Early Retirement Extreme Forums

What do you feel is an appropriate amount of time to spend on electronic devices?

Do you have a concern with how much time you are spending in front of a screen?

Are you actively trying to reduce your use of electronics and internet?

Is no internet / no computer / no phone an ideal that you would like to reach?

What is the ideal role of a computer in the life of a person that is seeking to maximize happiness?

Time spent is an individual matter. 12 hrs, 7 days/week is too much. None spent is probably a loss if you're in a developed country.

Sometimes I have a concern when it's a nice day like today, but there's a need to burn daylight hours online because I won't be available tomorrow. Note that I only own computers, no smartphone. The mobile phone we do have is limited.

Not actively trying to reduce time spent.

When you live in a rural location, the internet/phone is a better device than snailmail for keeping in touch and conducting business affairs, so there is no way I'd purposely try to live without such devices. Face-to-face, while preferable, requires far greater resources when you're out in the sticks!

The computer's role is as a facilitator of overall goals, not an end unto itself. Communication, simulation, data warehousing, arts, and entertainment are the roles in which I use my computers. Like a TV, however, any single aspect when consumed to exclusivity is too much.

I live in an area with no cell service. Internet, like GTOO said, is huge in these areas. Especially, email and Facebook. People love Facebook and Amazon in rural Alaska.

That being said, I do feel as if I spend too much time on it than I should at the present. If I could direct my screen time to active learning and more productive means that'd be fine, but half the time devolves into checking the ERE forums, facebook and email.

In a couple weeks, I'll be moving into a cabin that has no internet system set up. I am not planning on putting one in anytime in the indefinite future. I've spent plenty of time, (months) without the internet no problem. So, we'll see how it goes.

It depends on what you are doing and whether it is furthering some goal you already have or is content creative (most desirable), is interactive and/or informative (next most desirable), is just passive entertainment like TV (ok in reasonable doses) or is compulsive/addictive (bad -- preventing you from having or reaching goals like getting enough exercise/sunlight or interacting with family, or just making you angry because "somebody is wrong on the internet").

Ideally, the computer/internet is a tool and not a bad habit that just sucks up your time. For many things -- especially for finding information quickly -- it is a much more efficient tool than trying to read a bunch of newspapers or sifting through a bunch of books or watching television.

I don't think the time spent is as much a critical factor as much as is the actual activity.

+1 to everything already posted.

I do limit myself when I'm home, and usually do not get on the computer for any longer than 30 minutes. I get 8 hours per day of it in the office and that is far too much.

When I'm done working, I will not be anywhere near 8 hours but will spend some time each day to do investment research, engage on the forums, etc... The internet is definitely useful if kept in moderation.

I don't do social media and so I don't get sucked into that hole.

I thought this forum was social media.

it's unsocial media

My smartphone was working but abandoned by an employer as obsolete (2014 era). Still runs modern Android through LineageOS. I only got a SIM card this year for the 1 minute phone calls I found myself needing a 3-4 times a year, but it is text/voice only, with a minimal monthly fee (< $2) but otherwise charged by the minute and outgoing text. I have minimal temptations to use it to "browse."

The author's problem in the article is using Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Of the big social media, I only use Facebook, and even then, just for Facebook Messenger. I'm slowly trying to convert people I regularly talk to to Signal instead.

Software, especially ad driven software, is designed to be addictive. Cut as much of it as you can out of your life. Use free/libre (open source) alternatives, as they usually don't have psychologists and data scientists on hand to min/max your utilization.

slsdly wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 02, 2020 8:26 am

Use free/libre (open source) alternatives, as they usually don't have psychologists and data scientists on hand to min/max your utilization.

Definitely agree with this!

For anything kept how it is, there are also a lot of little psychological tricks that can help curb the urge to constantly open pointless apps. I followed advice to put my phone in greyscale with no notifications except emergencies, and delete the home-screen shortcuts to any apps I had been using to waste time. Even that has already been a major improvement for me, though I didn't use my phone too often in the first place.

Only downside is how often family and friends get annoyed with me for not being constantly on call (though I do usually respond within a day) even though I live alone and nobody urgently needs me... I don't bring my phone everywhere with me or let regular texts wake me from sleep, and have gotten flack for it for years.

I think I rely on autocorrect a bit too heavily to go back to my old flip phone, but zero data plan definitely sounds do-able...

@kathryn, I'm older than you, and had the advantage of starting university in 2004. It was common to not own a cell phone, let alone a smartphone. Society by and large has forgotten how much more relaxing the day to day was in our own lifespans. I have much sympathy for trying to navigate through school in the current era with early 2000s behaviours.

Ultimately I seem to have accumulated friends similar to me, or at least are willing to tolerate by "anti-social" habits without too much criticism. So there is light at the end of the tunnel .