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0 pointscgoecknerwald7y ago0 comments

To add on to other commenters: Uber/Lyft are services, not entertainment or distraction. I don't know anybody who "zones out" of life by ordering cars.

Disclaimer: recently signed up for lightphone 2 pre-order. Personally, I just super like the minimalist e-ink display and I hope it will help me disconnect from the news cycle.

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9 comments · 3 top-level

ksec7y ago· 2 in thread

>and I hope it will help me disconnect from the news cycle.

I remember long time ago I read a paper which suggest news is more addicted then drugs or porn. News include anything from Financial, Politics, Entertainment, etc. At the time I thought it was lots of BS. Now I am starting to believe we spent too much time in the "news cycle" from Twitter, Facebook or whatever it is distracting us.

cgoecknerwaldOP7y ago

Anecdotally, the news cycle has been the hardest (internet) addiction for me to break.

I can justify deleting social media (Facebook, Reddit) because 95% of my use of it is garbage. But the news is useful, engaging. It's "entertainment with a higher purpose". Can I really justify not reading the NYTimes at all because I just "read too much"? (I was reading the news from various sites for 3 or 4 hours a day.) In the end, I decided that yes, I had to block news sites, because it was a ridiculous use of my time for a software engineer.

On the other hand, I know of no one else in my life who's had this problem.

ksec7y ago

>On the other hand, I know of no one else in my life who's had this problem.

That is my case as well. But this also remind me they really don't know much else apart from their domain. Housing Policy? They don't care they got a house already. Zoning? None of their business. Universal Health Care? They can afford their own. Tax reform etc? Just choose one that benefits them most. K-Pop, Kids new interest? They had no idea.

I have been thinking whether generation gap is partly a age and experience problem, and partly because older generation ( as compared to kids ) just don't give a damn about what is going on with the world any more.

Fnoord7y ago· 2 in thread

Uninstalling the BS apps helps you also disconnect from the "news cycle" (whatever that might be) [1]. The advantage of lightphone is that it is a next-gen dumbphone. It has high battery uptime, yet has a touchscreen (e-ink) with some basic functions. I find it very expensive for what it delivers, but right now its a unique niche (e-ink wise).

[1] I do not visit Facebook or Twitter nor do I have their apps on my smartphone. I do visit HN though.

cgoecknerwaldOP7y ago

If you get your news from websites, rather than apps, then there's nothing to uninstall unless you want to uninstall the internet.

Personally, I mapped addictive sites like reddit to 0.0.0.0 in the hostfile, so I could have just the right amount of internet.

m-p-37y ago

At this point I guess I'll have both and go with the YotaPhone.

yoz-y7y ago· 2 in thread

It would be nice if it also worked with things like bike sharing apps, but then it would need a camera.

derwiki7y ago

Camera? With Go Bike in SF, you don’t even need a smart phone — you can use your Clipper card

yoz-y7y ago

Hm. Maybe in SF, but in Paris you can only take the city bikes with a card. Go Bike, OFO, mobike, lime and others all require scanning QR codes.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

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9 comments · 3 top-level

ksec7y ago· 2 in thread

>and I hope it will help me disconnect from the news cycle.

cgoecknerwaldOP7y ago

Anecdotally, the news cycle has been the hardest (internet) addiction for me to break.

On the other hand, I know of no one else in my life who's had this problem.

ksec7y ago

>On the other hand, I know of no one else in my life who's had this problem.

Fnoord7y ago· 2 in thread

[1] I do not visit Facebook or Twitter nor do I have their apps on my smartphone. I do visit HN though.

cgoecknerwaldOP7y ago

If you get your news from websites, rather than apps, then there's nothing to uninstall unless you want to uninstall the internet.

Personally, I mapped addictive sites like reddit to 0.0.0.0 in the hostfile, so I could have just the right amount of internet.

m-p-37y ago

At this point I guess I'll have both and go with the YotaPhone.

yoz-y7y ago· 2 in thread

It would be nice if it also worked with things like bike sharing apps, but then it would need a camera.

derwiki7y ago

Camera? With Go Bike in SF, you don’t even need a smart phone — you can use your Clipper card

yoz-y7y ago

Hm. Maybe in SF, but in Paris you can only take the city bikes with a card. Go Bike, OFO, mobike, lime and others all require scanning QR codes.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse