Being away from the mundane world really does put the mind at ease.
It's full of ugly, unpleasant things — or bright, obnoxious ones.
For most of my life this has been my default mode — going long stretches where I essentially never look at society, trends, or people. I only follow and look at things I'm actually interested in — that's always been the case. The question is whether the added condition of "not having to see it; having nothing outside what I want to look at enter my field of vision" applies or not.
For example, even when looking at Yahoo News or YouTube, the noise is overwhelming. So I'd been making a habit of using content blockers like uBlock heavily to cut unpleasant and unnecessary information out of my cognitive field — but lately that practice had grown dull. I'd become more receptive, you could say.
There are things you learn that way, things you can correct and improve — of course. But it's exhausting, structurally inefficient, and sometimes damages your mood and sense of peace.
Being away from the world and doing things on your own terms is comfortable. And you can reach something close to a superhuman state quickly, without the mess.
The internet is convenient, but it also invites that kind of unpleasant information. My brief obsession with natural language analysis was solely for the sake of content blocking.
Now, with the commoditization of AI (LLMs), I may be able to level up my own wellness in a qualitative sense.