China tried to keep kids off social media. Now the elderly are hooked.

Whenever I watch Reservation Dogs (marvelous TV show about teens in a indigenous community) I envy that kind of community. It's an emotional rollercoaster.

One of the best TV shows of all time.

(Preaching to the choir? Yea, probably, I know.)

Even if it is, sometimes it's necessary to both remind ourselves but also to have fruitful discussions going on with what to do about it. And given how thoroughly this issue has rooted in many societies, not just the West(indicating it's global....) we're really at crossroads as a species.

And this isn’t me suggesting that social media is not a decent enough place to gather and connect; after all, we’ve seen the usefulness and playfulness of it, we’ve seen the good it can do; only that it would be preferable were it one of many viable options — supplementary — rather than so frequently the lone one.

In a way, I don't mind it being more than supplementary - I've connected with many interesting people all over the globe through the Internet. The key, I think, is to ensure that basic social needs are not compromised over virtual connections. I think it's accurate to compare it to, or even consider it a form or, addiction. It's easy to replace the effort of long-term, communal interactions with brief online replacers. When it becomes the norm to replace it, you're in trouble. Speaking for myself as well.

If you’re on safari you can hit the reader to get the text. Bypasses paywalls every time.