I think that all makes sense. My response was prompted by some kind of wariness around “if one only acknowledges ‘virtuous sounding’ things that reddit/facebook/etc has provided you, you may be setting yourself up to be at war with yourself. If you systematically remove things that are ‘merely’ mindless fun, you may find yourself suddenly depressed or unmotivated without understanding why.”
When I ask “what has Facebook provided me last week”, several answers immediately came to mind which weren’t, like, super-obviously imporant, or better than whatever I’d have gotten without facebook, but it included amusement, and at least slight connection to friends I don’t normally see.
I think it’s quite good to notice things like “the stuff facebook/reddit/etc provides isn’t actually very good compared to what else I could be getting.” But if you answer is “literally zero” I think you’re more likely to be rounding things off to “what can I legibly understand as good” which is a very different question than “what has X provided me with?”
Yes, your comment makes me thing, maybe the post should be named “Beware of demands of goodness” à la Scott. But I have tried this before (not systematized like it’s suggesting here, but rather in a nonchalant way) and I have found that the thing which I exchange for say Reddit is usually better by general standards. I’ve done this with Facebook, maybe TV shows, etc...
The good thing (to be mindful) is to catch us if we’re going adrift. Like, if I can tell I’m missing something, then the thing I cut is probably it.
I think that all makes sense. My response was prompted by some kind of wariness around “if one only acknowledges ‘virtuous sounding’ things that reddit/facebook/etc has provided you, you may be setting yourself up to be at war with yourself. If you systematically remove things that are ‘merely’ mindless fun, you may find yourself suddenly depressed or unmotivated without understanding why.”
When I ask “what has Facebook provided me last week”, several answers immediately came to mind which weren’t, like, super-obviously imporant, or better than whatever I’d have gotten without facebook, but it included amusement, and at least slight connection to friends I don’t normally see.
I think it’s quite good to notice things like “the stuff facebook/reddit/etc provides isn’t actually very good compared to what else I could be getting.” But if you answer is “literally zero” I think you’re more likely to be rounding things off to “what can I legibly understand as good” which is a very different question than “what has X provided me with?”
Yes, your comment makes me thing, maybe the post should be named “Beware of demands of goodness” à la Scott. But I have tried this before (not systematized like it’s suggesting here, but rather in a nonchalant way) and I have found that the thing which I exchange for say Reddit is usually better by general standards. I’ve done this with Facebook, maybe TV shows, etc...
The good thing (to be mindful) is to catch us if we’re going adrift. Like, if I can tell I’m missing something, then the thing I cut is probably it.