It's important for people to remember that humans are still intelligent creatures that are capable of recognizing, eventually, what's good for them and what isn't. How many of you guys remember the 70s and 80s, when TV and video games were supposed to turn us all into zombies? What happened? We eventually learned how to see these things as the tools that they are. Humans get fascinated by the new and shiny. This fascination may become unhealthy and provide grist for scam artists. Then they wise up. It's the way of the world.
I'd be flat out surprised if books didn't have their detractors back in the day.
> I'd be flat out surprised if books didn't have their detractors back in the day.
They most certainly did have. This reminds me about Socrates' take on books:
"for this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality."
You could probably make a better case for social media being much worse for your own mental health than video games. Everything's about instant gratification, creating and maintaining persona for the outside world to see and then hoping for approval thereof from your peers.
The video game world is disconnected from reality, involves long story lines, planning, strategy, skills that you can learn.
Maybe I'm wrong. If I had to chose, I hope my kid gets really in to video games instead of social media.
I agree. It seems we are just constantly moving from one moral panic to the next. It doesn't mean that there are no valid concerns, just that we need to stop and realize that overdramatizing everything isn't actually solving any problems.
I would argue its just another problem caused by our inability as a nation to rise above a childish level of discussion on just about any subject.
Books, of course have been thought of as subversive in earlier times. Even not that long ago. Book burnings, calls to ban particular books, all have occurred in living memory. Literacy itself has been seen as a threat.
I'd be flat out surprised if books didn't have their detractors back in the day.
Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking. ~~ Albert Einstein
Children watching too much television was a hot topic at the time. I remember reading about a "psychic" working for the government who made predictions for 2015. Curiously grounded in his contemporary time, he predicted a backlash against overuse of television.
Which has all been said before, what really interests me is what can be done to break this cycle for myself, to keep looking at new things as good and beneficial.
Headline: A majority of U.S. teens are taking steps to limit smartphone and social media use
The study: 52% – said they are trying to limit their phone use in various ways.
Addicts will often lie about trying to get clean. "Trying to do" something is also not the same as "doing" something something.
I'm not saying that teens aren't taking concrete steps to reduce smartphone and social media use, and after all, the first step to getting clean is admitting you have a problem, something their parents can't do. I'm just saying it's irresponsible for TechCrunch to jump to this conclusion, and this headline is amounts to clickbait.
A first step is acknowledging the problem or being aware that there is room for improvement. Even if they just think about it, that's how trends start.
Headline: 'taking steps'
Study: 'said they are trying'
A majority, 54% of teens, said they spend too much time on their phone, and nearly that many – 52% – said they are trying to limit their phone use in various ways.
Knowing is one thing and actually getting rid of it is a completely different ball game.
There's a gulf between the planner and the doer. The far-sighted "planner" in us knows that social media/Netflix/cigarettes are bad for us. When you conduct a survey, we are conscious and reasonable people who know what is good from what is bad and hence 54% of use agrees that we spend too much time on useless stuff.
But when it actually comes to doing, the myopic "doer" part of us keeps on snoozing that alarm clock in the morning and goes to Facebook to check the number of likes & comments received every five minutes.
- An app that you can use to block facebook and other sites from your phone: https://freedom.to/
There are people who claim that this sort of thing is 'a crutch'. These same people probably would not encourage a dieter to keep a packet of cookies on their desk though. Regardless, crutches are useful whether you've broken your ankle or your mindfulness.
You can and should build more active mindfulness practices on top of this.
Maybe, maybe no longer so. The social media experiment is quite old now - old enough to make quite a few people disillusioned about what it actually does to you in a deeper way, and not to feel the urge anymore.
The bigger problem is that FB actually replaced not only discussion forums but also mailing lists for non-technical people, so very often you have no option other than to join a particular FB group if you want to participate in offline events. But even this might change with time.
I'm 27 and never signed up for Facebook, something about it did not really appeal to me. Mainly because I hate taking / posting pictures and don't really care for posting status updates to friends. I also like to keep my real life social networks disconnected from each other. I like having "work friends" and "friends from school" and don't care for them to intersect.
Out of the social networks I've tried I liked Twitter the most. I did not post often but it was great to peek into the conversations of interesting people.
I think today's generation is open to social networks but maybe the photo posting / status update nature of today's networks just don't appeal. Maybe a more creative social network where more users are creating content than consuming it would appeal.
I am not surprised. One thing that I have noticed about myself is I ask myself after a session on Instagram, "What did I get from that?" and the answer is usually nothing. Did it help my career? No. Did it make me smarter? No. Did it help me make friends? No.
It didn't improve my life in any way.
The instant I asked and answered that a few times, I started cutting down my usage dramatically.
That was the most annoying part of the movie for me.
The whole movie(and a book) was about using this amazing virtual world as the only escape from the shitty horrible reality. It wasn't just entertainment - people go to school there, people have friends there, for many it's the only source of happiness.
And that's what it was for the protagonist, he understands this better than anyone.
But the moment he becomes a billionaire and gets a hot girlfriend, he goes "reality is awesome guys, you should go out more!" While nothing has changed for most people. Fuck you, Wade!
It's like the dumbest cheapest way to add a "moral" to the movie, completely out of character, he'd never do something like this.
I just bought a Nokia 3310 3G and plan to curb my smartphone use completely. I'm sick to death of looking at my phone being the only thing I do. I used to do things at night, projects, hobbies, meeting people, and going places. I drive places now via GPS and have no recollection of how I got there. Driving without GPS makes you actually look at your surroundings and enjoy them and start making mental maps again. That all stopped as smartphones took over my life. It almost feels like schizophrenia being connected at all times to all things, all people, and all information. It reminds me of the Black Shakes (Nerve Attenuation Syndrome) disorder from Johnny Mnemonic.
I have received the phone but can't use it yet because my sim hasn't come in the mail. It's tantalizing to not be able to turn off my smartphone just yet. But I can feel the freedom when I hold that dumbphone Nokia.
I would LOVE to go back to a dumb phone like this, but three use cases really prevent me from doing so at the moment:
1) GPS / Maps for navigation: I agree with your sentiment, but I find that I"m _more_ likely to travel or take adventures when I know I can fall back to Google / Apple Maps as a safeguard for getting me from A-to-B, or finding new places around me.
2) Uber / Lyft / Ride Sharing: I can already use Siri on Apple Watch to say "Hey Siri, get me an Uber," so why can't I text a service like that? Or maybe a dumb phone with Google Assistant installed that could aid with those types of tasks? [Disclaimer: a service or phone like that _might_ exist, but in my limited time searching I haven't found one I like nor trust just yet.]
3) Photography: I'm no pro, but I do enjoy taking very good quality pictures at the fraction of the cost of a bulky thousand dollar camera, alongside the auto-backups and location-data stored alongside.
I bought this exact phone a few months back, works great. The only issue I'm having with migrating off of a smartphone is app-based MFA and email.
I thought it would be super easy to just use my iPhone for MFA and email, but I wound up needing to carry two devices wherever I went instead of just one. I tried hard not to use mobile email altogether anymore, until something came up and it was just easier to pull out the smartphone to reply to it instead of pulling out the laptop.
I'm still hopeful that I can get entirely off of a smartphone, but it's a massive challenge when work demands certain apps that just aren't dumbphone compatible.
I agree with everything but the GPS. I've always been shit at directions and spending more time driving lost in an unfamiliar area is something I do not want to do.
Man, when did TC decide to go full-on yellow journalism?
Today’s internet can be a toxic place, and not one where people should spend large amounts of time.
But many of these networks were built by young men who couldn’t conceive of all the ways things could go wrong.
... and even dopamine drug dealers like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube have begun to ...
Thankfully, as this study shows, there’s growing awareness of this among younger users, and maybe, some of them will even do something about it in the future – when they’re the bosses, the parents, and the engineers, they can craft new work/life policies, make new house rules, and write better code.
Yep, every group of teenagers thinks exactly the same thing. "Our parents fucked things up, but when we're in charge, we'll fix it all". Sadly the real world does not make it easy to effect such change on a large scale. But hey, now that my generation (Gen-X) occupies many key positions of influence, maybe we can finally get it right...
Most social networks are bad for you. They’re deliberately designed to be addictive in pointless ways.
I’d prefer teenagers to be tech savvy individuals who have plenty of face to face skills like conversational skills, curiosity, travel, ability to think, work, play, and plenty of other practical skills such as woodworking etc.
Technology as tool but not as a bubble to live in.
Is today the "Submarine Ad" day for "Kids aren't using social media"? If so, who makes money from us knowing that young people don't use social media? What are they trying to sell to us?
This underscores why I'm almost inherently biased against most regulations. In a lot (not saying all) of cases, we figure out what's bad for us and make decisions to help solve it. Social, legal, and economic issues in our society often appear to work themselves out when left to their own devices.
Yet, so many have the opposite gut reaction: Teens using too much social media? Regulate the industry! Tax them! Take away their phones!
I'm glad to see things working themselves out with social media usage and hope its successes help increase our ability to avoid expensive and fruitless regulations in the future.
I genuinely don't think I've ever heard anyone suggest teenage phone use should be regulated. Generally regulations are suggested when bad actors are blatantly unwilling or unable to regulate themselves.
I understand your general point, but I have never heard of a suggestion to regulate teenage phone use. Have you ever heard someone actually suggest this?
This particular survey featured interviews with 1,058 parents who belong to the panel and have a teen ages 13 to 17, as well as interviews with 743 teens
[+] [-] vinceguidry|7 years ago|reply
I'd be flat out surprised if books didn't have their detractors back in the day.
[+] [-] kruczek|7 years ago|reply
They most certainly did have. This reminds me about Socrates' take on books:
"for this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality."
Source: http://www.units.miamioh.edu/technologyandhumanities/plato.h...
[+] [-] stef25|7 years ago|reply
The video game world is disconnected from reality, involves long story lines, planning, strategy, skills that you can learn.
Maybe I'm wrong. If I had to chose, I hope my kid gets really in to video games instead of social media.
[+] [-] hammock|7 years ago|reply
Did we? A third of teens haven't read a book in the last year. And we "binge" on TV shows now which didn't really exist in the 70s.
[+] [-] anon08142018|7 years ago|reply
I would argue its just another problem caused by our inability as a nation to rise above a childish level of discussion on just about any subject.
[+] [-] ams6110|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] coffeeandjunk|7 years ago|reply
So they turned TV to Netflix.
[+] [-] rumcajz|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mindcrime|7 years ago|reply
Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking. ~~ Albert Einstein
[+] [-] ashleyn|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] toasterlovin|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] michaelbuckbee|7 years ago|reply
https://xkcd.com/1227/
Which has all been said before, what really interests me is what can be done to break this cycle for myself, to keep looking at new things as good and beneficial.
[+] [-] m1573rp34130dy|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dfxm12|7 years ago|reply
The study: 52% – said they are trying to limit their phone use in various ways.
Addicts will often lie about trying to get clean. "Trying to do" something is also not the same as "doing" something something.
I'm not saying that teens aren't taking concrete steps to reduce smartphone and social media use, and after all, the first step to getting clean is admitting you have a problem, something their parents can't do. I'm just saying it's irresponsible for TechCrunch to jump to this conclusion, and this headline is amounts to clickbait.
[+] [-] mc32|7 years ago|reply
So, succinctly, it’s a start. Industry should take note and steps to de-“gamify” the whole industry before the gov comes down or people rebel.
[+] [-] sampl|7 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve-step_program
[+] [-] lalos|7 years ago|reply
Headline: 'taking steps' Study: 'said they are trying'
[+] [-] unknown|7 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] coffeeandjunk|7 years ago|reply
Knowing is one thing and actually getting rid of it is a completely different ball game.
There's a gulf between the planner and the doer. The far-sighted "planner" in us knows that social media/Netflix/cigarettes are bad for us. When you conduct a survey, we are conscious and reasonable people who know what is good from what is bad and hence 54% of use agrees that we spend too much time on useless stuff.
But when it actually comes to doing, the myopic "doer" part of us keeps on snoozing that alarm clock in the morning and goes to Facebook to check the number of likes & comments received every five minutes.
[+] [-] afarrell|7 years ago|reply
- An alarm clock without a snooze button: https://www.amazon.com/Travelwey-Clock-Outlet-Powered-Operat...
- An app that you can use to block facebook and other sites from your phone: https://freedom.to/
There are people who claim that this sort of thing is 'a crutch'. These same people probably would not encourage a dieter to keep a packet of cookies on their desk though. Regardless, crutches are useful whether you've broken your ankle or your mindfulness.
You can and should build more active mindfulness practices on top of this.
[+] [-] dvfjsdhgfv|7 years ago|reply
The bigger problem is that FB actually replaced not only discussion forums but also mailing lists for non-technical people, so very often you have no option other than to join a particular FB group if you want to participate in offline events. But even this might change with time.
[+] [-] empath75|7 years ago|reply
Continuing to use the phone when you know it’s harming you seems like it fits.
[+] [-] 40acres|7 years ago|reply
Out of the social networks I've tried I liked Twitter the most. I did not post often but it was great to peek into the conversations of interesting people.
I think today's generation is open to social networks but maybe the photo posting / status update nature of today's networks just don't appeal. Maybe a more creative social network where more users are creating content than consuming it would appeal.
[+] [-] electic|7 years ago|reply
It didn't improve my life in any way.
The instant I asked and answered that a few times, I started cutting down my usage dramatically.
[+] [-] newfocogi|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] platz|7 years ago|reply
False. They knew exactly what they were doing. I know because Jaron Lanier and Sean Parker were there.
[+] [-] ddingus|7 years ago|reply
-->Because reality is real.
[+] [-] rayalez|7 years ago|reply
The whole movie(and a book) was about using this amazing virtual world as the only escape from the shitty horrible reality. It wasn't just entertainment - people go to school there, people have friends there, for many it's the only source of happiness.
And that's what it was for the protagonist, he understands this better than anyone.
But the moment he becomes a billionaire and gets a hot girlfriend, he goes "reality is awesome guys, you should go out more!" While nothing has changed for most people. Fuck you, Wade!
It's like the dumbest cheapest way to add a "moral" to the movie, completely out of character, he'd never do something like this.
[+] [-] _emacsomancer_|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JohnJamesRambo|7 years ago|reply
I have received the phone but can't use it yet because my sim hasn't come in the mail. It's tantalizing to not be able to turn off my smartphone just yet. But I can feel the freedom when I hold that dumbphone Nokia.
https://www.nokia.com/en_int/phones/nokia-3310-3g
[+] [-] s3r3nity|7 years ago|reply
1) GPS / Maps for navigation: I agree with your sentiment, but I find that I"m _more_ likely to travel or take adventures when I know I can fall back to Google / Apple Maps as a safeguard for getting me from A-to-B, or finding new places around me.
2) Uber / Lyft / Ride Sharing: I can already use Siri on Apple Watch to say "Hey Siri, get me an Uber," so why can't I text a service like that? Or maybe a dumb phone with Google Assistant installed that could aid with those types of tasks? [Disclaimer: a service or phone like that _might_ exist, but in my limited time searching I haven't found one I like nor trust just yet.]
3) Photography: I'm no pro, but I do enjoy taking very good quality pictures at the fraction of the cost of a bulky thousand dollar camera, alongside the auto-backups and location-data stored alongside.
[+] [-] save_ferris|7 years ago|reply
I thought it would be super easy to just use my iPhone for MFA and email, but I wound up needing to carry two devices wherever I went instead of just one. I tried hard not to use mobile email altogether anymore, until something came up and it was just easier to pull out the smartphone to reply to it instead of pulling out the laptop.
I'm still hopeful that I can get entirely off of a smartphone, but it's a massive challenge when work demands certain apps that just aren't dumbphone compatible.
[+] [-] jstanley|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] piyh|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hondadriver|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mindcrime|7 years ago|reply
Today’s internet can be a toxic place, and not one where people should spend large amounts of time.
But many of these networks were built by young men who couldn’t conceive of all the ways things could go wrong.
... and even dopamine drug dealers like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube have begun to ...
Thankfully, as this study shows, there’s growing awareness of this among younger users, and maybe, some of them will even do something about it in the future – when they’re the bosses, the parents, and the engineers, they can craft new work/life policies, make new house rules, and write better code.
Yep, every group of teenagers thinks exactly the same thing. "Our parents fucked things up, but when we're in charge, we'll fix it all". Sadly the real world does not make it easy to effect such change on a large scale. But hey, now that my generation (Gen-X) occupies many key positions of influence, maybe we can finally get it right...
[+] [-] adiusmus|7 years ago|reply
Most social networks are bad for you. They’re deliberately designed to be addictive in pointless ways.
I’d prefer teenagers to be tech savvy individuals who have plenty of face to face skills like conversational skills, curiosity, travel, ability to think, work, play, and plenty of other practical skills such as woodworking etc.
Technology as tool but not as a bubble to live in.
[+] [-] stephengillie|7 years ago|reply
Is today the "Submarine Ad" day for "Kids aren't using social media"? If so, who makes money from us knowing that young people don't use social media? What are they trying to sell to us?
[+] [-] misterbowfinger|7 years ago|reply
http://www.pewinternet.org/2018/08/22/how-teens-and-parents-...
[+] [-] konart|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] m3mpp|7 years ago|reply
I think 98% of US teens are trolling polls...
[+] [-] Osmanthus|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] modells|7 years ago|reply
Limit motion effects / animation.
Enable grayscale filter.
Don't whip out the phone every 10 seconds or around other people.
^- problem (somewhat) solved
[+] [-] weliketocode|7 years ago|reply
Yet, so many have the opposite gut reaction: Teens using too much social media? Regulate the industry! Tax them! Take away their phones!
I'm glad to see things working themselves out with social media usage and hope its successes help increase our ability to avoid expensive and fruitless regulations in the future.
[+] [-] burkaman|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] alanbernstein|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|7 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] misterbowfinger|7 years ago|reply
This particular survey featured interviews with 1,058 parents who belong to the panel and have a teen ages 13 to 17, as well as interviews with 743 teens
Link: http://www.pewinternet.org/2018/08/22/teens-and-screen-time-...
I get that surveys are really hard, but.... 743 seems like a ridiculously low number.
Looks like the surveys are through the "NORC AmeriSpeak panel".
Pew links to this about AmeriSpeak:
http://www.norc.org/PDFs/AmeriSpeak%20Technical%20Overview%2...
I don't know.... maybe someone who understands surveying & statistics can validate these numbers & their significance better than me?
[+] [-] hammock|7 years ago|reply
Source: I run and analyze surveys for a living