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Ah, nostalgia. Its amazing how one can simultaneously forget the downsides, while amplifying the upsides. (Not to take away from the authors fond memories of

Ah, nostalgia. Its amazing how one can simultaneously forget the downsides, while amplifying the upsides. (Not to take away from the authors fond memories of course) I was just thinking recently about how great it was to be in high school. Few responsibilities, spent lots of time with friends, homework and work were easy. Of course, then I remember I couldnt live alone, had little money, homework and work seemed hard because I had nothing to compare it to, drama at school, etc. And try meeting up with flaky teenagers without a cell phone :P Of course, if you find yourself feeling stressed out by the connectedness, by all means take a break. You don't need to check email or be on slack all day. But at the same time, don't get too stressed out thinking we've lost something without gaining anything. You have the option to turn your phone off, you haven't lost anything. But it is now easier than ever to keep in touch, geography is even less relevant. Obligatory xkcd: "It is, unfortunately, one of the chief characteristics of modern business to always be in a hurry. In olden times it was different. - The Medical Record, 1884" https://xkcd.com/1227/ https://xkcd.com/1227/

newfoundglory 9y ago
I agree. I rolled my eyes pretty hard at this line: > Before we could Skype home and feel we’d done something meaningful. Those golden days where talking to people was so meaningful, not like today where people talk over a distance!
aptwebapps 9y ago
With respect to that xkcd, while there's some humor in the progression of the quotes about letter writing (which doesn't mean they're completely off target) and some of the other concerns seem to me narrow-minded or silly, I appreciate a lot of them and think they have aged just fine.
rdiddly 9y ago
That xkcd affirms that our sense of time and attention, and of quality and quantity, has been messed up like this since the Industrial Revolution. I can't safely presume what Randall's point is, but if it's to show that this is a foolish thing men have been saying without cause since time immemorial, he needs to go back further. Show me someone from 1600 complaining about the fast pace of life and I might buy it. But showing quotes about industrialization, that were written after industrialization, doesn't exactly blow my mind.
- Someone 9y ago
  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/opinion/sunday/social-networking-in-the-1600s.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/opinion/sunday/social-netw... (about quantity over quality, but not about speed, I think, but too good a quote to skip; from 1677): “Why doth solid and serious learning decline, and few or none follow it now in the University?” he asked. “Answer: Because of Coffea Houses, where they spend all their time.” There’s also https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4306016/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4306016/, which doesn’t go further back then 1860. It doesn’t mention complaints about the printing press (too much too read; won’t learn from copying books) or from the ancient Greeks, so it corroborates the theory that this started with automation (although I can imagine seeing the first complaints when artificial lighting of almost any form was introduced. Maybe even, people did complain when the bow and arrow sped up hunting)
  - rdiddly 9y ago
    "Yea even this now where those who use the Bowe compleat the Hunt with undue Haiste..."

newfoundglory 9y ago

I agree. I rolled my eyes pretty hard at this line: > Before we could Skype home and feel we’d done something meaningful. Those golden days where talking to people was so meaningful, not like today where people talk over a distance!

aptwebapps 9y ago

With respect to that xkcd, while there's some humor in the progression of the quotes about letter writing (which doesn't mean they're completely off target) and some of the other concerns seem to me narrow-minded or silly, I appreciate a lot of them and think they have aged just fine.

rdiddly 9y ago

That xkcd affirms that our sense of time and attention, and of quality and quantity, has been messed up like this since the Industrial Revolution. I can't safely presume what Randall's point is, but if it's to show that this is a foolish thing men have been saying without cause since time immemorial, he needs to go back further. Show me someone from 1600 complaining about the fast pace of life and I might buy it. But showing quotes about industrialization, that were written after industrialization, doesn't exactly blow my mind.

Someone 9y ago
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/opinion/sunday/social-networking-in-the-1600s.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/opinion/sunday/social-netw... (about quantity over quality, but not about speed, I think, but too good a quote to skip; from 1677): “Why doth solid and serious learning decline, and few or none follow it now in the University?” he asked. “Answer: Because of Coffea Houses, where they spend all their time.” There’s also https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4306016/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4306016/, which doesn’t go further back then 1860. It doesn’t mention complaints about the printing press (too much too read; won’t learn from copying books) or from the ancient Greeks, so it corroborates the theory that this started with automation (although I can imagine seeing the first complaints when artificial lighting of almost any form was introduced. Maybe even, people did complain when the bow and arrow sped up hunting)
- rdiddly 9y ago
  "Yea even this now where those who use the Bowe compleat the Hunt with undue Haiste..."