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An open letter to India’s youth: Get off that smartphone. It can destroy you

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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Re: An open letter to India’s youth: Get off that smartphone. It can destroy you

#41

Post by paulryanrogers »

kardianos wrote: post #35
jhbadger wrote: post #27

I'm old enough to remember when it was TV that was supposedly wasting the time and destroying the youth. Before that, it was comic books. And movies. And even in the 19th century people were complaining about novels. Yes, in theory it is better if people do something constructive rather than just enjoy entertainment. But people can't be 100% in productive mode 100% of the time.

I call survivor bias. Books without action can render useless. TV can consume countless hours and does eat lives. Smartphones are the same, but more so. We must recognize the danger all these thing. Information without physical action is a danger.

Taken to an extreme simply talking to--and visiting--friends a lot can be considered a useless waste. For example, loitering is forbidden in many retail places yet it's become culturally accepted use of indoor malls for teenagers (pre-COVID).

Life requires balance. And everyone gets to decide what they do with their down time.

Re: An open letter to India’s youth: Get off that smartphone. It can destroy you

#42

Post by yesenadam »

strategyanalyst wrote: post #21
tgv wrote: post #3

Quick link for info on the author: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chetan_Bhagat , an investement banker turned novel and screen writer, who also writes about the Indian society. I had never heard of him, but "He was included in Time magazine's list of World's 100 Most Influential People in 2010."

Chetan Bhagat is like a low brow JK Rowling of India. Most Indian authors in 90's wrote with aim of trying to win a Booker by writing needlessly esoteric prose and themes which appealed to Western readers, he wrote books in simple English with Indian urban characters. He is probably the most popular author alive in India right now.

Thank you. I looked him up.. and found that the movie 3 Idiots was loosely based on his first novel! I love that movie so much, and it got me into the wonderful world of 21st C Indian cinema.

3 Idiots (2009) and PK (2014) are my favourites. The best of the other recent Indian movies I've seen:

Barfi! (2012), Mardaani (2014), Lagaan (2001), Rocket Singh (2009), Dangal (2016), Dabba (2013), Black (2005), Rang de Basanti (2006), Taare Zameen Par (2007), Dhobi Ghat (2010), Secret Superstar (2017), My Name Is Khan (2010)

Re: An open letter to India’s youth: Get off that smartphone. It can destroy you

#43

Post by DecoPerson »

jhbadger wrote: post #27

I'm old enough to remember when it was TV that was supposedly wasting the time and destroying the youth. Before that, it was comic books. And movies. And even in the 19th century people were complaining about novels. Yes, in theory it is better if people do something constructive rather than just enjoy entertainment. But people can't be 100% in productive mode 100% of the time.

This is a logical fallacy. If you increase the dosage of mercury, it'll eventually be deadly. In the same vein, smart phones, social media, etc are entirely different beasts to books, radio and even television.

Re: An open letter to India’s youth: Get off that smartphone. It can destroy you

#44

Post by fakedang »

roenxi wrote: post #40
jhbadger wrote: post #27

I'm old enough to remember when it was TV that was supposedly wasting the time and destroying the youth. Before that, it was comic books. And movies. And even in the 19th century people were complaining about novels. Yes, in theory it is better if people do something constructive rather than just enjoy entertainment. But people can't be 100% in productive mode 100% of the time.

Although maybe the biggest concern being expressed is by the old who are in dire need of the youth working to look after them. From that perspective, the situation seems a little sad.

Considering the amount of time my relatives and parents spend on Facebook and increasingly Instagram, I don't know who's raising concerns here. It's likely the really old elders (70+ folks who don't know their way around a mobile app).

There's a huge segment of the Indian youth population (around 30% iirc) that's underemployed or unemployed, that spends a lot of time on Facebook and Instagram. There's a reason India has the highest consumption among all countries in Facebook and Insta, yet one of the lowest ad revenue rates - advertisers simply don't find value advertising to these fellows.

Re: An open letter to India’s youth: Get off that smartphone. It can destroy you

#45

Post by sbmthakur »

julianlam wrote: post #22
skrebbel wrote: post #14

I think this is a good message, but by making the phone the problem I fear the author misses a fundamental connection to the youth he addresses. The issue is what you do on a phone, not the phone itself. In fact, phones make it a lot easier to create and not just consume, than televisions did back in the author's youth. And I bet there were similar anti-TV op-eds in newspapers in those days that the author would have…

> The message should've been to create, not consume. This needs to be said more and more with each passing year. I became aware of this phenomenon back in the early 2000s, with Facebook gaining popularity among my friends, and blogs were gradually losing steam -- people aren't creating anymore, but simply consuming media, and therein lies the problem: how can you express independent thought when your media consumptio…

..create, not consume

A nice essay on this was posted to HN last year.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20781463

Re: An open letter to India’s youth: Get off that smartphone. It can destroy you

#46

Post by raverbashing »

romanoderoma wrote: post #34
raverbashing wrote: post #12

No, it's not the youth that has to get off their phones It's the older generation. They are the ones lacking critical skills and ability to understand what goes on Fb, etc Edit: I don't see why this is so controversial. Younger people do stupid stuff on their phones, but they're more open to learning from their mistakes The older generation has a more inflexible mindset and hasn't been on the internet/social media fo…

I'll tell you a story: I was born not so long ago, but before internet existed and I had my first connection at the age of 19 in 1995. When I was a kid I grew up between the city and the country I knew about animals, how they behaved, what they ate and what was their role (cows for milk, chickens made eggs, pigs for ham) Fast forward 30 years, my nephews know every burger place around and where to eat the best chicke…

> It might look an extreme example, but as a tech worker I see that younger generations have a way to using technology that is more immediate but is also more shallow

Perfectly described. And yes, this is a factor.

But though it is more shallow technically, I think it's a more profound connection socially (while lacking the life experience of the older generations).

Think of the "dangers" every parent warns their kids against. They're right in spirit but they're outdated in the technology/methods (and think they are immune to it - or maybe they never were)

Re: An open letter to India’s youth: Get off that smartphone. It can destroy you

#47

Post by coldpie »

DecoPerson wrote: post #43
jhbadger wrote: post #27

I'm old enough to remember when it was TV that was supposedly wasting the time and destroying the youth. Before that, it was comic books. And movies. And even in the 19th century people were complaining about novels. Yes, in theory it is better if people do something constructive rather than just enjoy entertainment. But people can't be 100% in productive mode 100% of the time.

This is a logical fallacy. If you increase the dosage of mercury, it'll eventually be deadly. In the same vein, smart phones, social media, etc are entirely different beasts to books, radio and even television.

And we'll adjust, as we always do. It's fine to have this discussion, but the position that it can "destroy you" and comparing it to a lethal dosage of mercury is on the extreme end of the discussion.

Re: An open letter to India’s youth: Get off that smartphone. It can destroy you

#49

Post by im3w1l »

coldpie wrote: post #31
julianlam wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The message should've been to create, not consume. This needs to be said more and more with each passing year. I became aware of this phenomenon back in the early 2000s, with Facebook gaining popularity among my friends, and blogs were gradually losing steam -- people aren't creating anymore, but simply consuming media, and therein lies the problem: how can you express independent thought when your media consumptio…

Nah. People are more creative now than they have ever been. You just haven't followed them to the new platforms. On the Internet, go check out SoundCloud and YouTube and Instagram and TikTok and Open Source communities. Off the Internet, go check in with your local independent radio, theatre communities, and maker spaces. Creativity is exploding. People haven't stagnated; you have.

Can we quantify this?

Re: An open letter to India’s youth: Get off that smartphone. It can destroy you

#50

Post by Ericson2314 »

paulryanrogers wrote: post #41
kardianos wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I call survivor bias. Books without action can render useless. TV can consume countless hours and does eat lives. Smartphones are the same, but more so. We must recognize the danger all these thing. Information without physical action is a danger.

Taken to an extreme simply talking to--and visiting--friends a lot can be considered a useless waste. For example, loitering is forbidden in many retail places yet it's become culturally accepted use of indoor malls for teenagers (pre-COVID). Life requires balance. And everyone gets to decide what they do with their down time.

Loitering is a better use of land than metastasized retail. Anti-loitering is a fucked up policy on so many levels.

being synchronously social with other human beings is easily the last bad part of malls and phones.

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