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Attention didn’t collapse. It was stolen (2022)

theguardian.com

71–80 of 122 posts

Re: Attention didn’t collapse. It was stolen (2022)

#71
If there is a need to fix things, maybe it is a job for the church, or whatever entity holds spiritual power where you are.

I say that as an atheist, but it is the kind of things an organized religion can achieve, especially a state religion. The idea of taking the time to appreciate the work of god, and not let the smartphones of the devil leave you astray.

A secular government may act on technical points, maybe by raising taxes, imposing strict work hours, etc... But religions can really get to the core of the problem by acting on morals.

Note that it is not a solution I would agree with personally, but I don't agree with heavy-handed government regulation either. I think it is something we need to learn how to deal with as it is the reality of a superconnected world, and governments (and religions) can help with that. Not something to fight against.

Re: Attention didn’t collapse. It was stolen (2022)

#72

There seem to be a lot of comments cluck-clucking about personal responsibility, and government intervention is bad, and the way this is written is off-putting, and- And no acknowledgment about how many on here can't really give an unqualified opinion because of where their paychecks originate. I can, though, and here it is: We've done this before, with cigarette companies, treating them with kid gloves and trying to…

It's really a pointed question, isn't it, but cigarettes, and alcohol, and gambling, and porn, these are recreational, optional pursuits.

The smartphone and social communications are something which have been woven into the fabric of society, into our daily lives, our recreation and employment alike, our consumerism, our interaction with everyone, from government agencies to next-door neighbors alike.

So unlike the dude standing in the "no smoking" section with a cigarette, this epidemic will require far more intestinal fortitude and introspection for us to ultimately confront as detrimental, and it will be far more difficult for us to extricate ourselves from its tentacles.

Re: Attention didn’t collapse. It was stolen (2022)

#73
> Normally I follow the news every hour or so, getting a drip-feed of anxiety-provoking facts and trying to smush them together into some kind of sense. Instead, I simply read a physical newspaper once a day.

I really miss the newspaper as a daily thing with a front page, sections, and a finite set of articles. Online news outlets (not to mention social media) all seem to exist in an "infinite scroll" model of constantly rotating stories that never run out. To get the daily model, it seems like you have to order a physical paper, but that's less desirable on account of the waste and clutter.

Re: Attention didn’t collapse. It was stolen (2022)

#74
post #71

If there is a need to fix things, maybe it is a job for the church, or whatever entity holds spiritual power where you are. I say that as an atheist, but it is the kind of things an organized religion can achieve, especially a state religion. The idea of taking the time to appreciate the work of god, and not let the smartphones of the devil leave you astray. A secular government may act on technical points, maybe by…

Secular governments are no less able or prone to act on morals than religious institutions (and nominally religious organizations are no less prone than secular ones to be tools for an elite to manipulate the masses in pursuit of the elite’s secular interests, with moral appeals as purely cynical tools of manipulation.)

Re: Attention didn’t collapse. It was stolen (2022)

#75
I had one of those "blessings in disguise" circumstances around 2017. I had just purchased a shiny new "phone of my dreams"[0] to have it land face down on the concrete two days later resulting in a few large cracks.

I paid full price for the phone; it wasn't top of the line, I could afford to replace it but it wouldn't be "fun" -- and you can guess that I purchased no insurance. Owing to stubbornness and a general desire to punish myself a little so that I didn't make that mistake, again, I decided I'd continue to use it as long as the touch-screen accepted input and was basically usable (without injury).

I expected to put up with it for a few months. A few things happened: Doom scrolling basically stopped, entirely. When I visited social media, I'd prefer my laptop so the time I spent there was "maybe once in the evening" rather than any time "I had to wait". I became the obnoxious guy who replied to texts with phone calls[1], and wrote e-mail replies that were longer than the "Sent from my ..." notice (which none of my e-mails contained because all were sent from my well worn keyboard).

The phone didn't come out during dinners/meetings. To be clear: I don't feel the need to engage people in conversation simply because we're "both waiting for a meeting to start" and "we work together." But be the one guy in the room who doesn't have his phone out and just ... sit there. It's at least a little awkward; you sort of feel like a voyeur as everyone buries their nose in their screen as if the act of doing so makes them invisible to the outside world.

It takes a second, but someone will almost always look up and notice you're ... just ... sitting there. You can watch the expression change on their face as they question this odd social behavior but it eventually lands on: Someone seems to think we shouldn't have our phones out!. A "guilty look" and a sly "sneak it into the pocket/chair" action later and ... now there are two people, sitting quietly, watching a room of people staring down at screens. By the time the third person follows, someone feels the need to start small-talking and wow some folks are out of practice!

There were a few occasions where I thought I may have been giving off a look, unknown to myself. I really don't care about other's phone habits if I am not their parent or romantic partner. I write software and work with others who write software. Most of us our phone habits were excessive before "it was normal"; a few of you, somehow manage to handle conversation and Doom Scrolling simultaneously with minimal effort. So I occasionally found myself in the odd position of having to grant some sort of not-directly-requested-but-clearly-desired permission ... like I'd be doing exactly that if I could; don't mind me at all. It wasn't that I had a completely busted phone, it was just really inconvenient to read anything reasonable on; and I'd rather look at the dots in the ceiling tiles than remind myself of my $600 "dammit".

Outside of those weird situations, in smaller group/1:1 settings I've found if my phone isn't out, their phone will stay in their purse/pocket and we'll actually engage in whatever activity brought us away from our home/homes and into the world.

Going on a year, I had no interest in replacing the phone. I kept the broken screen phone for longer than I'd ever used a mobile device. As if to test my resolve, this phone refused to die. Eventually, on year 4.5, it stopped taking a charge. My new phone gets a little more use, but I'm much more aware of it, now. I'm the last person to take the thing out of my pocket; my notifications are customized to very quiet tones except for a small number of contacts so I know when it's worth "responding to the bell."

I'm not recommending anyone go out and take a hammer to their phone, or anything. That first few months took a lot of resolve to not just plunk down the MasterCard and fix my mistake, but I'm glad I didn't.

[0] It was a Samsung, but I can't remember which one.

[1] Having the additionally side-effect of eliminating text messages for things that a few seconds thought, or at worst -- Google -- could handle with fewer social obligations attached.

Re: Attention didn’t collapse. It was stolen (2022)

#76

All of these supposed revelations that companies try to make products that people will use were supposed to empower people to break free from these addictions Yet anecdotally, these narrative seem to give people more excuses to engage further with their addictions of choice. I’ve heard so many variations of “It’s not my fault I use so much (Facebook|TikTok|Reddit), don’t you know they have people employed to make the…

In our modern society, everyone is a victim and it's always someone else's fault. My opinion that people in America do have choices and their lives are the sum of those choices inevitably elicits a lot of rather angry responses. All the people I've gotten to know over the years are all where they are as a result of their choices. The interesting thing about deciding to own your choices is it's empowering - you can ch…

Humans have a limited amount of willpower. The average person can handle addressing a couple of these issues, but some people (especially the poor and the ill) have so many simultaneous issues that their willpower is too divided for them to make meaningful headway.

Re: Attention didn’t collapse. It was stolen (2022)

#77
I really enjoyed Stolen Focus. But that's because I wrote a similar book the same year.

Some of the most thought-provoking resources on this topic in my opinion are:

- Amusing Ourselves to Death

- Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television

- The Century of the Self

- The Shallows

- The Attention Merchants

- Much of William James philosophy

If anyone wants a copy of my book "Enough. Seeking less in a world of more." Send me an email and I'll gladly send you a free copy.

Re: Attention didn’t collapse. It was stolen (2022)

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In our modern society, everyone is a victim and it's always someone else's fault. My opinion that people in America do have choices and their lives are the sum of those choices inevitably elicits a lot of rather angry responses. All the people I've gotten to know over the years are all where they are as a result of their choices. The interesting thing about deciding to own your choices is it's empowering - you can ch…

Humans have a limited amount of willpower. The average person can handle addressing a couple of these issues, but some people (especially the poor and the ill) have so many simultaneous issues that their willpower is too divided for them to make meaningful headway.

> ill

I usually preface my comments on this topic with legal adults of sound mind and body.

> poor

The millions walking over the border have nothing, but they see opportunity in the US.

Re: Attention didn’t collapse. It was stolen (2022)

#79

> Normally I follow the news every hour or so, getting a drip-feed of anxiety-provoking facts and trying to smush them together into some kind of sense. Instead, I simply read a physical newspaper once a day. I really miss the newspaper as a daily thing with a front page, sections, and a finite set of articles. Online news outlets (not to mention social media) all seem to exist in an "infinite scroll" model of consta…

For a brief time, I had the NYT sunday edition delivered to my house. I quickly discovered that the information was mostly useless to me, and it took way too much of my time to read all the way through.

I ended up subscribing to Delayed Gratification (https://www.slow-journalism.com/) as a sort of middle ground. I get a nice, physical thing I can read. I'm able to read about current events, and all of the noise is filtered out for me.

Re: Attention didn’t collapse. It was stolen (2022)

#80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree to some extent that people can control their situation with choices, but I would like to push back on a few of those examples as I think it's a little disingenuous to say everyone can simply make choices in our society and do better. For example, living in a bad location also often means one would have limited options for work, which limits their income and prevents them from being able to just move out of th…

> move Allow me to point out the millions of immigrants that walk across a continent to try and slip over the border into America. The ones that make it rarely have more than the clothes on their back. Yet they moved away from a bad situation to a better one, and have made it to every corner of the country. > but that there are systemic problems preventing these people from being able to take these steps. Nobody ther…

> Allow me to point out the millions of immigrants that walk across a continent to try and slip over the border into America.

Sure, but even when they get to America, unless they already have some degree of monetary means, a large portion of those immigrants will end up stuck in low-paying, high-labor jobs, often in agriculture and heavy industry, without savings or means to move elsewhere for years. Those paths to better work, education, or location once in America are not going to be open to them as they will have no resources to draw upon. Not being a citizen also can be severely restricting. Most mobility is not seen for one or more generations and many immigrants simply remain in deep poverty indefinitely. Immigration is not a silver bullet to a great life, even if an immigrant does everything correctly. Would you say they get stuck here of their own volition after risking their lives and the lives of their families to get to America, or that it is systemically hard for an immigrant to rise out of poverty in America?

> Nobody there has their feet nailed to the ground.

I am trying to highlight that moving, especially to a higher cost of living area, is expensive and people risk being homeless for a non-trivial amount of time at an often slim chance of doing better. That can be very dangerous for a myriad of reasons and I imagine a risk that is simply too great for most, even if they are willing to do difficult things to do better. I would argue that this is not their fault for simply being born in an area with poor wages, education, and support systems, but that the area they originally lived in has a more systemic issue preventing mobility.

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