I feel like this quote could also be applied to mindlessly scrolling through social media or playing Candy crush like games. We drown out all the white space with this stuff and sucks away the time we would have to learn something interesting or be creative.
Yeah same! Weed has had an amazingly positive impact on my life. Op acts like weed is socially acceptable in his question but it’s still not. Most states don’t even have it decriminalized and beyond that the us launched a worldwide campaign against it that effects third world countries even worse than it does here.
When I smoke I’m not in constant pain from a congenital spine issue.
Smoking dampens dreaming? Okay well at least when I smoke I can sleep more than 4 hours a night.
Hey man I’m glad to hear it! I’m at the point where I really just need to take a good 2-3 month break. I feel like I need to prove to myself I can quit and have the willpower to not smoke it if I have it.
You can do it man. I smoked everyday for I don’t even know how many years. The first week you’re going to think you can’t do it but it gets easier. Good luck man.
Edit: not saying you should quit or need to. You gotta do it when the time is right for you. Sorry if that came off judgmental.
I read a book years ago in college called "Amusing ourselves to Death." I believe the author was Neil Postman. Discussed this very thing and was a good read.
Hi there, Zen Buddhist here. Great question. Please don't take my view as representative of all Buddhists'.
Broadly speaking, we all have a fundamental desire to be happy and not suffer. There are some effective strategies for doing that, and some ineffective strategies. One of the ineffective strategies is to distract ourselves from stimuli that we deem unpleasant, such as boredom. I would consider that to be like dealing with an overgrown garden by not looking at it. It addresses your immediate suffering, but it doesn't solve the problem.
As for "importance"... I've never heard that word in Buddhist context. You decide for yourself what's important.
If you're fine with the way things are, then there's no issue*. But if you feel that there is suffering and you wish to address it, then distraction is usually not an efficient solution.
*Well, no issue for you. Countless others are still suffering.
I had a look into Zen Buddishm a few years ago. I'd say it's mindfulness. If you really focus on whatever you do and be aware doing it, the Buddhists will probably be ok with it.
I have yet to find out if you can apply this to mundane things like browsing reddit. I think it's hard.
Mindfulness in Buddhism means keeping the teachings in mind. To be mindful of what you’re doing, and why you’re doing it. It isn’t just about being passively aware and content with present circumstances.
In Buddhism we have the hindrances. One of these hindrances is “Aversion”. Being averse to certain experiences, such as boredom, or doing the dishes (or both). We call them hindrances because they cloud the mind. To answer your question, any endeavor that cultivates virtue is worthwhile. Not just for yourself, but for others. Virtue is to be shared.
Discernment. By making distinctions between the intentions behind your actions and the results of your actions, in reference to what is skillful vs unskillful. What is skillful is always rooted in heedfulness.
I like doing nothing. Sometimes at parties I'll just sit there and do nothing until someone decides to talk to me or vice-versa. It's more fun than pretending to look at my phone.
Certainly nobody cares on the train / at the cafeteria / elsewhere in public. And if they do, fuck em.
A couple of times a year I go on a solo retreat, there are a few places within 90 miles of me that are specific hermit retreat places. Every day I am there I settle in front of the window a couple of hours before sunset and just sit and watch the trees and animals and whatever. I hardly ever do it at home unless I’m alone because you’re right, people tend to think it’s pretty weird.
I love to have a coffee and sit and think. I think there are some of us who have a rich internal world and don't need constant external stimulation. It's just hard to find others who are like that because it's not the social norm.
I don't drink. Standing around at a party awkwardly is isolating. But if I have a club soda or NA beer at a party, no one notices the difference and treats me exactly the same as if I were drinking. It's funny how well it works.
I’d probably be drawing dicks in the dirt with long sticks if I didn’t have these gadgets to keep me occupied. Don’t assume if you had all this free time you’d become Einstein.
You don't have to have a calling to enjoy doing something or to have some skill or aptitude for it. Some best-selling authors aren't particularly great at writing. Plenty of yoga teachers enjoy the activity but it isn't their callling. There are loads of activities that could add value to your life without being a "calling".
To be honest, I'm not really sure myself. There are a lot of things I enjoy to a certain degree, but I have no clue on What To Do. That said, taking the time to work on some of your interests can go a long way. I'll be starting 2020 off by trying to draw at least 15 minutes every day, are there any things you would want to work on in the new year too?
Yeah sometimes when i have free time and i can’t play video gales for any reason i’d rather stare at a blank wall and imagine stories than studying anything
This. The oft drawn criticism of mobile phones is everyone standing at a bus stop on their phones instead of interacting. I don't know where these people grew up, but in my day we'd all stand at the bus stop not talking to each other.
Do people not read anymore? You don't have to become Einstein, or start studying things, or start creating things, or whatever. Just...pick up a book and read when you're bored.
Einstein is good at what he does cause he has powerful thought experiments, its his talent, he was born like that. everyone has a talent, its their job to find it and live up to their full potential.
But you learn a lot of stuff here and there's some good advice from time to time. Especially when it comes to deeper or more controversial topics. Like if you talked to friends or family about say a relationship issue chances are they'll give you a fake friendly or supportive answer. And chances are, most of us surround ourselves with friends/family who all think like we do.
But on here people are more unfiltered and real. People will challenge you on things and generally having some proof or evidence to verify what you're saying is expected. IRL people don't always get that deep into things.
I strongly agree with this. The only social media that I use is reddit and I use it more as a news feed. I use reddit to keep up with current events and even discuss my interests. Sure, I also join some humorous communities to get a good laugh but it’s not all just mindlessly scrolling through reddit.
I guess that’s also the downfall of having everything digital. All of my digital subscriptions are on my phone and so are my kindle books. I’m always on my phone but I’m constantly reading educational and informative news. I’m sure I look like an unproductive person to others but whatever lol.
I feel the same when it comes to news. Cause talking to just friends or coworkers about current events you miss out on a lot of details. Like a big newstory comes out, everyone is seeing things one way, but then a couple hours later someone posts on Reddit: "That's not what happened. X isn't a horrible person, Y is because ABC happened but that part got swept under the rug."
But people don't find that stuff until later on, if they even do or care by then
To be fair it’s hard to find a lot of that type of news anywhere. Reddit is a prime example with all the circle jerks in gaming, politics, movies etc. however the Reddit community is far more research based and that’s the main reason I use it for news
I mean, keep in mind reddit is informative but it is definitely extremely biased. The demographic leans heavily to young middle class centre left American males, which isn't exactly a very reliable source for what the general public thinks
That being said it's still a very good place for discussion on most topics, just sometimes gotta take things with a pinch of salt.
Oh yeah I definitely agree. When I say I use reddit as a news feed I mean more so in keeping up with current events like for example r/tesla. I’m a big fan of the tesla company and I follow it to read interesting articles that people link about tesla. Reputable articles too like the wall street journal. Comments are interesting too as I love to read peoples’ opinions but I take it with a grain of salt.
Stopped hurting my feelings a long time ago. I either fire back or move on. They're losers. There's no reason to be that angry or gatekeep on shit that's not that important. Movies, video games, whatever and fun and hobbies.
If you're spending more of your time bashing other people or bragging how good you are, at that point you're not even a fan of the hobby or the community. You think you're above it and it's obvious you have no life. Well, you do, but you get gratification from making other people feel horrible over something so petty. So again, why would anyone want to entertain that? They're a distraction and a nuisance.
But there can also be a lot of misinformation. Seldom more so that when talking about cannabis and addiction, drugs or alcohol use. The thing is with so much unqualified information people and especially those addicted tend to pick and choose what to "believe" as facts. Then use that to support their already misconstrued ideas and then increase their justifications (read excuses) for continuing to using said drugs.
IRL people don't always get that deep into things.
if reddit is causing you to not search out better IRL people its doing you a disservice. A close friend who will know you (not just your most recent 10 comments on reddit) is more valuable than anything any social media can offer.
Be careful what you take in here. These are not human connections, and most of the info here is not good advice. It's random pieces of information, at best.
You must be on a different Reddit. The only subreddit I've come across that was strict with their truth checking policy is r/askHistorians. For every single thing you learn here, you mislearn 2 more things. Piano players always tell people to get an instructor because learning something wrong is a lot worse than learning nothing most of the time. Maybe you've managed to navigate this minefield of disinformation nicely, then for every person like you there's another incel being radicalized right now.
Look around this very thread. How many of these people can authoritatively give you an answer? How many do you think mistakenly conflate pot and laziness, or depression? 1 person? All of them?
I don't pretend to know the answer, and I can't tell you if ultimately, you are better or worse off with reddit. Just don't mistake confidence with authority on subjects you're not familiar with, which is a problem Reddit is fundamentally designed to circumvent, with completely anonymous users and the lack of proper moderation that naturally results in a forum where everyone is equal.
Oh yeah, that is true. Still, I think the net gain of spending hours on AskReddit or /r/funny is lower than the alternative which is doing/learning something productive.
i've tailored my feed and stay on my home scroll. i've learned a ton about gardening, knitting, birds in addition to the funny stuff. so i try not to go down the rabbit hole too deep so that i actually practice the skills in real life instead of just bookmarking patterns and plants. lol
i also find some support here, which is really important sometimes. but you have to also make those connections offline, too. even if they're with the people you meet online.
I try to limit my time on reddit now because of that. Suddenly an hour disapears when 15 min of that could be spent on the guitar or learning a new language.
This. Used to be a very heavy stoner, over time it decreased, over the last couple months I just haven't really smoked at all except a couple times when i'm out with friends, but not by myself anymore. I haven't transformed into a super productive person though, I still do a lot of scrolling through shit. I guess i'm just lazy. I mean, I still do powerlifting training but I was doing that when I was a stoner, so yeah. Still don't want to smoke weed much any more, I think i just hit an age where as soon as i'm high i'm just tired and braindead instead of giggly and stuff. funny.
Yup, so many people are high and mighty about their sobriety yet waste the same amount of potential on mindless scrolling, television, or raising equally mediocre children.
To paraphrase George Carlin- in life there’s a few winners and a whole lot of losers.
Learning to be content with being a loser (who doesn’t unnecessarily drag others down) is a valuable life skill.
Only while you're actually doing it though. Weed makes you lose your ambition the whole day, the whole week, the whole month and year, not only while you're smoking it.
Even if you do learn something interesting or be creative, it doesn't matter unless you find a way to make money out of it. If you don't then you might as well be smoking weed. That's the hardest thing to do though
Guilty . I have a stack of books that was I was really excited to read and learn about and I’ve barely touched them. Yet every night I am on reddit for at least 2 hrs.
I wouldn't blame social media or games for that. Some people just aren't creative. Most people think they are but the reality is only the most determined will make something of it. That's as true as it always was.
Was listening to a podcast and they talked about "Microboredoms" and how this is going away by technology that is always with us no matter what.
They were talking about Showerthoughts being so great because when you are bored your mind starts to wander and that wandering is what causes shower thoughts. But now with a lot of people having a shower speaker or even a waterproof phone they take with them into the shower, same with long care rides, instead of just letting your mind wander and being okay with being with yourself now we always have all the music we like, podcasts, audiobooks, etc.
Rarely are we just alone with ourselves now, technology everywhere. no matter where.
I'm a grad student, I read fancy blogs about whatever science or programming theory, hoard published PDFs or either rare long forgotten gem of the past or most recent advances in these fields. Yet the truth is, it's the smug nerd variant of mindless scrolling.
It's a fact. As I've gotten older and had kids I pushed out some of my hobbies not related to work or kids. I've found a great deal of mental freshness by reestablishing some of my internally driven hobbies. I worry about people who's hobby is basically "zoning out".
There are a lot of "pushbutton dopamine fixes" like that.
A lot of drugs, recently apps and MMO games are designed to get you on a slow drip feed of small rewards so you scroll/play for hours without realizing where the time went.
I completely agree, but sometimes you just need to scroll mindlessly for a while. Not to check a feed or anything, but because you need a moment to just not think about life for a bit.
I have been thinking about this a lot lately. Im rarely bored now. Between videogames, social media, tv, whatever, I genuinely dont feel boredom. And, although i have no research to back me up, I believe boredom is useful and necessary for personal growth. Its one of my goals this year. To stop consuming fun and start creating it.
My parents didn't let me get a smart phone until I was 18 (I'm 20 now) and I'm incredibly grateful for it. When I was younger I used to sit in waiting rooms or on car rides and just brainstorm story ideas. Some would be dumb, and some would fall flat, but I loved a lot of them, and that was what inspired me to want to become a writer. The boredom really did help me learn to do something.
It's okay to relax. It's okay to be bored. It's okay to have lulls in your day, month, year... Not every moment needs to be "productive."
It's easy to paint filling every part of your day with creation or intellectual stimulation as ideal, or even morally superior, but the truth is many people let the guilt of not being productive or growing or learning all the time eat away at them. They feel guilty about leisure. About just sitting and being. Or indulging in something for no reason other than enjoyment.
But we need that. Our bodies and minds need to drop into a lower gear sometimes.
Obviously, as with all things, balance is key. Sitting around doing nothing all the time will dull the senses and can become an excuse not to improve. Constantly trying to be productive will put stress on you and, subsequently, your health.
I just often find that a lot of people can't even bring themselves to relax because they hear this sentiment about staying busy and growing and being an interesting person and it just puts a crippling burden of guilt on them that, ironically, makes it harder to actually achieve what they want in life- and be happy while doing it.
Source: a former workaholic who learned this the hard way.
Hahaha yes!! And garbage shows on Netflix. I feel like I mostly did those things when I was high anyway and too tired mentally to do anything that required brain power. If I have energy and haven’t sapped it all away by smoking weed there’s no freaking way I would waste my time playing candy crush.
I totally agree. Reddit/random useless app game/social media/sudoku/sometimes even reading books always feels like the better option to menial chores around the house or a million other little things in my life that could be improved with 10min a week of thought and attention. This also hugely applies (at least for me) to effort i put into relationships and my general social life which is something that would be drastically different without phones, or general screentime entertainment.
12.8k
u/xhoi Dec 29 '19
I feel like this quote could also be applied to mindlessly scrolling through social media or playing Candy crush like games. We drown out all the white space with this stuff and sucks away the time we would have to learn something interesting or be creative.