2021-2022 Junk Media Fast

The one single change to my life which always makes it better is giving up junk media. It's time for another one of these. I have done six months before. This time I want to try for a year starting today, December 13, 2021.

If you'd like to join me, fill out the commitment form.

Banned

• Facebook.com, Twitter
• YouTube (except music & dance), twitch.tv, TikTok
• Reddit, Slashdot
• News (except Zvi)
• Videogames^[1]

Explicitly Allowed

• Less Wrong
• DeviantArt
• RSS feeds
• Facebook Messenger Android app
• YouTube music
• Webcomics & Manga
• Books, audiobooks, podcasts
• Chinese video with Chinese subtitles

Exceptions

• Targeted research is allowed, including the Bitcoin Trading Challenge channel. Not watching it on YouTube while logged in. I can watch it while logged out or (preferably) via youtube-dl.
• Anything I do socially (with other people) is allowed.
• I can film my own YouTube videos but if I do I'm only allowed to go to the creator studio and my personal channel. I must be careful not to expose myself to the general recommendations.
• [January 21] I'm adding a videogame exception.

Benefits

I will be bored more often. This will improve my creativity, my proaction and my meditation.

I will have more time available.

Giving up news improves my decision-making because news has such a noise-to-signal ratio.

Losses

I will miss invitations to a tiny number of social events on Facebook. So be it.

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[1] Except for collecting data for a machine learning project. ↩