I’ve blocked ads in Firefox for ages. Paywalls. I redirect Twitter links out to Nitter. I go grayscale on desktop. I use Reader View often. I have an external e-ink monitor (Boox Mira 13.3″) on order that I am fantasizing about using, though it doesn’t arrive for two or three more whole weeks because it ships from Mars, apparently.

What I want I think basically is to turn the internet, web pages, articles, etc. into something that could squeeze through a display like a Mailbug. Reduce the firehose of the web to a tiny thin trickle. A Do One Thing internet: read text. (Maybe publish text, cause I still like blogging.)

At each step of the way, as I get closer to a “tiny internet” for myself, I feel another set of triggers for pointless distractions fall away. The latest is installing an extension called Image Video Block. It’s UX is a bit imperfect, but it basically allows me to do exactly what it says in the title: block images and videos. Everywhere. Cause fuck it all.

Interesting thing is not only do I not miss them for the most part, it has been a good way to understand more clearly and less subconsciously how much images drive you emotionally. How much a part of the web is being forced to hunt around for them constantly? Even just looking at them for a second, never mind sifting through them relentlessly all day long every day in a stream as this little screen shines a cone of light into your eyes.

Speaking of the “cone of light” that I think fascinates/obsesses, I finally made some visual representations of the thing I’ve been feeling intuitively, courtesy of Dalle3. Full set. Archived. Highlights below:

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