5 ms·

phones are on a different level than fiction or radio or arguably even cannabis imo you can do something else while you listen to the radio or smoke pot (e.g.,

phones are on a different level than fiction or radio or arguably even cannabis imo you can do something else while you listen to the radio or smoke pot (e.g., clean your house, hang out with friends or family, with weed you can even read or program) phones and books both consume your attention, but a book at least demands a bit of effort to follow and might introduce you to new ideas or vocabulary, even if you're reading pulp fiction on the other hand you can scroll twitter or insta or watch tiktok absolutely mindlessly, and doing so will tend to become a habit all while it chips away at your attention span and your willpower weed can make boredom feel ok too, and can certainly affect attention, willpower and memory, but if used in moderation it can also magnify your curiosity and sense of wonder, help you introspect, etc cannabis is a powerful entheogen and it deserves far more respect and restraint than it currently receives smartphones give us enormous powers but they can also exert massive power over our minds and actions, they too should be treated with caution and used with far more restraint cannabis might make you lazy or suggestible, and it can even be dangerous for some people or if used irresponsibly, but it won't spoon feed you mind-melting pablum or ads or propaganda or spy on you

autoexec 4y ago
If we're going to credit books with potentially expanding your vocabulary, we should at least acknowledge that while you can mindlessly scroll through insta and tiktok you can also be consuming thoughtful and educational content. Even tiktok which doesn't exactly lend itself to useful content has some great stuff. Books, TV, the internet, cell phones all have the potential to benefit you. They often don't, but it's not the medium that's the problem, it's our own choices - except the spying on you bit. That's 100% a problem with TV, the internet, cell phones and now even books.
- walleeee 4y ago
  I definitely agree there are upsides. I had a Twitter for a while and found a ton of interesting articles, informative accounts, etc. I've learned a ton from YouTube. Sure, some TikTok videos can be helpful. But the idea that the media forms and platforms play no causal role and it's all on us and our choices is nearly indefensible imo
  - autoexec 4y ago
    > But the idea that the media forms and platforms play no causal role and it's all on us and our choices is nearly indefensible imo Some do make it a lot harder to make beneficial choices than others for sure! Some are specifically designed for it.
- a9h74j 4y ago
  Don't want to contradict your point, just a FWIW ... Yesterday I saw a TV ad for Meta suggesting that with VR you will be able to stand in a small conversational circle with Socrates. Yea, it will be educational. But skepticism aside, with a personal instance of AI some benefits could be significant. Just having a personal AI critic to read your writing and give feedback could be a huge benefit -- or if not your writing, your thought process. Queue the spying on you part.
  - autoexec 4y ago
    Right? The fact that we have all this cool tech, but it's all actively being used against us instead of working for us really dulls my enthusiasm for technology. What good is it if we get robot butlers or personal AI assistants if the assistants can't keep our personal info to themselves and the robots record everything they see and hear and stream that back to MegaCorp along with extensive telemetry detailing every time we have sex with them? Already we've seen Roombas being used to spy on the people who paid for them, with iRobot Corporation selling maps of the inside of their homes to random 3rd parties.
    - tim333 4y ago
      The benefits often outweigh the 'spying on you', which is usually just targeted ads.
      - eternalban 4y ago
        No, this is not an accurate assessment of what is at stake here. So yeah, targeted ads and spooky tv sets are annoying at the least but the poing is that the infrastructure could easily support 1984 style monitors. Regardless of the purpose of current usage, this is infrastructure for a surveillance society. That is the issue. The infrastructure is not going to go away unless we rip it down [down to and including transport layer] and rebuild with privacy and other human rights protections as a primary requirement of ubiquitous networking. DARPA was not concerned about these matters so all these fall under the 'operators discretion'.
nradov 4y ago
I use my phone to listen to podcasts and audio books while I exercise.
- walleeee 4y ago
  Yep, me too!

autoexec 4y ago

If we're going to credit books with potentially expanding your vocabulary, we should at least acknowledge that while you can mindlessly scroll through insta and tiktok you can also be consuming thoughtful and educational content. Even tiktok which doesn't exactly lend itself to useful content has some great stuff. Books, TV, the internet, cell phones all have the potential to benefit you. They often don't, but it's not the medium that's the problem, it's our own choices - except the spying on you bit. That's 100% a problem with TV, the internet, cell phones and now even books.

walleeee 4y ago
I definitely agree there are upsides. I had a Twitter for a while and found a ton of interesting articles, informative accounts, etc. I've learned a ton from YouTube. Sure, some TikTok videos can be helpful. But the idea that the media forms and platforms play no causal role and it's all on us and our choices is nearly indefensible imo
- autoexec 4y ago
  > But the idea that the media forms and platforms play no causal role and it's all on us and our choices is nearly indefensible imo Some do make it a lot harder to make beneficial choices than others for sure! Some are specifically designed for it.
a9h74j 4y ago
Don't want to contradict your point, just a FWIW ... Yesterday I saw a TV ad for Meta suggesting that with VR you will be able to stand in a small conversational circle with Socrates. Yea, it will be educational. But skepticism aside, with a personal instance of AI some benefits could be significant. Just having a personal AI critic to read your writing and give feedback could be a huge benefit -- or if not your writing, your thought process. Queue the spying on you part.
- autoexec 4y ago
  Right? The fact that we have all this cool tech, but it's all actively being used against us instead of working for us really dulls my enthusiasm for technology. What good is it if we get robot butlers or personal AI assistants if the assistants can't keep our personal info to themselves and the robots record everything they see and hear and stream that back to MegaCorp along with extensive telemetry detailing every time we have sex with them? Already we've seen Roombas being used to spy on the people who paid for them, with iRobot Corporation selling maps of the inside of their homes to random 3rd parties.
  - tim333 4y ago
    The benefits often outweigh the 'spying on you', which is usually just targeted ads.
    - eternalban 4y ago
      No, this is not an accurate assessment of what is at stake here. So yeah, targeted ads and spooky tv sets are annoying at the least but the poing is that the infrastructure could easily support 1984 style monitors. Regardless of the purpose of current usage, this is infrastructure for a surveillance society. That is the issue. The infrastructure is not going to go away unless we rip it down [down to and including transport layer] and rebuild with privacy and other human rights protections as a primary requirement of ubiquitous networking. DARPA was not concerned about these matters so all these fall under the 'operators discretion'.

nradov 4y ago

I use my phone to listen to podcasts and audio books while I exercise.

walleeee 4y ago
Yep, me too!