211–220 of 495 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I recently quit all social media. There was a bit of withdrawal but I can confirm that my attention span has started coming back.
It’s easy to quit, but how did you manage to fill empty time that you’ve suddenly gotten?
What I miss more than anything else is having an attention span. Years of abusing social media has left my brain pinballing all over the place. I am a collection of unfinished thoughts. Even as I write this, I can feel my mind needing to latch onto something new.
I need to look for more examples of the art of the future. The one paragraph short story (4chan greentexts I guess), the 20 second hit single.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Regarding photos: People our age only have a few childhood pictures, and they are warped by time on analog media. Those pictures of us as a kid look really old because they are naturally filtered. Soon people will wonder WTF old-pic filters are for, and some historian will have to explain why it's blurred and the colors are faded. Also why did people have clothes for each decade? Our kids, by contrast, have had pictu…
Looking back, I wish everyone had taken pictures of everyday life (probably with an Instamatic). Christmas pictures, awards, meh. What I really want are pictures of the halls in high school, street racing, parties with giant bonfires and beer.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you been to a college campus in the last two or three years? There is a serious smartphone addiction problem. It is seriously worrying to see so many of my peers craning their necks, starting at their phone for hours on end. On the bus, in class, while hanging out, it is an observable fact that everyone is almost always on their phone. I personally believe we are in a watershed moment for human civilization. The…
Have a look at this counterargument: https://www.sadanduseless.com/evil-iphones/
These are two completely different things.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You aren't kidding, I'm also seeing a trend of people claiming that any information that doesn't match their viewpoint must be faked or dishonest.
The issue isn't that people are just huffing, crossing their arms, and crying fake news. The issue is that they are able to bring up 100 different sites supporting their claims. The person they are arguing with, obviously knows that the other is an idiot because they have 100 different sites supporting their claims! In a way, we've regressed back before we had the answer machine at our fingertips. You don't really kn…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have a look at this counterargument: https://www.sadanduseless.com/evil-iphones/
The principal purpose of a newspaper in the olden days was not to seize your attention, trap you into scrolling onto endless feeds, or relieve one from every moment of boredem with YouTube. These are two completely different things.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And he doesn't even mention that you could just be outside, and be unreachable and not able to reach other people too. As a kid I used to play outside a lot, and my mother had no clue where I was, nor could she easily find out. I could be outside all day without her worrying that I'd be abducted or involved in an accident. Now that all has completely changed, and my mother has too. Some years ago when I walked into t…
What the actual...? One would hope the cops at least apologized for nearly destroying your front door all because you didn't answer the door. It's not like they had a warrant for your arrest or something!
We had a SWAT team destroy a fence with an armored vehicle during a standoff and they were just like, "not my problem."
Apparently they don't want to have to make decisions based on cost.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wanted to say this. I hate how small the world has become and how we're supposed to be "reachable" all the time. Some of my friends will freak out if I don't text back in as little as 5 minutes. A particular needy friend once tried to get me to "promise" that I would always return her texts within 10 minutes. I said "hard no" explaining that it meant that it meant that I could never watch a movie uninterrupted, rea…
> I have purposefully started training my friends by being erratic with my texts/messages/e-mails I would very much like to do what you say but with a million interrupts a day, it is now or never. If I neglect / defer something now, I would likely get back to it next week. Even for work. I do find time to focus 4 hours on some work activities but those are just the high priority visible stuff otherwise maybe if someo…
As someone that lives life like this, yes, that's the point. If it's really important, they can ping me again and remind me to respond. Or when I have some downtime I'll peruse through my messages and emails again and stumble upon it and remember to reply.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you been to a college campus in the last two or three years? There is a serious smartphone addiction problem. It is seriously worrying to see so many of my peers craning their necks, starting at their phone for hours on end. On the bus, in class, while hanging out, it is an observable fact that everyone is almost always on their phone. I personally believe we are in a watershed moment for human civilization. The…
Is any of this backed by real facts or just your "kids these days" observations? Today's youth is better suited for dealing with smartphones and the overall connected world than we could ever be. All the people I know with real technological addiction problems (whether to smartphones, social media, scams, online radicalization or anything else) are like 45+.
Exactly. No one is safe. Everyone I know in my age group (15-26) can not exist without opening up their smartphone every 5 seconds to check social media or watch YouTube.
There was a good documentary about this topic called The Social Network. You may have heard of it. I think it is a good starting point to this way of thinking.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The principal purpose of a newspaper in the olden days was not to seize your attention, trap you into scrolling onto endless feeds, or relieve one from every moment of boredem with YouTube. These are two completely different things.
Also not the principal purpose of the iPhone.