The Slow Web

[dasil003]

I love the term and I love the idea.

I consider the Slow Food movement to be one of the most important movements for true quality of life (at least as far as first-world problems go), and with the sort of always-on environment that typical white-collar workers experience in today's post-Twitter mobile world, I think tech can just as readily destroy people's lives as fast food does. This makes me sad because I've been instinctively drawn to tech for my entire life and I don't want to believe that we need to somehow forcibly detach from tech to lead balanced and sane lives. There is a way for tech to be enriching without stress or compulsion inducing. I'm totally behind The Slow Web and look forward to my own contributions in years to come.

[GuiA]

> I consider the Slow Food movement to be one of the most important movements for true quality of life

It's amusing that it has to be a "movement", because prior to a few decades ago everyone was part of the "slow food movement".

[notduncansmith]

I remember coming across this article some months ago, and reading a little more into it. The language used in a lot of writing around this "movement" makes it sound like we're in a constant state of panic thanks to all our notifications. Nothing wrong with trying to get the point across, but it feels a little extreme to me.

The main takeaway (and it's a worthy one) is to respect your users and their time. Your app may be the most important thing in the world to you, but that doesn't mean that everyone using it wants to be instantly notified of every little event within it. Unless your app is responsible for mission-critical or time-sensitive stuff (messaging, etc), chances are your users don't need more than a weekly (or maybe daily) summary - and if they'd like to be notified via push, then make it an option that's off by default.

[programmer_babu]

Would anyone use an email service which delivers email and updates inbox at one specific time of the day and doesn't allow any alternatives? My friends found this idea ridiculous. But I'd love the peace of mind. I used to love writing letters and waiting for days for a reply.

[fiatjaf]

That would be awesome, I think, for some types of people. Could be applied to social networks as well.

[namenotrequired]

I'd use it, do you know any? Are you creating one?

[ZoFreX]

I actually like the sound of that idea.

[chewxy]

See also: http://theslowweb.com (used to be at .org but I forgot to do some renewals last year)

[gbog]

Like the idea and the article, but was astonished by this:

> daily things that improve your life in small but beneficial ways, like flossing, meditating, or tracking your weight

Ok for meditating, maybe. But flossing? Tracking weight? I'd say obsession with hygiene and fitness is very detrimental to one's quality of life. I'd find hundreds more relevant ways to improve one's life in small steps: Eating good unprocessed food, Having an aimless walk once a week, Gardening, Reading books written more than 50 years ago, Listening to the music you like, etc.

I don't know what to do with this remark. Maybe our Amercanized civilisation has an exagerated focus on body hygiene. Something that once saved lives (doctors and nurses washing hands often) became an obsession the makes many people miserable (brushing teeth trice a day, removing any form of pubic pilosity, flossing, weight-watching).

[ZoFreX]

Obsession is unhealthy. Brushing your teeth twice a day is not. Some people struggle to get the basic important things done without reminders!

Also: Tracking weight is far from "obsession". If you need to lose (or gain) weight, tracking is one of the simplest and most effective things you can start doing. You can't improve what you aren't measuring!

[lilsunnybee]

Sorry but this article and "movement" are a bunch of bullshit. People have always been in control of when they look at their computers or phones. If all your apps are notifying you too much, fix it in the settings, or uninstall them. Is this really a real problem people have in their lives?

If so just put away the phone and put some of that extra money towards making others lives better; there are lots of people that need it, that don't have the income or influence to solve those problems on their own. Have some perspective in how you spend your money!

[ruricolist]

In working on TBRSS, which is intended as a technical solution to the problem of the fast web, I have increasingly come to suspect that it is, in the social sense, much too late. There is an entire generation of people out there to whom twitchy connectivity is simply the norm, to whom the idea of not having a button to hit or a prompt to answer every few minutes is actually frightening.

[msutherl]

I maintain a collection of links around this idea here: http://x.are.na/geHSysW

[georgio]

Another good one is http://slowerinternet.com

[petercoolz]

While I was reading about the daily emails, I couldn't help but think that the slow web was just marketing speak for their chosen technical infrastructure. Ie. they run a midnight CRON job that parses all the emails because that's easy/cheap.

[GuiA]

For an example of a slow web social network, see Uncommon. I love it.

http://uncommon.cc

[rdrey]

Looks like a very interesting social network.

BUT the presentation of the homepage felt too slow. Revealing a few words at a time quickly lost its appeal.

[Istof]

that is literally a slow web... I bet they would pay Verizon to be even slower...

[ThomPete]

I call this the slow feed movement :)

[btbuildem]

FWIW, my rule of thumb to determine if something is "fast food": If you paid before you ate, it was fast food.

[randallsquared]

So everything you make at home from ingredients purchased earlier is fast food? ;) I think some additional clauses may be required...

[tendom]

I dunno, the whole fast casual movement seems to be catching on here. And most of the fast casual places are catering to people who want a fast meal but with real, fresh, non-processed ingredients. My rule would put a lot more focus on the existence of a drive through window and pre-processed ingredients.