7 ms·

10-15 years ago I think this take was correct, the Internet was about writing. It isn't anymore, not for newer generations - e.g. Gen Z spending most of their

10-15 years ago I think this take was correct, the Internet was about writing. It isn't anymore, not for newer generations - e.g. Gen Z spending most of their time on Tiktok and phones, and not knowing how to use a word processor. In the span of ~30 years pg is talking about I can absolutely imagine some job where you speak to the AI and it writes the documents for you and you never learned how to write one yourself. It will not be a good job but millions of people will hold it. They will not be able to write with much sophistication themselves ergo they will not be able to think with much sophistication either. Online dating is not about writing. It was before Tinder, but it's not anymore. Like Instagram, it's about being skilled with photo filters and/or hiring a professional photographer. No one bothers to hire a profile writer - because no one reads the profile. If the other person's photos are hawt you will click a button and the AI will send some funny jokes and if you're hawt too you'll share locations and shag. Idiocracy or some Eloi/Morlocks world will be real

hackable_sand 2y ago
Less internet for you. More going outside for you.
tim333 2y ago
Curious about your hypothesis, I went on Tiktok and clicked trending. The top thing (clips from Superstore I think) had 16535 text comments on it though mostly stuff like >"Don't you hate Tuesdays?" "AHHHHHH" so not really long-form essays. Maybe the future is that stuff?
- astrobe_ 2y ago
  The present is already non-written communication with Emojis. This supports TFA's thesis, as these forms of communication are about emotions, not thinking. Maybe it is a bit unfair to pick a media that focuses on video/image, though.
amadeuspagel 2y ago
TikTok videos are embedded in text -- titles, usernames, descriptions, comments. It's very different from TV, and if anything if it replaces TV it will make newer generations more literate, not less.
Swizec 2y ago
> It isn't anymore, not for newer generations - e.g. Gen Z spending most of their time on Tiktok and phones, and not knowing how to use a word processor. This is a classic fallacy as old as society. “Whatever the hoi polloi are doing is by definition not the good stuff”. But long-term whatever the masses are doing always wins. You know Shakespeare? He was the rube who thought plays could be entertaining to the masses. How quaint and silly, who would expect a commoner to appreciate a play. pfft. Mozart? Taylor Swift of his day. Printing press? Don’t even get me started, ew the commoners think they can just, like, write things down? How rude. I’m as much an anti-fan of the short video communication trend as anyone, but it works. When bandwidth is cheap and video recording ubiquitous, video is a great medium. Who cares what you say, show me. edit to add an uncomfortable truth: The in-crowd talks to develop ideas. What you see in writing is weeks, months, or even years behind the bleeding edge.
- samatman 2y ago
  There should be a term for the fallacy on display here. The Spurious Generalization Fallacy perhaps? At no point did you address whether the shifting habits of younger generations will be bad for their literacy, instead making a general point that new trends in society are routinely panned by older members of such a society. As a counterpoint, before radio and the phonograph, musical ability was quite widespread. Now, it's much rarer. You haven't even attempted to address whether various developments in society and technology might do this to literacy the way earlier trends did to musical skills. I think that result is quite likely, by the way.
  - Swizec 2y ago
    > You haven't even attempted to address whether various developments in society and technology might do this to literacy the way earlier trends did to musical skills. I think that result is quite likely, by the way. Fair, I was making a different point. Yes literacy might be reduced, my argument is that this isn’t necessarily a problem. Our abilities shift to take advantage of technology. A lot like how we got really bad at memorizing long epics because we can just write them down instead. That said, I don’t think writing/literacy will go away as much as we might fear. The new technologies are not a good enough replacement (yet?)

hackable_sand 2y ago

Less internet for you. More going outside for you.

tim333 2y ago

Curious about your hypothesis, I went on Tiktok and clicked trending. The top thing (clips from Superstore I think) had 16535 text comments on it though mostly stuff like >"Don't you hate Tuesdays?" "AHHHHHH" so not really long-form essays. Maybe the future is that stuff?

astrobe_ 2y ago
The present is already non-written communication with Emojis. This supports TFA's thesis, as these forms of communication are about emotions, not thinking. Maybe it is a bit unfair to pick a media that focuses on video/image, though.

amadeuspagel 2y ago

TikTok videos are embedded in text -- titles, usernames, descriptions, comments. It's very different from TV, and if anything if it replaces TV it will make newer generations more literate, not less.

Swizec 2y ago

> It isn't anymore, not for newer generations - e.g. Gen Z spending most of their time on Tiktok and phones, and not knowing how to use a word processor. This is a classic fallacy as old as society. “Whatever the hoi polloi are doing is by definition not the good stuff”. But long-term whatever the masses are doing always wins. You know Shakespeare? He was the rube who thought plays could be entertaining to the masses. How quaint and silly, who would expect a commoner to appreciate a play. pfft. Mozart? Taylor Swift of his day. Printing press? Don’t even get me started, ew the commoners think they can just, like, write things down? How rude. I’m as much an anti-fan of the short video communication trend as anyone, but it works. When bandwidth is cheap and video recording ubiquitous, video is a great medium. Who cares what you say, show me. edit to add an uncomfortable truth: The in-crowd talks to develop ideas. What you see in writing is weeks, months, or even years behind the bleeding edge.

samatman 2y ago
There should be a term for the fallacy on display here. The Spurious Generalization Fallacy perhaps? At no point did you address whether the shifting habits of younger generations will be bad for their literacy, instead making a general point that new trends in society are routinely panned by older members of such a society. As a counterpoint, before radio and the phonograph, musical ability was quite widespread. Now, it's much rarer. You haven't even attempted to address whether various developments in society and technology might do this to literacy the way earlier trends did to musical skills. I think that result is quite likely, by the way.
- Swizec 2y ago
  > You haven't even attempted to address whether various developments in society and technology might do this to literacy the way earlier trends did to musical skills. I think that result is quite likely, by the way. Fair, I was making a different point. Yes literacy might be reduced, my argument is that this isn’t necessarily a problem. Our abilities shift to take advantage of technology. A lot like how we got really bad at memorizing long epics because we can just write them down instead. That said, I don’t think writing/literacy will go away as much as we might fear. The new technologies are not a good enough replacement (yet?)