Smartphones are a very powerful social glue. Better than tv, school or church. Phone says frog and the whole population hops.
Propaganda like a drum, like in one of those movies with those slaves on the oars in the basement of a ship.
Life before smartphones (2020)
181–190 of 495 posts
Re: Life before smartphones (2020)
#182IMO the big thing is not being bored. Someone is late for a meeting? Doesn't matter, you've got HN to read. On the back seat for a long drive? Doesn't matter, you can answer emails. Or play a game. The whole psychologically weird phase of "hmm I'm here and waiting, and all I can do is watch paint dry" seems to have vanished. I'm not sure what people prefer more though. Say you're waiting for a date, do you feel best…
I've been intentionally cutting things like TV or internet out of my life at certain times, and can definitively say I'd rather be bored. All these things I tell myself I want to do are actually not that hard when I'm bored. Writing, drawing, having more conversations with loved ones. It's a lot easier when I can't say "let's watch the new episode while we eat" or "I'll surf HN for a bit." The boredom builds until it finds release, eventually being high enough to do the things I actually want to spend my time on.
If all I can do is watch paint dry, I'll find something else, whether it's rewarding or just mindless dopamine.
That said, I'm totally addicted and cutting out the internet is extremely hard when I sit in front of it for work and my computer and phone are where a lot of the rewarding things are too (e.g. cell phone drains time, but you need it to text friends). I feel like an alcoholic working as a bartender also required to take just a teeny sip of whiskey every time I talk to someone.
Re: Life before smartphones (2020)
#183What I miss more than anything else is having an attention span. Years of abusing social media has left my brain pinballing all over the place. I am a collection of unfinished thoughts. Even as I write this, I can feel my mind needing to latch onto something new.
I recently quit all social media. There was a bit of withdrawal but I can confirm that my attention span has started coming back.
Re: Life before smartphones (2020)
#184What I miss more than anything else is having an attention span. Years of abusing social media has left my brain pinballing all over the place. I am a collection of unfinished thoughts. Even as I write this, I can feel my mind needing to latch onto something new.
Yeah, mindfulness is promoted as a cure for that but I’m not sure. Right now I’m pretty mindful in random daily occasions but it just gives me more depression and overthinking. When I’m turning that off for some days I’m… more happy? But still miserable. I don’t know what to do
Re: Life before smartphones (2020)
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do that too. My phone is still on silent most of the time. It is funny the reactions you get when people aren't yet used to not getting a quick response. They are sort of outraged and questioning: "I called you, but you didn't answer??". Also I go outside without a phone on occasion. That feels like you leave a burden behind, and you are somehow more free. The phone is that easy thing you just grab to do a quick ch…
I like to run, but take the phone with me because it's my tracking device and music while running. I've been trying "do not disturb" mode, and it seems to be a positive. I don't get intermittent notifications that someone is trying to reach me - I don't want to be reached right now. The DND mode has probably been around for a while, I've just recently (last few months) gotten used to actually enabling it. What will b…
I’m getting a smartwatch with watch only runs, it has tracking, Bluetooth for headphones and can preload Spotify playlists.
It has WiFi but no cell phone. Really looking forward to just being out for runs, with no possibility of contact or checking notifications etc.
Re: Life before smartphones (2020)
#186What I miss more than anything else is having an attention span. Years of abusing social media has left my brain pinballing all over the place. I am a collection of unfinished thoughts. Even as I write this, I can feel my mind needing to latch onto something new.
I recently quit all social media. There was a bit of withdrawal but I can confirm that my attention span has started coming back.
It’s easy to quit, but how did you manage to fill empty time that you’ve suddenly gotten?
Re: Life before smartphones (2020)
#187The second paragraph is funny to me: > I memorized phone numbers, jotted things down in notebooks, had conversations with taxi drivers, talked to random people at bars, wrote checks, went to the bank, and daydreamed. I did all of these (except the phone number one) in the last week. More than technological advancements or anything else, all of this nostalgia is really just about getting old. "The human civilization p…
Have you been to a college campus in the last two or three years?
There is a serious smartphone addiction problem. It is seriously worrying to see so many of my peers craning their necks, starting at their phone for hours on end. On the bus, in class, while hanging out, it is an observable fact that everyone is almost always on their phone.
I personally believe we are in a watershed moment for human civilization. The harms of this smartphone addicted world will snowball down into later generations who have never known a life without every need catered for and every boring moment seized by entertainment.
Re: Life before smartphones (2020)
#188I didn't see it mentioned, so I'll add it for completeness. One of the differences between pre-smartphone and the post-smartphone world is the pervasive and unlimited availability of adult content. Pornography used to be really hard to get. Now it is unlimited and free. There are now more than 1 million content creators on OnlyFans. The democratization, if you want to call it that, of adult content to me seems to me…
I'd say pre-internet, not pre-smartphone. Wide availability of free porn has been there since the start of the internet. It precedes smartphones by more than a decade.
Or so I've been told.
Re: Life before smartphones (2020)
#189IMO the big thing is not being bored. Someone is late for a meeting? Doesn't matter, you've got HN to read. On the back seat for a long drive? Doesn't matter, you can answer emails. Or play a game. The whole psychologically weird phase of "hmm I'm here and waiting, and all I can do is watch paint dry" seems to have vanished. I'm not sure what people prefer more though. Say you're waiting for a date, do you feel best…
You can always rethink your life :P
Sometimes it's good to sit down 15min and rethink stuff
Re: Life before smartphones (2020)
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
You aren't kidding, I'm also seeing a trend of people claiming that any information that doesn't match their viewpoint must be faked or dishonest.
The issue isn't that people are just huffing, crossing their arms, and crying fake news. The issue is that they are able to bring up 100 different sites supporting their claims. The person they are arguing with, obviously knows that the other is an idiot because they have 100 different sites supporting their claims! In a way, we've regressed back before we had the answer machine at our fingertips. You don't really kn…
It's like we're reaching the times when we should again start thinking more for ourselves, given the information at hand: make assumptions, try to prove them, try a reductio ad absurdum etc.
But unfortunately people's brains are fried because of the constant social media bombardment.