Libb

Welcome and there is zero need to apologize. Some people (and group of them) can be a real pain. Once you have learned how to filter them out, it’s a nice place with nice people. There is no shame in blocking them, a bit like I would not let someone enter my home so they shout their nonsense into my ears, or make their mess on the carpet.

Once again, welcome ;)

Maybe you live in a rural area and people are less attached, but in cities, everyone is addicted af

I live in Paris, France (hopefully enough of a city to qualify?) but I’m not ‘addicted af’ (not at all, for that matter) and neither is my spouse, nor are quite a few of the people we know ;)

That said I also see a lot of people walking looking at their screen, bicycling looking at their screen, driving and looking at their screen. And I see a lot of accidents too. I wonder, could there be a link?

Do you feel weird/anxious if you go outside and don’t have a phone with you?

Nope. I sometimes forget my phone at home, no big deal I seldom use it. And even when I don’t forget it I have zero social apps or games installed on it, not even email ;)

I only use it to pass phone calls and to manage IDs and finances (and it’s only because my banks all require me to use their stupid apps, I would gladly tell them to go funk themselves but I need to be able to access my accounts).

What I never forget and I never hesitate to use whan I have the opportunity is a pocket book, so I always have something to read (without distraction, aka no Internet) and a pocket notebook/pen so I can write stuff (without any distraction, bugs, updates or whatever…) and in both case without any worry about being tracked.

so like its basically social expectation to be on your phone when you are by yourself.

Is it? And then people are surprised they’re exhausted, and constantly anxious and/or angry at one another? Doom scrolling is poison for the mind and for the soul. I’d rather look around, or speak with people.

you are missing a lot of information

Do I? Well, so far it has not caused me much issues.

that you might need in case you get lost or something.

When that happens, I ask my way around to people. It sometime is a nice opportunity to start a real conversation ;)

edit: typos and clarification.

I often talk aloud all by myself when I’m reading. Either reading the book aloud, or talking to no one in particular commenting whatever I’m reading. Maybe talking to its author, or to the book itself?

Worse: I do think it helps me a lot get what I’m reading, and I would love to see more people doing it ;)

Oh, thx a lot!

I must admit I don’t know much about those kind of snacks but I would be surprised a doctor would suggest to eat those with any kind of medication.

My wife has to eat a snack with her medicine she takes before bed or she gets nauseas. I have struggled to find an alternative to goldfish because I agree, it’s garbage. Any thoughts?

What is a goldfish (beside a fish, I mean)? If you mean an alternative to snack, has she tried fresh fruits (an apple, pear, a few grapes,…) or maybe things like nuts? The idea being to no eat heavily processed food at all and not too much of anything. If she is not into fresh fruits (that would be sad), at worst I would suggest a slice of fresh bread (here again not the industrial hyper-processed kind of bread, real bread) with something, maybe a little jam?

This

I wake up between 4-5AM every single day of the week, and all year long. I don’t even need an alarm clock. I can go to sleep at anytime

• No screen before bed. No computer, no phone, no tablet, no TV (we don’t own a TV, so we don’t have much choice here ;). What do I do instead? I read a book, journal, write, chat with my spouse or friends, play chess or board games,… I do various stuff just not on a screen. Not even using a Kindle.
• No coffee in the evening. No alcohol at all (evening as well as in the day: I was an alcoholic many, many years ago). No soda either. Either I’ll drink water or herbal tea.
• Light & healthy diner. I don’t stuff my stomach, don’t eat garbage pre-packaged industrial ‘food’ either (this alone was a huge change for me, the day I quit eating that absolute turd a few years ago and my health has jumped through the roof, pre-packaged food is just poison in a fancy packaging and a lot of marketing, I would not be surprise if it was to become the tobacco of the XXI health-wise).
• No snacking, no candy, chips, or whatever.
• At least one long walk during the day. Every day.