4 ms·

I'm reminded of a video from the 80's/90's where researchers took a TV to the Amazon to see how "live off the land" tribes reacted to high technology. Apparentl

I'm reminded of a video from the 80's/90's where researchers took a TV to the Amazon to see how "live off the land" tribes reacted to high technology. Apparently they stopped doing everything and just wanted to watch TV all day. And that was just regular old TV. Short form video is a special kind of crack. I see even old people getting hypnotized by it. And even worse, they're terrible at determining if something is AI.

ghurtado 8mo ago
I'm gonna try to remember this comment for the next time someone brings up the boiling frog analogy. Which is usually back to back with the thought that in bygone times "the human mind used to be cleaner / healthier / smarter and it was slowly destroyed by modern living" There's not that much difference between our behavior and that of a chicken fixated on the chalk line in front of it.
- Tade0 8mo ago
  This. What really happened is that someone figured out what makes people give something their undivided attention and is profiting handsomely off of this finding.
- andai 8mo ago
  In the 19th century, many authors lamented the frantic, unhealthy pace of modern life.
  - dpflan 8mo ago
    “The world is too much with us” - W. Wordsworth The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;— Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon; The winds that will be howling at all hours, And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers; For this, for everything, we are out of tune; It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45564/the-world-is-too-much-with-us https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45564/the-world-is-to...
  - aenis 8mo ago
    And boy, were they right.
  - sahildeepreel 7mo ago
    Highly recommend reading Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death. in the 80's, he wrote about how shift from print media to TV has caused us to trade critical thinking for a 'numbing' addiction to constant amusement. Little did he know about social media.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death
    - ProllyInfamous 7mo ago
      The hardest part of a 2026 reading of Amusing Ourselves is that nothing within the pages is extraordinary anymore — the book is plainly boring once you know about the internets... definitely groundbreaking, for its time.
      - sahildeepreel 7mo ago
        Fair point. However, books like these show where society is heading and what values we are promoting as a society. As an aside, what was really interesting to me was learning that in 1850s white Americans had a 95% literacy rate (highest globally) and were able to easily follow debates between presidential candidates that lasted 3+ hours, and ask relevant questions. I doubt even the most educated people would be able to do that today. Certainly, I would find it extremely difficult to do so.
        ProllyInfamous 7mo ago
        >I doubt even the most educated people would be able to do that today. Certainly this is a valid point. >able to easily follow debates between presidential candidates that lasted 3+ hours, and ask relevant questions This is likely one reason for keeping the masses month-to-month (~70% in US, 2024~). I hate to quote this madman, but Father Jones once said (before flavor-aide-ing his entire congregation): >>~"Keep them poor and tired. If they're poor they won't have time to organize; if they're tired they won't have energy to fight back"~ ---- >1850s white Americans had a 95% literacy rate (highest globally) Working in construction these past few decades, some of my favorite co-workers have barely been able to read — yet are brilliant field electricians (that often can read blueprints — but fuck this engineer they'll proudly mumble, often ["what the hell was he thinking, here?! wuz he thinkin'?!"]). fuck this guy . laughter ---- I fully support returning to a time when countries had smaller populations and embraced technologies in running themselves, their more-isolated population's needs. As an older millenial american, I fully support the breakdown of USA into smaller territories (too large to reasonably rule, IMHO).
ifethereal 8mo ago
Can anyone come up with a citation for this? Not to say it's a hallucination, but, to modern standards, if this were publicly funded research, it seems like it would have been a gross violation of ethics or other non-technical criteria. Interested to see how people think of it in later years, e.g., now.
- Terretta 8mo ago
  It's a particularly misleading anecdote. In a sufficiently isolated population, you get the same effect from a sound-making greeting card, or a battery powered light and/or sound toy from a carnival. And for what it's worth, tomorrow they don't miss whatever “indistinguishable from magic” thing, so no harm done. // grew up near such areas
  - mlok 8mo ago
    On TV, content changes all the time. It is "always new". In your examples, content is the same over and over. They would not be fascinating for too long because the novelty would wear off. Very different.
    - randycupertino 8mo ago
      > On TV, content changes all the time. It is "always new". Personally I think this also is what makes reddit so addictive as well. I want to read all the threads on the subreddits I enjoy... which is impossible, because there's always new interesting posts.
    - Terretta 7mo ago
      I was responding to the "violation of ethics". Both are novel or fascinating for a bit, no harm no foul. And to be clear, same effect from a Kodak slide projector and carousel, just one carousel, endlessly fascinating. Anything is. A carved stick toy is. If you let them have the carnival gizmo, they'll wear it out. If you take it back, they happily go back to their toy made out of a stick. If anything, a defining characteristic is a lack of boredom, that novelty doesn't wear off from things westerners might find quickly dull. At the same time, sameness and change are taken in stride, along with a disregard for aggregate time in general, neither planning ahead nor regard for "spending" it. Everything is in the moment.
armenarmen 7mo ago
I got rid of Instagram for 3 years, redownloaded and spent maybe 2 hours watching reels of Italian American family humor. It felt like a trance. I’ve since redeleted the app. But yeah, scrolling short form is crack
KptMarchewa 7mo ago
I find it a bit amazing that we're all still able to work somehow, when surrounding with all those distractions.
deleted 7mo ago
[deleted]
KellyCriterion 7mo ago
Thats also the case today: There was a report lately that smartphones brought to young natives in rural areas of Amazon/etc., completely stopped learning the skills that helped the tribes to survive (hunting etc.)

ghurtado 8mo ago

I'm gonna try to remember this comment for the next time someone brings up the boiling frog analogy. Which is usually back to back with the thought that in bygone times "the human mind used to be cleaner / healthier / smarter and it was slowly destroyed by modern living" There's not that much difference between our behavior and that of a chicken fixated on the chalk line in front of it.

Tade0 8mo ago
This. What really happened is that someone figured out what makes people give something their undivided attention and is profiting handsomely off of this finding.
andai 8mo ago
In the 19th century, many authors lamented the frantic, unhealthy pace of modern life.
- dpflan 8mo ago
  “The world is too much with us” - W. Wordsworth The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;— Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon; The winds that will be howling at all hours, And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers; For this, for everything, we are out of tune; It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45564/the-world-is-too-much-with-us https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45564/the-world-is-to...
- aenis 8mo ago
  And boy, were they right.
- sahildeepreel 7mo ago
  Highly recommend reading Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death. in the 80's, he wrote about how shift from print media to TV has caused us to trade critical thinking for a 'numbing' addiction to constant amusement. Little did he know about social media.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death
  - ProllyInfamous 7mo ago
    The hardest part of a 2026 reading of Amusing Ourselves is that nothing within the pages is extraordinary anymore — the book is plainly boring once you know about the internets... definitely groundbreaking, for its time.
    - sahildeepreel 7mo ago
      Fair point. However, books like these show where society is heading and what values we are promoting as a society. As an aside, what was really interesting to me was learning that in 1850s white Americans had a 95% literacy rate (highest globally) and were able to easily follow debates between presidential candidates that lasted 3+ hours, and ask relevant questions. I doubt even the most educated people would be able to do that today. Certainly, I would find it extremely difficult to do so.
      - ProllyInfamous 7mo ago
        >I doubt even the most educated people would be able to do that today. Certainly this is a valid point. >able to easily follow debates between presidential candidates that lasted 3+ hours, and ask relevant questions This is likely one reason for keeping the masses month-to-month (~70% in US, 2024~). I hate to quote this madman, but Father Jones once said (before flavor-aide-ing his entire congregation): >>~"Keep them poor and tired. If they're poor they won't have time to organize; if they're tired they won't have energy to fight back"~ ---- >1850s white Americans had a 95% literacy rate (highest globally) Working in construction these past few decades, some of my favorite co-workers have barely been able to read — yet are brilliant field electricians (that often can read blueprints — but fuck this engineer they'll proudly mumble, often ["what the hell was he thinking, here?! wuz he thinkin'?!"]). fuck this guy . laughter ---- I fully support returning to a time when countries had smaller populations and embraced technologies in running themselves, their more-isolated population's needs. As an older millenial american, I fully support the breakdown of USA into smaller territories (too large to reasonably rule, IMHO).

ifethereal 8mo ago

Can anyone come up with a citation for this? Not to say it's a hallucination, but, to modern standards, if this were publicly funded research, it seems like it would have been a gross violation of ethics or other non-technical criteria. Interested to see how people think of it in later years, e.g., now.

Terretta 8mo ago
It's a particularly misleading anecdote. In a sufficiently isolated population, you get the same effect from a sound-making greeting card, or a battery powered light and/or sound toy from a carnival. And for what it's worth, tomorrow they don't miss whatever “indistinguishable from magic” thing, so no harm done. // grew up near such areas
- mlok 8mo ago
  On TV, content changes all the time. It is "always new". In your examples, content is the same over and over. They would not be fascinating for too long because the novelty would wear off. Very different.
  - randycupertino 8mo ago
    > On TV, content changes all the time. It is "always new". Personally I think this also is what makes reddit so addictive as well. I want to read all the threads on the subreddits I enjoy... which is impossible, because there's always new interesting posts.
  - Terretta 7mo ago
    I was responding to the "violation of ethics". Both are novel or fascinating for a bit, no harm no foul. And to be clear, same effect from a Kodak slide projector and carousel, just one carousel, endlessly fascinating. Anything is. A carved stick toy is. If you let them have the carnival gizmo, they'll wear it out. If you take it back, they happily go back to their toy made out of a stick. If anything, a defining characteristic is a lack of boredom, that novelty doesn't wear off from things westerners might find quickly dull. At the same time, sameness and change are taken in stride, along with a disregard for aggregate time in general, neither planning ahead nor regard for "spending" it. Everything is in the moment.

armenarmen 7mo ago

I got rid of Instagram for 3 years, redownloaded and spent maybe 2 hours watching reels of Italian American family humor. It felt like a trance. I’ve since redeleted the app. But yeah, scrolling short form is crack

KptMarchewa 7mo ago

I find it a bit amazing that we're all still able to work somehow, when surrounding with all those distractions.

deleted 7mo ago

[deleted]

KellyCriterion 7mo ago

Thats also the case today: There was a report lately that smartphones brought to young natives in rural areas of Amazon/etc., completely stopped learning the skills that helped the tribes to survive (hunting etc.)