90% of Waking Hours Spent Staring at Glowing Rectangles (2009) • Hacker News Board

Re: 90% of Waking Hours Spent Staring at Glowing Rectangles (2009)

#61

Post by cle » Tue, Dec 29, 2020, 3:18 AM UTC

dannyw wrote: post #39

cle wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, my first reaction to this was “90% of waking hours spent staring at atoms.” I can describe life in even more absurd ways if I try, but what’s the point?

We have an amazingly beautiful world, from lush forests to deep blue oceans, with billions of wonderful humans, yet we choose to spend the vast majority of time on a virtual world we’ve created.

That’s how you’ve interpreted the light that has bounced onto your retina.

Ultimately we all live in the virtual worlds we create in our minds through interpreting our senses, it’s not immediately obvious to me why I should generally prefer one over the other.

Re: 90% of Waking Hours Spent Staring at Glowing Rectangles (2009)

#62

Post by dannyw » Tue, Dec 29, 2020, 8:31 AM UTC

pmg102 wrote: post #56

dannyw wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty, at least pre-pandemic. • Explore a national park, go on a few hikes (guided by paper maps and a compass), and refine your photography skills with a DSLR/mirrorless. Budget ones can be had for a couple hundred dollars and they still beat phone cameras. • Cook something with your friends, or go out and eat dinner. • Play some board games, join a dungeon and dragons game. A great thing to do when the w…

I've tried a number of these activities. What I've found is that most if not all the ones I've tried require and imply screen time. I go down rabbit holes of scrolling phone for the perfect sofa, the perfect cycling jersey, the best mountain airbnb, and so on. The only real way to escape smartphones is to live a 1970s life where the only things you know come from other people or the radio/tv. I have a slight yen to t…

Smartphones are not the enemy: treat them as a tool you use to make your life as full as it can be.

I don’t understand why spending time researching a cool Airbnb diminishes the non-screen-time nature of going to the mountains.

Re: 90% of Waking Hours Spent Staring at Glowing Rectangles (2009)

#63

Post by yarcob » Tue, Dec 29, 2020, 4:31 PM UTC

momokoko wrote: post #29

repsilat wrote: post #12

Because this thread always needs someone to say the obvious truth: "Screen time" isn't the most useful concept. Maybe it was in the TV days (though with diverse programming it may not have been), but with phones/tablets/laptops it's as broad a label as "technology company". Are we talking about chatting with friends? Doing work? Watching a show? Playing a game? Reading the news? A novel? Meeting with people? Organisi…

I think this is a strange thing to hear from being a bit older. 30-40 years ago, most people did not spend their time reading the paper and watching TV. There was vastly more time spent interacting directly with friends and family as well as hobbies and interests that were not consuming media. It was much more common for people to stop by, often unannounced and hang out and talk for several hours. Just talking in per…

When I was a kid we didn't have a TV, but that doesn't mean we spent all day talking.

My dad spent his time reading the newspaper or Dick Francis murder mysteries, my mom spent her time either on the phone talking to people or laying cards. (Like Windows Solitaire but with actual cards).

When I wasn't fighting with my sisters I spent my time reading Donald Duck comics or playing Lego on my own.

Sure, we can pretend that we spent so much quality time with another all the time before screens came along, I'm just not sure it's actually true.

Re: 90% of Waking Hours Spent Staring at Glowing Rectangles (2009)

#64

Post by yarcob » Tue, Dec 29, 2020, 4:34 PM UTC

jfim wrote: post #28

raldi wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. Did people clutch pearls over "paper time" when they would wake up and read a newspaper, stare at papers all day at work/school, a magazine during their lunch break, and read a book before falling asleep?

The difference between newspapers and internet news is that the newspaper for a given day is finite. Once one has read whatever articles they were interested in for that day, that's it. No refreshing multiple times per day, no reading long comment threads, no frustration about said comment threads ("how can people be so wrong on the internet, must reply"), no live updates on stories, and more time to think instead of…

Most daily newspapers have plenty stuff to read for hours, and often come with extras with even more stuff to read.