do list. BTW, the intention of it may in fact change during the course of the activity. It's not hard to imagine watching a video that has genuinely good information but then there's a female that is attractive and you find your mind and heart wandering even if it's not the video producers intention to cause that - but your intention may have started changing due to the instinctual drive and old conditioning.

This is fairly advanced stuff but totally doable, we're talking about tracking very subtle mental processes.

 

BTW, the interdependence factor is what I consider truly whole-some activity, not like corny sitcoms that tries to inspire some value. There is a whole and it's a matter of how things are actually connected and related, the problem with internet surfing is our minds tries to put one together when the actual data being consumed is probably not all that related in the first place because it's from a lot of different areas.

 

I am in

 

Having this in mind today, it can apply to all sorts of things - even listening to the radio in the car. Of course I just have FM and there's not much on there anyway, but good to notice the actual intent and motivation.

 

Hey @Merry Terry ,

First of all, thanks for the shout out I appreciate it.

For me, this is an up and down road, just like the PMO (by the way, I'm reaching day 30 tomorrow of no PM challenge).

I had periods where I blocked all news sites, all social media, all video streaming services including youtube etc. I worked wonders, but one of the main disadvantages was that although they are a great source for time wasting, they are also a great source for necessary information. I remember several times googling stuff where the best info was either, say on YouTube, news item or a social media post and I wasn't able to access it.

However, if I unblocked the above mentioned sites, I would eventually catch myself on there wasting time.

So, it is difficult. For me, the system you proposed will not work. It would put unnecessary pressure on me and I might fail elsewhere.

What I'm currently striving to do is to follow advice by the great Josh Waitzkin (I highly recommend his book, the Art of Learning to everyone) who's motto is to "minimize the input in order to maximize the output."

Thus I try that whenever I am online, say like on NoFap, I always try to post something constructive rather than just absorbing information.

This said, I wish you all the best with your challenge. Please keep me updated how it goes!

 

I was thinking about starting something similar. I see nofap as a part of a greater struggle to use the web rather than letting the web use me. Controlling the impulse to seek out porn is mostly the same task as trying not to google for a random question I happen to stumble upon and am not actually interested in having an answer to or watch e.g. Colbert's show on Youtube which is completely irrelevant to my life not to mention not too funny. Despite the fact that these online activities are an utter waste of time and also probably actively harmful it is for whatever reason brutally difficult to say "no" to them. I'll try to abide by these rules as set out in the OP but I don't expect much success...

 

I think the more aware we are the more challenging this may seem to be, because realistically these days we access a LOT of information. Certainly a way of keeping track is in order.

To add to the spreadsheet idea above, I was thinking this morning to have a general, site specific list that says why you even use certain sites in the first place. This is not necessarily that straight forward, not only for something like Youtube or search engines but even here. In practice we may find we have mixed intentions, but what we can make a plan for is what we WANT to use it for. Even on this forum there's plenty of off topic material, and we could keep that in mind as we read the forum. It's one thing if someone doesn't write their post in the most focused way and we stumble across that, but it's another if it's in the Off Topic section in the first place. And we can keep track of how much what we end up reading at an okay site ends up distracting us, and at what point. The activity may not be perfect but it would be instructive. BTW, using traditional recovery language this would basically be a dynamic intention inventory, rather than a long term retroactive moral inventory.

And sometimes we may want to do things that are more recreational and not completely constructive, this leaves the other quality of what we might consider "wholesome" in the third guideline above. I think looking at it more closely it is easy to see wholesome isn't a matter of categorization, it has to do with whether our activities are interrelated or if we either allow ourselves to be distracted or even intentionally distract ourselves and change focus because we are bored or want to avoid uncomfortable feelings. With recreational activities we may not know immediately how it's related, but we will have at least a general sense. Certain forms of art may be like that.

Another idea: Writing to integrate the information you've taken in - a kind of journaling to integrate media content. One aspect of not being literally whole-some is the information is random and disconnected, and even with the best intention it may end up being very disjointed like when reading someone that's new to NF and they are so distraught they write their story that way, and then you read something off topic, etc. It's not hard to see there's value in a deliberate act to make sense of the information and sort of "digest" it - again to use traditional recovery language it would be to take what you like (or see value in) and leave the rest. However the difference here is we make connection and don't just have a laundry list, we would start noticing patterns.

 

So if we are organized enough, the list may show multiple intentions for certain sites - and even if some sites have good material we may find the primary reason we go there and most of the content we access is really not in line with our core intention that we want to focus on. If we identify that we may want to stop using those sites -for a period of time- until we have better focus and concentration, and if we don't truly need it for the other 10% of the time. Also, since we're tracking but just our best intentions but our ACTUAL intention, we can also track how that changed during the time we're on there. We may start out on track, but then a feeling comes up (very good if you are tracking that in between the intention change) and then the second intention is written down.

This may seem like too much work, but let me point out it's basically what you do in meditation. The difference is people probably don't remember with meditation except in a very general way, and guess what - people count time there too just like people count days. Again nothing wrong with that, but which is better: Just logging a lot of time or actually tracking the process and learning from it?

 

Okay here's just a few real simple working categories, this'll be the final draft:

1. Activity
2. Original Intention
3. Feeling (optional)
4. Changed Intention
5. Accomplishment

I decided to add accomplishment at the end because, well if you really didn't accomplish anything then that's kind of indicative of it being pretty much a waste of time isn't it? I don't think tracking it by time like spending x minutes or hours is a very intelligent way of measuring use, even the OP really talks about the intention, essentially. (distraction, uncomfortable feelings etc.) BTW if you use the Feeling category, it also prompts you to be specific rather than just acknowledge there's discomfort.

BTW to clarify, Changed Intention can be either just doing it for a different purpose than what you originally thought and still within the guidelines of not doing any of those three things, or it could be a kind of segue to another subject of interest whether that's content staying on the same site you're on or another one. For example, you may have started out with non-constructive but wholesome entertainment content, but got curious about something that was brought up in the storyline as a real issue (maybe it is a dramatization based on a true story) and then go searching to learn about that.

Using this post as an example, I did set out to post this (1) with the intention to solidify a method (2) and I feel good and excited about that. (3) No change for 4 and essentially I accomplished what I set out to do. (5) (sometimes it can be different and still be constructive or wholesome)

Oh yes, one little rule for me: Don't randomly jump to the next thing, define it even if it is switching from posting to reading posts on here.

 

we should probably point out this is a challenge where you can't lose, in the sense that even if you are not able to maintain the streak for that long yet you are still getting stronger in a habit of checking your intentions. In that sense it's like if you set out to train for a marathon, you can't actually run that far in one stretch yet but you are getting better and better in your endurance. People don't give up just because they can't last that long yet, they keep doing it and they get better and better until they can.

 

So it's been roughly a day and so far so good, the few things to keep in mind is a short list and easy to remember - also intentions don't always change.

I did add one thing though - a totem like the way it was used in Inception. I just used an empty bottle for a nutritional supplement, the cap must be slightly pointed because I can actually spin it like a top a bit, and the brand name kind of lends itself to mindfulness: Standard Process. Mindfulness is kind of boring to the common ordinary mind that needs constant stimulation and entertainment, because it is "standard" but of course it's about what's true. Also it's just something that's physical to focus on whereas internet is all audio/visual.

 

Found this guys column yesterday, very interesting background. Here's a link to a list of 10 tips and I'll quote the bio here:

William Softky is a biophysicist who was among the first neuroscientists to understand microtiming, and among the first technologists to build that understanding into algorithms. Thousands have cited his scientific work, his PhD in Theoretical Physics is from Caltech, his name is on 10 patents and two of the companies he inspired were acquired for $160 million total.
​

Check out titles of some of the articles:
White Hat Neurohacking for Paleo Superpowers
How to Reboot an Infected Nervous System

 

Reset. I found myself searching for a post by a female member on here in an age category near my own, for no other reason than the fact that it was posted by a female. (I didn't even find it and don't remember it saying anything interesting to me or necessarily wholesome) This is nothing but a subtle objectification, I was just curious because it wasn't in the womens section so it isn't beyond a more obvious boundary. Not that I am even making a rule that I can't read stuff women write, but it goes back to the intention. In that moment it wasn't congruent with the focus of this challenge. So that was about 3 days long.

Maybe as an extra support affirming the overall intent regularly, whether daily or when sitting down to go online would be a good idea - even out loud like speaking into a mic?

 

Here's an adaptation of the logic of the Serenity Prayer to this.. May I have the intent to not access the information I don't need, focus to access the things I do, and the mindfulness to know the difference.

 

I'm in. I'm going to change the rules for me a little but the idea of the 3 main ones is going to be the same

 

Sounds like a valuable idea. I am in. After reading this threat, I just check my mobile about my online activities. Astounded to find that most of time was spend in googling and in social media. It seems to be another addiction. I would love to give up these and spend my time in precious things. I am in bro for sure