Tangent, but I never understood the cargo-cult anti-smoking culture in the US; it was a perfect reflection of their media hypnotization. The people that would do a thousand different rebellious, risky, or damaging stuff would recoil in horror if you ask if they ever had a cigarette, as if one puff will char and shrivel your lungs or something.
The New Smoking (2021)
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Re: The New Smoking (2021)
#82I miss smoking (well, not really; I'm not a smoker). But all the rituals around it were very important for modulating the cadence and even nature of conversation, offering shared rituals, give-and-take, and, by convention, forced but acceptable pauses.
That's interesting because it does seem like despite how unhealthy it is, it was very much a social activity. And I think the indoor smoking bans only reinforced that social ritual as smokers were forced to gather outside bars and restaurant to smoke. "Do you have a light" has probably been one of the biggest conversation starters in history. What I see now is mostly people having a cigarette in one hand and the smart phone in the other. The chatting with fellow smokers seems to have been replaced by scrolling. A smoke break used to literally be taking a break from whatever it was you were doing. Now it looks like more of an opportunity to satisfy two addictions at the same time. It seems kind of depressing.
Re: The New Smoking (2021)
#83Not 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.
Yeah it really bugs me how inconsiderate weed and vaping smokers can be. I’ve had weed smokers casually walk by my family blowing smoke everywhere without care, like this was the 1950’s. In a sense this is even worse as not only did I not agree to me or my kids breathing in this cancerous cloud of smoke, but it is psychoactive too.
I'm with you that we should consider clean air a human right. Personally, I find vehicular exhaust a much bigger problem than weed smoke though.
Re: The New Smoking (2021)
#84I’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 .
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.
The voice of inexperience with early TV sets is loud here. You would never do that with early sets, as the damn vacuum tubes would burn out very quickly, then Dad would get mad, take the back off the set, take ALL the tubes out, cart them down to the drugstore, use their tester to find the burned out tube, and buy a replacement. Dad, being a busy man, would not appreciate doing this very often, and so tightly controlled our use.
We didn’t get our first color + solid-state set (a huge marketing term back then) until 1978. That was probably about 5 years later than typical. It was a Zenith Space Command, also our first with a remote control. It used no batteries, pressing a button struck a metal tuning fork set for an “ultrasonic” frequency that a microphone in the set listened for. I quoted “ultrasonic”, because as a child I could definitely hear it.
Re: The New Smoking (2021)
#85Tangent, but I never understood the cargo-cult anti-smoking culture in the US; it was a perfect reflection of their media hypnotization. The people that would do a thousand different rebellious, risky, or damaging stuff would recoil in horror if you ask if they ever had a cigarette, as if one puff will char and shrivel your lungs or something.
You're 100% right and I see this kind of attitude all the time and it drives me crazy. Especially when people are worried about what others are doing, or complaining about second hand smoke outdoors, etc.
People really need to learn to just live their fucking lives. Or at least shut the fuck up and let other people live theirs.
Re: The New Smoking (2021)
#86I’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 .
If the current attention economy was merely a linear, or even quadratic, step from TV, that would be one thing. We are seeing, however, an exponential increase in the scale, scope, and methods of persuasion. In the same way computers made mathematical calculation not just faster, but completely different, so too persuasive computing makes risks to society completely different.
Re: The New Smoking (2021)
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, I thought this was going to be about vape pens. God bless humanity, almost got rid of the vice completely only to have a reincarnation absolutely plunge a new generation into addiction.
The vice was the war on drugs that was disproportionately applied to minorities. Legalizing weed is taking one weapon out of the arsenal of the police state.
In other countries it was applied to their majorities (who could be minorities in the US). The war on drugs was not a U.S.-only thing. It was worldwide. Because it was a losing battle (products easier to grow manufacture AND transport, they’ve pretty much all realized it’s a losing battle —with some major exceptions like Japan and Singapore who still take drugs seriously and will incarcerate for small amounts.
Re: The New Smoking (2021)
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah it really bugs me how inconsiderate weed and vaping smokers can be. I’ve had weed smokers casually walk by my family blowing smoke everywhere without care, like this was the 1950’s. In a sense this is even worse as not only did I not agree to me or my kids breathing in this cancerous cloud of smoke, but it is psychoactive too.
Minor nitpick: nicotine is also psychoactive.
True, but in a relatively minor or even positive way. I similarly don’t get upset when someone brews coffee or tea next to me, even though I actually can’t be that close due to a medicinal interaction. I sometimes have to leave the room, but that’s not their fault.
Weed makes driving more dangerous, lowers motivation and focus, etc. You want to do that to unwind, fine. But do it at home or in a designated smoking area I can know to avoid.
Re: The New Smoking (2021)
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
Serious question and not snarky (despite appearances): How come you comment on HN? It looks like it falls in addictive experiences, albeit maybe necessary to keep on top of IT news. If the theory of “quitting” was right, we wouldn’t see anyone commenting about quitting while still online. I’m asking because I wonder how to keep on top of things / what part should news-reading take in my less-dopamine life.
> How come you comment on HN? Just for the record, karma is a useless metric to me. It gives visibility into how one of my submissions performs, but that's it. I don't chase karma. > It looks like it falls in addictive experiences Addiction is when a thing controls you, and you don't control it. I am in charge of my experience here on HN, and as I said, I don't chase upvotes & karma.
> I am in charge of my experience here on HN
As an alcoholic I too feel in control of my alcohol intake.
Re: The New Smoking (2021)
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, I thought this was going to be about vape pens. God bless humanity, almost got rid of the vice completely only to have a reincarnation absolutely plunge a new generation into addiction.
The vice was the war on drugs that was disproportionately applied to minorities. Legalizing weed is taking one weapon out of the arsenal of the police state.
So I generally agree with all these opinions but… I was talking about cigarettes?
Also “vice” in the meaning of a bad habit, not the drug squad.