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Internet is the new boogeyman. TV used to be it. Radio was it one time. Hell, _novels_ were treated this way. The one thing they all have in common is being new behavior patterns that people can worry and kvetch about.
That said I don't read nearly as many books as I did in high school. Books are wonderful things and can be a portal to a novel frame of mind. But then again my life is much busier these days and there are more demands on my time which are not responsibly ignored... So I cherish HN as a flourishing intellectual community, in easily digestible chunks. A bit like the "periodical" era of newspapers a century or two ago.
I mean, yes, I mostly read things online nowadays, but... I'm still reading, it's just on the computer now.
Internet is the new boogeyman. TV used to be it. Radio was it one time. Hell, _novels_ were treated this way. The one thing they all have in common is being new behavior patterns that people can worry and kvetch about.
I agree with you somewhat, but there's something unique about the internet I think is dangerous: there's no clear boundaries of when to stop. Radio stations would stop broadcasting, you reach the end of a book, and tv shows end. But, the internet just keeps going. You can just keep scrolling and clicking through website after website until you die, with very little prompt that it's time to stop.
Internet is the new boogeyman. TV used to be it. Radio was it one time. Hell, _novels_ were treated this way. The one thing they all have in common is being new behavior patterns that people can worry and kvetch about.
That helps put it into perspective for me. I can watch the stimulation and consumption from the outside, so to speak, and get a helpful picture of what's going on in my life.
Internet is the new boogeyman. TV used to be it. Radio was it one time. Hell, _novels_ were treated this way. The one thing they all have in common is being new behavior patterns that people can worry and kvetch about.
None of those things have the addictive and distraction power of the Internet. Along with the Internet has come ubiquitous things like laptops, tablets, and cellphones. It is an actual problem, not one for people to merely "worry and kvetch about".
I imagine a large segment of humanity has always looked for addictions.
An aside, I find it a bit interesting that at some point we stopped talking about internet and game addiction. It used to be a hot topic, but I guess now that we are all completely addicted after decade of intense behavioral experimentation, none of us are interested in reading about it anymore.
What tech flair these days makes you look "Ahead of the game?".
For me it's either:
(a) using an MCU for a substantial project that isn't an Raspberry PI or Arduino (hello STM or NXP).
(b) a github repo that proves I know how to use Jest, Nuxt, ESLint, Grunt, Gradle, Gulp, or some combination of the latest CI/CD/UI frameworks.
(c) being followed on twitter by someone famous.
Also discussions on sites like this have expanded my articulation and understanding of many concepts and topics. I spent a lot of time, years, dedicating a significant potion of my life to reading educational material of all sorts.
I don't know if I use the internet differently, maybe, I don't use Facebook or twitter or tiktok or any of that. We forget the access to information we have, it would be unimaginable 30 years ago. I can delve into literally any topic I want as deep as I want to go, I can read any book I want right now, for free if I were so inclined.
With the right perspective the internet is the ultimate medium for books (ebooks and audiobooks) and it's easier to read hundreds or thousands of books than it has ever been in history.