Well that was interesting. The goal was to try to overcome the ADD-like compulsion I have for accessing news and information (most of it useless) and instead, think deep thoughts, do more slow reading (classic novels), and study Chinese more. This endeavor was motivated by 1) curiosity and 2) being poor.

The experiment was only partially successful. A great deal of random information consumption was just moved to work (though the bulk of what I read is finance/economics related anyway, so guilt levels remain at a minimum). With the newfound free time in the evenings, I found myself not reading/studying more but rather going out and socializing, a lot. More bluntly: the primary substitutable activities for time-spent-looking-at-twitter appear to be humping and drinking.

Ignoring online social networks was therefore very good for my actual social life. As for big deep thoughts: no dice. More sleep though, without the constant nag of “something interesting might be happening somewhere.”

It was annoying to try to do non-work related organization activities or find maps for bars/restaurants (Shanghai being not quite so conveniently organized as your average American city). It was also a pain to upload photographs, and blog (lots of trips to cafes).

Conclusion: though not entirely surprising, moderation is key. OCD-prone users like myself should therefore seek methods to limit what technology can do, potentially using applications like Temptation Blocker to improve short-term productivity. If lifestyle permits, periodic stints of completely ignoring information technology seem very relaxing. Learning how to avoid readreadread compulsions while still having access to email and lifestyle information seems the optimal scenario for type-A obssessicons. Intentionally limiting what a home device can do might achieve some of these same ends (a la iPad). The ability to customize everything is anathema to a more focused and (imho) more comfortable lifestyle.

Though I’ve never watched it, the premise behind Frontier House is that families try to survive using only technologies and methods available in the 1800s. Similarly, I’ve often wondered what life was like before the internet, I’ve decided to conduct a similar experiment and spend a few weeks without high speed internet access at the new home. This is in response to personal concerns that I spend far too much time absorbing as much information as possible, without time to adequately reflect on what I’m reading (is also a function of being cheap). This phenomenon has only grown worse with new technologies that allow time between publication to approach zero. Utilities like Temptation Blocker, and the success of news aggregation sites seem premised on this situation as well.

Initial results: much removed from the pressure of feeling like something-sort-of-interesting-somewhere is being missed, one is free to pursue slower activities, such as cooking and sleeping. Health benefits are probably balanced: time spent exercising will probably increase though alcohol intake also appears to increase commensurately with boredom. Overall diet will probably improve.

My hope is that the results of this experiment will: 1) shed light on what daily life was like for my parent’s generation, 2) better help manage content filtering and aggregation in the future. I have the luxury of not being tied to a Blackberry at this stage in my career. Learning how to limit information consumption would seem critical for future mental health, if these trends continue.