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33<header id="title-block-header">
34<h1 class="title">Writing a blog</h1>
35<p class="author">chris</p>
36<p class="date">2026-01-26</p>
37</header>
38<nav id="TOC" role="doc-toc">
39<ul>
40<li><a href="#craving-constant-stimulation"
41id="toc-craving-constant-stimulation">Craving constant
42stimulation</a></li>
43<li><a href="#creating-content" id="toc-creating-content">Creating
44content</a></li>
45</ul>
46</nav>
47<p>A year ago, I started reading other people’s blog posts. I like it to
48gather different quick-written thoughts and expressions, as they are
49(mostly) easy to understand and extend your perspective on the unnoticed
50but significant steps. At some point, I understood that it helps me to
51get away from my mobile phone addiction, and this changed my view on
52addiction quite a bit.</p>
53<h1 id="craving-constant-stimulation">Craving constant stimulation</h1>
54<p>A long time, I was suffering from <em>doom-scrolling TikTok</em>
55syndrome. The first thing I did after waking up was to take my phone and
56start scrolling. With a screentime of a few hours, I probably wasn’t the
57worst off, but I really hated my mobile phone addiction. I decided to
58try to get rid of it once and for all.</p>
59<p>The first step was to uninstall TikTok. Steps like these always seem
60helpful at first, because the change in behaviour is quite apparent in
61the beginning. But after some time, you realise that the other apps you
62now use more, achieve a similar level of stimulation, and the situation
63didn’t even change a bit.</p>
64<p>A more extreme example can be seen in selling my Galaxy Z Fold 5 in
65favour of the Unihertz Jelly Star, a super small 3-inch Android
66smartphone. I removed all social-media apps and only use them for
67‘necessary’ stuff, like messaging, calling and navigating. You cannot
68deny that it didn’t help at all: It’s really not fun to look at the
69screen. I nearly completely eradicated my screentime to a daily average
70of 30 minutes. My mobile phone became my <strong>side device</strong>,
71replaced by my desktop.</p>
72<p>And this is the problem. I got a new main device. The less screentime
73I had on my mobile, the more I had on my desktop. So what’s the purpose
74of all this? How can you effectively work against such an addiction when
75you always have access to it, never mind all the efforts of removing the
76access?</p>
77<p>This was one of the first times in life when I realised that things
78are more complicated than they seem at first glance. The simple solution
79of removing the device in problem does not <strong>remove the habit in
80problem</strong>. I need to work on those habits and not just throw
81everything away that seems like it could be misused by me. This is where
82I learned that you need to replace habits with different (weaker)
83ones.</p>
84<p>And here comes Hacker News! I mean, this is basically the same as
85TikTok, right? People create some stuff, you watch it, you (not) happy.
86But this is why this habit is weaker, and therefore better for my
87everyday life:</p>
88<ul>
89<li>The <strong>amount of new content</strong> is very limited in
90comparison to TikTok, which makes it easier to get a break.</li>
91<li>The <strong>length of most blog posts</strong> is perfect: they are
92long enough not to throw you into ‘doom-reading’ hell, and they are
93short enough to keep you entertained in reading.</li>
94<li>I think the content (or the way the content is delivered) is easier
95to grasp due to a different <strong>target audience</strong>. It’s less
96about polarising, more about personal knowledge extension.</li>
97</ul>
98<p>(In this context, it is fair to talk about AI slop posts that get
99thrown onto Hacker News. Imo, that actively steers against everything I
100talked about so far , and I am not a fan of it.)</p>
101<p>This type of habit shift is exactly what I needed! I don’t feel the
102need anymore to stimulate myself with short-form videos, because I’m
103happy with the (much less) time I’m spending on peoples’ blog
104webpages.</p>
105<h1 id="creating-content">Creating content</h1>
106<p>A month ago, I started thinking: What are those people who create
107content? I always felt very distant from these kinds of people, but in a
108negative way. And it really started itching: I want to create, too! I
109want to write about my expressions and my thoughts, and I want to share
110what I know with the world. After some thought about post topics, I
111gathered a list of things I want to talk about, and now I’m determined
112to try this out.</p>
113<p>With my own blog, I want to achieve:</p>
114<ul>
115<li>appreciating more <strong>where I am</strong> right now, and being
116more upfront about it.</li>
117<li>creating the same <strong>positive feeling</strong> that I get after
118reading a good blog post for my (for now imaginary) readers.</li>
119</ul>
120<p>So this is my first blog post about creating blog posts (yikes, I
121feel like that was done before).</p>
122<hr />
123<p><em>AI-Note: Grammarly was used to fix grammar mistakes.</em></p>
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