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This part especially stood out to me, capturing the essence of a sentiment I've long felt but struggled to articulate.: "The tech platforms aren’t like the Medici in Florence, or those other rich patrons of the arts. They don’t want to find the next Michelangelo or Mozart. They want to create a world of junkies—because they will be the dealers."
This argument starts with "financialization has killed art" but ends with "screens are bad...." I am very sympathetic to these points, but it's also slightly amusing to me that a decade and a half post-Web 2.0, they aren't simply agreed-upon points and common knowledge for everyone.
This was an interesting piece. One thing I think was missing is a note about evolution's role. I think many of these traits are evolutionary; they trigger dopamine responses because at some point they were helpful. Sugary foods have calories so you don't starve. Boredom is painful so people invent. Modern society is frankly too good at satisfying these evolutionary cravings. They've become maladaptive by nature of be…
This was an interesting piece. One thing I think was missing is a note about evolution's role. I think many of these traits are evolutionary; they trigger dopamine responses because at some point they were helpful. Sugary foods have calories so you don't starve. Boredom is painful so people invent. Modern society is frankly too good at satisfying these evolutionary cravings. They've become maladaptive by nature of be…
Excellent framing: Dopamine beats entertainment. Just see people with their smartphones out when they’re ‘watching’ a Netflix show. Or the unbundling of funny, often context-less moments from that show into bite sized pieces of dopamine, rebundled together on your social media platform of choice (everything in tech is either bundling or unbundling). It’s all drugs at this point. The emperor is naked.
> people with their smartphones out when they’re ‘watching’ a Netflix show I noticed myself doing this years ago and when I really reflected on it, I felt very unsettled by what was happening to me. And meanwhile most of us have people (partner, kids, friends) you'll have (hopefully) a lifetime with, and pursuing some kind of deeper connection with them instead in those moments actually would result in some kind of m…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> people with their smartphones out when they’re ‘watching’ a Netflix show I noticed myself doing this years ago and when I really reflected on it, I felt very unsettled by what was happening to me. And meanwhile most of us have people (partner, kids, friends) you'll have (hopefully) a lifetime with, and pursuing some kind of deeper connection with them instead in those moments actually would result in some kind of m…
I've stopped hosting 'movie nights' for friends and family because nobody can stay off their phones for more than 5 minutes. By the time the opening credits roll, everyone in the room is scrolling whatever it is they scroll. What's the point in even having a movie on?
Host something more interactive like board games, or have a faraday cage ready at the entrance for the phones and everyone has agreed to put them in there, or both! We’re all addicted and suffocated by our devices so we have to start carving out air pockets somewhere.
Alcohol and other drugs were at least fairly nonspecific and generic; very few people could afford tailoring their drug experiences, but the engagement platforms will helpfully find the individually most addictive stimulus and then helpfully switch to a new category as tolerance builds.
The good news is that the robots can't manufacture things yet and so the economy can't literally produce the Wall-E universe yet. Give it 5 or 10 years maybe.