I Did An Experiment On Myself

I did an experiment on myself

I like to browse social media, but it's not really me who likes that. It's some baser, more lizardish part of my brain. It does not even know what it's looking at, or care -- it just knows it gets little dopamine snacks from it, and likes them.

I decided to do an experiment. I wanted to see what that part of my brain would do if I deprived it of what it usually likes. I blocked all social media in my desktop browser via an extension, uninstalled all my social media apps, and even blocked the websites on my phone just for good measure.

So, what would I do now?

It turns out I start going on wikipedia. I liked to look at the "on this day section," and use the random page button. It's kind of like social media because I never knew what I was going to see. It scratched that same itch.

But I wanted to go farther, so I blocked wikipedia too.

Turns out, after that, I start going on google maps streetview and exploring random towns in Chile or Mongolia. I see hotels and restaurants with 1 review. Who are you, reviewer. Why have you decided to give this pizza restaurant that just looks like a normal house this digital baptism.

But I wanted to go farther, so I blocked google maps too.

Then, I started going to my local library. The library had more information than I could ever read about practically anything I wanted to read about. I started reading about French history. The region we know today as France may look pretty innocuous, but you wouldn't believe some of the shit that went down.

But I wanted to go farther, so I stopped even going to the library. What would this part of me, that so desperately craved a constant intake of information, do now.

It was then that I descended into the sewers, and became the Rat Man.

I quickly became a legend in my town. Some teenagers saw me clamber out of one sewer grate and then into another across the street. They told their parents about it. Their parents didn't believe them. Truth be told, I almost didn't believe them either.

A woman eating oreos on a park bench once dropped one near a sewer drain at the local bike path, and yelped when she saw my arm reach out from the drain and swipe it. However, later on, she left another oreo there. She took pity on the Rat Man. I saw the Man that was left there, even though it was mostly Rat.

Ultimately I decided to allow myself the library.

More Posts from Dootsntoots and Others

dootsntoots

1 month ago

a gif of Jonathan Sims, The Archivist, to the right of image with his hair flowing upwards. He opens his two eyes along with numerous eyes all over his visible body(face, neck, arms), and five large eyes in the background to look directly at the viewer. They then close. The gif repeats.

Eye see. Heh.

11K notes View Post

dootsntoots

3 weeks ago

Yap yap yap. :]

What a wonderful evening

0 notes View Post

dootsntoots

1 month ago

Jelly beans

Flower-Mimicking Crab Spiders - Thomisidae

Sooo, I already kind of knew of this species, but I didn't know about the variation ! This family of spiders contains about 171 genera of spiders ! HELLO ! ? ! ? 171 ? ! ?

That's insane ! They are insanely awesome ! ! !

@hispaatra I am nearly 100% sure, you are gonna love these guys !

Flower-Mimicking Crab Spiders - Thomisidae

HOW ARE THESE REAL ! ? ! ? THEY ARE SO GORGEOUS !

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Image sources:

https://sciencephotogallery.com/featured/flower-mimicking-crab-spider-dr-morley-read.html

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/69580079

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/223189422

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/196720962

68 notes View Post

dootsntoots

2 weeks ago

Hey kid, look at me.

I want you to T-pose. Turn your right thumb up and your left thumb doen and look at your right thumb. Move your arms up and down a bit until you feel a nerve running from your armpit to your palm. Now turn your right thumb down and your left thumb up, and look at your left thumb. Keep your chest facing forward and your shoulders back. Move your arms again until you feel that nerve again. Keep alternating between these two for a minute, or look at each thumb thirty times each.

Now sit down. Put your left hand firmly under your left buttock, palm down. Keep your shoulders back and put your right hand over the crown of your head, very gently pulling it to the right. Do this for thirty seconds, then do it again but with your right hand under your right buttock.

These are stretches for the nerves in your arms, and are very good for people who sit behind a computer a lot, or fibre artists, or you name it. Do them daily. They will hurt in the beginning, but keep doing them, even after the pain has gone, or it will return and you'll have to start all over.

40K notes View Post

dootsntoots

1 month ago

This is so cute omg

i like working at plant store. sometimes you ring up someone and there's a slug on their plant and so you're like "Oh haha you've got a friend there let me get that for you" and you put the slug on your hand for safekeeping but then its really busy and you dont have time to take the slug outside before the next customer in line so you just have a slug chilling on your hand for 15 minutes. really makes you feel at peace with nature. also it means sometimes i get to say my favorite line which is "would you like this free slug with your purchase"

166K notes View Post

dootsntoots

4 weeks ago

do you ever get in those moods where you don’t feel like reading and you don’t feel like being on the internet and you don’t feel like watching a show and you don’t feel like sleeping and you don’t feel like existing in general

1,394K notes View Post

dootsntoots

4 weeks ago