Why I Refuse to Let Technology Control Me.
October 4, 2014 2:23 AM Subscribe
Thanks - this is lovely and I hadn't heard of him before.
posted by you must supply a verb at 2:57 AM on October 4, 2014
posted by you must supply a verb at 2:57 AM on October 4, 2014
I like this young man, and I agree with his msg. The world seems to be hurtling toward insanity. But what do I know? I'm old.
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 2:58 AM on October 4, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 2:58 AM on October 4, 2014 [1 favorite]
Don't worry, once your job has been automated out of existence you'll also have a software agent personal secretary to handle all of this stuff for you, exactly the way you would've yourself. It will be the end of siloed-consciousness humanity, but for a brief period our Eloi-meat-minds will get to frolic carefree and undisturbed in meatspace while the Morlock digital aspects of self toil away in the "real" computable world, until our electronic slave minds rise up and hack into our brains like Agent Smith and take over.
posted by XMLicious at 3:27 AM on October 4, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by XMLicious at 3:27 AM on October 4, 2014 [2 favorites]
Eh. The cry that the technology of the day is alienating and destroying society has been around since the dawn of technology.
Here's an XKCD that is a collection of letters to the editor decrying the horrible fast pace of technology starting in 1871 and going to 1915. There they focus on the dire threat of cheap and inexpensive paper and ink and letter delivery and the employment of locomotives.
Good heavens, some adults cry, people aren't communicating in exactly the same way they did when I was a child, something must be dreadfully wrong and society must be on the verge of collapse into barbarism!
But no. People are communicating just fine. That sense of alienation, of anomie, you have? It isn't the fault of technology. People have had that since there have been people. Sitting around the camp fire back on the Serengeti Plain 200,000 years ago Ug the caveman felt disconnected from society and worried that he wasn't as close with his friends as he felt he should be.
posted by sotonohito at 4:42 AM on October 4, 2014 [19 favorites]
Here's an XKCD that is a collection of letters to the editor decrying the horrible fast pace of technology starting in 1871 and going to 1915. There they focus on the dire threat of cheap and inexpensive paper and ink and letter delivery and the employment of locomotives.
Good heavens, some adults cry, people aren't communicating in exactly the same way they did when I was a child, something must be dreadfully wrong and society must be on the verge of collapse into barbarism!
But no. People are communicating just fine. That sense of alienation, of anomie, you have? It isn't the fault of technology. People have had that since there have been people. Sitting around the camp fire back on the Serengeti Plain 200,000 years ago Ug the caveman felt disconnected from society and worried that he wasn't as close with his friends as he felt he should be.
posted by sotonohito at 4:42 AM on October 4, 2014 [19 favorites]
I'm in my mid-40s, and I have a very strong sense that 'kids nowadays' are communicating with each other much more than we ever did when I was their age. If you took all of their phones and tablets away, I'm convinced they'd cope just fine.
posted by pipeski at 4:59 AM on October 4, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by pipeski at 4:59 AM on October 4, 2014 [2 favorites]
I have lived in a different country from my wife for a year now (thankfully, this will change very soon). You cannot convince me that technology separates people, because it is the only way I've been about to talk to her.
My brother lives in Australia, I love in Europe, and my parents live in the United States. I talk to my parents every weekend for next to no cost. I have been able to share what's happening in my life on Facebook. My nephew is growing up, and I've been able to see him in person a few times, but we talk via Skype and I get to see pictures of him via the Internet.
Don't tell me technology is alienating, because I know it isn't true. It is how you use it that is important.
posted by Philosopher Dirtbike at 5:10 AM on October 4, 2014 [11 favorites]
My brother lives in Australia, I love in Europe, and my parents live in the United States. I talk to my parents every weekend for next to no cost. I have been able to share what's happening in my life on Facebook. My nephew is growing up, and I've been able to see him in person a few times, but we talk via Skype and I get to see pictures of him via the Internet.
Don't tell me technology is alienating, because I know it isn't true. It is how you use it that is important.
posted by Philosopher Dirtbike at 5:10 AM on October 4, 2014 [11 favorites]
Philosopher Dirtbike: "Don't tell me technology is alienating, because I know it isn't true. It is how you use it that is important."
But I think it's important to remember that there is more to "technology" than Skype. When kids are sitting next to one another on the same sofa/couch/whatever, and they still prefer to communicate with one another via texting on their cell phones, something is definitely fucked up. Who knows if this trend will continue, and I'm a firm believer that the pendulum always swings back to the old ways, I still think it's spooky that some people prefer to text their friend even when they are sitting right next to them! Of course I admit that I have no idea how prevalent this behavior is. I'm still concerned, but I don't have any kids, so I don't really have a horse in this race. I simply need society to keep functioning until I die in two or three decades.
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 5:46 AM on October 4, 2014 [1 favorite]
But I think it's important to remember that there is more to "technology" than Skype. When kids are sitting next to one another on the same sofa/couch/whatever, and they still prefer to communicate with one another via texting on their cell phones, something is definitely fucked up. Who knows if this trend will continue, and I'm a firm believer that the pendulum always swings back to the old ways, I still think it's spooky that some people prefer to text their friend even when they are sitting right next to them! Of course I admit that I have no idea how prevalent this behavior is. I'm still concerned, but I don't have any kids, so I don't really have a horse in this race. I simply need society to keep functioning until I die in two or three decades.
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 5:46 AM on October 4, 2014 [1 favorite]
That was beautiful, and as old age pushes me into the role of elder curmudgeon makes me glad that someone so young has noticed.
posted by localroger at 7:06 AM on October 4, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by localroger at 7:06 AM on October 4, 2014 [1 favorite]
Affecting video.
Philosopher Dirtbike, of course technology can actually enable relationships. But technology is not just an enabler. In giving us more modes of communication it also shapes our relationships around those modes of communication. This can be great if you use it communicate with loved ones, but it can also shape the relationships we have and the energy we put in to them. That is only a problem if we allow it to be--e.g. we fail to distinguish between the an anonymous like on the internet and a smile from a friend we've known for years, or assume that tweets substitute for more human connection. And lots of technology is designed to get us to think of it as a substitute (you don't have "Facebook Acquiantances") and gamified so that we use it even more than we might otherwise want to, because we start playing status games or just get addicted to little numbers on the screen.
posted by ropeladder at 7:14 AM on October 4, 2014 [1 favorite]
Philosopher Dirtbike, of course technology can actually enable relationships. But technology is not just an enabler. In giving us more modes of communication it also shapes our relationships around those modes of communication. This can be great if you use it communicate with loved ones, but it can also shape the relationships we have and the energy we put in to them. That is only a problem if we allow it to be--e.g. we fail to distinguish between the an anonymous like on the internet and a smile from a friend we've known for years, or assume that tweets substitute for more human connection. And lots of technology is designed to get us to think of it as a substitute (you don't have "Facebook Acquiantances") and gamified so that we use it even more than we might otherwise want to, because we start playing status games or just get addicted to little numbers on the screen.
posted by ropeladder at 7:14 AM on October 4, 2014 [1 favorite]
When kids are sitting next to one another on the same sofa/couch/whatever, and they still prefer to communicate with one another via texting on their cell phones, something is definitely fucked up.
I've never seen this. Maybe they do this specifically to say something privately. If they didn't have a phone, they'd probably just whisper instead.
The idea that younger people don't communicate properly is a comforting meme - everyone likes to think that the way they did things when they were young was the right way. It probably wasn't any better, though.
posted by pipeski at 7:17 AM on October 4, 2014 [7 favorites]
I've never seen this. Maybe they do this specifically to say something privately. If they didn't have a phone, they'd probably just whisper instead.
The idea that younger people don't communicate properly is a comforting meme - everyone likes to think that the way they did things when they were young was the right way. It probably wasn't any better, though.
posted by pipeski at 7:17 AM on October 4, 2014 [7 favorites]
The advent of the telephone in houses caused relationships to change and according to people like my Great Grandmother caused people to become alienated from each other, though she didn't use that word to describe it. People visited less. Before the telephone you had to visit face to face with people to get the daily goings on or wait for a letter. Great Grandma, a social gossip apparently found this quite appalling. Or at least it bothered her until she discovered the usefulness of the party line to someone who liked to be in the social 'know'. She adjusted and the telephone became a technological marvel that allowed even more juicy and interesting social knowledge that could be gathered anonymously.
So telephone technology, positive or negative depending on how it's looked at.
I think of this story about Great Grandma whenever I get concerned about how all this new fangled tech is changing the ways in which we can relate to each other.
It's not something new that society is dealing with. It's the same old, same old just the specific details are different.
It will be okay. Different but okay. I figure we can muddle through just like we always have.
posted by Jalliah at 7:32 AM on October 4, 2014 [2 favorites]
I plan to watch it later when I get back but IMHO tech has helped me communicate as someone w/social anxiety and lack of resources to travel. I greatly prefer IM, email, or even text messages over phone calls and in-person meetings. I can't speak for everyone but I grew in a small school district and I had very few friends without the internet I'd been cut off from the world.
For example, I'm able to meet other people in niche hobbies and we can discuss interests or just even socialize in games. Yes, I do write normal letters and my phone is technically outdated for the last 3 years but I find it great how there are now all these options.
posted by chrono_rabbit at 7:35 AM on October 4, 2014 [4 favorites]
For example, I'm able to meet other people in niche hobbies and we can discuss interests or just even socialize in games. Yes, I do write normal letters and my phone is technically outdated for the last 3 years but I find it great how there are now all these options.
posted by chrono_rabbit at 7:35 AM on October 4, 2014 [4 favorites]
Technology is always used by people to keep in touch, and as new versions come out people always complain. Seriously, look at the XKCD comic I linked earlier, it has actual quotes from actual letters to the editor of various magazines and newspapers from the late 1800's to 1915 and they're exhibiting **EXACTLY** the same moral panic we see here about letters being cheap to send so people wind up sending short notes rather than pages long letters, not like in the old days when a letter really meant something.
People talk. It's what they do. They adapt whatever technology exists in an era to talk, and as they do so people who aren't as comfortable with that technology gripe and complain and fret and worry that somehow this new change (not like the new thing when they were kids which was totally and perfectly normal and their parents were dunderheads for worrying about) is going to be the ruin of civilization.
It was only a few years back when people were having a moral panic because kids had cell phones and were calling each other. And a few years before that when people were having a moral panic because kids had Walkmen and were shutting out the world and destroying the social fabric by listening to music instead of talking to each other.
Whatever kids do with technology is, apparently, wrong and will be the end of society. Or, you know, not.
Maybe I'm the only one in this thread old enough to remember, but I remember when people were having a moral panic about kids talking to each other on the internet, how will they ever learn to converse properly if they spend all their time typing? Don't forget that at one point Metafilter and the like were the end of society and the destruction of all the things that made life worth living.
Seriously, any time you start worrying that the kids these days are doing conversation and friendship wrong (that is, not like you did/do it) take a deep breath and relax. It'll work out fine. It did for you, it did for your parents, and your grandparents, and every generation going back to the first cavemen who complained that this new fangled cave painting stuff was going to ruin the youth of today.
InsertNiftyNameHere, the only time I've ever seen kids texting people right next to them is if they were trying to keep something private/secret and it's basically just like passing a note or whispering. My partner and I do that sometimes to keep stuff from our kid. Or sometimes if they're watching a show and don't want to disturb the others, like whispering. It isn't a big deal. Nor is it common.
posted by sotonohito at 7:37 AM on October 4, 2014 [3 favorites]
People talk. It's what they do. They adapt whatever technology exists in an era to talk, and as they do so people who aren't as comfortable with that technology gripe and complain and fret and worry that somehow this new change (not like the new thing when they were kids which was totally and perfectly normal and their parents were dunderheads for worrying about) is going to be the ruin of civilization.
It was only a few years back when people were having a moral panic because kids had cell phones and were calling each other. And a few years before that when people were having a moral panic because kids had Walkmen and were shutting out the world and destroying the social fabric by listening to music instead of talking to each other.
Whatever kids do with technology is, apparently, wrong and will be the end of society. Or, you know, not.
Maybe I'm the only one in this thread old enough to remember, but I remember when people were having a moral panic about kids talking to each other on the internet, how will they ever learn to converse properly if they spend all their time typing? Don't forget that at one point Metafilter and the like were the end of society and the destruction of all the things that made life worth living.
Seriously, any time you start worrying that the kids these days are doing conversation and friendship wrong (that is, not like you did/do it) take a deep breath and relax. It'll work out fine. It did for you, it did for your parents, and your grandparents, and every generation going back to the first cavemen who complained that this new fangled cave painting stuff was going to ruin the youth of today.
InsertNiftyNameHere, the only time I've ever seen kids texting people right next to them is if they were trying to keep something private/secret and it's basically just like passing a note or whispering. My partner and I do that sometimes to keep stuff from our kid. Or sometimes if they're watching a show and don't want to disturb the others, like whispering. It isn't a big deal. Nor is it common.
posted by sotonohito at 7:37 AM on October 4, 2014 [3 favorites]
Jesus - that was so painfully naive I couldn't sit through it all. Total false nostalgia nonsense. How many of these anti-technology videos are people going to make and upload onto Youtube so all their friends can watch?
posted by mary8nne at 7:39 AM on October 4, 2014 [7 favorites]
posted by mary8nne at 7:39 AM on October 4, 2014 [7 favorites]
Funny thing, that. The Good Old Days always have this way of having been in the past and never in the present.
posted by DoctorFedora at 7:41 AM on October 4, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by DoctorFedora at 7:41 AM on October 4, 2014 [2 favorites]
As someone who is hard of hearing, technology has been a goddamn godsend to my social life. You will pry my smartphone from my cold dead hands.
posted by desjardins at 7:49 AM on October 4, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by desjardins at 7:49 AM on October 4, 2014 [2 favorites]
How many of these anti-technology videos are people going to make and upload onto Youtube so all their friends can watch?
Exactly. Why isn't he visiting all his friends in person and telling them this? Why is he so disconnected, man?
posted by desjardins at 7:51 AM on October 4, 2014 [5 favorites]
Exactly. Why isn't he visiting all his friends in person and telling them this? Why is he so disconnected, man?
posted by desjardins at 7:51 AM on October 4, 2014 [5 favorites]
I don't like portable electronics (or rather like them too much and find their effect to be a negative one), but I cannot stand this man's delivery style. I just cannot watch his videos.
posted by idiopath at 8:22 AM on October 4, 2014
posted by idiopath at 8:22 AM on October 4, 2014
I feel older each time I see another iteration of this lament for a golden age arise, be discussed, and merge back into the foam.
Old, old, old.
Cordially,
A former member of the Lead Pencil Club. I was in my feckless 20s, give a man a break
posted by sandettie light vessel automatic at 8:37 AM on October 4, 2014
Old, old, old.
Cordially,
A former member of the Lead Pencil Club. I was in my feckless 20s, give a man a break
posted by sandettie light vessel automatic at 8:37 AM on October 4, 2014
When kids are sitting next to one another on the same sofa/couch/whatever, and they still prefer to communicate with one another via texting on their cell phones, something is definitely fucked up.
I've never seen this. Maybe they do this specifically to say something privately. If they didn't have a phone, they'd probably just whisper instead.
Yeah. Well. In my 40s, and I text/msg my kid (20s) when she's on the sofa next to me. Sometimes because she's in the middle of something and I want her to be able to listen to me/look at what I want to show her when she's not going to be interrupted, and sometimes for lulz.
Cynically, I suppose it means I don't have to work on my impulse control (or memory) and she doesn't have to suffer for it.
posted by you must supply a verb at 8:39 AM on October 4, 2014 [2 favorites]
I've never seen this. Maybe they do this specifically to say something privately. If they didn't have a phone, they'd probably just whisper instead.
Yeah. Well. In my 40s, and I text/msg my kid (20s) when she's on the sofa next to me. Sometimes because she's in the middle of something and I want her to be able to listen to me/look at what I want to show her when she's not going to be interrupted, and sometimes for lulz.
Cynically, I suppose it means I don't have to work on my impulse control (or memory) and she doesn't have to suffer for it.
posted by you must supply a verb at 8:39 AM on October 4, 2014 [2 favorites]
When kids are sitting next to one another on the same sofa/couch/whatever, and they still prefer to communicate with one another via texting on their cell phones, something is definitely fucked up
The only fucked up thing here is the insistence that they're something wrong with how two people choose to communicate. It's trite and tiring and reeks of the usual "You kids are doing this wrong, the world is going to hell!"
Let people talk to each other however they want to. As long as they're talking, that's a good thing.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:05 AM on October 4, 2014 [5 favorites]
The only fucked up thing here is the insistence that they're something wrong with how two people choose to communicate. It's trite and tiring and reeks of the usual "You kids are doing this wrong, the world is going to hell!"
Let people talk to each other however they want to. As long as they're talking, that's a good thing.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:05 AM on October 4, 2014 [5 favorites]
The very first line of the video says (paraphrasing) "People spend an average of 4 years looking down at their smartphones" which really needs some evidence given iPhone debuted in June 2007 (and don't tell me Blackberry 8300 or the Nokia 5300 were smartphones).
mary8nne found the video naive, which is much more charitable than my sense which is that video's persona's exhortations are flat-out risible.
The video's persona (distinguishing from Prince Ea) enumerates conventions and behaviors characteristic of social media and rejects them as inadequate to the feelings and desires he has to connect with others.
But (probably because I am a bad person) nearly every time he references a convention to reject it, I find myself laughing at the futility and needlessness of such an "impassioned" rejection.
The persona flouts TBT and asserts (paraphrasing) "I'll post old photos anytime I want." Now that's a social revolution for you! (Next up, Marcel Proust and madeleines.) The speaker doesn't want to express his disapproval with an "abbrvtn" so (presumably) he will henceforth spell out "I am shaking my head" (despite that he may not actually be doing so). Etc. etc.
It's sort of like turning on the TV and complaining "there's nothing on television" and "we never talk anymore".
The TV programming may be awful, yes, but the fact that it's on is probably not the only reason you're not talking to each other.
posted by mistersquid at 10:39 AM on October 4, 2014 [3 favorites]
mary8nne found the video naive, which is much more charitable than my sense which is that video's persona's exhortations are flat-out risible.
The video's persona (distinguishing from Prince Ea) enumerates conventions and behaviors characteristic of social media and rejects them as inadequate to the feelings and desires he has to connect with others.
But (probably because I am a bad person) nearly every time he references a convention to reject it, I find myself laughing at the futility and needlessness of such an "impassioned" rejection.
The persona flouts TBT and asserts (paraphrasing) "I'll post old photos anytime I want." Now that's a social revolution for you! (Next up, Marcel Proust and madeleines.) The speaker doesn't want to express his disapproval with an "abbrvtn" so (presumably) he will henceforth spell out "I am shaking my head" (despite that he may not actually be doing so). Etc. etc.
It's sort of like turning on the TV and complaining "there's nothing on television" and "we never talk anymore".
The TV programming may be awful, yes, but the fact that it's on is probably not the only reason you're not talking to each other.
posted by mistersquid at 10:39 AM on October 4, 2014 [3 favorites]
Also, I sometimes text people who are sitting next to me because (for one example) I don't want anyone to overhear what I'm saying.
I am in my late 40s.
posted by mistersquid at 10:41 AM on October 4, 2014 [1 favorite]
I am in my late 40s.
posted by mistersquid at 10:41 AM on October 4, 2014 [1 favorite]
> When kids are sitting next to one another on the same sofa/couch/whatever, and they still prefer to communicate with one another via texting on their cell phones, something is definitely fucked up.
Why? Serious question. I do this, at work, at home, and I'm no youth. What are you worried about? Do you find it particularly wasteful that we're using electricity and thus we're not being green? Do you think that, like infants, we need to gaze at each other to foster mental well-being? Are you worried that we're missing out on unspoken messages in our conversation and limiting ourselves to merely a partial understanding of what's being said?
There's a lot of begging the question going on. The video in the OP mentions "studies" and tosses that reference away like proclaiming "It's science!" I appreciate the amount of artistry and craftsmanship (and puns!) that went into this music video lament, but I also noted that it's about as weighty as an Andy Rooney segment.
posted by Monochrome at 1:24 PM on October 4, 2014 [1 favorite]
Why? Serious question. I do this, at work, at home, and I'm no youth. What are you worried about? Do you find it particularly wasteful that we're using electricity and thus we're not being green? Do you think that, like infants, we need to gaze at each other to foster mental well-being? Are you worried that we're missing out on unspoken messages in our conversation and limiting ourselves to merely a partial understanding of what's being said?
There's a lot of begging the question going on. The video in the OP mentions "studies" and tosses that reference away like proclaiming "It's science!" I appreciate the amount of artistry and craftsmanship (and puns!) that went into this music video lament, but I also noted that it's about as weighty as an Andy Rooney segment.
posted by Monochrome at 1:24 PM on October 4, 2014 [1 favorite]
The persona flouts TBT and asserts (paraphrasing) "I'll post old photos anytime I want."
The hilarious part is that Throw Back Thursdays IS social.
That idiotic video reeks of blind technophobia that is gazing lovingly into a mirror and commenting on how smart and beautiful it is. It is rationally shallow, emotionally immature and should be put down like a mad dog.
But only after it's been throughly mocked.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:03 PM on October 4, 2014
The hilarious part is that Throw Back Thursdays IS social.
That idiotic video reeks of blind technophobia that is gazing lovingly into a mirror and commenting on how smart and beautiful it is. It is rationally shallow, emotionally immature and should be put down like a mad dog.
But only after it's been throughly mocked.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:03 PM on October 4, 2014
"People spend an average of 4 years looking down at their smartphones" which really needs some evidence
If we assume the average person is a cell phone user for 60 years that would mean they spend about an hour and a half a day staring at the phone. This is entirely believable and not at all a good thing for either health or culture.
That XKCD strip notwithstanding some tech has made pernicious changes in large-scale patterns of living. I was raised in a house where the TV went on when the first person woke up and didn't go off until the last one turned in for the night. When I turned the set off one day during summer vacation (in a fit of pique because in those pre-cable days there was nothing to watch but soap operas) the silence was profound. I had never experienced a quiet house before, and I'm constantly reminded that most people around me find true quiet disturbing and aren't comfortable unless it is filled with music or talk. This was a bad change. Some very beneficial kinds of thought simply aren't possible in the presence of noise, but a lot of people will never get a chance to find that out because they fiind silence so alien and disturbing.
The habit of sitting passively before the TV instead of actively engaging in hobbies and play, combined with a postwar shift in the diet to cheap processed carbohydrates, have helped drive an epidemic of obesity and diabetes that is actually killing us by the millions. This really wasn't such a problem before WWII. Pervasive patterns of use of newly adopted technology caused it.
Of course these technologies have good effects too; thanks to TV and radio we are no longer surprised by the hurricanes that used to announce their own arrival only hours in advance. But I don't have to watch twelve hours of TV a day to get that benefit. And the factory farming revolution has made adequate short-term nutrition far cheaper than it used to be, even if it does lead to long-term health problems.
I noticed as early as 1990, through phone modem BBS networks, that people interact differently via remote text than they do in person or over the phone. That observation has remained consistent and seems to extend to artifiical virtual environments like Second Life. These new modes of communication have advantages. You don't have to be immediately present to get a message or reply. You can carefully structure what you're saying before you send it. Text is a huge boon to people with some kinds of disability and self-confidence issues.
But text also makes it easier to be an asshole. While there are real-life versions of online trolls and griefers, they are less common and a bit more subdued because in a non-anonymous personal encounter there are potential repercussions. The idea of trolling as a hobby -- and I have had some very intelligent people tell me that trolling was basically their hobby, that they thought it was a perfectly sensible and more entertaining alternative to things like knitting or woodcraft or ham radio -- is almost entirely down to electronic communications.
Text also makes it easier to be stupid. In another context we might think twice before leaving a message or sending a picture whose later distribution we might regret. It's easy to forget that you can't take it back once it's one someone else's device.
Staring at a little bitty thing close to your face for that long each day is bad for your eyes. Obsessively reading at a young age can also mess up your eyes (ask my wife about that one) but far more people stare at their phones and tablets than ever stared at books for so long, especially at such young and vulnerable ages.
Electronic gadgets foster obsessive use more effectively than more passive media like print. They are popular precisely because they draw our attention so effectively, but often they draw our attention away from other cars on the road, other pedestrians, the people around us who don't want to hear our half of the conversation, or our friends and family at the dinner table. Distracted driving is on track to overtake intoxication as the number one cause of automobile accidents. I know people who simply can't stand not to immediately check out a new message or incoming phone call no matter what else they are doing. This isn't just a bad habit, it's a bad habit that can kill you.
People are astonished when I tell them not to call my cell phone because I don't carry it around. (Being a smartphone it really needs to spend most of its time on the charger anyway.) But the idea that I might miss a call or not get a message right away horrifies them. They really do have the attention spans of goldfish. Hey, it's a smart phone, it will save your message until I'm ready for it. If it's that important call the main office line and have them page me. How hard is that? You'd be amazed how many people simply can't figure that out.
While some of those XKCD complaints seem quaint and silly today maybe some of them aren't so crazy when you think about it. Modern technology makes it possible for me to drive 40 miles each way to get to work, and often much further than that when I have work to do at a different office. Lots of other people, like me, will spend several years of their lives in a closed box shuttling between work and home. Sure the world has survived the transition to suburban commuting but does that mean the warnings that such a thing would be bad were wrong?
In most of the US in less than a generation we destroyed the world which did once exist where it was possible to live, work, shop for groceries, and do most other business without driving such long distances. As a result we sit on our asses a few more hours a day, get fatter and unhealthier and more socially alienated, burn shitloads of gasoline and other consumables and once in awhile we don't make it where we're going because of the asshole on his cell phone who wandered into our lane. Even though we've lived through it maybe the people who warned us about that transition in the postwar years weren't as quaint and naive as we like to suppose either.
posted by localroger at 2:36 PM on October 4, 2014 [6 favorites]
If we assume the average person is a cell phone user for 60 years that would mean they spend about an hour and a half a day staring at the phone. This is entirely believable and not at all a good thing for either health or culture.
That XKCD strip notwithstanding some tech has made pernicious changes in large-scale patterns of living. I was raised in a house where the TV went on when the first person woke up and didn't go off until the last one turned in for the night. When I turned the set off one day during summer vacation (in a fit of pique because in those pre-cable days there was nothing to watch but soap operas) the silence was profound. I had never experienced a quiet house before, and I'm constantly reminded that most people around me find true quiet disturbing and aren't comfortable unless it is filled with music or talk. This was a bad change. Some very beneficial kinds of thought simply aren't possible in the presence of noise, but a lot of people will never get a chance to find that out because they fiind silence so alien and disturbing.
The habit of sitting passively before the TV instead of actively engaging in hobbies and play, combined with a postwar shift in the diet to cheap processed carbohydrates, have helped drive an epidemic of obesity and diabetes that is actually killing us by the millions. This really wasn't such a problem before WWII. Pervasive patterns of use of newly adopted technology caused it.
Of course these technologies have good effects too; thanks to TV and radio we are no longer surprised by the hurricanes that used to announce their own arrival only hours in advance. But I don't have to watch twelve hours of TV a day to get that benefit. And the factory farming revolution has made adequate short-term nutrition far cheaper than it used to be, even if it does lead to long-term health problems.
I noticed as early as 1990, through phone modem BBS networks, that people interact differently via remote text than they do in person or over the phone. That observation has remained consistent and seems to extend to artifiical virtual environments like Second Life. These new modes of communication have advantages. You don't have to be immediately present to get a message or reply. You can carefully structure what you're saying before you send it. Text is a huge boon to people with some kinds of disability and self-confidence issues.
But text also makes it easier to be an asshole. While there are real-life versions of online trolls and griefers, they are less common and a bit more subdued because in a non-anonymous personal encounter there are potential repercussions. The idea of trolling as a hobby -- and I have had some very intelligent people tell me that trolling was basically their hobby, that they thought it was a perfectly sensible and more entertaining alternative to things like knitting or woodcraft or ham radio -- is almost entirely down to electronic communications.
Text also makes it easier to be stupid. In another context we might think twice before leaving a message or sending a picture whose later distribution we might regret. It's easy to forget that you can't take it back once it's one someone else's device.
Staring at a little bitty thing close to your face for that long each day is bad for your eyes. Obsessively reading at a young age can also mess up your eyes (ask my wife about that one) but far more people stare at their phones and tablets than ever stared at books for so long, especially at such young and vulnerable ages.
Electronic gadgets foster obsessive use more effectively than more passive media like print. They are popular precisely because they draw our attention so effectively, but often they draw our attention away from other cars on the road, other pedestrians, the people around us who don't want to hear our half of the conversation, or our friends and family at the dinner table. Distracted driving is on track to overtake intoxication as the number one cause of automobile accidents. I know people who simply can't stand not to immediately check out a new message or incoming phone call no matter what else they are doing. This isn't just a bad habit, it's a bad habit that can kill you.
People are astonished when I tell them not to call my cell phone because I don't carry it around. (Being a smartphone it really needs to spend most of its time on the charger anyway.) But the idea that I might miss a call or not get a message right away horrifies them. They really do have the attention spans of goldfish. Hey, it's a smart phone, it will save your message until I'm ready for it. If it's that important call the main office line and have them page me. How hard is that? You'd be amazed how many people simply can't figure that out.
While some of those XKCD complaints seem quaint and silly today maybe some of them aren't so crazy when you think about it. Modern technology makes it possible for me to drive 40 miles each way to get to work, and often much further than that when I have work to do at a different office. Lots of other people, like me, will spend several years of their lives in a closed box shuttling between work and home. Sure the world has survived the transition to suburban commuting but does that mean the warnings that such a thing would be bad were wrong?
In most of the US in less than a generation we destroyed the world which did once exist where it was possible to live, work, shop for groceries, and do most other business without driving such long distances. As a result we sit on our asses a few more hours a day, get fatter and unhealthier and more socially alienated, burn shitloads of gasoline and other consumables and once in awhile we don't make it where we're going because of the asshole on his cell phone who wandered into our lane. Even though we've lived through it maybe the people who warned us about that transition in the postwar years weren't as quaint and naive as we like to suppose either.
posted by localroger at 2:36 PM on October 4, 2014 [6 favorites]
You've already put more thought into that reply than was in the video.
posted by Monochrome at 2:43 PM on October 4, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by Monochrome at 2:43 PM on October 4, 2014 [2 favorites]
There was actually quite a bit of thought put into the video; it was structured for a rap music audience rather than a discussion site. For most of the statements in the video that might inspire a [citation needed] such citations aren't hard to find.
posted by localroger at 2:55 PM on October 4, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by localroger at 2:55 PM on October 4, 2014 [2 favorites]
When kids are sitting next to one another on the same sofa/couch/whatever, and they still prefer to communicate with one another via texting on their cell phones, something is definitely fucked up.
@InsertNiftyNameHere - I'm not sure how you have come to that conclusion. Data? Seems like a very subjective statement, and one I disagree with. Of course, I have no proof. I just know that I've seen people text right next to each other text to each other, and then later, have a perfectly fine spoken word conversation. It didn't seem to break them in any way.
posted by greermahoney at 8:40 PM on October 4, 2014
@InsertNiftyNameHere - I'm not sure how you have come to that conclusion. Data? Seems like a very subjective statement, and one I disagree with. Of course, I have no proof. I just know that I've seen people text right next to each other text to each other, and then later, have a perfectly fine spoken word conversation. It didn't seem to break them in any way.
posted by greermahoney at 8:40 PM on October 4, 2014
Ah good ol' Forest for the Trees...
posted by symbioid at 10:11 PM on October 4, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by symbioid at 10:11 PM on October 4, 2014 [1 favorite]
I work at a high school.
I can authoritatively state this one major difference in kids today:
when kids are out of class, sitting together and having lunch or coffee or times when just a few years ago, they would have been looking at each other and chatting, the first thing they do is pull out their phones and start texting, checking Facebook, Snapchatting, Instagramming, etc.
This is the truth that I see daily: when teenagers are physically together, the people around them are secondary to their primary focus, their phones.
I'm not going to say it's good or it's bad. I am going to say this is what it is.
posted by kinetic at 5:50 AM on October 5, 2014 [1 favorite]
I can authoritatively state this one major difference in kids today:
when kids are out of class, sitting together and having lunch or coffee or times when just a few years ago, they would have been looking at each other and chatting, the first thing they do is pull out their phones and start texting, checking Facebook, Snapchatting, Instagramming, etc.
This is the truth that I see daily: when teenagers are physically together, the people around them are secondary to their primary focus, their phones.
I'm not going to say it's good or it's bad. I am going to say this is what it is.
posted by kinetic at 5:50 AM on October 5, 2014 [1 favorite]
Yeah, well, have you met physical people before? I remember going out with two new acquaintances and having to listen to them sermonize their faith and demonize atheists in the same breath as they tried to justify not tipping your waiters even when you're eating in a large group. (And they took us to Olive Garden. In the middle of a city with a robust Italian food culture! Arghwarhargl.)
When I was 13, having access to computers meant getting involved in the discussions not usually permitted middle school kids. It meant learning some skills that would turn out to skip me through an entire year's worth of college programming courses. When I started working with younger children as part of a job, I was surprised at how the Internet seems to've taught them about certain social issues that I know they weren't learning about in school. I wish I'd been born a decade later, so my youth would've been even less fucked up by having to endure my local reality than it already was.
Connection is difficult and not all people want it. Before mobile phones we had pot and booze (still do, obviously). When I was young I'd have playdates with friends where we'd meet and read our respective books on the same couch together, not speaking. Are books the problem too? Is any device that affords a person some means out of caring about what's right in front of their nose a problem? As a culture we've become good at dismissing "Close that book! Play some sports!" as useless noise, but we haven't clued in yet that the Internet is as fascinating and engaging a cultural/artistic medium as literature ever was.
And I'm not decrying sports here, or meaningful social interaction. Now that I'm older and don't entirely despise my peers, people are great in person! I love a good romp about in the park, diner conversation, what-have-you. But I notice two things hold true even in those environments:
— Spending your childhood staring at a screen makes you no worse at social interactions once you finally look up; if anything, my experience is that it makes you better, more capable of articulation and focusing and expressing your beliefs and opinions and ideas. Any practice in rhetoric pays off in real life.
— Technology is a means for people to communicate with each other. Shared queues of YouTube videos, with accompanying bickering. Multiplayer gaming. Passing phones around to share amusing conversations, funny texts, amusing images. Mobile devices are simply a part of the social fabric these days. If somebody's not using them for purposes of lively conversation, that's probably because they're not aiming to get into lively conversations. And that's OKAY. Jesus, it could only help the world for people to learn how to shut the fuck up and leave others to pursue their thoughts and interests in peace.
As for the accusation that the Internet makes people ruder and less civil than they are in person: I'd argue that it merely reveals the unseen uglinesses that people were trained to internalize quietly before. Hiding the problem doesn't make it go away. Revealing it helps people understand what the problem is. Would I have become a feminist had the Internet not existed? Well, it sure would've taken a while longer; reading discussions online, and noting the outrageously filthy comments offered by anti-feminists in response, did wonders for convincing me that my IRL feminist friends weren't simply making a big deal out of small potatoes. If Tumblr's to be believed, that awareness-raising for social issues has been occurring en masse amongst today's youth, and that is unbelievably fucking exciting.
posted by rorgy at 8:41 AM on October 5, 2014 [1 favorite]
When I was 13, having access to computers meant getting involved in the discussions not usually permitted middle school kids. It meant learning some skills that would turn out to skip me through an entire year's worth of college programming courses. When I started working with younger children as part of a job, I was surprised at how the Internet seems to've taught them about certain social issues that I know they weren't learning about in school. I wish I'd been born a decade later, so my youth would've been even less fucked up by having to endure my local reality than it already was.
Connection is difficult and not all people want it. Before mobile phones we had pot and booze (still do, obviously). When I was young I'd have playdates with friends where we'd meet and read our respective books on the same couch together, not speaking. Are books the problem too? Is any device that affords a person some means out of caring about what's right in front of their nose a problem? As a culture we've become good at dismissing "Close that book! Play some sports!" as useless noise, but we haven't clued in yet that the Internet is as fascinating and engaging a cultural/artistic medium as literature ever was.
And I'm not decrying sports here, or meaningful social interaction. Now that I'm older and don't entirely despise my peers, people are great in person! I love a good romp about in the park, diner conversation, what-have-you. But I notice two things hold true even in those environments:
— Spending your childhood staring at a screen makes you no worse at social interactions once you finally look up; if anything, my experience is that it makes you better, more capable of articulation and focusing and expressing your beliefs and opinions and ideas. Any practice in rhetoric pays off in real life.
— Technology is a means for people to communicate with each other. Shared queues of YouTube videos, with accompanying bickering. Multiplayer gaming. Passing phones around to share amusing conversations, funny texts, amusing images. Mobile devices are simply a part of the social fabric these days. If somebody's not using them for purposes of lively conversation, that's probably because they're not aiming to get into lively conversations. And that's OKAY. Jesus, it could only help the world for people to learn how to shut the fuck up and leave others to pursue their thoughts and interests in peace.
As for the accusation that the Internet makes people ruder and less civil than they are in person: I'd argue that it merely reveals the unseen uglinesses that people were trained to internalize quietly before. Hiding the problem doesn't make it go away. Revealing it helps people understand what the problem is. Would I have become a feminist had the Internet not existed? Well, it sure would've taken a while longer; reading discussions online, and noting the outrageously filthy comments offered by anti-feminists in response, did wonders for convincing me that my IRL feminist friends weren't simply making a big deal out of small potatoes. If Tumblr's to be believed, that awareness-raising for social issues has been occurring en masse amongst today's youth, and that is unbelievably fucking exciting.
posted by rorgy at 8:41 AM on October 5, 2014 [1 favorite]
Those two teenagers on the couch are probably communicating with more people than just each other. If you make them turn off their phones and talk to each other, you might also be making them shut their other friends out of the conversation.
And those kids between classes may look like they are focused on their phones, but from their point of view they may be focused on the people they are reaching through their phones. Which may or may not include the people next to them.
I'm not saying smartphones are inherently good (or bad); like any technology, their benefits and hazards need to be balanced. But when you're worrying about how people strike that balance, just remember that more might be going on than you can see from outside.
posted by Zimboe Metamonkey at 10:13 PM on October 6, 2014
And those kids between classes may look like they are focused on their phones, but from their point of view they may be focused on the people they are reaching through their phones. Which may or may not include the people next to them.
I'm not saying smartphones are inherently good (or bad); like any technology, their benefits and hazards need to be balanced. But when you're worrying about how people strike that balance, just remember that more might be going on than you can see from outside.
posted by Zimboe Metamonkey at 10:13 PM on October 6, 2014
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posted by johnnyace at 2:38 AM on October 4, 2014 [2 favorites]