It makes me wonder if we really so different than those who carved metal images to worship thousands of years ago. I made a 30s video exploring this idea here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7RoeHHqnAM
How scrolling becomes a religious act
41–50 of 62 posts
Re: How scrolling becomes a religious act
#42I really dislike these posts that are clearly written by someone unfamiliar with religion as a topic, and just use “worship” or “religion” as synonyms for “being obsessed with something to an irrational degree.” That isn’t an accurate description of the concept of religion, nor is it a synonym of irrational. Religion is probably one of the most complex yet misunderstood areas of study today. Phones are no more worshi…
Traditional religion tends to not accept how it's viewed from the outside either.
Yes, I'm afraid that some of the techbro's obsessions are indistinguishable from religious worship. Walks like a duck, talks like a duck etc.
Re: How scrolling becomes a religious act
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Mary wrote Hebrews Got any reading on this? I thought it was 'Paul' as in, most likely him or an associate. But I love alternative theories, esp when they bring some other weight or meaning. Esp when the correct answer almost cannot be known. If u got any links plz share!
Only this modern article[1]. Can't find any scholars or Church Fathers on this. Seems to be an entirely new theory in history, most likely because women were dismissed as possible author since (a) Hebrews 11:32 uses a masculine first person verb, which the article explains as being the Holy Spirit who coauthored the letter, and (b) women were not Apostles or leaders, which the article implies was not actually a hard…
Fascinating, thanks! Will def check it out!
Re: How scrolling becomes a religious act
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This phrase is so common it's practically correct. In fact, that's how language works. Whatever emerges from organic use is correct language. We the people decide what proper English is, collectively , not a prestigious university or renowned scholar or classic textbook.
Bet! I’m vibin’ 100% with your feels, fr fr!
Huh? You woulda said this comment also isn't valid English.
Contractions, exclamations, shortucts of every kind, are legit.
(Though some usuallyo only appear in certain mediums U+1F609.)
Re: How scrolling becomes a religious act
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
> he doesn’t argue, he argued, This phrase is so common it's practically correct. Search for "Plato argues" online for example.
> This phrase is so common it's practically correct. In fact, that's how language works. Whatever emerges from organic use is correct language. We the people decide what proper English is, collectively , not a prestigious university or renowned scholar or classic textbook.
This is always used as some kind of gotcha, but it misses the obvious fact that people or institutions or textbooks arguing and implementing standards are themselves a part of that organic process. The organicness is the whole thing.
Re: How scrolling becomes a religious act
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This phrase is so common it's practically correct. In fact, that's how language works. Whatever emerges from organic use is correct language. We the people decide what proper English is, collectively , not a prestigious university or renowned scholar or classic textbook.
This is always used as some kind of gotcha, but it misses the obvious fact that people or institutions or textbooks arguing and implementing standards are themselves a part of that organic process. The organicness is the whole thing.
Sure, I don't disagree. But so is deviating from that standard. I'm just talking about people who are overly restrictive of their own language usage. The best authors broke rules and made up words as needed.
Re: How scrolling becomes a religious act
#47I really dislike these posts that are clearly written by someone unfamiliar with religion as a topic, and just use “worship” or “religion” as synonyms for “being obsessed with something to an irrational degree.” That isn’t an accurate description of the concept of religion, nor is it a synonym of irrational. Religion is probably one of the most complex yet misunderstood areas of study today. Phones are no more worshi…
> I really dislike these posts that are clearly written by someone
unfamiliar with religion as a topic
I wonder how much academic familiarity one really needs to recognise the rather obvious vernacular effects. I've studied religion and mass communication effects somewhat as well as being a practising Christian, and as I see it the word "religion" commonly applies to the orthodoxy and its big, visible impacts that are social and psychological, rather than the personal, spiritual realm of gnostic metaphysical faith.
The OP seems right in the sense that the SV technology cargo cult has all the bad mind-narrowing sides of orthodoxy and none of the good. Observe; suspension of critical thinking, credulity, superstition, arcane symbolism, charismatic leaders, secret knowledge, obsessive rituals and tics, insularity, smug self-righteous and strident proselytising, attacking and denigrating "unbelievers", defensiveness, fear of exclusion, dehumanisation of others, mass hysteria....
Digital tech (smartphones plus corporate social media), as presently configured, presses all the same buttons for psychological and societal harm that cults have for millennia. Moreover, it so pitifully fails to offer any positive social benefits, like a sense of real community, shared values, comfort and stability, or certainty. Instead it overlays a shallow and unreal facsimile of those things. "Idolatry" is probably a great way to frame it.
Like historical religions it spawns a super-wealthy elite who exploit the confused masses. It has a small cadre of extremely vocal "true believers", disciples and acolytes, who cajole and bully along the enormous middle mass who are actually ambivalent "pretenders", technological agnostics who mostly can't be bothered to argue. They go along to get along, to avoid feeling persecuted ("left behind" - the modern equivalent of Hell).
Real religions may span thousands of years and have subtantial continuity, but cult-tech presents a flimsy facade of being "deep, essential, enduring and universal". In reality, any thoughtful computer scientist can tell you, it's a heterogeneous assemblage of the arbitrary or, as Graeber observed, a world we can "remake in any way we choose".
Working in cybersecurity, carefully observing genuine attitudes in peoples' unguarded moments - in contrast to their "official/professional" positions - makes me sure that were the entire telecommunications network of the planet to explode tomorrow, other than for food riots as payment and supply chains adjust, most people would have one bad week, shrug, and get on with the next thing. That's to say "it's all a game" but one that we're all very, very invested in trying to preserve... to the extent we're prepared to terrorise others into sharing our worldview to keep it so. Isn't that a sure hallmark of a religion?
Re: How scrolling becomes a religious act
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
You are trying to fight how people use words and you won’t be successful. Phrases like “religious fervor” and “religiously ” etc. are in common usage and refer to things outside of religion. Phones are worshipped in the sense that many people are lost or will panic if they had to do without them for an extended period of time. Using worshipped evokes an image that is apt.
The meaning of words is central to the meaning of the article. If the meaning of religion is devolved to “very interested in” then the meaning of the article is “people are very interested in their phones” which is a quite boring article. You can’t rely on the gravity of the word religious while also disregarding it.
This is how people use the word now. He religiously did yoga every day. They religiously attended every game. That book became their bible. The phone is now everyone’s idol.
Re: How scrolling becomes a religious act
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
You are trying to fight how people use words and you won’t be successful. Phrases like “religious fervor” and “religiously ” etc. are in common usage and refer to things outside of religion. Phones are worshipped in the sense that many people are lost or will panic if they had to do without them for an extended period of time. Using worshipped evokes an image that is apt.
I’m just calling out sloppy thinking and sloppy word choice. And beyond that, the author explicitly made the reference to religion as a concept and to religious sociology by bringing up Durkheim. He made the analogy to actual religion.
Your jihad against how these words are used in common speech will fail.
Re: How scrolling becomes a religious act
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
The meaning of words is central to the meaning of the article. If the meaning of religion is devolved to “very interested in” then the meaning of the article is “people are very interested in their phones” which is a quite boring article. You can’t rely on the gravity of the word religious while also disregarding it.
This is how people use the word now. He religiously did yoga every day. They religiously attended every game. That book became their bible. The phone is now everyone’s idol.
Again; that would be fine if the post wasn’t explicitly about comparing it to real religion and quoting scholars of religion.