I'm old enough to remember a consensus that a) excessive TV watching was considered a bad thing and that "I don't even own a TV people" were considered pretentious but that they maybe had a point and that b) "Don't put your real name and personal info on the internet" was the norm. All of that was just engineered away by slick techies and their marketers when it became clear that our attention could be profitable.
Great article - this is clearly the double-edged sword of our expanding technology. If I think of my grandparents or even my parents at the age I am now, they had to travel around and interact with so many people to do things. If they wanted clothes, they probably went to a store and talked to a sales person. If they needed a check deposited, they went to a bank. If they wanted a sandwich, they went to a deli and ordered from a person. If they wanted to see a movie, they went there and bought a ticket from a person. I can even think of more recent changes, where if I wanted to go a fast food place, I would order from someone. Now in some cases that is not even possible if you wanted to.
All of that can now be done sitting on your couch. And that is great - unfortunately so many of us are not trading those tasks that seem like deadweight for just mindless scrolling. And work from home (for the small portion of people who actually do these office jobs) is like the major force accelerator here. Again great to have it but we are almost committing a kind of self-inflicted solitary confinement.
I don't know how you get past this, other than trying to get out and do things yourself.
I'm old enough to remember a consensus that a) excessive TV watching was considered a bad thing and that "I don't even own a TV people" were considered pretentious but that they maybe had a point and that b) "Don't put your real name and personal info on the internet" was the norm. All of that was just engineered away by slick techies and their marketers when it became clear that our attention could be profitable.
Great article - this is clearly the double-edged sword of our expanding technology. If I think of my grandparents or even my parents at the age I am now, they had to travel around and interact with so many people to do things. If they wanted clothes, they probably went to a store and talked to a sales person. If they needed a check deposited, they went to a bank. If they wanted a sandwich, they went to a deli and ordered from a person. If they wanted to see a movie, they went there and bought a ticket from a person. I can even think of more recent changes, where if I wanted to go a fast food place, I would order from someone. Now in some cases that is not even possible if you wanted to.
All of that can now be done sitting on your couch. And that is great - unfortunately so many of us are not trading those tasks that seem like deadweight for just mindless scrolling. And work from home (for the small portion of people who actually do these office jobs) is like the major force accelerator here. Again great to have it but we are almost committing a kind of self-inflicted solitary confinement.
I don't know how you get past this, other than trying to get out and do things yourself.