Giving up television about 35 years ago, giving up internet via gadgets soon?

I remember in my early to mid teens, when all those changes of puberty were taking place, carefully taking stock of where I was and what I was doing, checking myself against my values. In those days I think we had four channels on television, the fourth recently launched. However, I remember how easily and quickly if I started watching television, I had lost hours of time doing nothing constructive other than distracting myself. Now, resting is necessary and television was useful for that but I made a conscious decision to cut down massively. Before long I'd cut down to about half to one hour per week. This was very useful because I was then using my time far more constructively.

In my late teens, when I started university and using the internet (being a computer scientist) I noticed similarly how being online could very quickly start gobbling up my time. That was even before the world-wide-web, so it was mostly text based, newsgroups, emails and the like. So... I made sure to only be online when necessary and when the world-wide-web started, similarly, I literally would open a browser for a specific need I had, then close it immediately. I have always loved libraries and felt like the www was a huge library I could just become lost in forever!

By my early twenties, though, other life shocks such as love and loss had finally caught up with me and left me in some confusion due to my mental health. In those days it was immediately referred to as mental illness, therefore very taboo, even more so than today when there is a lot more understanding, finally. What this did was it left me susceptible (courtesy of my inner child, is a strong way of looking at it, in my opinion) to distraction and indulgence which I had largely remained resistant to in my younger years.

Well, it takes a lot of introspection, self honesty, and straight-up hard work to (tame that inner child and) break free from habits that in many ways are a waste of time. Internet and things like SW on gadgets can and do soothe me and especially so at my times of greatest stress. But, despite it all, to an extent it isn't real. I am planning an exit, gradually and compassionately.

This is not an "I'm leaving SW post," I'm not. But during healthier times, of which I hope there will be more soon, I plan to be in the real world more and on gadgets and SW/websites less 😊