The Death of Social Reciprocity in the Era of Digital Distraction
blogs.scientificamerican.com
The Death of Social Reciprocity in the Era of Digital Distraction
1–10 of 118 posts
Re: The Death of Social Reciprocity in the Era of Digital Distraction
#2In other words, stop using abstract digital tools to interact with people, and just interact with people.
Presumably the people I'm interacting with now won't be annoyed by my use of digital tools to do so.
Re: The Death of Social Reciprocity in the Era of Digital Distraction
#3One thing I try to always do is smile and/or wave at babies/young children if they make eye contact with you.
In a world where there is a lot of negativity being broadcast on the news 24/7 and click bait headlines, it is good to instill a sense of happiness in the youth of today by being friendly.
Walking places a lot of people are distracted by their phones and hardly make eye contact anymore of if they do they make eye contact and turn away. (Maybe I'm just butt ugly I dunno).
Kid however all seem to enjoy a quick smile/eye contact.
Re: The Death of Social Reciprocity in the Era of Digital Distraction
#4The title giveth, the body takes away. Articles like these have been making the rounds for maybe 6 ears now, and I cannot see how this brings even a moderately non-stale perspective to the fray .I checked the date, it's from today. Must be a slow week at SciAm.
Re: The Death of Social Reciprocity in the Era of Digital Distraction
#5The title giveth, the body takes away. Articles like these have been making the rounds for maybe 6 ears now, and I cannot see how this brings even a moderately non-stale perspective to the fray .I checked the date, it's from today. Must be a slow week at SciAm.
Doesn't that make it a replication of previous articles? Authenticity doesn't oblige originality
You otoh offer nothing of substance
Re: The Death of Social Reciprocity in the Era of Digital Distraction
#6The title giveth, the body takes away. Articles like these have been making the rounds for maybe 6 ears now, and I cannot see how this brings even a moderately non-stale perspective to the fray .I checked the date, it's from today. Must be a slow week at SciAm.
Doesn't that make it a replication of previous articles? Authenticity doesn't oblige originality You otoh offer nothing of substance
I think stating the article is unoriginal is a valid critique. The article is saying digital distraction is affecting society. We know that. Telling people they shouldn't be so distracted isn't a original thought and therefore reading the article is a waste of time. Despite the authenticity of a publication I wouldn't want to read 10 articles saying the same thing. There is some expectation of originality. Right?
Re: The Death of Social Reciprocity in the Era of Digital Distraction
#7The title giveth, the body takes away. Articles like these have been making the rounds for maybe 6 ears now, and I cannot see how this brings even a moderately non-stale perspective to the fray .I checked the date, it's from today. Must be a slow week at SciAm.
Yes. It's an odd phenomenon. Some messages of this form seem to live and recirculate for years, perpetuated without much analytical thought.
I often get preached at about how bad social media is. The irony is that I don't have any, and the people preaching at me do.
My best theory: I suspect both online and offline, people "parrot" ideas 90% of the time. They hear an idea, repeat it without much thought, if it resonates well they repeat it more.
I think the reason people do this in-person is the same as they do it online. They say things not because they have deeply reflected on all the ramifications and sincerely believe and live by those ideas. They say things "to get likes."
Re: The Death of Social Reciprocity in the Era of Digital Distraction
#8One thing I try to always do is smile and/or wave at babies/young children if they make eye contact with you. In a world where there is a lot of negativity being broadcast on the news 24/7 and click bait headlines, it is good to instill a sense of happiness in the youth of today by being friendly. Walking places a lot of people are distracted by their phones and hardly make eye contact anymore of if they do they make…
Yes! Kids are great. I always make faces at them or stick my tongue out and put my hands over my head and they always giggle. It's especially fun when the parents don't get it and think you're a weirdo.
Re: The Death of Social Reciprocity in the Era of Digital Distraction
#9Distractions are our lives now. You can choose to minimize them. Start by turning off “new email” notifications. You may not miss much by not knowing the moment an email arrives. If something is truly important and urgent, they will usually use multiple means to contact you, like calling you.
You can also graduate to removing almost all notifications from your phone. I say almost all because the beauty of Slack is that it never differentiated between being mobile or at a desktop (like Skype did) so you might need notifications from your work Slack to appear if you are not really present. Also, get rid of non-work Slacks on your phone, if you spend too much time on Slack on your phone, it could help eliminate more potential distractions.
The next level is to remove all native applications for anything that you think might distract you. It is much, much harder to fall into the rabbit hole of infinite scroll type binging with a mobile web experience. There is just enough friction with mobile web to snap you out of your trance, usually.
Re: The Death of Social Reciprocity in the Era of Digital Distraction
#10In other words, stop using abstract digital tools to interact with people, and just interact with people. Presumably the people I'm interacting with now won't be annoyed by my use of digital tools to do so.
The problem is the abstract digital tools allow me to easily find and interact with people I find interesting, share common interest with, etc., often on the other side of the country than myself. Which is something I've found difficult in real life.