The Trap of Internet Communities.

I never realized how much time I spent, lurking or seldomly replying to posts in different online communities.

My two favorite communities were Reddit and Hackernews. I also sometimes hopped onto 4chan /biz/ or /trv because there were nuggets of great info and opinions that would appear there.

I was really impressed at how intimate the knowledge of travel locations can be, especially for some far flunged locations that appeared on /trv/, the info was sometimes dubious at best but it seemed nice that someone was able to prove something correct or call out someone posting incorrect information.

Reddit, was similar, but I feel that the upvote system leads to the nicest posts being most seen - not that the Internet shouldn't be a nice place, it just felt extremely artificial compared to 4chan, especially on similar content and posts. One of the most favorite comparisions was browsing 4chan /biz/ section and then seeing similar topics of conversation on /r/wallstreetbets or /r/personalfinance. The 4chan advice, was usually more accurate while the Reddit comments relied on the best comment being upvoted meaning it was better to check in later. 4chan content was alwasy the one with a more contranian, negative view that somehow, turns out true.

Hackernews is the best of both, opposite viewpoints are accepted and if you can post great rebuttals, you can have two right answers to criticism. It also had many people that were directly involved in an incident (usually tech company related) come and reply directly in that thread, give direct feedback as to why that action happened, and those people are usually highly regarded - directors, founders, people with humengous agency within famous organizations like Stripe, NetFlix, MSFT, etc.  

During Pandemic, I really solidfied browsing these places because I was so bored. It was interesting to read what everyone was saying, most of the information I read was discarded immediately of no value, but it was marginally better than reading competing headlines and call to actions at numerous news organizations. It was also interesting to see how a post on Hackernews, 4Chan or Reddit would be posted, and then 4, 8, 12 hours later, be posted and/or confirmed by Reuters, CNBC, etc. The misc Internet sites would always be first and it was curious how the news orgs got their info.

So I started meauring my time spent on these apps. Nothing fancy, just Screentime on my Macbook and iPhone.

I was shocked, 3-4 hours a day, minimum. Absorbing content, not really replying and being exposed to these mediums.

I blocked them immediately via firewall rules, and was surprised at my immediate reaction - it really was going cold turkey.

I instinctly kept opening a new tab, and going to these sites.
I would close it, just to do it again. and again.
It was addiction. I was in a dopamine feedback loop by visiting these sites.
My attention was being drained all this time and I didn't know it.

It's been a while now, and I am glad to say my attention is back, I've incresed the block sites to streaming services as well and I've never been so productive on a computer. It didn't take 21 days or so to change a habit, it took about a week. And the first day or two was the hardest.

So, I'm happy - I'm no longer a lurker of these communities. They served me well for the time I went on there, but, the commentary has changed and so has the community on these sites.