What's your solution to tech addiction?

Apps like twitter, redddit, tiktok, news sites etc are filled with live updates and our brains are wired to want to keep on top of current events. I would recommend looking at news and content from a week/month/year ago and ask yourself how much of an impact any of it had on your life. It becomes pretty clear that over 99% of the content we consume is completely irrelevant to our actual lives. Once you start to look at these things as simply light entertainment, it has much less draw.

I started generating some digests from various news sources recently as a way to look back on what was reported previously (https://todays-news-digest.com - content is a little stale now). I probably would have gotten worked up about some of the content when it was originally reported, but when looking at older articles it is easier to see the content objectively rather than emotionally. And it is always important to remember that most publications want to keep you coming back so getting you worked up is kinda the business model...

- Reading more books.

- Going on more walks and runs.

- Spending more time with kids.

- Getting back to being used to, and comfortable with, being bored, like we were before social media and shorts.

Are you going to build tech to combat tech?

I got a phone lock box and bring physical books everywhere now. I bring classics or sci-fi stuff.

What really started driving me crazy is that when I'm doing kid stuff like sports or library events all the parents drop of their kids, head to the parent area, and everyone sits on their phones.

I'm always the only one reading a book. And yeah I have my phone with me, but I try to exclusively use it to take pictures.

as heartbreaking as it's been to realize that i no longer love the thing that used to bring me so much joy, i've found a lot of pleasure in more physical pursuits.

i picked up sewing (messenger bags, backpacks etc) with an industrial sewing machine - it's a real rabbit hole but i get a real, tangible reward for my hard work (something besides "hey cool, the blinkenlights do the thing now"). it's pretty amazing to assemble a physical good and then use it on a daily basis, and i've gotten to the point where i've even made bags for others who like my stuff.

it's not going to replace my tech career as far as paying the bills, but i get to use a lot of the same abstract mental tools (design, iteration, experimentation, learning from others and disassembling/reassembling things to learn how they work).