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Everyone can do it for them-self, just don't use a smartphone or a cell phone if you want to go more hardcore.
Seems reasonable to me. I'm in the upper end of that range, center GenX (yes I know you don't remember us). I vary between wanting it to be 1970-2000. 1990 was nice, good industrial music, many of the old blues musicians were still alive & playing, computers were still fun, BBS's, the early non-shitty Internet, pagers and car phones if you wanted to be reachable that much, but you could just NOT be. Go out for cigarettes and never come back.
Anyone who thinks this panopticon hellscape we live in is better, is nuts.
I can't help but feel like a lot of the "the internet was better back in the day" is rose colored glasses. Things were just as fragmented, but were even less welcoming to our groups, there was more questionable content that people were trying to trick you into viewing. It definitely wasn't all bad, but it feels like it's coming from the same impulse as every other "things were better back in my day."
A key difference is that nothing was being shoved at you as soon as you got up from the computer.
You can always put your phone down. I also get the pressure to return a text/dm right away, but as far as I can tell no one that I actually want to talk to expects that immediate response.
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you know, they say that when asked but having a flip phone and no home internet is very possible.
Return to it and have my knowledge of all the positive and negative aspects erased would be something I’d consider. But having used all the technology for so long, I couldn’t imagine just don’t having it anymore tomorrow
They might say that, but they don't really mean "the internet" - they mean social media. Which I can understand, I was bullied "offline" when I was at school, but at least when I got home - I had respite. I can't imagine how stressful it is these days for kids, being bullied online, getting home and still being bullied.
Yes, I feel "social media" (or whatever this engagement driven, algorithmically fed hellscape can be called) is driving up the responses. We know, by now, how adversely social media affect the mental well-being of children, being bombarded all the time by the fantastic lives of plastic "influencers". Add to that cyber-bullying 24/7 which is now common, peer pressure for "green and blue bubbles" and a ton of other nonsense you can probably understand how people in a age bracket that there's chance of being parents might feel negatively about today's technological status quo.
It's funny, people have all sorts of worries about how the world might end if AI chooses it to. But if AI was smart - it would create a new social network, and really ramp up the engagement factor. The reality is we do get physically addicted - we do need that dopamine hit. If AI created "the perfect" social network, we would all be far too busy screaming at each other online, to notice the world dying around us.
...or did AI already do that? cue X-Files music
Eh. I like the internet and the connections it allows us to form. I think internet access for all is a good thing.
I do miss a time when cellphones weren't ubiquitous, though. They have their purpose but there's a certain social expectation to always be available, and I think that is a bad thing. I miss disconnecting. I guess, in principle, I could literally just do that.
Been there, done that, and fuck no.
But I also have no problems with leaving my phone on Do Not Disturb and reading a book. I am happy to ignore the world. I don't let connectedness rule me. I use it.
Usually. I also have ADHD, so sometimes I just need my stimulation
this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2023
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