/blog

On his RSS only theunderground.blog, Chris wrote about how he's "doing the internet" in 2024. Feeling his approach quite boring he wanted to know how others were also "doing the internet".

All I can say is, if his approach is boring then mine in mind-numbing! 😆

Due to everything I've been recently writing about, my "internet" has shrunk considerably. Almost my entire online life is based around my own site and I think that's pretty cool.

When I listed my default apps last year (which needs updating) I wrote that "if I had my way, more of these would be using something I built myself."

That happened.

I'll sometimes spread my wings a little researching specific topics but most of my reading and discovery comes from the recommendations of others, real people, via their RSS feeds which are, of course, pulled in via /reader. I'm not afraid to unsubscribe instead of just leaving feeds there out of some sense of loyalty.

It doesn't stop me from jumping out into a search engine or asking an AI chat bot a question but it creates a controlled flow that I can process at my own pace.

I don't use any third party tools for notes, drafts, 'read later' lists, etc. — that all goes into /notes.

I had all but stopped visiting Bluesky, before uninstalling the app from my phone, having decided to stop cross-posting from the blog. I deliberately wanted to decrease the surface area of "my internet" for the sake of my mental health. I'm liking it that way.

The only algorithms I use to suggest things are YouTube and Spotify but I try to control them as much as possible. I tend to stick to certain types of videos (music creation & tools, World of Warcraft, some tech topics, space related stuff) and tell YouTube not to recommend videos from those channels it decides to throw in where not related to my reasons for being there.

Because my listening habits tend to be fairly consistent Spotify actually does a good job of surfacing things I might want to listen to.

I think this approach is key. By not doomscrolling or just consuming anything thrown at me I am able to maintain a more controlled environment. I'll catch up on the news as a conscious act rather than have it fed to me even when I don't want it — I have enough going on in my own head to worry about/keep me occupied without having to process everything else going on in the world. That's not to say I don't keep abreast of the "big stuff" but I intentionally limit my exposure.

This all might mean I miss things but that's okay — humans aren't designed to operate on a global scale. Reducing the scope of my internet makes everything more manageable but I still struggle with distraction. At least I know I'm trying to do something.