damn i should've bet somebody that this would go mainstream one day
‘Luddite’ Teens
141–150 of 297 posts
Re: ‘Luddite’ Teens
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
Basically, yes, because a lot of people don't really know what being pretentious or a hipster actually means. The passage of time has lead to both terms being misunderstood and simultaneously conflated. In order for someone to actually be pretentious, there has to be a pretense. Being purposefully non-mainstream doesn't make someone pretentious as much as a more normal individual would like to believe. Hipsters aren'…
I've got a theory that the TV show Firefly is appreciated today because it got cancelled before it was popular; they quit when they were ahead and before popularity ruined it. But most Firefly fans seem to hate my theory.
Firefly was a mistake,
in that the corporate machine made a mistake in not extracting all that it could from it in follow-up seasons, movies, sequels, etc.
You know how good a movie is by how many sequels it took to kill it.
Re: ‘Luddite’ Teens
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t think beatniks particularly wore the equivalent $150+ Doc Martens. Tangent, I really enjoyed reading On the Road
Some pay $150+, some go to the thrift store. True beat-fashion or not, I would never malign someone for choosing quality footwear.
I looked up a 1950s advertisement for similar boots and saw a pair for $12.95, plugged that and 1955 into the inflation calculator and it came out to $144.41. So not too far off really
Re: ‘Luddite’ Teens
#144I respect the teens that are doing this, for whatever reason, but I think reading too much into a trend piece is a mistake. I don't know these kids, and maybe they are 100% genuine, but the whole thing strikes me as being about the aesthetic and the fashion above all else. Wanting to be different to be different, and the best way to do that is to reject that digital society that we are all in now.
When I was their age, I was similar -- down to wearing the trendiest of trendy clothing items (that were designed to not look overly trendy, but anyone in the know would know that they were), while still thinking myself some sort of "outsider." We had a communist club (despite all of us really being capitalists and having rich parents and benefitting immensely from capitalism), we rejected television as a lesser medium (despite secretly loving our favorite shows), upheld the virtues of "arthouse cinema" (which, you know what, fair -- I still love arthouse cinema) and we only listened to certain types of music -- on vinyl (some things never change) -- and this was just ahead of the vinyl resurgence. But secretly, a lot of us still listened to pop music on MP3s in our bedrooms, watched the same trash TV we claimed to reject, and enjoyed the same populist commercial films. It was an outward rejection, but not who we really were. It was aesthetic and fashion and came out of reading and loving Kerouac and Salinger and Thompson (authors I still love) and wanting to feel like we weren't part of the suburban bubble we were painfully part of.
I look back at my pretentious, self-important 16 year old self and I don't feel pity or regret, but I see it for what it is, and it was about fashion and aesthetic and wanting to signify to the world that I was "different." But the irony is that feeling different is one of the most universal feelings a person can have.
Again, I don't know these teenagers. And maybe they are completely genuine. I don't judge them or think less of them if it is all an aesthetic. Or if some of this is a purposeful troll. But there is still an irony about a Luddite club being profiled by the biggest media organization in the world and going viral on the very platform they claim to reject.
I do dig the aesthetic tho. I would absolutely carry a flip phone for just the aesthetic today (you can tear my iPhone from my cold dead hands).
Re: ‘Luddite’ Teens
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
They aren’t jealous of the tech. They are jealous of not being included. They might not get invited to events or understand their friends jokes because they weren’t part of the group chats. This can make them resent their parents and give them social anxiety. Kids can be very cruel and lack the empathy skills to understand why their friend isn’t allowed a phone. Overdoing it either direction can be a serious mistake.
>They are jealous of not being included. It's better to instill in kids early that it's important to cultivate deep rather than wide social connections. Teaching your kid to stand up for themselves and make friends that don't care about blue chat bubbles or fashionable clothes is necessary. Because there's always gonna be some group you're not going to be cool enough to be a part of. Maybe you're not pretty enough, a…
> Teaching your kid to stand up for themselves
But they aren't standing up for themselves. They're standing up for decisions forced on them by their parents.
> make friends that don't care about blue chat bubbles or fashionable clothes is necessary
It has nothing to do with being cool (and I've never heard of anyone referencing blue chat bubbles that wasn't using it derogatorily like you are). It's about not being unable to communicate with people. Like, they may have friends who want to invite them to a party but don't because they put the event on (whatever app is cool). Your kids don't see it and therefore don't go to an event everyone wanted them to go to.
Re: ‘Luddite’ Teens
#146This is interesting but I can't help but notice how intensely performative these kids are as well, at least how they're characterized in this article. They're wearing Carhartt (an unusual choice for a metropolis like NYC), reading Dostoyevski and gathering to "listen to the wind." I will say most teens are like this and I certainly was myself, but I hope they are careful not to cultivate their own "artisan" brand of…
>This is interesting but I can't help but notice how intensely performative these kids are as well, at least how they're characterized in this article.
I mean, they are teenagers. I said this in a longer comment in this thread, but teenagers tend to be performative. That's sort of the point of growing up and finding yourself.
Re: ‘Luddite’ Teens
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
> mostly miss the GPS and music I mostly go phoneless if at all possible. I use an old ipod nano for music. It's much better at it than the phone because it is so tiny and thin (and has a headphone jack). For GPS my watch (Garmin) has GPS.
Yep, my 10-year old uses a 17-year old nano for music. I've stockpiled a few 30-pin cables. With a USB A-toC adaptor it works fine on M1 MBP and is fully supported! It blew my mind that just a year or two ago I plugged it in and it got a firmware update. The only worry I have is whether I'll be able to replace the battery when it finally needs it.
Plenty of batteries on ebay and amazon!
Re: ‘Luddite’ Teens
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
>They are jealous of not being included. It's better to instill in kids early that it's important to cultivate deep rather than wide social connections. Teaching your kid to stand up for themselves and make friends that don't care about blue chat bubbles or fashionable clothes is necessary. Because there's always gonna be some group you're not going to be cool enough to be a part of. Maybe you're not pretty enough, a…
> Teaching your kid to stand up for themselves But they aren't standing up for themselves. They're standing up for decisions forced on them by their parents. > make friends that don't care about blue chat bubbles or fashionable clothes is necessary It has nothing to do with being cool (and I've never heard of anyone referencing blue chat bubbles that wasn't using it derogatorily like you are). It's about not being un…
> But they aren't standing up for themselves. They're standing up for decisions forced on them by their parents.
They're learning how to deal with adversity created by circumstances beyond their control.
Re: ‘Luddite’ Teens
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
The next step after this epiphany is to realize you can do this without actually giving up the phone. Just because it's in your pocket doesn't mean you need to pull it out constantly and look at it. It's just a tool, relegate it to that position in your life and don't use it like a pacifier.
That's not realistic. The phone is calling out, begging you to pay attention to it, and makes itself more difficult to use the less you want to be entangled. You just have to put it away. If it's a tool, treat it like a tool. You don't carry a hammer in your pocket all day.
Your phone calls out to you? I guess when I receive a message it does. But that's why very few apps are allowed push notifications.
Re: ‘Luddite’ Teens
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
The next step after this epiphany is to realize you can do this without actually giving up the phone. Just because it's in your pocket doesn't mean you need to pull it out constantly and look at it. It's just a tool, relegate it to that position in your life and don't use it like a pacifier.
That's not realistic. The phone is calling out, begging you to pay attention to it, and makes itself more difficult to use the less you want to be entangled. You just have to put it away. If it's a tool, treat it like a tool. You don't carry a hammer in your pocket all day.
>The phone is calling out, begging you to pay attention to it
No, it doesn't; it's you who carves to escape into the phone. I wish it would call me sometimes to at least remember to keep it charged.