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90% of Waking Hours Spent Staring at Glowing Rectangles (2009)

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Re: 90% of Waking Hours Spent Staring at Glowing Rectangles (2009)

#11

Post by bronco21016 »

The new Croods movie makes a great joke of this. The cavemen come across a slightly more modern group of people and they have windows. One of the cave kids becomes obsessed with watching out the window and even builds a portable window to watch the world through.

Love when they give the parents little pieces of humor like that!

Re: 90% of Waking Hours Spent Staring at Glowing Rectangles (2009)

#12

Post by repsilat »

Because this thread always needs someone to say the obvious truth: "Screen time" isn't the most useful concept. Maybe it was in the TV days (though with diverse programming it may not have been), but with phones/tablets/laptops it's as broad a label as "technology company".

Are we talking about chatting with friends? Doing work? Watching a show? Playing a game? Reading the news? A novel? Meeting with people? Organising transport? Finding a place to eat?

There is a diversity of rectangles, and for each rectangle there is a diversity of uses.

Re: 90% of Waking Hours Spent Staring at Glowing Rectangles (2009)

#14

Post by PurpleFoxy »

repsilat wrote: post #12

Because this thread always needs someone to say the obvious truth: "Screen time" isn't the most useful concept. Maybe it was in the TV days (though with diverse programming it may not have been), but with phones/tablets/laptops it's as broad a label as "technology company". Are we talking about chatting with friends? Doing work? Watching a show? Playing a game? Reading the news? A novel? Meeting with people? Organisi…

Yep, I have an iPad which I use purely for drawing. Technically it counts as screen time but the activity is really no different to drawing on paper. Unless perhaps you are studying eye strain

Re: 90% of Waking Hours Spent Staring at Glowing Rectangles (2009)

#15

Post by Bakary »

I'd be overjoyed at the prospect of a life with meaningful activities and interactions that don't require a screen. I have yet to succeed in making much progress towards that goal.

It bothers me that instead of adapting the tool to us we have adapted ourselves to the tool.

Re: 90% of Waking Hours Spent Staring at Glowing Rectangles (2009)

#16

Post by FartyMcFarter »

repsilat wrote: post #12

Because this thread always needs someone to say the obvious truth: "Screen time" isn't the most useful concept. Maybe it was in the TV days (though with diverse programming it may not have been), but with phones/tablets/laptops it's as broad a label as "technology company". Are we talking about chatting with friends? Doing work? Watching a show? Playing a game? Reading the news? A novel? Meeting with people? Organisi…

Reductionism is fun.

"90% of waking hours spent activating tendons in response to electrical impulses".

Re: 90% of Waking Hours Spent Staring at Glowing Rectangles (2009)

#18

Post by hombre_fatal »

repsilat wrote: post #12

Because this thread always needs someone to say the obvious truth: "Screen time" isn't the most useful concept. Maybe it was in the TV days (though with diverse programming it may not have been), but with phones/tablets/laptops it's as broad a label as "technology company". Are we talking about chatting with friends? Doing work? Watching a show? Playing a game? Reading the news? A novel? Meeting with people? Organisi…

All of us with seldom exception use our glowing rectangles as addictive dopamine drips that exploit our innate desire to scavenge for information that ends up disconnecting us from the world and, likely, things we actually find fulfilling. And we watch our own children suffer the exact same way and wonder what can actually be done about it.

There was a submission this morning or yesterday about "if we could live our lives over" where many HNers were lamenting how they felt like they were wasting their precious hours. How many of those people would say that their screen time wasn't contributing? Or that it was actually fulfilling?

Not sure who here relates to the idea of spending the bulk of their screen time organizing transport and planning dinner parties or whatever. Or the idea of "no, I actually do like how much time I spend on and I'm trying to get those numbers up even higher."

For some reason whenever this topic comes up, we have people playing coy with what "screen time" could possibly be referring to. "What, you're saying it's bad to use my iPhone to Facetime my dying father?"

Re: 90% of Waking Hours Spent Staring at Glowing Rectangles (2009)

#20

Post by SllX »

repsilat wrote: post #12

Because this thread always needs someone to say the obvious truth: "Screen time" isn't the most useful concept. Maybe it was in the TV days (though with diverse programming it may not have been), but with phones/tablets/laptops it's as broad a label as "technology company". Are we talking about chatting with friends? Doing work? Watching a show? Playing a game? Reading the news? A novel? Meeting with people? Organisi…

True, but isn’t that why vendors that track screen time also offer a means of categorizing it? At least Apple does, I’m fairly certain Android does.

I’d be interested in seeing this extended to “listening time” as well since I probably use my headphones and speakers more than I use the glowing rectangles.

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