Helena Price:
“What if we made more active decisions about how we spent our Internet time? If we weren’t bogged down maintaining our inboxes and social networks, who would we set out to meet or get to know better? If we weren’t so busy clicking links or browsing photos in our feeds, what would we choose to study or learn more about? If we spent these hours differently, what would happen?
I was curious to find out for myself.
So, one night while I was sitting in bed, I un-followed everyone on the Internet.”
The results of her experiment are fascinating, particularly that the action of checking her various feeds was so ingrained into muscle memory that she continued doing it for a while even though nothing was there to check anymore.
I feel that same muscle memory myself all the time. One thing that has helped some is cutting down on my Twitter and RSS feeds quite a bit in recent months. I don't know if I'm willing to unfollow everything just yet, but I do believe there is something to be said for carefully cultivating (and judiciously pruning) one's online experience.
