I'm not opposed at all in principle to you sharing your blog on tildes, but could you at least post a tildes-specific comment like why you wrote this, why you're posting it, etc?
I'm not opposed at all in principle to you sharing your blog on tildes, but could you at least post a tildes-specific comment like why you wrote this, why you're posting it, etc?
We're supposed to have a reasonable limit to how much we self-promote here. I am not inclined to go back and check but I have felt annoyed at being directed to any user's blog when they can write...
We're supposed to have a reasonable limit to how much we self-promote here. I am not inclined to go back and check but I have felt annoyed at being directed to any user's blog when they can write or repost here as easily. It breaks down the relationship IME.
I don’t usually mind this OPs though, their posts (even the ones of their own blog) usually lead to pretty good discussions. And they don’t exclusively post their own blog, and they do comment on...
I don’t usually mind this OPs though, their posts (even the ones of their own blog) usually lead to pretty good discussions. And they don’t exclusively post their own blog, and they do comment on other people’s topics too.
So they aren’t exclusively self-promoting, which is where I personally draw the line IMO.
Though I do agree it might be nice if they posted a comment to try to kick-off a discussion when they do link to their own blog posts.
It's more that it's less of a community conversation and more a critique of the writing when disagreements arise. It's less personal in a way that actually matters here IMO. I also just think the...
It's more that it's less of a community conversation and more a critique of the writing when disagreements arise. It's less personal in a way that actually matters here IMO.
I also just think the balance is off but that's a ymmv thing. It's not personal or about the opinions just the frequency. I prefer a comment to start convo most/all of the time but that opinion is usually much more controversial here.
On one hand, it feels like being taken advantage of when being directed to an OP's external site when they could haven spoken their thoughts directly. On the other hand, if it's the same writing...
On one hand, it feels like being taken advantage of when being directed to an OP's external site when they could haven spoken their thoughts directly. On the other hand, if it's the same writing either way, it shouldn't matter that much where we read it, right?
What's probably going on here is a betrayal of expectation. We generally assume links are for 3rd-party sources and direct posts are OP's creations. Self promotions (external links to your own contents) and reposts (direct post of others' creations) violate that expectation. But that's not a rule in general. I've seen some hobbyist communities where a major purpose is self promotion, and members occasionally request changes to make self promotion easier. It all depends on what the specific community agrees on I think. For me as long as OPs are upfront about it, I'm okay either way.
It's a double edge for the OP as well. People tends to be nicer in person (or in this context, when talking in the same forum). If people assume the author is just a stranger, the comments could get more impersonal. Personal blogs don't make much money nowadays anyway so that shouldn't be the primary factor I hope.
Second this, I think it’s a great idea to post a little blurb just special for us on Tildes, without it this feels like you posted someone else’s blog. A little something just to convert the blog...
Second this, I think it’s a great idea to post a little blurb just special for us on Tildes, without it this feels like you posted someone else’s blog.
A little something just to convert the blog into an open discussion would be neat
That's been customary in the past - just add a small little blurb about why you wrote this, additional thoughts, etc, but not required. Additionally it's community standard to add original content...
That's been customary in the past - just add a small little blurb about why you wrote this, additional thoughts, etc, but not required.
Additionally it's community standard to add original content for blogs/writing or user created for projects/games/&c as a tag to signify, perhaps @mycketforvirrad can go ahead and throw that on here as well (thanks in advance, and for all your hard work! you make ~ a better place!).
to make it clear: we should have more user created/authored content on here, so please share it!
If anything the #original content tag will draw even more attention to your work, just don't be a dick and bludgeon/inundate our precarious topic feed with it, that's about the ony rule for anything here, as wheatons law reins supreme in these hallowed lands
Edit: added 'original content' and 'user created' and the delineation between the two.
Sorry, I wasn't aware of this tag. Will add it in future posts, as well a little blurb as suggested. (Can I edit a post?) I really enjoy the discussions that my articles spark here! Tildes...
Sorry, I wasn't aware of this tag. Will add it in future posts, as well a little blurb as suggested. (Can I edit a post?)
I really enjoy the discussions that my articles spark here! Tildes community is very thoughtful, and I appreciate all the comments. Anyway, I'm all in about following the rules as they are, so feel free to reach if my blog's links aren't adding to the community, please.
When submitting a link, no topic-level blurb is possible, so just leave the blurb as a comment (it will automatically post as a reply in the topic submit form when combined with a link btw) You...
When submitting a link, no topic-level blurb is possible, so just leave the blurb as a comment (it will automatically post as a reply in the topic submit form when combined with a link btw)
You can only edit tags for some time after the post was made, unsure of time, so we'll get it sorted I'm sure. Thanks for submitting!
I think we're conditioned to assume advertising within the context of capitalism. But, if we think of the world where everything isn't for sale, there's still a need for advertising. Say I write...
I think we're conditioned to assume advertising within the context of capitalism. But, if we think of the world where everything isn't for sale, there's still a need for advertising.
Say I write books, and I want people to get my newest book and read it. I'd need to advertise it! Whether or not people have to pay for it or not isn't directly tied to me telling them about it.
Same could be said for anything that we produce as humans for other humans. You want people to use your stuff so you have to let them know it exists! That's advertising at its simplest, most basic form. Your post here linking to your own blog is a form of advertising - even though we can all just click the link and read your words for free.
Sure in our current society it is used to sell stuff to us and drive profit grown, but that at its base is also just letting us know the stuff exists so we spend our resources acquiring it.
@Grayscail noted that it would be campaigning. And while they noted that it would be similar to advertising, I would argue that if it’s significant enough to be given a different name that it is...
@Grayscail noted that it would be campaigning. And while they noted that it would be similar to advertising, I would argue that if it’s significant enough to be given a different name that it is significant. Advertising has campaigns but the difference is that the beneficiary is obscured - they promise to make your life better when the company selling you the product is the one getting the better end of the bargain. If I am campaigning you to read my book it is going to be because I genuinely believe it will make your life better. We’d still have PSAs telling us to eat healthy and exercise. Campaigning, in other words, would be for the public, collective good, instead of tools for wealth aggregation.
I mean sure, we can apply a different label. I would argue the function is the same though. In advertising, a campaign is a set of ads with a common theme or style and defined audience. A...
I mean sure, we can apply a different label. I would argue the function is the same though.
In advertising, a campaign is a set of ads with a common theme or style and defined audience. A political campaign is an advertisement for a particular party or politician aimed at particular people (be that by geography, demographics, or some combination of those two plus other defining characteristics). I don't think a "campaign" by itself determines that it is for a net social good (at least the way we define that word today).
PSAs are "announcements" which may be a better term for what "advertising" in a non-capitalistic society might look like. Just telling people that your thing exists as an announcement without any enticement to go and acquire it. I also think that if you are producing something for other people to consume or acquire, then you are implicitly stating that you think others should have it, and are going to argue for why your thing is the thing people want. Which again, comes back to making some sort of argument for why yours is the thing over other things. And then we're back at advertising, which is announcing with the intention of convincing others.
I think at the end of the day, whatever term you use, letting people know about the existence of stuff is a necessary part of having a robust society with options and choices.
I'll also admit that I'm so fully entrenched in a capitalist society and mindset that I might have some level of blindness or bias to this type of thinking. In a truly "free" economy maybe my entire mindset doesn't make sense?
It’s the intent that matters. The intent of a general campaign is general enrichment. The intent of an advertisement is to make money. There is a very clear line in the sand. Perhaps the better...
It’s the intent that matters. The intent of a general campaign is general enrichment. The intent of an advertisement is to make money. There is a very clear line in the sand.
Perhaps the better term would be “commercial”, which would be clear since it is short for “commercial advertisement”.
I'll also admit that I'm so fully entrenched in a capitalist society and mindset that I might have some level of blindness or bias to this type of thinking. In a truly "free" economy maybe my entire mindset doesn't make sense?
Ironically I deleted a joke about this before I wrote my earlier response! But yeah, I do think that might be part of it. Its a rare thing to be able to reflect on oneself to see the limitations of one’s thinking, and I know it’s something I still bump into from time to time.
A way I have to imagine a non-capitalistic world is to subtract the need to make money on anything you make. Imagine this for a second. I would promote the hell out of what I made, but within my...
A way I have to imagine a non-capitalistic world is to subtract the need to make money on anything you make. Imagine this for a second. I would promote the hell out of what I made, but within my personal and community boundaries. Shout out to everyone I made a cool thing that I'd like everyone to read? Absolutely. Paying Google or Meta for advertisement, going to a tiresome tour and other stuff taken as “necessary” to increase sales? I don't think so.
Anyway, word of mouth is very powerful, and it would be even more if it haven't had to compete with money.
This blog kinda feels like OP moved away from a religion and is trying to justify it. I only noticed because like religion, I was raised without technology. We didn’t have high speed internet...
This blog kinda feels like OP moved away from a religion and is trying to justify it.
I only noticed because like religion, I was raised without technology. We didn’t have high speed internet until I was in high school, we never had the latest gaming consoles, or the latest games. I’m lucky that I was an adult before smart phones and social media took off, but I probably wouldn’t have had anything to do with either of those, anyway.
Similar to people leaving religion, they’re just excited to now be living how Ive always lived. Makes me feel kinda like a zoo animal sometimes.
You know, I also arrived late on the internet, when I was 16–17. I lived before ubiquitous internet and smartphones. However, as an awkward introvert living in Brazil's country side, I got hooked...
You know, I also arrived late on the internet, when I was 16–17. I lived before ubiquitous internet and smartphones. However, as an awkward introvert living in Brazil's country side, I got hooked by it. Suddenly I was able to express myself with a freedom I never felt IRL, and to talk about subjects that matter to no one I knew. I own much of my existence to the internet: my career (as a journalist/writer), some good friendships, my partner, whom I met in a dating app, near a decade ago. So, yeah, maybe I feel like a split, or moving away a religion, or the cultish part of it.
Around the same timeframe as you in terms of when the internet hit, being an introvert, even meeting my partner online (via Facebook, nevertheless, before any dating apps existed). I owe a lot to...
Around the same timeframe as you in terms of when the internet hit, being an introvert, even meeting my partner online (via Facebook, nevertheless, before any dating apps existed). I owe a lot to tech, but I also feel my abuses of it robbed me of many years of more “real” experiences, as opposed to “virtual” experiences (video games primarily). I’ve gotten better at balancing, but these days the pattern has been more “how do I avoid screens” or “what’s the best use of screen time if I do want to avoid overdoing it”. For example I got rid of Facebook and most other social networks and apps a while ago. This was very helpful and a big change. Video games, I learned to balance. I tried quitting altogether, but mixed results.
Another comment says a lot of criticism of tech is actually a criticism of capitalism. I can see that. I feel things took a massive down turn when ads became the primary drivers of everything “free” online. Algorithms broke a lot of the things I used to like. Luckily I’m in my early 40s now with enough offline things to keep me busy and joyful. My need to rely on these technologies that let me down is decreasing more and more each year. Coupled with an active effort to spend time offline, it feels like I am reaching a decent balance. I do “hate” technology, or the direction it’s going in, or how pervasive it has become, with AI now. A conscious effort to say “no” to much of it is needed, at least for me.
PS I don’t mind you sharing links to your blog. It’s a good blog and beats paywalled articles any day. :-)
Thanks! Would you mind sharing what are those “offline things”? I'm in the same boat regarding screens, except for video games — used to play a lot as a teenager, but dropped it altogether 20-ish...
Thanks!
Luckily I’m in my early 40s now with enough offline things to keep me busy and joyful.
Would you mind sharing what are those “offline things”? I'm in the same boat regarding screens, except for video games — used to play a lot as a teenager, but dropped it altogether 20-ish years ago.
Not who you replied to but I also struggled trying to find offline projects when I started working on a computer for a living, and found that when I got off work I'd move my chair 2 feet and...
Not who you replied to but I also struggled trying to find offline projects when I started working on a computer for a living, and found that when I got off work I'd move my chair 2 feet and continue piddling on a different computer
I got really into gardening. Outside during the spring/summer/fall but I also acquired a collection of indoor plants, turns out peppers can be perennial if you take them inside for the winter.
Got back into reading books, I feel like this is an easy one that most people do. I started by re-reading books I knew I liked, and then looked up other stuff by the same authors. Eventually it had turned into a full on hobby with regular visits to my local used book store!
Just exercising, I used to ride my bike to class during college so I still had it and now I go on regular < 10 mile bike rides and when I finally got in shape I started traveling to towns that had extensive bike trails and going on > 20 mile rides.
also exercising, I really liked rollerblading as a kid, so I bought some ~$100 dollar blades and started going once a week
Cooking! I've learned to cook so many things. Without spending hours on the internet suddenly I had time and patience to spend 2 hours of my evening cooking. when you think about it, that's really just two episodes of whatever tv show, it's not even that much time. bonus is with meal prep now I don't have to go out for lunch during work.
all these things started really slow, the first step was really just limiting my screen time. I think for the first week or so Id literally just get up out of my chair and go sit on the front porch. That turned into going for a walk, or reading if the weather was bad, which turned into cooking cause now I'm bored might as well cook, which turned into exercising cause well I'm eating healthier so I feel kinda better I think I could handle a workout... and here I am.
Good job dropping video games. Winters are long here in Canada and as much as I can avoid games in summer, it’s a very good indoor activity in winter. Offline, my wife and I have dogs, so lots of...
Good job dropping video games. Winters are long here in Canada and as much as I can avoid games in summer, it’s a very good indoor activity in winter.
Offline, my wife and I have dogs, so lots of dog walks and dog sports. In the summer I like cycling and hiking in the mountains. I like reading, writing and sometimes drawing for other offline hobbies. Photography too, occasionally (with a camera not with the phone). Board games and card games with friends are also a good alternative to video games. I play some Magic the Gathering fairly regularly.
I also dove headfirst into it, but I think I was spoiled by the really tight knit communities that existed on the early internet. I always found places like Reddit kind of vapid and empty. I...
I also dove headfirst into it, but I think I was spoiled by the really tight knit communities that existed on the early internet. I always found places like Reddit kind of vapid and empty. I didn't really start using that site until I figured out I could join small subreddits and find community that way.
Once social media became a thing I adopted that to talk to my friends in high school, but once we all graduated, I mostly dropped it. I never migrated to Insta, Snap, etc etc etc, because there was a 2010s inflection point where people stopped attempting to talk to me specifically on those platforms and instead started making posts meant for the whole world. Back in high school we'd go out to a movie or whatever and then make posts about that experience after, but when we graduated, those posts that people made about their lives no longer involved me. After high school people would attempt to add me on other social media platforms, but I hadn't migrated to them yet, I'd already migrated from myspace to facebook and I was tired of spending time setting up profiles for it to be dropped two years later.
tl;dr Ive just never really used social media, and so, I've avoided the trap of the internet taking over my whole entire life, because to me, the internet lives on my desktop computer inside one single mmo that I still play and when I walk away, I walk away.
I was thinking of that recently: the internet, when I was young, was something that lived on my computer. It was basically a better alternative to cable TV which was full of ads and 100 channels...
I was thinking of that recently: the internet, when I was young, was something that lived on my computer. It was basically a better alternative to cable TV which was full of ads and 100 channels of garbage. The internet was a place for fun, new, creative stuff and open communication. Now it’s in everyone’s pocket and I am not so sure if the benefits it brought will ever outweigh the damage it is doing. But maybe I’m just getting old and fail to see how all this is just normal, another cycle in human evolution, our era’s version of electricity? I guess we’ll see!
I think most people would agree that pocket entertainment has largely been bad for us. I keep reading things suggesting maybe the discomfort of being bored at any given time is necessary for...
I think most people would agree that pocket entertainment has largely been bad for us.
I keep reading things suggesting maybe the discomfort of being bored at any given time is necessary for proper mental processing or whatever.
Being bored is good. I notice many people are uncomfortable being bored at all. In fact I think being bored and doing nothing is becoming a luxury. Our attention is being pulled into a million...
Being bored is good. I notice many people are uncomfortable being bored at all. In fact I think being bored and doing nothing is becoming a luxury. Our attention is being pulled into a million directions.
A small think I like doing is leaving my phone at home when I walk my dogs. Seems like a small change, but it actually feels different! And I’ll admit to my hand sometimes reaching for the (empty) pocket when I see something I’d want to take a photo of. Then I remember I need to enjoy the moment instead of trying to capture it to enjoy it later.
I think boredom is something that can be desensitized, like, if you’re on your phone or have the tv on all the time you get used to never being bored so then when it does happen its an actually...
I think boredom is something that can be desensitized, like, if you’re on your phone or have the tv on all the time you get used to never being bored so then when it does happen its an actually painful experience.
Yeah early social media seemed to be what chatrooms evolved into. For my surroundings at least it was a natural change to go from MSN Messenger to Facebook back in the late 00's. So yeah irl stuff...
Yeah early social media seemed to be what chatrooms evolved into. For my surroundings at least it was a natural change to go from MSN Messenger to Facebook back in the late 00's. So yeah irl stuff was what was prevalent in posts. Most people no longer use social media that way for some reason or other, you're right. I'm not quite sure why that even changed? Seemed like it was slow and gradual.
It happened when I stopped seeing those people in person. We saw each other all the time in high school but life went on and they were still sharing about their lives but I was no longer involved....
It happened when I stopped seeing those people in person. We saw each other all the time in high school but life went on and they were still sharing about their lives but I was no longer involved.
When I got old enough that I hadn’t seen my high school friends in years, another change happened, people who I was choosing to include in my life weren’t the kind of people to post about their lives on social media.
I'm not opposed at all in principle to you sharing your blog on tildes, but could you at least post a tildes-specific comment like why you wrote this, why you're posting it, etc?
We're supposed to have a reasonable limit to how much we self-promote here. I am not inclined to go back and check but I have felt annoyed at being directed to any user's blog when they can write or repost here as easily. It breaks down the relationship IME.
I don’t usually mind this OPs though, their posts (even the ones of their own blog) usually lead to pretty good discussions. And they don’t exclusively post their own blog, and they do comment on other people’s topics too.
So they aren’t exclusively self-promoting, which is where I personally draw the line IMO.
Though I do agree it might be nice if they posted a comment to try to kick-off a discussion when they do link to their own blog posts.
It's more that it's less of a community conversation and more a critique of the writing when disagreements arise. It's less personal in a way that actually matters here IMO.
I also just think the balance is off but that's a ymmv thing. It's not personal or about the opinions just the frequency. I prefer a comment to start convo most/all of the time but that opinion is usually much more controversial here.
On one hand, it feels like being taken advantage of when being directed to an OP's external site when they could haven spoken their thoughts directly. On the other hand, if it's the same writing either way, it shouldn't matter that much where we read it, right?
What's probably going on here is a betrayal of expectation. We generally assume links are for 3rd-party sources and direct posts are OP's creations. Self promotions (external links to your own contents) and reposts (direct post of others' creations) violate that expectation. But that's not a rule in general. I've seen some hobbyist communities where a major purpose is self promotion, and members occasionally request changes to make self promotion easier. It all depends on what the specific community agrees on I think. For me as long as OPs are upfront about it, I'm okay either way.
It's a double edge for the OP as well. People tends to be nicer in person (or in this context, when talking in the same forum). If people assume the author is just a stranger, the comments could get more impersonal. Personal blogs don't make much money nowadays anyway so that shouldn't be the primary factor I hope.
Second this, I think it’s a great idea to post a little blurb just special for us on Tildes, without it this feels like you posted someone else’s blog.
A little something just to convert the blog into an open discussion would be neat
That's been customary in the past - just add a small little blurb about why you wrote this, additional thoughts, etc, but not required.
Additionally it's community standard to add
original contentfor blogs/writing oruser createdfor projects/games/&c as a tag to signify, perhaps @mycketforvirrad can go ahead and throw that on here as well (thanks in advance, and for all your hard work! you make ~ a better place!).to make it clear: we should have more user created/authored content on here, so please share it!
If anything the
#original contenttag will draw even more attention to your work, just don't be a dick and bludgeon/inundate our precarious topic feed with it, that's about the ony rule for anything here, as wheatons law reins supreme in these hallowed landsEdit: added 'original content' and 'user created' and the delineation between the two.
Sorry, I wasn't aware of this tag. Will add it in future posts, as well a little blurb as suggested. (Can I edit a post?)
I really enjoy the discussions that my articles spark here! Tildes community is very thoughtful, and I appreciate all the comments. Anyway, I'm all in about following the rules as they are, so feel free to reach if my blog's links aren't adding to the community, please.
When submitting a link, no topic-level blurb is possible, so just leave the blurb as a comment (it will automatically post as a reply in the topic submit form when combined with a link btw)
You can only edit tags for some time after the post was made, unsure of time, so we'll get it sorted I'm sure. Thanks for submitting!
Noted! Will do in future posts. Sorry about this one.
I find most hatred or dislike for technology is actually a criticism of capitalism, not technology.
Or, to put in another way, my criticism is direct to technology being (easily) corrupted by capitalism.
Advertising and marketing are probably the most corrupting social forces.
They are derived from capitalism. Why would you need to advertise anything if not to making numbers go up?
I think we're conditioned to assume advertising within the context of capitalism. But, if we think of the world where everything isn't for sale, there's still a need for advertising.
Say I write books, and I want people to get my newest book and read it. I'd need to advertise it! Whether or not people have to pay for it or not isn't directly tied to me telling them about it.
Same could be said for anything that we produce as humans for other humans. You want people to use your stuff so you have to let them know it exists! That's advertising at its simplest, most basic form. Your post here linking to your own blog is a form of advertising - even though we can all just click the link and read your words for free.
Sure in our current society it is used to sell stuff to us and drive profit grown, but that at its base is also just letting us know the stuff exists so we spend our resources acquiring it.
@Grayscail noted that it would be campaigning. And while they noted that it would be similar to advertising, I would argue that if it’s significant enough to be given a different name that it is significant. Advertising has campaigns but the difference is that the beneficiary is obscured - they promise to make your life better when the company selling you the product is the one getting the better end of the bargain. If I am campaigning you to read my book it is going to be because I genuinely believe it will make your life better. We’d still have PSAs telling us to eat healthy and exercise. Campaigning, in other words, would be for the public, collective good, instead of tools for wealth aggregation.
I mean sure, we can apply a different label. I would argue the function is the same though.
In advertising, a campaign is a set of ads with a common theme or style and defined audience. A political campaign is an advertisement for a particular party or politician aimed at particular people (be that by geography, demographics, or some combination of those two plus other defining characteristics). I don't think a "campaign" by itself determines that it is for a net social good (at least the way we define that word today).
PSAs are "announcements" which may be a better term for what "advertising" in a non-capitalistic society might look like. Just telling people that your thing exists as an announcement without any enticement to go and acquire it. I also think that if you are producing something for other people to consume or acquire, then you are implicitly stating that you think others should have it, and are going to argue for why your thing is the thing people want. Which again, comes back to making some sort of argument for why yours is the thing over other things. And then we're back at advertising, which is announcing with the intention of convincing others.
I think at the end of the day, whatever term you use, letting people know about the existence of stuff is a necessary part of having a robust society with options and choices.
I'll also admit that I'm so fully entrenched in a capitalist society and mindset that I might have some level of blindness or bias to this type of thinking. In a truly "free" economy maybe my entire mindset doesn't make sense?
It’s the intent that matters. The intent of a general campaign is general enrichment. The intent of an advertisement is to make money. There is a very clear line in the sand.
Perhaps the better term would be “commercial”, which would be clear since it is short for “commercial advertisement”.
Ironically I deleted a joke about this before I wrote my earlier response! But yeah, I do think that might be part of it. Its a rare thing to be able to reflect on oneself to see the limitations of one’s thinking, and I know it’s something I still bump into from time to time.
A way I have to imagine a non-capitalistic world is to subtract the need to make money on anything you make. Imagine this for a second. I would promote the hell out of what I made, but within my personal and community boundaries. Shout out to everyone I made a cool thing that I'd like everyone to read? Absolutely. Paying Google or Meta for advertisement, going to a tiresome tour and other stuff taken as “necessary” to increase sales? I don't think so.
Anyway, word of mouth is very powerful, and it would be even more if it haven't had to compete with money.
Probably?
Like, if we lived in a noncapitalistic democracy, people would still be campaigning, which is pretty similar to advertising Id say.
This blog kinda feels like OP moved away from a religion and is trying to justify it.
I only noticed because like religion, I was raised without technology. We didn’t have high speed internet until I was in high school, we never had the latest gaming consoles, or the latest games. I’m lucky that I was an adult before smart phones and social media took off, but I probably wouldn’t have had anything to do with either of those, anyway.
Similar to people leaving religion, they’re just excited to now be living how Ive always lived. Makes me feel kinda like a zoo animal sometimes.
You know, I also arrived late on the internet, when I was 16–17. I lived before ubiquitous internet and smartphones. However, as an awkward introvert living in Brazil's country side, I got hooked by it. Suddenly I was able to express myself with a freedom I never felt IRL, and to talk about subjects that matter to no one I knew. I own much of my existence to the internet: my career (as a journalist/writer), some good friendships, my partner, whom I met in a dating app, near a decade ago. So, yeah, maybe I feel like a split, or moving away a religion, or the cultish part of it.
Around the same timeframe as you in terms of when the internet hit, being an introvert, even meeting my partner online (via Facebook, nevertheless, before any dating apps existed). I owe a lot to tech, but I also feel my abuses of it robbed me of many years of more “real” experiences, as opposed to “virtual” experiences (video games primarily). I’ve gotten better at balancing, but these days the pattern has been more “how do I avoid screens” or “what’s the best use of screen time if I do want to avoid overdoing it”. For example I got rid of Facebook and most other social networks and apps a while ago. This was very helpful and a big change. Video games, I learned to balance. I tried quitting altogether, but mixed results.
Another comment says a lot of criticism of tech is actually a criticism of capitalism. I can see that. I feel things took a massive down turn when ads became the primary drivers of everything “free” online. Algorithms broke a lot of the things I used to like. Luckily I’m in my early 40s now with enough offline things to keep me busy and joyful. My need to rely on these technologies that let me down is decreasing more and more each year. Coupled with an active effort to spend time offline, it feels like I am reaching a decent balance. I do “hate” technology, or the direction it’s going in, or how pervasive it has become, with AI now. A conscious effort to say “no” to much of it is needed, at least for me.
PS I don’t mind you sharing links to your blog. It’s a good blog and beats paywalled articles any day. :-)
Thanks!
Would you mind sharing what are those “offline things”? I'm in the same boat regarding screens, except for video games — used to play a lot as a teenager, but dropped it altogether 20-ish years ago.
Not who you replied to but I also struggled trying to find offline projects when I started working on a computer for a living, and found that when I got off work I'd move my chair 2 feet and continue piddling on a different computer
all these things started really slow, the first step was really just limiting my screen time. I think for the first week or so Id literally just get up out of my chair and go sit on the front porch. That turned into going for a walk, or reading if the weather was bad, which turned into cooking cause now I'm bored might as well cook, which turned into exercising cause well I'm eating healthier so I feel kinda better I think I could handle a workout... and here I am.
Good job dropping video games. Winters are long here in Canada and as much as I can avoid games in summer, it’s a very good indoor activity in winter.
Offline, my wife and I have dogs, so lots of dog walks and dog sports. In the summer I like cycling and hiking in the mountains. I like reading, writing and sometimes drawing for other offline hobbies. Photography too, occasionally (with a camera not with the phone). Board games and card games with friends are also a good alternative to video games. I play some Magic the Gathering fairly regularly.
I also dove headfirst into it, but I think I was spoiled by the really tight knit communities that existed on the early internet. I always found places like Reddit kind of vapid and empty. I didn't really start using that site until I figured out I could join small subreddits and find community that way.
Once social media became a thing I adopted that to talk to my friends in high school, but once we all graduated, I mostly dropped it. I never migrated to Insta, Snap, etc etc etc, because there was a 2010s inflection point where people stopped attempting to talk to me specifically on those platforms and instead started making posts meant for the whole world. Back in high school we'd go out to a movie or whatever and then make posts about that experience after, but when we graduated, those posts that people made about their lives no longer involved me. After high school people would attempt to add me on other social media platforms, but I hadn't migrated to them yet, I'd already migrated from myspace to facebook and I was tired of spending time setting up profiles for it to be dropped two years later.
tl;dr Ive just never really used social media, and so, I've avoided the trap of the internet taking over my whole entire life, because to me, the internet lives on my desktop computer inside one single mmo that I still play and when I walk away, I walk away.
I was thinking of that recently: the internet, when I was young, was something that lived on my computer. It was basically a better alternative to cable TV which was full of ads and 100 channels of garbage. The internet was a place for fun, new, creative stuff and open communication. Now it’s in everyone’s pocket and I am not so sure if the benefits it brought will ever outweigh the damage it is doing. But maybe I’m just getting old and fail to see how all this is just normal, another cycle in human evolution, our era’s version of electricity? I guess we’ll see!
I think most people would agree that pocket entertainment has largely been bad for us.
I keep reading things suggesting maybe the discomfort of being bored at any given time is necessary for proper mental processing or whatever.
Being bored is good. I notice many people are uncomfortable being bored at all. In fact I think being bored and doing nothing is becoming a luxury. Our attention is being pulled into a million directions.
A small think I like doing is leaving my phone at home when I walk my dogs. Seems like a small change, but it actually feels different! And I’ll admit to my hand sometimes reaching for the (empty) pocket when I see something I’d want to take a photo of. Then I remember I need to enjoy the moment instead of trying to capture it to enjoy it later.
I think boredom is something that can be desensitized, like, if you’re on your phone or have the tv on all the time you get used to never being bored so then when it does happen its an actually painful experience.
Yeah early social media seemed to be what chatrooms evolved into. For my surroundings at least it was a natural change to go from MSN Messenger to Facebook back in the late 00's. So yeah irl stuff was what was prevalent in posts. Most people no longer use social media that way for some reason or other, you're right. I'm not quite sure why that even changed? Seemed like it was slow and gradual.
It happened when I stopped seeing those people in person. We saw each other all the time in high school but life went on and they were still sharing about their lives but I was no longer involved.
When I got old enough that I hadn’t seen my high school friends in years, another change happened, people who I was choosing to include in my life weren’t the kind of people to post about their lives on social media.