Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Irregularly Re-scheduled Deprogramming



When I first became iAssimilated, I kept playing with the idea of walking away from this blog forever by changing my log-in password to some string of characters I could possibly never remember, than logging out for good.

One of the reasons I was flirting with this idea was a post I read by Roosh around that time: 

Are You Addicted To The Internet?
The best way to know if you have an internet addiction is to imagine how difficult it would be for you to limit social networking, email, and smartphone usage. The harder it is, the more likely you have a problem of using the internet not as an informational tool but as a distractor and mood regulator of life.

I used to think that the internet was better than television in that it offered more mental rewards, but with the direction it has taken in the past 10 years, especially with the development of smartphone apps, I can no longer say that sharing or viewing items on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, and then checking obsessively for replies is better than watching a television comedy show. Both require the lowest of brain function, but at least in the comedy you can encounter a joke to use on your friends to make them laugh. If you look at the faces of people who are on their smartphones, mindlessly scrolling through Facebook, you’ll see that it’s as empty and hollow as those watching television.

If your approach to the internet is balanced, your usage should decrease as you start to solve the problems in your life. If you are reading blogs for game advice, and your game starts getting sharper, you should be reading less game blogs. If you understand the damage that a certain ideology is doing on society, like feminism, you should be reading less articles about feminism as time goes on. Only when you establish a new goal, such as studying a language, should your internet usage temporarily rise to aid you. But to constantly use it every day, regardless of what knowledge you already have on certain topics, what information you immediately need, or what your future goals are, means you are treating the internet not as a tool, but as a lifestyle, trading it in for real life instead.

Most of the population is not going to exhibit control in their internet usage by only reading select resources while not attention whoring on social networking, so it appears that we may have arrived at the point where, for the average person, the internet will cause them greater harm than being a couch potato. It’s time we all be more thoughtful about how we incorporate the internet into our daily routines, and make sure it doesn’t take over our lives completely.

When I first read that post, it was one of the few readings I had done in the past year or so that I continually ruminated on for days afterwards. It made me take a good, long look at how my usage of the internet and all of the things I could have accomplished or done with my time instead.

Worse, I had found myself becoming one of those Palm Zombies I've blogged about in the past, whenever I found a free Wi-Fi access hot spot for my iPhone.

 Roosh was right, I was treating the internet not as a tool, but as a lifestyle, trading it in for real life instead.

Much of the topics of this blog and my participation in the MAndrosphere where some of the greatest tools I have ever used to enhance and improve my life in our current Brave New World Order's globalized feedlot society. I mostly got myself out of usurious debt slavery, improved my health, developed a zeal for practicing the culinary arts, improved my physical endurance, stamina and discipline, and gained a greater understanding of just what is most important in this life and what it really means to be a Father and not just a hapless, pack mule provider.

But I seem to have reached a point of maximized utility here, and much of the things I've been reading on teh Interwebz seems to be retreads and rehashes of all the topics I was reading and writing about 4 years ago. It all seems like re-runs now...yet I couldn't stop from logging on and frittering away hours on end reading and composing new blog posts on comments on other folk's blogs, day after day.

Roosh's article gave me a moment of clarity and I knew something had to change. So I contemplated blogger-cide. I came close several times, but I just couldn't do it...but it did result in a two month hiatus from any posting. Since I decided to not give up my access to this blog, I have been very careful to not get sucked back into a daily habit of using the internet as a lifestyle rather than a tool.

There's too many things I got to do in the real world to spend so much time in the virtual world.

Here in Hawaii, the summer sun is shining and the weather is sweet. I got a lot of outdoor projects going on, and a lot of work keeping me busy to fund those projects, not to mention regularly scheduled sessions for paleo radiation therapy. I'll probably resume posting more frequently when the days are shorter and the rainy seasons return. But until then, the days are too beautiful here to waste them typing on a keyboard and peering at a screen.

But I do recognize that I do have a need to read and write. The muse does strike me strongly every now and then - not as much as when I was a desk jockey in a cubicle farm, logged on and plugged in to teh Interwebz eight hours a day, five days a week - but it still comes. When it does, I will let it ride. I have a few unfinished posts in the que that I will eventually get around to finishing and posting, but as of right now, I've been really satisfied with what I've been able to accomplish and experience these past several months by severely curtailing my internet usage and blogging.

If your new to these fringes of teh Interwebz, welcome, you found the greatest potential tool for improving your personal situation whether it be health, your personal and familial relationships or understanding the way the world really works and how to avoid many of the insidious traps "society" has laid for us all.

Just remember that as useful and helpful you find truth seeking in the virtual world, you must be vigilant and not let it take place of your life in the real world. Teh Interwebz seems to be addictive by design. Don't fall for it and succumb to the virtual disconnect.

A hui hou.


10 comments:

'Reality' Doug said...

You got your priorities straight. I also notice lots of the fresh content is a repeat. I'm looking for the next big thing in Red Pill knowledge, some real growth. The important thing is personal growth, and MGTOW back to real life may be a trend. I was too late for Roissy in DC, but I wonder if Red Pill has been watered down as a subculture. I write primarily for myself. A post forces me to work through my ideas, and I try to apply what I post. The muse gets stronger from testing and observing new ideas in the fields of real life. Happy trails!

Ballista74 said...

You have your priorities straight. That's really the big thing in life, to realize what's important, what's real, and what's just fantasy.

The issue, as you've noted, is that the line gets more and more blurred as community is lessened and people try and seek it. I have much more to say (if I may), but I got the Cliff Notes version down.

Sub Roas said...

Clicking for knowledge makes it feel like fast food, but it's not.

Your own words: "Much of the topics of this blog and my participation in the MAndrosphere where some of the greatest tools I have ever used to enhance and improve my life in our current Brave New World Order's globalized feedlot society."

-- I mostly got myself out of usurious debt slavery

-- improved my health

-- developed a zeal for practicing the culinary arts

-- improved my physical endurance, stamina and discipline

-- gained a greater understanding of just what is most important in this life and what it really means to be a Father and not just a hapless, pack mule provider.

I would walk away from a source that produced all of that ... yeah right!!!

Good luck

Athor Pel said...

Here's another perspective for you.



The web is many times the only place to find other like minded people. I'll say it again, The Only Place.



If you need a touchstone for truth that comes from flesh and blood living humans then the red pill folks on the web are it.

If you need some reassurance, moral or emotional support, then red pill folks on the web can be all you got.

When your own family is constantly on your case to change back into a feedlot fed television zombie then the red pill folks on the web are all you got.

Anonymous said...

Keoni -- I hope you don't shut this blog down anytime soon … please know that your writing has been hugely influential on my own red pill journey and I am sure that I am not alone in that respect … and besides perusing your considerable archives, I am also a frequent visitor for updates on your exhaustive blog roll … it's true that pretty much everything has been said with respect to the red pill but as Athor Pel says above I mostly check out the manosphere these days to feel a part of a community of like-minded individuals and at least get assurance that I am not simply going mad in my daily blue pill world!

Anonymous said...

Keoni,

This is one of the ORIGINAL Red Pill blogs. Unfortunately, you will have to keep it up forever for the addicts.

Two thoughts.

One, I'm one of the few that believes that the Web and Web devices (like dumbphones) has inbuilt entrainment technology like TV, whether in-your-face (like the click bait you use in your article above) or subtle (think HTML, tags and image crypto).

Two, unlimited information leads to a "knowledge paradox" similar to analysis paralysis.

Here's the two things I've done to get over the hump.

TV stations used to have scheduled programming (now since replaced by wall-to-wall coverage). Introduce scheduled Web programming to your Web time. Specifically, list down the topics and time to be spent ahead of logging on. Also, sit with pen and paper as you click and scroll and journal highlights and references (while PRINTING) for future in-depth study. This last one (printing, rather than reading online) is a silver bullet putting a cap on Web time and requiring real Web productivity.

In addition (only if you write a blog), restrict yourself to writing precisely (used here in a technical precis sense) about your practical application of your Web research. Use WORD LIMITS. It seems every Web article these days exceeds 3,000 words because no paper is consumed if it can be read online. This leads to long-windedness (how many times do you read 3 paragraphs and ask yourself, get to the point already?!), which wastes everyone's time including the writer's.

Zenmooncow said...

While I don't always agree with you , I can whole heartedly say "never stop writing" .

Maybe try to condense your most practical material into a book.

Brian said...

This is why TPTB will never fully clamp down on the internet. It's like crack for too many people. However, like you, I've noticed my internet usage dip when I've fully explored an idea. I think I skip more articles on blogs I frequent than I actually read. Never skipped an article here, though, a testament to your high-quality work.

Anonymous said...

Keoni:

I hope you're not thinking of going the way of our shoe-salesman friend from Canuckistan (although you never when he's liable to return to the Manosphere LOL).

I agree that the Internet CAN be addictive: but like it or not it's also become an 'indispensable technology'. There's no way to get information except through blogs like these.

Remember what it was like back in the 80s? Reading a post like your last one would have meant going to the library or waiting for a magazine subscription to come in! Now it's up and ready in a few minutes.

Stay on, Bro. You're doing better work than you think!

Anonymous said...

You could monetize your blog, so that writing has an incentive, other than just laying out your information. I feel you can be more creative when you can get something out of it.

Otherwise a blog is really not supposed to be much more than a journal you write into every time you want to hash out some of your thoughts.