AskMe Three

Excerpts from a discussion on one of my favorite sites.

Original question/post

For various reasons, I've been spending an increasing amount of time online (just regular day-to-day stuff: forums, Wikipedia, shopping, weather, news, but quite a bit of it) over the past 5 years or so, and I'm pretty sure it's had a deleterious effect on my attention span, willpower and ability to concentrate. I'm ADHD to begin with, so I'm sure that hasn't helped, but I used to be able to hyperfocus on books, math problems, etc., in a way that's just not possible now. Right now, I feel like I can barely follow a conversation, and it sucks.

I'd like to try seeing if less internet would help me get my mind back, and I was wondering, first: does anyone have any experience with any aspect of this that'd suggest the process is reversible-- that the brain can return to its previous baseline even following cognitive changes due to overstimulation? (Inspiring success stories would be great, if there are any out there!)

And second, any ideas on how I can approach the problem of how to structure this internet fast? Should I be aiming for total abstinence, or a one-week cleanse followed by gradual reintroduction, or just avoiding the linkiest sites, alternating days online and off, or what? Obviously, I'd like to continue using as much internet as is consistent with keeping my focus intact; but how can I estimate just how much that is?

part of a comment I flagged as awesome

When my Internet odyssey began in 1994, I immediately sensed this was not another office Christmas party. People were engaged. They were talking with each other about anything, and everything; and they were unshackled. Free from the bondage of tradition. Except for the old-world corporate culture trying to reinvent television, they still are. The Internet isn't about power and control. It's about life. Ours.

Ebullient, spiritual, emancipated, cold, hard, plugged-in life. As one of the author's of the aforementioned book, David Weinberger, says, "We're having a party and the news reports are missing it entirely — like covering the Mardi Gras by reporting on the gross profits of local liquor stores." Millions of forums, billions of World Wide Web sites, billions of human beings being humans.

What is it that makes the Internet so compelling to so many? Aside from the obvious fun and entertainment, educational and business opportunities, and show-offism; I think it boils down to a slogan taken from the eighties. No fear! The playing field is level. Size doesn't matter, really. Inhibitions and reservations are out the window.

Internet life is people with diseases and addictions, exposing souls and sharing their recoveries. It's about overviews of history warning future generations not to repeat the mistakes of their predecessors. Sure there are a few kooks to throw us off guard, but mostly the Net is just us being ourselves without fear of reprisal. How refreshing.

The Internet is people talking and sharing ideas. Our best and brightest, wallflowers and flower children, the girl next door and the Doc who delivered your kids. It's about you and me. We are all using our own cognizant voices, and we're listening too. We're challenging the status quo, and we're offering alternatives. Collaboration on a global scale all tied together by that simplest of cyber friendships, the hyperlink. Communication has never seen anything like it.

my comment

I'm in your shoes, and have had no success with the thing I'm about to suggest, but want to try it myself.

At this moment, I have my laptop open in front of my desktop. Both are focused on Firefox. The desktop has 31 tabs open. The laptop has 48+14 tabs open (two windows). After I finish this comment, I am going to "deal with"/close all the tabs, and arbitrarily limit myself to 3 tabs on each computer.

Tabs are not conducive to follow-through. Even as I'm in the process of writing this, I switch over and browse LJ (even though there's nothing new), I check on facebook, I skim six or seven open tabs without actually *doing* anything. Not bookmarking/tagging, not absorbing the content, just... looking at it. If I added up all the time I spent just... looking... at stuff on the internet, hopping from one thing to another with no clear goal, it might add up to hours a day. And staying on the surface level like that, it gives my brain a lot of chances to fret over stupid little things, which would vanish from my mental periphery if I applied myself to any focus at all.

So I'm going to make a giant effort to do fewer things on the internet at one time. With only three tabs, I think I'll either reach a stalemate faster (and go do something like read/write/etc), or I'll internet in productive, focused ways.