The answer is not in removing particular mindless vices but in moving toward the learning and creativity of which the author speaks. I see so many people saying "I'm going to quit video games" or TV or internet browsing as if it's going to change their life. And it doesn't. They still spend their time piling rocks in the corner - they just use different rocks. I suppose a big part of it is mindfulness - realising that you're just twiddling your thumbs doing nothing and that later you'll be really glad if instead of watching another episode of The Walking Dead that you spend an hour playing bouzouki. That's what living in the moment means to me, anyway. Aye, gotta believe in a new kind of me... Edit: I wrote that while halfway through the article. I just read the bit at the end - that the internet is where the people are. I'm not convinced one way or the other that internet mediated relationships are innately worse or weaker or whatever than "real" ones - it's a very complicated issue - but I do think that in a way it kind of sucks that the internet is effectively mandatory, especially for young people. If you're not on Facebook, you don't get invited to parties.
Per your edit, I think that the quality of "online" relationships is evolving. I'd like to think that Hubski is a part of this evolution. A while back theadvancedapes wrote a good piece titled Decline of Friendship that is pertinent. As for my feelings on the post, you summed it up perfectly:
I see so many people saying "I'm going to quit video games" or TV or internet browsing as if it's going to change their life. And it doesn't. They still spend their time piling rocks in the corner - they just use different rocks.
-Well said.
See, as a student of anthropology I'm inclined to say that technically there's no such thing as completely "unmediated" reality, so neither "real life" nor digitally-mediated relationships can be considered more "authentic" than the other. Rather, I think there are authenticities; it is possible to have meaningful and honest interaction through the internet just as it is possible to have superficial or frivolous interaction offline - in a lot of ways, they're just too different kettle of fish. Mostly I'm concerned with being reflective about the whole matter. While I don't share kleinbl00's idea that internet mediation leads to social atrophy, I also don't like uncritical, sweeping statements that all digitally-mediated communication is therefore okay and super cool. Sorry if this doesn't make sense; I'm a bit drunk. As for the whole mindful living thing... thenewgreen, may I just say, thanks for recording New Kind of Me. At first I didn't like it, because I had a different idea of living in the moment that I didn't think much of. But now I grok it a lot better, and listening to that song really strikes me somewhere profound. Thanks, man! Now send me your first album already! :P
Thanks, that's a wonderful endorsement! As for the first album, I thought I sent it to you a while ago. Can you re-pm me your address? Thanks again for the shout out.
Aw shucks, it must've gotten lost in the post or something.
...sums the article up in one sentence. I remember my mother said to me one time, "You spend too much time on the computer." I was probably 16. I, in my estimation, spent about as much time on the computer as any other 16 year old, possibly less. I didn't mind. I definitely had my vices at 16, but this wasn't one of them. "Spending time on the computer" (and by extent on the internet) isn't a thing, I thought. I was baffled, so I went back to reading or listening to music or writing and lost a wee bit more respect for my mother. That's why this guy's sabbatical, his modern-day Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, was doomed to fail. Spending time working is a thing. Spending time reading. Spending time listening to a new album. Spending time gaming, if you're into that. Spending time "on the internet" doesn't mean a damn thing -- what, spending time on reddit? That's still something, isn't it? If it's not, you're doing it wrong. Do people really sit and stare at Facebook? I don't know. So I didn't understand when my mother said that to me, just as I didn't understand why a lack of internet connection changed the Verge writer's life so much early on. It's not a lifestyle, it's a tool. Nothing about your computer stops you from playing frisbee or losing weight, for god's sake. Your inherent lack of motivation does that. Checking out of the internet for a while can be a superficial excuse for why your life seems better, it's true -- but it's a placebo effect, as is clear from his later regression in the article. The euphoria wears off, and he begins to wonder what the hell he was trying to prove to his therapist. Sad story, to be honest.But when I stopped seeing my life in the context of "I don't use the internet," the offline existence became mundane, and the worst sides of myself began to emerge.
That's actually a good point - "spending time on the computer/internet" doesn't really mean much given the diverse array of things you could be doing there.
The video is more optimistic than the article text. It sounds like he has learned something - that perhaps the issue was the line of thinking that led him to think that his life could be greatly improved by leaving the Internet. Maybe there is some wisdom to be gained from this story. I hope he finds satisfaction in life.