What if the phone becomes just an appointment setting device (for those who choose to make it so)? I'm in sales and that phrase, 'The phone is just for setting appointments...', has been in my world for a while. It's good for a relationship-driven business connections. Maybe not directly related, but I'm also seeing a trend of sober/alcohol-free or 'sober-curious' bars, meetups, and events. Could there be spaces where people aren't impaired nor distracted and truly connecting? I'm here for it. Great article, thank you.
I'd love to say I agree. But I can't help but to think that this style of article ("The vibes are telling me we're going back to IRL!") isn't driven by data for the simple reason that the data (I'm just guessing) doesn't support the thesis. Back in the pre-internet days, no doubt there were periodic waves of articles about how TV isn't cool anymore and everyone is going outside again. And that never exactly happened.
But here I am just going by vibes myself. Currently in a coffee shop where everyone (myself included) is blissfully starting at a screen. It's even a beautiful day outside.
I like the call to action idea. I’d love to read that! My hot take is that, in America, it’s largely an infrastructure problem. We need more third places and less endless suburban sprawl. Everyone I know (or read) who cares about getting off screens lives in a city and gets stimulated by the call to socialize just by walking down the street. People who live in the suburbs seem to have their screen-centric lifestyle locked in.
This is a cultural speculation article 100%. And it's a call to the those who share this spirit, as it is only ever a small group that rebel against the excesses of technological change - my parents being an example, we didn't have cable TV, they kept me from getting an iphone for as long as they could, etc etc. Maybe they were a minority but those points of friction made a difference in my life - I still don't own a TV. Perhaps the next piece should be a call to action - it's time to think strategically about how we incorporate technology into our lives. And from there those of us who are inspired to go down that path can start sharing strategies. Unlike the TV, digital technology is far more entangled into the fabric of our lives and offers us more potential. I want to get the most out of it and cut out the downside as much as possible.
"All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone."
Pascal may have been pointing to an inability to connect with oneself.
Indeed, most addictions can be framed as attempts to connect gone haywire. Rather than silently sitting alone until impactful action is necessary, most folks engage in time-passing activity.
Screens have completely won where I am (the cyber empire of America), and I doubt they will be replaced by human moderation, laws, etc. for any significant number of people.
Rather, some kind of screenless interface seems to be the next most likely "at scale" development, which will probably wipe screen addiction out pretty quickly, albeit while replacing it with another scopophilia substitute.
I also doubt that cultural moderation will be the main antidote worldwide, but I do find any bubbles of cultural response interesting, since it shows something unique about that group. Imagine the whole world is addicted to screens and then you come to lets say Stockholm, and it's barely evident. Then I wonder, what is going on here?
I agree with the idea of a device based solution for the masses. I have been thinking about the development of new "lifestyle" tech that disaggregates the smartphone into different devices. Grimes already came out with an AI toy for kids that allows for interactivity using audio.
Love this question: what does addiction and lifestyle reveal about a group?
Jainism champions a lack of substance dualism.
Capitalism doles out rewards and punishments in regard to ROI.
A Nordic model is generally pleasant to live in, albeit rapacious of the global South, if it were scalable, it'd be more aptly called global communism, and so on.
This doesn't mean a lot can be gleaned from these approaches, but I think a good starting point is wonder, and I wonder, why don't more people admit we know we can't keep doing what we're doing, and we know we don't know what to do?
Ideas/values in some ways are the screen, and war or progress at some local level feels more like a narrow-lens analysis of an intractable, global game-theoretic deadlock.
How might one better coordinate oneself to address this global/local paradox?
I would include a critical distinction as well: the difference between law and culture. For example, in Switzerland, the regulatory model works on the norm "what is not explicitly prohibited is permitted." Once something becomes an issue, it is pragmatically legislated. This works because the Swiss culture does most of the maintenance of the commons through taboos and respect for norms. I would say there is a similar principle operating here in Sweden. There is even a culture of "don't be the asshole who makes us have to write down another rule".
I wonder if another critical distinction may be the difference between inner- and intra-cultural/national dealings. say, for example, a culture decides to radically change their energy use because they "don't want to be the asshole who makes kids go into mines, maintain the necessity of proxy wars to ensure yoy GDP growth, and so on, which makes us have to write down another contract."
obviously the answer to all the problems is all the solutions, and I sometimes wonder how to most effectively persuade people to make a norm of "we can get what we want and let one another be?" (this might be the realm of de-growth, great simplification, religious myths), which could make a lot of human-caused and human-effecting suffering disappear overnight.
Idk maybe an answer will emerge from the lesbian village
What if the phone becomes just an appointment setting device (for those who choose to make it so)? I'm in sales and that phrase, 'The phone is just for setting appointments...', has been in my world for a while. It's good for a relationship-driven business connections. Maybe not directly related, but I'm also seeing a trend of sober/alcohol-free or 'sober-curious' bars, meetups, and events. Could there be spaces where people aren't impaired nor distracted and truly connecting? I'm here for it. Great article, thank you.
I'd love to say I agree. But I can't help but to think that this style of article ("The vibes are telling me we're going back to IRL!") isn't driven by data for the simple reason that the data (I'm just guessing) doesn't support the thesis. Back in the pre-internet days, no doubt there were periodic waves of articles about how TV isn't cool anymore and everyone is going outside again. And that never exactly happened.
But here I am just going by vibes myself. Currently in a coffee shop where everyone (myself included) is blissfully starting at a screen. It's even a beautiful day outside.
I like the call to action idea. I’d love to read that! My hot take is that, in America, it’s largely an infrastructure problem. We need more third places and less endless suburban sprawl. Everyone I know (or read) who cares about getting off screens lives in a city and gets stimulated by the call to socialize just by walking down the street. People who live in the suburbs seem to have their screen-centric lifestyle locked in.
This is a cultural speculation article 100%. And it's a call to the those who share this spirit, as it is only ever a small group that rebel against the excesses of technological change - my parents being an example, we didn't have cable TV, they kept me from getting an iphone for as long as they could, etc etc. Maybe they were a minority but those points of friction made a difference in my life - I still don't own a TV. Perhaps the next piece should be a call to action - it's time to think strategically about how we incorporate technology into our lives. And from there those of us who are inspired to go down that path can start sharing strategies. Unlike the TV, digital technology is far more entangled into the fabric of our lives and offers us more potential. I want to get the most out of it and cut out the downside as much as possible.
Juliet Samuel The Times Thursday
cc @Katherine Dee
Today WSJ CMO newsletter https://cmo.cmail20.com/t/d-e-sllurdt-ddxhydkjk-r/
This https://deloitte.wsj.com/cmo/digital-detox-many-consumers-want-to-reduce-their-smartphone-use-64877836?mod=djemCMOToday
(yes, one way I reduce “phone dope” is printing anything I want to concentrate seriously on)
Apparently lots of teens getting hip to ditching social media & phones.
LMAO I started reading this like "She makes some great points here," and lo and behold...
(Still reading just was like "Hey that's me" XD)
heheh :)
"All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone."
Pascal may have been pointing to an inability to connect with oneself.
Indeed, most addictions can be framed as attempts to connect gone haywire. Rather than silently sitting alone until impactful action is necessary, most folks engage in time-passing activity.
Screens have completely won where I am (the cyber empire of America), and I doubt they will be replaced by human moderation, laws, etc. for any significant number of people.
Rather, some kind of screenless interface seems to be the next most likely "at scale" development, which will probably wipe screen addiction out pretty quickly, albeit while replacing it with another scopophilia substitute.
Staying tuned :)
I also doubt that cultural moderation will be the main antidote worldwide, but I do find any bubbles of cultural response interesting, since it shows something unique about that group. Imagine the whole world is addicted to screens and then you come to lets say Stockholm, and it's barely evident. Then I wonder, what is going on here?
I agree with the idea of a device based solution for the masses. I have been thinking about the development of new "lifestyle" tech that disaggregates the smartphone into different devices. Grimes already came out with an AI toy for kids that allows for interactivity using audio.
Love this question: what does addiction and lifestyle reveal about a group?
Jainism champions a lack of substance dualism.
Capitalism doles out rewards and punishments in regard to ROI.
A Nordic model is generally pleasant to live in, albeit rapacious of the global South, if it were scalable, it'd be more aptly called global communism, and so on.
This doesn't mean a lot can be gleaned from these approaches, but I think a good starting point is wonder, and I wonder, why don't more people admit we know we can't keep doing what we're doing, and we know we don't know what to do?
Ideas/values in some ways are the screen, and war or progress at some local level feels more like a narrow-lens analysis of an intractable, global game-theoretic deadlock.
How might one better coordinate oneself to address this global/local paradox?
I would include a critical distinction as well: the difference between law and culture. For example, in Switzerland, the regulatory model works on the norm "what is not explicitly prohibited is permitted." Once something becomes an issue, it is pragmatically legislated. This works because the Swiss culture does most of the maintenance of the commons through taboos and respect for norms. I would say there is a similar principle operating here in Sweden. There is even a culture of "don't be the asshole who makes us have to write down another rule".
hundo love this line of thinking
I wonder if another critical distinction may be the difference between inner- and intra-cultural/national dealings. say, for example, a culture decides to radically change their energy use because they "don't want to be the asshole who makes kids go into mines, maintain the necessity of proxy wars to ensure yoy GDP growth, and so on, which makes us have to write down another contract."
obviously the answer to all the problems is all the solutions, and I sometimes wonder how to most effectively persuade people to make a norm of "we can get what we want and let one another be?" (this might be the realm of de-growth, great simplification, religious myths), which could make a lot of human-caused and human-effecting suffering disappear overnight.
Idk maybe an answer will emerge from the lesbian village