When I was growing up in the 90s, we would keep an argos catalogue in the rest room. Sounds weird now that I'm typing this out.
Spent countless hours (over time) browsing toys and games. The novelty of each turn and then replacing the entire thing with the new one.
I also miss the little blue pens that argos and index had along with the small paper for your order submission.
The pricing on the catalogue would be in blocks so you'd have to work out the price by entering the code for the specified product into the calculator-like gadget that would rest on the counter.
Good Times. As you grow older, things like this being phased out make you realise how long it's been.
Telegram is where I speak to a few close friends (groups - plenty of gifs) and my developers and VAs are on it who I talk to daily.
Not many people use SMS these days (not within my circle anyway) and anything that comes through SMS is crucial I.e my CRM goes down or there's a bug I get an SMS, which is fine.
Also, I turn all notifications off on my mobile. This puts the powers back in my hands.
Edit, notifications for SMS and phone are on, everything else, off.
As soon as I entered the workforce @ 21 I cut out 2 things from my diet, sugar and news.
This habit has compounded so much, not saying its been 100% perfect because I still read reddit, twitter (very selective following and blocking all outlets that end up on my TL) and HN (this place is a total bubble of smart, high IQ people, I enjoy the comments here, I don't get to interact with such smart people on a day to day).
Any interesting developments will filter through my social circle, someone will bring it up.
I stopped watching TV altogether, I stream the occasional show though.
I agree, over the last week I've left my phone in my bedroom most of the day, removed my apps like brave, telegram and WhatsApp from the home screen. Just the phone, calculator and signal.
So much better, now the added step of opening an app drawer and looking for an app or searching allows me to disengage with all the constant reading.
I've subscribed to a few newsletters and leave to until the end of the day before bed or schedule some time and leave them unread.
Internet is a great tool, as long as it doesn't takeover.
Not at all, just adding to the fact that 1) hosts were leveraged and are hurting. 2) entire companies are going bankrupt because their model is based mainly on airbnb demand.