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Are smartphones the new 'opium of the people'?

bbc.com

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Re: Are smartphones the new 'opium of the people'?

#51

Post by dang »

jfk13 wrote: post #38
rimunroe wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yours appears to have been submitted after this one.

Curious - is your conclusion based on the id? (Are those sequential?) I assumed this one was more recent based on the timestamp that shows on the items. Currently, I see "4 hours ago" for this item, and "5 hours ago" for the link I submitted. But maybe there's more to it than that?

IDs are sequential and immutable. Timestamps can shift around as part of the re-upping process described at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19774614. But I don't think that happened with either of these submissions.

Re: Are smartphones the new 'opium of the people'?

#52

Post by samhain »

koboll wrote: post #24
cneurotic wrote: post #7

For me, what's missing from the 'smartphone' // 'religion' analogy is — passion. The emotional tenor of my relationship with my phone looks — and, I'm sure — very different from the way people relate to their faiths. Facebook, YouTube, etc don't feel like 'movements' to me, like the article's author said. At least, I don't have the passion that a 'movement' seems to imply. For me, smartphoning is an emotional gray zo…

Phones are the opium of the masses; religion is the methamphetamine.

Have you seen the statistics for young people showing that they are in significant decline for relationships, marriage, sex, drinking? My theory is that they are just sitting at home on their phones.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the...

Re: Are smartphones the new 'opium of the people'?

#53

Post by [deleted] »

buboard wrote: post #43
cyphar wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you read The Communist Manifesto, or Das Kapital? Is there a particular aspect you are referring to as being "addictive"? I would argue "workplaces should be democratic" (which is a very rudimentary one-sentence synopsis of Marxism) is only an addictive idea if you consider democracy to be addictive in the same manner. And maybe it is, but then you have to ask yourself -- is an idea being so good that it becomes…

put the phrase "opium of the masses" in its original context. Religion was the "illusory happiness of the people" for marx. 50 years later, one could say the same about Communism however. People believed in it , it made them feel good, but their belief ended up becoming a facade that masked their misery. I think this extends to politics in general, in particular Statist politics , which promise make the individual as…

[deleted]

Re: Are smartphones the new 'opium of the people'?

#54

Post by dondawest »

goto11 wrote: post #46
dondawest wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s an inherently addictive thought that “the current system is wrong and there’s another system that would be better if only people would listen.” It becomes even more addictive when there’s other people willing to give you dopamine/affirmation for your beliefs. You see its addictive nature today in the sparse numbers of people who achieve “sobriety” from communism after becoming addicted to its theories.

What thing would not be addictive given that reasoning? "Dopamine" make it sound sinister, but if everything which gives you enjoyment or feels meaningful is addictive, then basically everything anybody does by their own volition would be addictive.

[flagged]

Re: Are smartphones the new 'opium of the people'?

#55

Post by dang »

dondawest wrote: post #54
goto11 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What thing would not be addictive given that reasoning? "Dopamine" make it sound sinister, but if everything which gives you enjoyment or feels meaningful is addictive, then basically everything anybody does by their own volition would be addictive.

[flagged]

Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to Hacker News? and especially please not post in the flamewar style, such as https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20434596? We're trying for a bit better than internet default here.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Are smartphones the new 'opium of the people'?

#56

Post by dondawest »

dang wrote: post #55
dondawest wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to Hacker News? and especially please not post in the flamewar style, such as https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20434596 ? We're trying for a bit better than internet default here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

I don’t know what to tell you dude. My comments are substantive. What about them makes you label them unsubstantive? That seems extremely judgmental and censorious to me. I’m trying for a bit better than internet default too. But I don’t understand why you label my substantive comments unsubstantive.
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