I would invite Mr. Kraus and all here on HN to look up Maggie Jackson's "Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age", a great read on this very issue. Se was talking about this years ago and has since built on her previous work.
We’re creating a culture of distraction
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Re: We’re creating a culture of distraction
#12“Distraction is the only thing that consoles us for miseries and yet it is itself the greatest of our miseries.”
--Blaise Pascal (17th century)
Re: We’re creating a culture of distraction
#13TL;DR
Observe a sabbath?
Re: We’re creating a culture of distraction
#14There is another angle to this: a distracted population is a happy population. Or at least a population that isn't marching and burning in the streets.
Re: We’re creating a culture of distraction
#15I wonder how much of this argument will always be made-- one generation after another. As a thought experiment I put myself in my father's shoes and replaced every reference to phone with television. The text still resonated. I'm tempted to try seeing how many generations I could go back (all the way back to Buddha maybe)... but I have fruit to slice.
Re: We’re creating a culture of distraction
#16'As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions".'
Re: We’re creating a culture of distraction
#17I felt that full-screen mode in OS X was in part a response to avoiding distraction. Also, in social settings, I've noticed I'll check my phone if I'm alone, or near people where conversation has ended. Part of that is a mini-escape, and another part is caused by insecurity/peer pressure. If you're all alone doing nothing, you have less perceived worth than if you're all alone doing something.
This reminded me of this TED talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v...
Re: We’re creating a culture of distraction
#18Please do yourselves a favour and look up Neil Postman. I can recommend "Amusing Ourselves to Death" and "Technopoly", in particular.
I read his "The Disappearance of Childhood" many years ago, I should put one of these in my queue soon.
Re: We’re creating a culture of distraction
#19When I take my kids places, I take the sim out of my iphone and put it in a dumbphone I got off ebay. It's like a time warp.
Re: We’re creating a culture of distraction
#20[deleted]