4 ms·

Uhhh, can you elaborate on this? Tech has enabled you to do anything?

xwdv 7y ago
There is so much tech in life, it’s hard to know where to even begin. Seems like every time you want to do something it starts with a google search on the best way to do it. If you don’t, you risk wasting a lot of time or money, and then people will call you an idiot for not googling it first, and sometimes the person calling you an idiot is your own self. Life has become nothing but a series of google searches and finding the best tech for the job, while finding the most efficient way to pay bills.
- abtinf 7y ago
  So life was better before google—when there was still the risk of wasting time and money, and only limited means of research?
  - xwdv 7y ago
    It was probably better because at least you were doing the best you could with what you had. There was much self discovery just by living your life.
  - danschumann 7y ago
    And people around you had relevance. Your librarian was relevant as a gatekeeper of information. Now we are isolated and even if we do get the best information, we are somehow not satisfied. People are becoming dumber as information is becoming more available, a paradox. Meanwhile, we are centralizing these institutions and therefore power brokers are being more disparate from the powerless, using the technologies that were supposed to give voices to the masses. Now the masses can enforce you to only speak in lock step with them.
    - shantly 7y ago
      Vonnegut wrote about how various technologies have removed the community value of moderate talents by enabling the best of the best to reach everyone with ease, all the time, any time. Being an OK musician, for instance, has gone from having pretty good social value and maybe even non-negligible economic value, to very little. That effect has broadened to new areas and increased in degree, with the rise of ubiquitous mobile Internet.
  - danschumann 7y ago
    Also the constant comparison... and constant advertisements convincing you how you should be. We used to be able to just live and commercials were contained in commercial breaks and billboards. Now the content we consume is mixed with commercials in imperceptable manners.
    - icebraining 7y ago
      > Now the content we consume is mixed with commercials in imperceptable manners. Product placement goes back to the 19th century. Remember the candy brand in E.T.? It was chosen because the company paid $1M to get them eaten by the short green man. Then there was payola, wherein the music you heard was actually a commercial paid by the record company.
- Charlie_26 7y ago
  I think this is an example of where books are powerful. A (good) book on a subject is far superior than pages of different articles that anyone could write. With a book you know that time and effort has gone into it. If you want to learn about something, invest in the right book.
  - djokkataja 7y ago
    So how do you find "the right book" these days?
    - Charlie_26 7y ago
      I'm guessing you want me to say Google. But I'd actually use Amazon. Or even just walking into a good book store and reading a few! What have you got to lose?
      - djokkataja 7y ago
        I was thinking that when buying books, people often take notice of recommendations from Amazon or random sites through Google or discussion sites like this one, but a recommendation from someone I know or interact with is preferable when I can get it. And it's not necessarily preferable because of a higher quality recommendation: a recommendation from a person implies some degree of meaningful interaction with them that contributes to an overall sense of.. meaningful-ness even if the book turns out to be awful. Plus if it turns out to be awful, I can discuss it with that person further and possibly get a better recommendation. Plus whether or not it's awful, I can talk with them about it after reading it for additional meaningful interaction. I think that kind of loss of meaningful interaction is a pretty small thing, but it can add up over time and have a greater impact with high usage of services like Google that automate things that previously generally involved more human interaction. And sure, no one's forcing anyone to use Google or Amazon instead of talking to people, but it's a fairly subtle opportunity cost that comes with using those services. And those kinds of services are convenient and useful enough that it's quite easy to make a habit of using them, and habits aren't easy to change.
- meowface 7y ago
  That sounds like a big quality of life improvement to me, not a disadvantage. Search engines make it much easier to know where to begin with things - including non-tech things.
- icebraining 7y ago
  Seems like you're stuck in the first step. The second is to realize none of that tech really fits your needs exactly, and to take advantage of that wealth of information to build something that does.

xwdv 7y ago

There is so much tech in life, it’s hard to know where to even begin. Seems like every time you want to do something it starts with a google search on the best way to do it. If you don’t, you risk wasting a lot of time or money, and then people will call you an idiot for not googling it first, and sometimes the person calling you an idiot is your own self. Life has become nothing but a series of google searches and finding the best tech for the job, while finding the most efficient way to pay bills.

abtinf 7y ago
So life was better before google—when there was still the risk of wasting time and money, and only limited means of research?
- xwdv 7y ago
  It was probably better because at least you were doing the best you could with what you had. There was much self discovery just by living your life.
- danschumann 7y ago
  And people around you had relevance. Your librarian was relevant as a gatekeeper of information. Now we are isolated and even if we do get the best information, we are somehow not satisfied. People are becoming dumber as information is becoming more available, a paradox. Meanwhile, we are centralizing these institutions and therefore power brokers are being more disparate from the powerless, using the technologies that were supposed to give voices to the masses. Now the masses can enforce you to only speak in lock step with them.
  - shantly 7y ago
    Vonnegut wrote about how various technologies have removed the community value of moderate talents by enabling the best of the best to reach everyone with ease, all the time, any time. Being an OK musician, for instance, has gone from having pretty good social value and maybe even non-negligible economic value, to very little. That effect has broadened to new areas and increased in degree, with the rise of ubiquitous mobile Internet.
- danschumann 7y ago
  Also the constant comparison... and constant advertisements convincing you how you should be. We used to be able to just live and commercials were contained in commercial breaks and billboards. Now the content we consume is mixed with commercials in imperceptable manners.
  - icebraining 7y ago
    > Now the content we consume is mixed with commercials in imperceptable manners. Product placement goes back to the 19th century. Remember the candy brand in E.T.? It was chosen because the company paid $1M to get them eaten by the short green man. Then there was payola, wherein the music you heard was actually a commercial paid by the record company.
Charlie_26 7y ago
I think this is an example of where books are powerful. A (good) book on a subject is far superior than pages of different articles that anyone could write. With a book you know that time and effort has gone into it. If you want to learn about something, invest in the right book.
- djokkataja 7y ago
  So how do you find "the right book" these days?
  - Charlie_26 7y ago
    I'm guessing you want me to say Google. But I'd actually use Amazon. Or even just walking into a good book store and reading a few! What have you got to lose?
    - djokkataja 7y ago
      I was thinking that when buying books, people often take notice of recommendations from Amazon or random sites through Google or discussion sites like this one, but a recommendation from someone I know or interact with is preferable when I can get it. And it's not necessarily preferable because of a higher quality recommendation: a recommendation from a person implies some degree of meaningful interaction with them that contributes to an overall sense of.. meaningful-ness even if the book turns out to be awful. Plus if it turns out to be awful, I can discuss it with that person further and possibly get a better recommendation. Plus whether or not it's awful, I can talk with them about it after reading it for additional meaningful interaction. I think that kind of loss of meaningful interaction is a pretty small thing, but it can add up over time and have a greater impact with high usage of services like Google that automate things that previously generally involved more human interaction. And sure, no one's forcing anyone to use Google or Amazon instead of talking to people, but it's a fairly subtle opportunity cost that comes with using those services. And those kinds of services are convenient and useful enough that it's quite easy to make a habit of using them, and habits aren't easy to change.
meowface 7y ago
That sounds like a big quality of life improvement to me, not a disadvantage. Search engines make it much easier to know where to begin with things - including non-tech things.
icebraining 7y ago
Seems like you're stuck in the first step. The second is to realize none of that tech really fits your needs exactly, and to take advantage of that wealth of information to build something that does.