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Well, what can I say? We have access to all human knowledge at the palm of our hand, but we don't have the discipline to use it wisely. 1. The rise of social m

Well, what can I say? We have access to all human knowledge at the palm of our hand, but we don't have the discipline to use it wisely. 1. The rise of social media is a huge contributing factor to misinformation and shortening attention spans. 2. Consumption, consumption, consumption. Most consume but don't create. 3. The unknown effects of technology on our brains. We're all just primates playing with extremely complicated toys. We don't know their effects on us. The next decades will be interesting...

ahje 7y ago
> 2. Consumption, consumption, consumption. Most consume but don't create. That's where I'd put my money. All of a sudden, the need to consume crappy pop culture has exploded around us, and people simply don't do things any more -- "Netflix and chill" has simply pushed other activities aside. This is, of course, nothing new; it's just that modern streaming services deliver makes it so much more available than it was 30 years ago.
- sergiomattei 7y ago
  Yeah, unfortunately for most people creative leisure doesn't exist anymore. Then again, this also has other factors (work taking over most of our time).
  - jddj 7y ago
    This resonates with me, and I want to get on board. But was leisure so much more creative with television and work rather than Netflix and work? I've had some conversations recently about how [my generation and socioeconomic group] would go outside more often as children because we only really had an hour or two of cartoons in the morning before the telemarketing-disguised-as-content started, but I'm also cautious about drawing too many conclusions because (purely based on my own experiences) I feel like people will search for an opportunity to explore or be creative if the environment is at all conducive to it. See: a lot of our early experiences with computers. Games (consumption) existed, but that didn't stop us wanting to modify them or explore how they worked.
    - ahje 7y ago
      Just do it. The level of entry is quite low, and depending on what you chose to do, it doesn't really have to cost anything but time. The only downside I've noticed is that other people won't understand why the hell you're doing it, and they'll look at you like you're an idiot when you explain you haven't watched movie X or TV show Y.
sverige 7y ago
The statement that "We have access to all human knowledge at the palm of our hand" is a profound error that I'm seeing repeated more frequently of late. Getting a search result with the text of some learned document is not equivalent to actually reading the document and digesting it mentally and emotionally so that you have some understanding of it. This illusion of having all human knowledge at hand is one of the reasons people are becoming dumber, not smarter.
- sergiomattei 7y ago
  Note the phrasing - we have access. It doesn't imply we use it effectively. In fact, I say we do the complete opposite. But yes, there's access to an immense amount of books and resources.
fwip 7y ago
I'm pretty sure the same arguments were made about television, radio, and yes, even books. If you look at social media today, it's all about creation. You create posts or photos or clever tweets and share them with your peers. This is the opposite of sitting down in front of the television for a few hours to watch corporate-generated programming.

ahje 7y ago

> 2. Consumption, consumption, consumption. Most consume but don't create. That's where I'd put my money. All of a sudden, the need to consume crappy pop culture has exploded around us, and people simply don't do things any more -- "Netflix and chill" has simply pushed other activities aside. This is, of course, nothing new; it's just that modern streaming services deliver makes it so much more available than it was 30 years ago.

sergiomattei 7y ago
Yeah, unfortunately for most people creative leisure doesn't exist anymore. Then again, this also has other factors (work taking over most of our time).
- jddj 7y ago
  This resonates with me, and I want to get on board. But was leisure so much more creative with television and work rather than Netflix and work? I've had some conversations recently about how [my generation and socioeconomic group] would go outside more often as children because we only really had an hour or two of cartoons in the morning before the telemarketing-disguised-as-content started, but I'm also cautious about drawing too many conclusions because (purely based on my own experiences) I feel like people will search for an opportunity to explore or be creative if the environment is at all conducive to it. See: a lot of our early experiences with computers. Games (consumption) existed, but that didn't stop us wanting to modify them or explore how they worked.
  - ahje 7y ago
    Just do it. The level of entry is quite low, and depending on what you chose to do, it doesn't really have to cost anything but time. The only downside I've noticed is that other people won't understand why the hell you're doing it, and they'll look at you like you're an idiot when you explain you haven't watched movie X or TV show Y.

sverige 7y ago

The statement that "We have access to all human knowledge at the palm of our hand" is a profound error that I'm seeing repeated more frequently of late. Getting a search result with the text of some learned document is not equivalent to actually reading the document and digesting it mentally and emotionally so that you have some understanding of it. This illusion of having all human knowledge at hand is one of the reasons people are becoming dumber, not smarter.

sergiomattei 7y ago
Note the phrasing - we have access. It doesn't imply we use it effectively. In fact, I say we do the complete opposite. But yes, there's access to an immense amount of books and resources.

fwip 7y ago

I'm pretty sure the same arguments were made about television, radio, and yes, even books. If you look at social media today, it's all about creation. You create posts or photos or clever tweets and share them with your peers. This is the opposite of sitting down in front of the television for a few hours to watch corporate-generated programming.