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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)

#51

Post by aeternum »

Barrin92 wrote: post #38
cle wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, my first reaction to this was “90% of waking hours spent staring at atoms.” I can describe life in even more absurd ways if I try, but what’s the point?

Well one point is that information exchanged through a screen is always mediated (in contrast to the physical world). Screens have a form factor, screens usually have a third party organising the content that is being exchanged. Screens are flat surfaces. You operate through screens in a sort of purely functional input-output rather than spontaneous way. So the screen being a technological and commercial artifact, im…

Every medium of interaction, even human to human has rules and limitations on the interaction.

In-person human to human interaction also has some significant negatives. It's very low bandwidth as information must be transmitted mostly via voice which is lossy and prone to misinterpretation on either end. Attempts to terminate interactions early may have negative effects on future ability open an interaction with that individual. The in-person protocol also forces you to transmit visual sidechannel information, including biometric details. Other individuals can and will judge you throughout the interaction based on these biometric details.

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

#52

Post by neilpanchal »

solarkraft wrote: post #48
neilpanchal wrote: post #33

2009 rectangles were pretty cool. They had scroll bars that were visible at all times, minimal whitespace and generally better usability and functionality. No purple gradients and huge buttons, responsive mess that serve what I consider mobile-first-desktop-last rectangles. It's becoming harder to find pure rectangles even, they've become soft baby-like with rounded corners to sooth our senses! Here are some relics w…

The silk icons are fine visually, but way too complex to tell them apart quickly. [2] looks like an example of the headache badly mixed typography can cause. Those are opinions, of course, but I don't think the basics (like soothed senses) are controversial, many of which can be objectively studied.

2030 rectangles are back to pure retro forms! Most design today is based on trends, and hardly any objectivity: https://www.google.com/search?q=design+trends

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

#53

Post by onecommentman »

raldi wrote: post #23
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…

Right. Did people clutch pearls over "paper time" when they would wake up and read a newspaper, stare at papers all day at work/school, a magazine during their lunch break, and read a book before falling asleep?

Why, in the 1700s, they did.

https://www.historytoday.com/archive/media’s-first-moral-pan...

https://didyouknowfacts.com/facts/as-novels-became-more-prom...

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-Novel-Reading-Pani...

Some went so far as to ban reading for certain groups.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_during_the_slave_per...

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

#54

Post by polishdude20 »

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…

It's easy to think that because we can't see exactly what people are doing on their phone (we physically only see them staring at a glowing screen unless we stand behind them and snoop) we default to saying exactly what we see: People staring at glowing rectangular screens. This sort of thinking about cell phone use is incredibly lazy.

When I'm reading a book, I'm not just staring at a binding of paper. When I'm listening to music, I'm not just sticking earbuds into my ears and staring blankly at the wall. Has the author ever used a phone before? Or are they just glowing rectangles to them?

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

#55

Post by polishdude20 »

dannyw wrote: post #39
cle wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, my first reaction to this was “90% of waking hours spent staring at atoms.” I can describe life in even more absurd ways if I try, but what’s the point?

We have an amazingly beautiful world, from lush forests to deep blue oceans, with billions of wonderful humans, yet we choose to spend the vast majority of time on a virtual world we’ve created.

Technically, that virtual world is still part of this world. Wonderful humans created those virtual worlds where you can probably find more wonderful humans.

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

#56

Post by pmg102 »

dannyw wrote: post #43
Bakary wrote: post #15

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.

There are plenty, at least pre-pandemic. • Explore a national park, go on a few hikes (guided by paper maps and a compass), and refine your photography skills with a DSLR/mirrorless. Budget ones can be had for a couple hundred dollars and they still beat phone cameras. • Cook something with your friends, or go out and eat dinner. • Play some board games, join a dungeon and dragons game. A great thing to do when the w…

I've tried a number of these activities. What I've found is that most if not all the ones I've tried require and imply screen time. I go down rabbit holes of scrolling phone for the perfect sofa, the perfect cycling jersey, the best mountain airbnb, and so on.

The only real way to escape smartphones is to live a 1970s life where the only things you know come from other people or the radio/tv. I have a slight yen to try this but I can't bear to actually try it. It would be like cutting off a limb. I'd be so information poor.

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

#57

Post by username90 »

momokoko wrote: post #29
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…

I think this is a strange thing to hear from being a bit older. 30-40 years ago, most people did not spend their time reading the paper and watching TV. There was vastly more time spent interacting directly with friends and family as well as hobbies and interests that were not consuming media. It was much more common for people to stop by, often unannounced and hang out and talk for several hours. Just talking in per…

Most people certainly sat the entire evening in front of the TV 30 years ago. Even today old people sit over 7 hours a day in front of the TV since they haven't adapted to newer media yet.

https://www.statista.com/chart/15224/daily-tv-consumption-by...

For history you can see that about 30-40 years ago people watched 7 hours of TV per day, then it went up to 9 and now it goes down again as people start using computers instead. I don't think this is a bad development switching from TV to computers.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/05/when-...

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

#58

Post by Bakary »

dannyw wrote: post #43
Bakary wrote: post #15

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.

There are plenty, at least pre-pandemic. • Explore a national park, go on a few hikes (guided by paper maps and a compass), and refine your photography skills with a DSLR/mirrorless. Budget ones can be had for a couple hundred dollars and they still beat phone cameras. • Cook something with your friends, or go out and eat dinner. • Play some board games, join a dungeon and dragons game. A great thing to do when the w…

These are all great suggestions. I've certainly enjoyed many of these activities (well, before 2020 I suppose). What drives me crazy is that getting a job that doesn't involve a computer implies some serious tradeoffs, while the computer also bleeds into many of these occupations you listed (especially when needing to learn something).

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

#59

Post by tim333 »

neilpanchal wrote: post #33

2009 rectangles were pretty cool. They had scroll bars that were visible at all times, minimal whitespace and generally better usability and functionality. No purple gradients and huge buttons, responsive mess that serve what I consider mobile-first-desktop-last rectangles. It's becoming harder to find pure rectangles even, they've become soft baby-like with rounded corners to sooth our senses! Here are some relics w…

>minimal whitespace

Your examples seem to have plenty of whitespace, at least 1 and 2 do. That said I quite like whitespace.

I think there much to be said for sites that look like traditional nicely done books eg https://bikes-n-stuff.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/IMG_922... which is a look which evolved over many decades.

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

#60

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

whydoineedthis wrote: post #46
TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? My friend wrote her dissertation in 1989 or 1990 on the affects of television on children. The affects were dire. We’ve known about this a long time, even before screens were interactive.

Really? (No pun or /s intended). I grew up in the 80's and 90's watching a significant amount of television. Myself and my like friends seem to be ok. Didn't go mad or become dumb. Matter of fact, we seem to excell in the digital age because of how familiar we are with the tech behind the television. I'm not saying there could not be some detrimental effect, but it seems the research stating as such was a bit overblo…

Yep. I agree. Nevertheless, the research was there.
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