My spouse and I do an internet / technology sabbath on Saturdays. No social media, no streaming services or video games. Mostly listen to the couple of records we have, read books, and do other analog things. I started after reading How to do Nothing, and thinking a lot about unplugging from the attention economy.
I find that it does a really good job of resetting / breaking the dopamine cycles. Going a day without being online every so often results in me at least being less tied to the Internet for well being the rest of the week.
That is an interesting view, that the cycle can be broken in 1 day. I guess looking back, if I go an entire day without using the internet, it is very easy to avoid distractions the next day. I'm going to try this our, albeit in a less rabbinical way.
Yeah, it took a few months of the 1 day sabbaths to really impact things. The first month I was back on twitter/x as soon as the sun went down, etc.
Nowadays, I'm a lot more intentional about when I use social media in particular. It may not be causation, the whole thing could just be correlations. But it feels almost rebellious to unplug like that for a day.
There was a Max Headroom episode (dating myself here) where someone got in trouble for having the ability to turn off their TV. Like all of society was structured around being in front of the TV at all times.
I find that it does a really good job of resetting / breaking the dopamine cycles. Going a day without being online every so often results in me at least being less tied to the Internet for well being the rest of the week.