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As I read the article I thought it was written by someone my age (Gen-X) projecting onto a younger generation their own fears, suspicions, bugbears and theories

As I read the article I thought it was written by someone my age (Gen-X) projecting onto a younger generation their own fears, suspicions, bugbears and theories about why their kid's lives suck, without really understanding. Broken hearted at what I've seen as university professor for the past 10-15 years... a generation who seem empty and bereft, I wrote a book to try to help [0]. The central metaphor of it is that the data you consume is much like the food you eat, and entreating people to be more selective about their consumption. But most of what I wrote there was dismissed by my own generation, especially fellow developers and technical people, as "Luddite". Those of us seriously challenging the "smart-phone crisis" are always dubbed marginal throwbacks and non-conformist oddballs. Yet if this article is genuine, and representative it turns out we were right all along. I am not sure if I am happy or sad. Sometimes you just really want to be wrong. I feel I should take more courage, and renewed vigour to be even more vocal in denouncing smartphones as a scourge. And yet I remain sceptical, perhaps out of hopeless optimism that this catastrophe isn't happening. Are there any articles countering this one? Written by Gen-Z who are delighted with being addicted to always-on tracking and surveillance devices that fill their minds with doom and poison? [0] Digital Vegan (https://digitalvegan.net https://digitalvegan.net)

wtfwhateven 3y ago
The author of OP's link has a net worth of $1.5 million. She absolutely has no idea of the problems non-millionaire zoomers have. She appears to genuinely believe taking away the phone will solve everything (it won't).
- nonrandomstring 3y ago
  > taking away the phone will solve everything (it won't). Very true. Indeed, with my understanding of addiction one thing I fear we'd have to endure with a step change - like a backlash where millions of young people dump their phones, or an large scale failure of technology, is that they wouldn't know what to do with themselves. Plunged from a superficially meaningful digital holding-pen into an empty real world would be insane. Positive cultural change has to happen slowly enough. > The author of OP's link has a net worth of $1.5 million. She absolutely has no idea of the problems non-millionaire zoomers have. I don't believe wealth is a factor in understanding per se. To my eyes, the poverty of life that accompanies a smartphone lifestyle is equally hurtful to rich and poor alike.
NoGravitas 3y ago
It's a boomer who cherry-picked an out-of-touch GenZ to be their mouthpiece. It's genuine but not representative.

wtfwhateven 3y ago

The author of OP's link has a net worth of $1.5 million. She absolutely has no idea of the problems non-millionaire zoomers have. She appears to genuinely believe taking away the phone will solve everything (it won't).

nonrandomstring 3y ago
> taking away the phone will solve everything (it won't). Very true. Indeed, with my understanding of addiction one thing I fear we'd have to endure with a step change - like a backlash where millions of young people dump their phones, or an large scale failure of technology, is that they wouldn't know what to do with themselves. Plunged from a superficially meaningful digital holding-pen into an empty real world would be insane. Positive cultural change has to happen slowly enough. > The author of OP's link has a net worth of $1.5 million. She absolutely has no idea of the problems non-millionaire zoomers have. I don't believe wealth is a factor in understanding per se. To my eyes, the poverty of life that accompanies a smartphone lifestyle is equally hurtful to rich and poor alike.

NoGravitas 3y ago

It's a boomer who cherry-picked an out-of-touch GenZ to be their mouthpiece. It's genuine but not representative.