My personal solution (and it is just that, a personal solution, so I'm not giving advice!) is to avoid repetition. Once I have understood something, or been informed of something, I avoid anything that is clearly going over the same ground. This cuts through a huge amount of content which is trying to evince some emotion about something that numerous others are also emotional about. If it isn't going to tell me something I don't already know, particularly in the sense of broad principles, I'm not interested. Also, it helps to stick to writers who don't write for the sake of shoving out yet more content, but genuinely have something fresh to share. Many people have told me that I ought to 'write', but I've got no intention of adding to the already-existing overload of written material unless I really think I have something valuable to say, and that's actually quite a difficult criteria to fulfil. Otherwise it's just an ego game.
I felt my shoulders relax as I read this, particularly Lowery's and Turner's thoughts. The "good student" and "good friend" in me always want to stay caught up and offer helpful comments, but I have found myself becoming more and more stressed by the sheer volume of Substacks I follow. I have, therefore, unsubscribed to some -- with more on the way. I'm retaining those that bring actual value to my life. My real life.
What wonderful points you added to the section with my thoughts, Ruth; children *do* sense where your heart is. And that will be reflected in your family culture!
It's also a useful tool when explaining to young children why other families make different choices but are not "bad" for doing so. "Our family does X, and the Jones family does Y. That's all right. Different families make different choices."
I know that even for my young children, the fact that some things are black and white moral choices but many other things are prudential matters for personal/family discernment is very important to learn.
I didn't get a chance to read all of this but I whole-heartedly believe that we are constantly drawn to things outside our calm and peaceful home life. We are constantly being exposed to things beyond our control, urged to focus there. I've always appreciated how you and Peco remind us to focus close to home. I also like how Keith describes accepting cognitive finitude. We are constantly encouraged to work harder and go deeper to the point that I feel our mental growth is actually stunted. A quiet and serene environment feels like I free up bandwidth so that I can actually grow and achieve. And I would say that the one area that I find the most personal growth in is working through projects and problems one on one with my children. You might think, oh you need to do "adult" learning, but some of the stuff these little ones challenge me with are far more complex than one might expect. So together we grow, and that's time worth spending.
I find that my readers are pretty forgiving if I tell them I'll get back to them in 48 hours. This helps me draw that line in the sand, and why I'm passionate about circadian rhythms as they eventually become a subconscious habit: https://romanshapoval.substack.com/p/you-are-when-you-eat
Mmm, I can relate to much of your article and the comments. After raising 4 children and home educating the youngest, I find myself somewhat adrift and turning to technology to fill the gaps where my poor health has taken my physical energy. I know I have a tendency to develop compulsive behaviours and need to find a balance, particularly when the weather is rotten too. I think, or rather I know, that I need to set a timer or lock, just as I did for the children. The problem is that Substack is a very tempting sweet shop with lots of inviting treats to sample! 😏
I alienated many acquaintances when I culled my Facebook account in 2012. I annoyed many followers when I radically reduced my use of Twitter in 2018. I caused many women distress when I closed the hysterectomy association forums and removed the ability to comment on the website in 2019, and I worried many friends when I deleted the last truly social media account, LinkedIn, last year.
Each of these acts has been in response to my need to draw back the scattered fragments of my soul and reach a calmer, more local understanding of who and what I really am.
I have unsubscribed, deleted, unfollowed and removed subscriptions to many sites. I receive very little email, I have a heavily curated set of sites I read and pay attention to. I am following F Scott Fitzgeralds advice to hold conflicting ideas as possible, I hope I am intelligent!
All this means I can be here with my sister who is ill, in silence or with the company if a book and the occasional essays I read. This is hyper local, reduced to a room in a hospital ward. It is calm, mostly, and gentle, mostly. It is where I need to be.
Every time one of your posts show up in my inbox, I know I am in for a wonderfully written treat!
Thank you for sharing ways that we can change how we view technology and also just think differently. I always appreciate the perspective that you share! 😊
Ruth and Peco, I appreciate all the work you do for this (dare I call it a ministry?) community! I’ve learned so much and am on the road towards curbing my tech use. I know your audience is very wide, so maybe they have some suggestions, but as a homemaker and stay at home mom to two little ones (3 & 1) I find myself still reaching for technology for a little fix between the mundane tasks of caretaking and home keeping. I’m involved in the community- volunteer catechesis teaching and mom’s group, we have friends over once a week. The lack of interaction and intellectual stimulation is what is causing me to reach for technology. I want to be a good example for my kids but the discrepancy between my intentions and reality feels rather large in this season.
You are very kind, Ruth. Thank you. In a way, I suspect you are right; I was doing work in my 'local community,' even in Nigeria. When a family lives in a place for a long time, they becomes part the locality. However, it's a fine line. I could always leave Nigeria when violence broke out, or I needed sophisticated medical treatment. Financially, I was far more secure than a Palestinian refugee was likely to experience during their lifetime. Wendell Berry's farming community has known his family for decades and the work of his hands produces visible results. Teaching abroad is more aspirational. Many of my students were denied an opportunity for even a high school education. Yet teachers work with faith, hope... and love.
I enjoy reading your ideas opinions and often send them to my daughter as she raises her own children. Thank you!
However, I must demur from the idea of staying close to home to do your most significant work. I spent nearly a decade in Nigeria teaching in a local school, and I later taught in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. Both experiences changed my life for the better. I met wonderful people, and learned about different societies, political systems, religions, and cultural practices. I became more curious, and I loved the adventure - and dealt with the frustration - that comes from confronting unexpected obstacles. My children entered a world far from the material abundance of America. I appreciate the wisdom of Wendell Berry, but perhaps there is also room for individuals who, paradoxically, find themselves most at home when living in another country.
I appreciate @Dixie's emphasis on being positive. People will be much less resentful if you're focused on sharing what you love.
As for too much content... it's tough with all the great writers I am discovering on Substack! :) But I'm trying to give myself set reading times - we'll see how that goes. It has also made me appreciate the 'stacks who don't publish too often. It's nice to know I can enjoy a new essay once a week or fortnightly, without feeling overwhelmed or like I'm "missing out" on content.
As usual, this post is filled with more goods than I have time to think over carefully, which is a good problem to have, as the saying goes. (Ironic, considering some of the concerns about the abundance of content brought up here.) Thank you for the hard work you continue putting into this community! This will be yet another saved post that I return to and recommend as a resource for others delving into this topic.
Online columns, forums, and threads, partly because they can provide revenue, attention, and status, and because all of those things are driven by numbers of followers and subscribers that can balloon into the stratosphere, work like cocaine, heroin, and amphetamines and are as addictive. Online success is measured by those numbers. We often heard on The Sopranos the defining problem, "This is the business we have chosen."
Time and attention constraints or limits are unavoidable online because technology is capable of connecting one to an infinite number of other people world, many of whom compete with us and each other for that time and attention. It's the nature of the beast, to coin a phrase. When we ignore or forget that this is the business we have chosen and try to be choosey about our time and attention, we quickly begin to lose followers and subscribers. DeSanto learned that even before the first State caucus, and he only shunned major new reporters.
My personal solution (and it is just that, a personal solution, so I'm not giving advice!) is to avoid repetition. Once I have understood something, or been informed of something, I avoid anything that is clearly going over the same ground. This cuts through a huge amount of content which is trying to evince some emotion about something that numerous others are also emotional about. If it isn't going to tell me something I don't already know, particularly in the sense of broad principles, I'm not interested. Also, it helps to stick to writers who don't write for the sake of shoving out yet more content, but genuinely have something fresh to share. Many people have told me that I ought to 'write', but I've got no intention of adding to the already-existing overload of written material unless I really think I have something valuable to say, and that's actually quite a difficult criteria to fulfil. Otherwise it's just an ego game.
I felt my shoulders relax as I read this, particularly Lowery's and Turner's thoughts. The "good student" and "good friend" in me always want to stay caught up and offer helpful comments, but I have found myself becoming more and more stressed by the sheer volume of Substacks I follow. I have, therefore, unsubscribed to some -- with more on the way. I'm retaining those that bring actual value to my life. My real life.
Thanks for this, Peco and Ruth.
What wonderful points you added to the section with my thoughts, Ruth; children *do* sense where your heart is. And that will be reflected in your family culture!
It's also a useful tool when explaining to young children why other families make different choices but are not "bad" for doing so. "Our family does X, and the Jones family does Y. That's all right. Different families make different choices."
I know that even for my young children, the fact that some things are black and white moral choices but many other things are prudential matters for personal/family discernment is very important to learn.
I didn't get a chance to read all of this but I whole-heartedly believe that we are constantly drawn to things outside our calm and peaceful home life. We are constantly being exposed to things beyond our control, urged to focus there. I've always appreciated how you and Peco remind us to focus close to home. I also like how Keith describes accepting cognitive finitude. We are constantly encouraged to work harder and go deeper to the point that I feel our mental growth is actually stunted. A quiet and serene environment feels like I free up bandwidth so that I can actually grow and achieve. And I would say that the one area that I find the most personal growth in is working through projects and problems one on one with my children. You might think, oh you need to do "adult" learning, but some of the stuff these little ones challenge me with are far more complex than one might expect. So together we grow, and that's time worth spending.
I find that my readers are pretty forgiving if I tell them I'll get back to them in 48 hours. This helps me draw that line in the sand, and why I'm passionate about circadian rhythms as they eventually become a subconscious habit: https://romanshapoval.substack.com/p/you-are-when-you-eat
Mmm, I can relate to much of your article and the comments. After raising 4 children and home educating the youngest, I find myself somewhat adrift and turning to technology to fill the gaps where my poor health has taken my physical energy. I know I have a tendency to develop compulsive behaviours and need to find a balance, particularly when the weather is rotten too. I think, or rather I know, that I need to set a timer or lock, just as I did for the children. The problem is that Substack is a very tempting sweet shop with lots of inviting treats to sample! 😏
I alienated many acquaintances when I culled my Facebook account in 2012. I annoyed many followers when I radically reduced my use of Twitter in 2018. I caused many women distress when I closed the hysterectomy association forums and removed the ability to comment on the website in 2019, and I worried many friends when I deleted the last truly social media account, LinkedIn, last year.
Each of these acts has been in response to my need to draw back the scattered fragments of my soul and reach a calmer, more local understanding of who and what I really am.
I have unsubscribed, deleted, unfollowed and removed subscriptions to many sites. I receive very little email, I have a heavily curated set of sites I read and pay attention to. I am following F Scott Fitzgeralds advice to hold conflicting ideas as possible, I hope I am intelligent!
All this means I can be here with my sister who is ill, in silence or with the company if a book and the occasional essays I read. This is hyper local, reduced to a room in a hospital ward. It is calm, mostly, and gentle, mostly. It is where I need to be.
Every time one of your posts show up in my inbox, I know I am in for a wonderfully written treat!
Thank you for sharing ways that we can change how we view technology and also just think differently. I always appreciate the perspective that you share! 😊
Ruth and Peco, I appreciate all the work you do for this (dare I call it a ministry?) community! I’ve learned so much and am on the road towards curbing my tech use. I know your audience is very wide, so maybe they have some suggestions, but as a homemaker and stay at home mom to two little ones (3 & 1) I find myself still reaching for technology for a little fix between the mundane tasks of caretaking and home keeping. I’m involved in the community- volunteer catechesis teaching and mom’s group, we have friends over once a week. The lack of interaction and intellectual stimulation is what is causing me to reach for technology. I want to be a good example for my kids but the discrepancy between my intentions and reality feels rather large in this season.
You are very kind, Ruth. Thank you. In a way, I suspect you are right; I was doing work in my 'local community,' even in Nigeria. When a family lives in a place for a long time, they becomes part the locality. However, it's a fine line. I could always leave Nigeria when violence broke out, or I needed sophisticated medical treatment. Financially, I was far more secure than a Palestinian refugee was likely to experience during their lifetime. Wendell Berry's farming community has known his family for decades and the work of his hands produces visible results. Teaching abroad is more aspirational. Many of my students were denied an opportunity for even a high school education. Yet teachers work with faith, hope... and love.
I enjoy reading your ideas opinions and often send them to my daughter as she raises her own children. Thank you!
However, I must demur from the idea of staying close to home to do your most significant work. I spent nearly a decade in Nigeria teaching in a local school, and I later taught in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. Both experiences changed my life for the better. I met wonderful people, and learned about different societies, political systems, religions, and cultural practices. I became more curious, and I loved the adventure - and dealt with the frustration - that comes from confronting unexpected obstacles. My children entered a world far from the material abundance of America. I appreciate the wisdom of Wendell Berry, but perhaps there is also room for individuals who, paradoxically, find themselves most at home when living in another country.
I appreciate @Dixie's emphasis on being positive. People will be much less resentful if you're focused on sharing what you love.
As for too much content... it's tough with all the great writers I am discovering on Substack! :) But I'm trying to give myself set reading times - we'll see how that goes. It has also made me appreciate the 'stacks who don't publish too often. It's nice to know I can enjoy a new essay once a week or fortnightly, without feeling overwhelmed or like I'm "missing out" on content.
As usual, this post is filled with more goods than I have time to think over carefully, which is a good problem to have, as the saying goes. (Ironic, considering some of the concerns about the abundance of content brought up here.) Thank you for the hard work you continue putting into this community! This will be yet another saved post that I return to and recommend as a resource for others delving into this topic.
Online columns, forums, and threads, partly because they can provide revenue, attention, and status, and because all of those things are driven by numbers of followers and subscribers that can balloon into the stratosphere, work like cocaine, heroin, and amphetamines and are as addictive. Online success is measured by those numbers. We often heard on The Sopranos the defining problem, "This is the business we have chosen."
Time and attention constraints or limits are unavoidable online because technology is capable of connecting one to an infinite number of other people world, many of whom compete with us and each other for that time and attention. It's the nature of the beast, to coin a phrase. When we ignore or forget that this is the business we have chosen and try to be choosey about our time and attention, we quickly begin to lose followers and subscribers. DeSanto learned that even before the first State caucus, and he only shunned major new reporters.