4 ms·

There's obviously a huge amount of people addicted to their phones, and many people on HN profit off of them so they refuse to admit it. However this romantic

There's obviously a huge amount of people addicted to their phones, and many people on HN profit off of them so they refuse to admit it. However this romantic idea that without phones people would be living vivid moments to the fullest also needs to die. Lets not romanticize the lived experience of a boring commute as a sensory roller-coaster just to score a few points against people glued to their phones. People who make arbitrary distinctions in the book/e-reader/smartphone spectrum are just wrong. Many people use their phones productively during their commutes. When I lived in Vancouver, I'm sure many people mistook me for a Candy Crusher or Facebook Scroller, but I was actually learning japanese.

coldtea 9y ago
>However this romantic idea that without phones people would be living vivid moments to the fullest also needs to die. Lets not romanticize the lived experience of a boring commute as a sensory roller-coaster just to score a few points against people glued to their phones. No, but the problem is that people don't just do that on "boring commutes", but screen-staring increasingly encroaches other parts of life, from concerts to dates. While at it, let's also lay to death the idea that all eras/decades/periods are the same, and everything a society does, from norms to arts, is either "the best it has ever been" or "the same as it always was", and anyone complaining is only romanticizing. There are peaks and valleys, progress and regression, in lots of social norms and output, and its worth to point them out. I mean, even when it was fashionable, they probably already suspected that the mule haircut was a bad idea...