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Grandparents are glued to their phones [video]

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Re: Grandparents are glued to their phones [video]

#121

Post by thin_carapace »

reactordev wrote: post #50

Social media is a cancer and more people need to realize this. No amount of platforming will fix this. It’s designed to extract behavioral traits about you. It’s designed to spy on your shopping and browsing habits. It’s designed to build a model of you. Everyone fell right in.

i dont see whats cancerous about social media conceptually. sharing photos online with a local network of contacts, setting up digital event flyers, instant messaging, etc ... yes these tools were used for subjectively nefarious purposes like cyberbullying, but on the whole they probably added more benefit than was subtracted from the community.

social media that has been gamified into an infinite scroll loop with the express intent to destroy attention spans and rebuild them around an advertising/behavioural structure of mark zuckerberg's ("they trust me ... dumb fucks") choosing? now yes that is cancer. but thats not really social media. theres nothing social about it.

i like the way someone put it here a few weeks back. we used to call these things social networks. then they became social media. so in that sense i do agree with you on a literal basis, although im not sure that was your intended point.

Re: Grandparents are glued to their phones [video]

#122

Post by cal_dent »

Wider society spends an awful long time talking about the effects of social media on young people. I personally think that is somewhat blinkered because its an everybody issue. What do old people and kids have in common, lots and lots of free time. That's it. Same with unemployed, under employed people, people with no real interest or hobbies.

If there's a hole you need to fit and you do nothing with it, social media is the easy way out, and given that it does have addictive tendencies, we end up where we are.

Re: Grandparents are glued to their phones [video]

#123

Post by cal_dent »

parpfish wrote: post #79
retrac98 wrote: post #19

My parents generation are the most screen addicted people I know. Absolute slaves to Facebook’s algorithm. It’s really disheartening to see.

old folks and children both face the same problem with the internet— their initial exposure is to the current internet that has been ab tested into a hyper-addictive hellscape and they are cognitively unprepared. Jumping straight into the deep end before you know how to swim. Whereas genX and Xennials had the privilege of wading into a pre-social media internet during their formative years which served as a vaccine o…

everyone is vulnerable to it. i think the idea that certain generations are better equipped is more a by product of exposure rather than some sense of immunisation. GenX/Xennials are just more likely to have other things to do than going on social media at the same rate as other cohorts - whether its still busy working or kids or hobbies etc. Intense exposure and the reinforcement that brings is the problem. Its why the problems became even more pronounced through covid years

Re: Grandparents are glued to their phones [video]

#124

Post by [deleted] »

susam wrote: post #9

Fortunately, I could never get used to the small screens of mobile phones as a serious computing or web browsing device. So my use of my mobile phone is limited to basic tasks like making calls, sending messages, and sometimes, reluctantly typing emails when I don't have a laptop handy. My primary computing and web browsing device remains my laptop, with Emacs and Firefox being my main tools. One thing that does mana…

[deleted]

Re: Grandparents are glued to their phones [video]

#125

Post by nanobuilds »

gedy wrote: post #22
Simulacra wrote: post #2

Maybe a solution is to spend more time with grandparents, so that they have something more than just technology to keep them company.

Sure, but I've seen since the 70s old folks just staring at TV all day, so it's not just a mobile phenomenon either.

The mobile is much than TV because of the enforcement loop and algorithm turning that attention into scams, ai generated slop, and harmful content that is more and more difficult to identify. With tv I suppose you can change the channel, with reels, the next 20 reels might continue to show you similar things or follow folks on other platforms as well.

Re: Grandparents are glued to their phones [video]

#127

Post by BrenBarn »

susam wrote: post #9

Fortunately, I could never get used to the small screens of mobile phones as a serious computing or web browsing device. So my use of my mobile phone is limited to basic tasks like making calls, sending messages, and sometimes, reluctantly typing emails when I don't have a laptop handy. My primary computing and web browsing device remains my laptop, with Emacs and Firefox being my main tools. One thing that does mana…

It boggles me that anyone is able to get used to phone screens as a serious device for consumption of just about anything, let alone creation (e.g., typing).

Re: Grandparents are glued to their phones [video]

#128

Post by Induane »

everdrive wrote: post #43

This feels similar to how you'll see rows and rows of elderly people mindlessly pushing the slot machine buttons in casinos. It makes me wonder if impulse control starts breaking down for that crowd. Of course, I also wonder if non-digital natives also just have less of a thick skin for this sort of thing.

I think it might be that if you don't grow up with something that hijacks you as a kid you don't have the mental equivalent to antibodies.

Old people get captured by new dopamine hits moreso than their younger counterparts.

Re: Grandparents are glued to their phones [video]

#129

Post by aaron695 »

susam wrote: post #9

Fortunately, I could never get used to the small screens of mobile phones as a serious computing or web browsing device. So my use of my mobile phone is limited to basic tasks like making calls, sending messages, and sometimes, reluctantly typing emails when I don't have a laptop handy. My primary computing and web browsing device remains my laptop, with Emacs and Firefox being my main tools. One thing that does mana…

[dead]

Re: Grandparents are glued to their phones [video]

#130

Post by reactordev »

thin_carapace wrote: post #121
reactordev wrote: post #50

Social media is a cancer and more people need to realize this. No amount of platforming will fix this. It’s designed to extract behavioral traits about you. It’s designed to spy on your shopping and browsing habits. It’s designed to build a model of you. Everyone fell right in.

i dont see whats cancerous about social media conceptually. sharing photos online with a local network of contacts, setting up digital event flyers, instant messaging, etc ... yes these tools were used for subjectively nefarious purposes like cyberbullying, but on the whole they probably added more benefit than was subtracted from the community. social media that has been gamified into an infinite scroll loop with th…

I said social media. You described Social networks. I agree social networks are good. Social media is a fucking cancer.
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