The Big Internet
The Picture
Let's face it, the internet is too big nowadays. Writing this as of now I can say how bloated, distracted, and mindless the internet has become. From the disease of social media to mindless entertainment on platforms such as Netflix or Hulu, the internet has become overwhelming. There's too much to do on the internet; too many movies, too many articles, too many forums and things to do. To face this dilemma, we need to remove ourselves from the Big Internet and switch to the Tiny Internet.
My Story
I'm a Gen Z baby; I got my first device at the age of seven. It was an iPad Mini 2, if my memory serves right. It was possibly the worst and most disastrous thing my father had done to my life. I spent so much time binging video games, YouTube videos, and random things on the internet. Everything I consumed changed nothing about me. I learnt nothing and got no practical advice. Nothing.
Thanks to the stupid pandemic, I got my first phone too early. I was reluctant to use it but, eventually, it wasn't long till I spent hours on it each day. Again my father's fault but, hey the old man didn't know any better. I'd rather blame myself than blame him. I refuse to let my father be another scapegoat. By the time I had read Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport, I must have spent about a third of my life behind a screen (these estimations are modest at best).
What I Did to Change
The road ahead was hard, but at least I had the idea of the road being there. One of the first things I did was to target my phone. I only used my smartwatch to track sleep so there wasn't any screentime to remove there. I removed everything non-essential, turned on greyscale, and changed the wallpaper for both the home screen and lockscreen into a boring shade of black. I turned off notifications for nearly everything and downloaded the Smile App Launcher. I, by now, had restricted my phone into five uses: email, meditation, podcasts, alarm/timer, and communication (WhatsApp/Messages). I turned an hour and a half of daily screentime to about twenty minutes a day.
Then there's my laptop. Yeah, I'm struggling really bad with my laptop. I downloaded StayFree to monitor my screentime and saw how long I was using my laptop on a daily basis: 12 hours. 🥲. I'm awake for 17 hours a day. Damn. I have yet to conquer this beast, but when I finally do (God-willing), I must update my bear blog with the things that helped me. In the meantime, I'm going to need to experiment and suffer.
One of the newest things I've done to regulate my laptop usage is limiting my online life to a certain number of sites. The number is 43 for me and I am intent on never changing this. You might have a different number and that's totally fine. Everyone's different so everyone uses different sites for different needs. Choose carefully as these will be the sites you'll visit for the rest of your life (with minor replacements allowed). You get the gist.
I also removed any laptop software I didn't need and now have to use the CLI interface to download apps; Microsoft Store is too distracting for me. I'm also thinking of specifying certain hours of my day to use my laptop but that's a big one. You need a constant and fixed schedule to do there. I'm only getting there, I hope.
Why Do All This?
Well, to prove you are in control of technology, not the other way around. To make time for all the other beautiful things in life, from spending time with your loved ones to taking strolls in the park. And also to give your eyes a break. There's much more to life than just a screen. There's much to be done to migrate from the Big Internet to the Tiny Internet, and the journey ahead will be tough. That I can guarantee. One day, however, you will look at your past self and say: was I really like that? And that will make all the difference.