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The New Smoking (2021)

conorbroderick.net

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Re: The New Smoking (2021)

#61

Post by leetbulb »

saiya-jin wrote: post #53
leetbulb wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally agree. I cannot imagine how difficult it is for modern parents to manage this issue. By "regulated" I did mean 90% parenting, but it's also a larger, systemic societal issue that needs to be at least considered, quickly, before the current generation(s) who realize it no longer have influence and the issue solidifies as normal in our culture. On the other hand, it's probably just the, albeit sad, natural orde…

Maybe the trick is to clearly label these addictions across whole society as harmful, the lower the age the more intense/deep/long lasting harm and act accordingly. When we managed it rather quickly globally on proper narcotics this should be achievable. I've met parents who were saying 'we have digital kids' when their kids were acting like heroin addicts on withdrawal just to play on phone another 30 mins, and they…

> I've met parents who were saying 'we have digital kids'

Never heard this. Very interesting.

To your point, I agree. I am curious if there's been an official term coined for this... is it actually "digital kid?" I am curious if there will end up being a stigma applied to whatever it is as a sort of natural course-correction, or if it becomes the "norm." Humans love labels and their connotation.

PS: Hats off to you and the other parents in this thread with similar understanding.

Re: The New Smoking (2021)

#62

Post by FearlessNebula »

civopsec wrote: post #37

Many, many people point this out but most of them don't seem to have much insight beyond the symptoms. I've thought about the apparent paradox that I keep distracting myself with a phone/computer while also not getting any fulfillment out of it. Right now I think it is about self-loathing and hating my own company. I hated being undistracted since that meant more attention for my thoughts. Those nagging, awful though…

For me I can’t even say I’m using it to escape negative thoughts, it’s just a compulsion. I pull my phone out and scroll when I pee. Yep, apparently I can’t even have 1 minute of downtime without my hand automatically reaching for my pocket.

Re: The New Smoking (2021)

#63

Post by dredmorbius »

bad416f1f5a2 wrote: post #47

I’m reminded of the moral panic my parents generation had around televisions. And their parents generation had over serialized plays on the radio. And several generations removed, the panic over the printing press .

See Elizabeth Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change (book: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/printing-press-as-an-ag...>) and the similarly titled article (http://www.jstor.org/stable/1877720>).

The printing press (~1440), and subsequently cheap pulp-based paper (despite its rapid decay due to high-acid content), and increasingly-capable powered presses, and greatly-expanded literacy (19th century) did revolutionise the world, splitting the Christian faith, launching first the 100 Years War then the Long 19th Century (1789--1914 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_nineteenth_century), including the Revolutions of 1848 in which over 50 nations saw some form of political ferment (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutions_of_1848).

Radio played a huge role in the rise of fascism in Italy (Mussolini), Germany (Hitler), and the US (Father Coughlan, McCarthyism). Television revolutionised US politics, particularly at the presidential level (Kennedy-Nixon debates), as did cable television, talk radio, and the nascent Internet.

In The Matrix (1990), John S. Quartermann's introduction details the influence of then-nascent computer and fax networks on the Tienanmen Square protests in China. Even early in the 1990s, the role of Usenet and BBSes in conflicts in Yugoslavia and Turkey was noted (see especially Serdar Argic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serdar_Argic>).

McLuhan (who influenced Eisenstein), Harold Innis (who influenced McLuhan), Neil Postman (another McLuhan protege) Edward S. Herman, Jerry Mander, Noam Chomsky, Robert W. McChesney, Andrew Shapiro, and many others have made similar observations (bibliography here: https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/7k7l4m/media_a...).

If you change how information flows through a system, you change that system. This applies directly to media and its influence on culture, politics, business, and more.

The reason that the fears seem so quaint is because we live in the landscape that emerged. We are the consequence. The Time Before seems so difficult to conceive of and understand because it was all but entirely supersceded.

We face a similar situation in all likelihood with further algorithmic-driven media and GD ML AI ourselves.

Re: The New Smoking (2021)

#64

Post by dredmorbius »

revskill wrote: post #28

Stupid parenting is what causes current issue. Yes, they're too busy to take care of their children, so let's just give them a phone and done, you're free! If all parents forbid their children to touch the phone, problem solved.

Boomers, few of whom are presently toddlers, pre-teens, or even adolescents, seem as prone to screen-addiction as any other age group.

This is unlikely a result of bad parenting brought about by an extant technological environment in their own youth:

"Baby boomers can’t stop staring at their phones" November 12, 2022

But there is another demographic that is struggling with putting down their devices: Baby boomers. Smartphones came into their lives late, but they were quickly won over. Now some of their children say they are hooked, staring at their screens constantly, even when they should be paying attention to their own grandchildren. Two-thirds of boomers own a smartphone and about 6 in 10 are on social media, according to a 2019 Pew Research Center survey.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/12/boomers...>

Archive/paywall: https://archive.ph/Tz5Lj>

The Pew study on which that article is based: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/09/09/us-generati...>

Re: The New Smoking (2021)

#65

Post by dredmorbius »

FearlessNebula wrote: post #27

The real question for me is how do we fix it? Both at the societal level but especially at the personal level for me I’ve been aware of this habit but unable to kick it for years now.

Tax and regulate the everloving heck out of the field.

Prior to the 1830s, Britain had exorbitantly high tax rates on advertising, I'm given to understand. (I've found relatively little material on this fact, and forget where I picked up the information.)

Re: The New Smoking (2021)

#66

Post by tonymet »

program_whiz wrote: post #57

Not to be pedantic, but smoking is actually the new smoking. Its just now being normalized through weed (which is rationalized as healthy or cool) and vaping (which is seen as less harmful than smoking cigarettes). The sheer number of smoke shops has exploded.

very good point

Re: The New Smoking (2021)

#68

Post by dopidopHN »

dredmorbius wrote: post #59
whiplash451 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Early usage of TVs consisted in living the tv set turned on constantly, which in the hindsight was insane. With time, we learned to « master » the technology that was put in our hands. Much along the lines of what this article points out.

There are still people who do leave the television on constantly. Far worse, there are many, many, many public spaces --- waiting rooms, bars, restaurants, cafes --- in which televisions are ominipresent and, again, always on. This has become far worse, rather than better, with thinner and cheaper displays.

That's considerably more prevalent in the US. I choose my bar and restaurants by the abscence of large screens. ( Not only obviousely but if it can be avoided, I do )

Re: The New Smoking (2021)

#69

Post by googlryas »

program_whiz wrote: post #57

Not to be pedantic, but smoking is actually the new smoking. Its just now being normalized through weed (which is rationalized as healthy or cool) and vaping (which is seen as less harmful than smoking cigarettes). The sheer number of smoke shops has exploded.

Smoke shops have exploded but it isn't clear to me that there is higher availability - every convenience store in the US sold cigarettes and most still do. Even pharmacies like CVS/Walgreens used to sell them. I think just now you have dedicated storefronts for certain types of smoking products.

Re: The New Smoking (2021)

#70

Post by cratermoon »

thecatspaw wrote: post #12

A new-to-me term I learned recently which I feel quite nicely relates to this post is Consumer neuroscience. Wikipedia clinically describes the field as "The goal of the field is to find neural explanations for consumer behaviors in individuals both with or without disease." Personally I have a less favourable description of it. How to make people addicted to your product, and spend more money than they should.

You may also find this interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captology
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