4 ms·

Is the internet really to blame though? It can be a great way to meet new people and establish local groups. I think the bigger issue has been the lengthening

Is the internet really to blame though? It can be a great way to meet new people and establish local groups. I think the bigger issue has been the lengthening of working hours (imagine working just 9 to 5), and recently of course, the lockdowns.

hong_kong 6y ago
My take is that we're still adapting to and experimenting with how to live with the internet, given how it fundamentally changes so much and the transition is still very much ongoing. Every revolutionary technology probably generated similar amounts of hysteria about the end of civilization - think about the printing press, industrialization (luddites), TVs, etc. Eventually things should find a happy equilibrium, it just doesn't happen immediately. But it's assuming too much to think no solution today = no solution forever.
doggodaddo78 6y ago
It's handing out heroin to anyone who wants it rather than handing out clean needles.
macspoofing 6y ago
>Is the internet really to blame though? You think kids are going to use the internet for homework and research?
- doggodaddo78 6y ago
  I wonder what the age distribution of porn discovery looks like. Back in my day, I had to put-up with one of my neighbor friend's dad's Danish spank mags where you couldn't see anything due to follicular foliage in the way.
  - ehnto 6y ago
    I found my first pornography in a makeshift treehouse in the middle of a paddock next to a church, the irony was lost on a younger me. An almost wholesome experience compared to the firehose of pornography available for free now.
Super_Jambo 6y ago
"The Internet" isn't to blame. The problem is advert funded media & technology and the 'free market' of eyeballs. Competitive markets; our greatest engine of innovation and creation are racing to discover our biggest weaknesses and exploit them mercilessly. This is inevitable — at its core ad-tech is a market in manipulation. There's no possible band-aid fix to square the circle: Markets innovate for their customers. Even google must constantly optimise to better manipulate the public or be beaten by those who will.* We really need to get out from under this because machine learning makes it terrifying. We already have recovering addicts targetted to re-ignite their addictions. Eventually the technology will be good enough to make addicts of us all. In my view the answer is to nationalize product discovery. Have a free to use government run product register. Let industries create open standards for product specifications and have real legal penalties for deception. Have product reviews with again real penalties for fraud. Ban all paid promotion of products. Pay anyone selling adverts today 90% of last years revenue to run socially beneficial nonsense (call your gran, eat some veggies, go for a run). Until the whole thing is wound down. * There's an interesting meta-possibility here where ad-tech platforms manipulate and bamboozle their real customers _the advertisers_. Facebook lying about video plays for example. This is probably the best outcome for society! Naturally the legal system punishes it sharply.
wutbrodo 6y ago
> I think the bigger issue has been the lengthening of working hours (imagine working just 9 to 5) I'm pretty surprised to see this framed as if it's unrealistic. I have what you'd probably call a "very good" job, judging by my comp and the "coolness" of what I work on, and I work a hard 10-6. Based on the way people talk about it, I used to wonder when I'd hit the point in my career when I "arrived" and wasn't able to escape overworking, but I eventually accepted that this "common knowledge" is nonsense. Work/life balance is ultimately a choice. Unless you're in dire poverty, you have degrees of freedom to trade off between work/life balance, comp, how engaging the work is, etc. I have a friend who makes 20% more than me, has 100x worse WLB and working environment, and has a less interesting job. I'm 100% sure I don't want his job... But I'm reasonably sure he wouldn't want mine (he's a workaholic and likes money a lot more than I do).

hong_kong 6y ago

My take is that we're still adapting to and experimenting with how to live with the internet, given how it fundamentally changes so much and the transition is still very much ongoing. Every revolutionary technology probably generated similar amounts of hysteria about the end of civilization - think about the printing press, industrialization (luddites), TVs, etc. Eventually things should find a happy equilibrium, it just doesn't happen immediately. But it's assuming too much to think no solution today = no solution forever.

doggodaddo78 6y ago

It's handing out heroin to anyone who wants it rather than handing out clean needles.

macspoofing 6y ago

>Is the internet really to blame though? You think kids are going to use the internet for homework and research?

doggodaddo78 6y ago
I wonder what the age distribution of porn discovery looks like. Back in my day, I had to put-up with one of my neighbor friend's dad's Danish spank mags where you couldn't see anything due to follicular foliage in the way.
- ehnto 6y ago
  I found my first pornography in a makeshift treehouse in the middle of a paddock next to a church, the irony was lost on a younger me. An almost wholesome experience compared to the firehose of pornography available for free now.

Super_Jambo 6y ago

"The Internet" isn't to blame. The problem is advert funded media & technology and the 'free market' of eyeballs. Competitive markets; our greatest engine of innovation and creation are racing to discover our biggest weaknesses and exploit them mercilessly. This is inevitable — at its core ad-tech is a market in manipulation. There's no possible band-aid fix to square the circle: Markets innovate for their customers. Even google must constantly optimise to better manipulate the public or be beaten by those who will.* We really need to get out from under this because machine learning makes it terrifying. We already have recovering addicts targetted to re-ignite their addictions. Eventually the technology will be good enough to make addicts of us all. In my view the answer is to nationalize product discovery. Have a free to use government run product register. Let industries create open standards for product specifications and have real legal penalties for deception. Have product reviews with again real penalties for fraud. Ban all paid promotion of products. Pay anyone selling adverts today 90% of last years revenue to run socially beneficial nonsense (call your gran, eat some veggies, go for a run). Until the whole thing is wound down. * There's an interesting meta-possibility here where ad-tech platforms manipulate and bamboozle their real customers _the advertisers_. Facebook lying about video plays for example. This is probably the best outcome for society! Naturally the legal system punishes it sharply.

wutbrodo 6y ago

> I think the bigger issue has been the lengthening of working hours (imagine working just 9 to 5) I'm pretty surprised to see this framed as if it's unrealistic. I have what you'd probably call a "very good" job, judging by my comp and the "coolness" of what I work on, and I work a hard 10-6. Based on the way people talk about it, I used to wonder when I'd hit the point in my career when I "arrived" and wasn't able to escape overworking, but I eventually accepted that this "common knowledge" is nonsense. Work/life balance is ultimately a choice. Unless you're in dire poverty, you have degrees of freedom to trade off between work/life balance, comp, how engaging the work is, etc. I have a friend who makes 20% more than me, has 100x worse WLB and working environment, and has a less interesting job. I'm 100% sure I don't want his job... But I'm reasonably sure he wouldn't want mine (he's a workaholic and likes money a lot more than I do).