personal protective equipment

I was waking up today and was glad my phone was in the other room. I'm trying to do that, to not have my phone right next to me when I wake up, because it's so easy to stay in bed and surf the net.

And I realized that it really does feel like the internet is a big hole that I leap into every day and then need to crawl back up all the time. And I do my work on the internet so I need to wear a harness to keep me from falling too far. Protective gear, like anyone doing anything dangerous.

("The abyss is no Sunday swan ride," as one Steven Universe character has said.)

I have sometimes referred to Twitter as an attention casino. And that is true and it's a metaphor that helps remind me that there is someone else specifically working to make money off other people's addictions and that the experience is designed to keep me there in the hopes of intermittent reward. But this sinkhole metaphor reminds me that it is the nature of the Internet to be an endless sink to fall down, and that I can wear a harness to help keep myself safe. And therefore I have just installed Leechblock on this machine.

Meditation would also count.