I witness first hand people using AI to respond to emails, even personal ones. Others are turning to AI for spiritual and digital love, and I've seen this also.
Staying sane with technology has become my primary challenge. Indeed, I have also faced the dilemma of "being out of the loop".
I have a high powered PC running Linux, I program in C++ and C#, but have no television. I'm currently reading George Eliot from a book printed in the 1800s. Substack is about the only social media I use. I tend now to avoid political dramas. My partner is Gen Z and collects 18th century clocks, old books and is averse to technology.
There are too few us like this but the number, at least, is increasing.
I do see a fork in the road. I don't think this is the same as the introduction of CDs or DVDs. Those were evolutions of existing technology. I see some of the technology heavily influencing how we behave. A CD was not so different from a vinyl record by comparison.
So I do think people like yourself are encouraging others to reassess their relationship with technology. Is this helping me or trapping me? I think that is healthy and overdue for many. The smartphone is handy. I am using one today to measure steps while walking, for instance. But the trick is to ensure you control it and not the other way around.
I think you are lucky to have a partner not into tech.
Is the machine doing something and is the design and function of the machine limiting your options/ability to make choices and perform actions?
Example:
A car with electronic window-lifts, locks et c.
vs
A car with analog/manual such.
The electronic doo-dads do things for you; you are not doing the thing. If the electronics/software shits itself, you're SOL since there's no manual anything.
The manual/analog stuff, you use to do something. If it breaks, you can see with your eyes what's broken and replace the broken bit. Even if you have to improvise in some cases.
And: the putting in electronic computer-controlled everything by designers and engineers is a conscious one. Someone, or groups of someones, directs everything towards less ability for you the human to do things while using technology. Instead, you are to ask the technology to do things for you.
And then, in the near future, the robot-AI learned to say "No"?
I think electronically assisted devices like electric windows are slightly different from technology that rewires our brain. Doomscrolling or destroying attention spans with a series of six-second videos is a relatively new thing. It does seem to overload the reward centres of the brain.
Mind you, the Greeks worried that reading books would weaken the mind. So perhaps this is all irrelevant.
I believe physical copies of books, especially non fiction, are extremely important. Digital means that changes can be made to fit a narrative, and without physical copies, you can't prevent that.
I quite agree. Multiple copies of digital versions help as a backup. These can now be fingerprinted to make them impossible to tamper with. So the technology exists to make digital copies.
But I agree physical copies are absolutely crucial. The more the merrier.
In fact I'd wager books - meaning older ones, especially fact/how to guides and all forms/sorts of books on history from pre-1990s is the next thing to be declared "right-wing extremism".
If people in earnest and with great gravitas can declare the "OK"-sign, milk, eating real food, appreciating classical architecture and going to the gym as "right-wing extremism", nothing is out of bounds as being labeled Haram.
This article is spot on except for not mentioning the worst of all: AI ("asshole intelligence"). I'm pure human, grew up with TV but got rid of the sat dish over a decade ago. And I refuse to have a smart phone. Thanks for spilling this all out for folks. Sadly, those who need this most won't see it, but I'm sharing it anyway.
As for AI. I wanted it to be about tech addiction generally. AI is just the latest tool. It is disruptive but ultimately is just more technology.
I do think more people are rediscovering the analog world mind you. 35mm film is fun to use; real books obviously; even going for walks without a phone in their pocket, the lunatics. I try to treat it all as a test of mettle.
I got rid of my TV long ago. People used to think me insane, but fewer do now. Some even envy me a little as they would love to ditch theirs.
AI is indeed a tool of big tech to feed us junk. All the more reason to tune out. The main stream media feeds us enough misinfo. Nice to know, too, that I’m not alone is seeing what some of this tech has done to people. Enjoy your day.
I ditched all my social media a little over a year ago. I set up this substack account a couple months ago mainly to read. I'll never go back to multiple social media accounts again unless they are marketing accounts for some project or other.
My goal is to get to a place in my life where I can sequester all my computer and internet stuff in one room and switch to a flip phone. Not currently possible, but it is my medium-term goal.
I am with you. I would chuck it all away and go back to 1975 analogland if I could. Alas it is not realistic.
But we can take reasonable steps to minimize its control over us. I appreciate some can dip in and out with ease. Others really struggle with the temptation and distraction of it all. In that sense it is like alcohol or drugs; anything that interferes with our ancient reward systems. Some just need a mild reset, others need total abstinence.
But I think the first step is always awareness. Then asking a simple question; is this in my best interest to continue?
I don't use any form of social media. I have toyed with Twitter to help promote this Substack, although I have resisted as it is another overhead I could do without.
I think the technology is largely neutral. It is our ability to use it as a tool rather than as a form of consumption-based distraction that matters. The people I see at bus stops seem absolutely addicted. And that is the thing to avoid.
The only reason you think technology is neutral is because you're friends with the BUTTFAGGOT TechNiggers being paid by Peter Thiel in Costin Alamariu's Group Chat on Twitter Dot Com.
No. I'm not going to "keep it civil" I'm going to keep screaming about this shit until you block me and then after that I'll screen cap the block and parade it around all of Substack Dot Com proving what a Cucked Out BAPNigger you are.
Fuck your shit, Hopium Peddler. Re-Enchantment Ain't Happening. Your Media Marketeering Is Cooked.
You Know Exactly What I'm Talking About, You Claremont Institute BUTTFAGGOT Palantiri. Your Media Marketeering Is Cooked.
I haven't been on meds since I was a kid. Never going back; All Shrinks Are Kikes.
I'm going to keep screaming about this shit until you block me and then after that I'll screen cap the block and parade it around all of Substack Dot Com proving what a Cucked Out BAPNigger you are.
Nicholas Carr wrote at length about this phenomenon in his book "The Shallows". It was written in 2010, but when I picked it up (okay, disclosure: I got it on my Kindle. I know, but anyway) in 2020 when I read it, the prescience was impressive. Things have accelerated if anything over the last short time with AI-driven content, machine-generated clickbait headlines and so on. I suppose now people have a very wide but very, very shallow understanding of more subjects than ever before.
I've not read it, but there are a few books along those lines. I suspect it is all worse than predicted.
I also reckon more and more are figuring out ways to tune it out, or at least tone it down. I see many walking the streets mind you, zombified. Phones in hand, unaware of their surroundings.
There is another disturbing dimension to our now micro-electronically saturated world including our smart cars and homes
If you could see all of the micro-electronic transmissions occurring in a city of any size you would be horrified! A super-sized (thick) invisible smog!
Arthur Firstenberg thoroughly investigated this topic during his life time. It was summarized in his book The Invisible Rainbow - the last chapter alone is truly scary.
There are now thousands of satellites bombarding almost every square inch of the planet with their micro-radiation. Thousands more are in the pipeline.
I’m so glad I was 40 before I even had a computer in my house and 46 before I had an iPhone. I still love reading books, physical hobbies and many other non online activities. If I had been born more recently than the early sixties I might have been as caught up in all of this internet bullshit as younger people are. Thank God
The addiction to news problem predates the Internet. Dad being effectively absent while hidden behind a newspaper was a TV trope in the 1950s. Many an adult insisted on watching at least an hour of TV news every day. Back in 1975 I knew families who kept the television running all day long. (They didn't give it their full attention the entire day; it was background for much of that time.)
I tried getting the Wall St. Journal back in the 1990s. It was WAY too much information, an incredible time and attention suck. I got some of the same brain fog that Xitter induces today.
I miss the old weekly American news magazines. Newsweek had enough coverage to feel up to date on events of the day. (Newsweek and Time still exist, but in idiot zombie form. The only real weekly news magazine is The Economist, which is way too much information unless you are running a colonial empire.)
Yes I agree. I just think the immediacy afforded by a computer in your pocket probably adds an extra dimension we are not really coping with. Then there is the reduction in quality. It is now faster and shorter, perhaps quicker is the word. Certainly more shallow.
But the scale has been a problem for a long time, I agree. I found my life improved when I made a decision to actively cut out as much news as I could. No papers, TV or internet news at all. Takes a little work, but worth it.
One way I try to convince people is tell them to look at the headlines from a year ago. Almost none of it matters at all.
I'm protected from phone addiction by an utter loathing of the form factor. I learned to touch type in high school and got hooked on large workstation screens in the 1980s. Downgrading to a tiny screen with virtual keys that are smaller than my fingertips is slow torture.
But yes, I can get stuck in doom scrolling mode while at my small tower machine. Fortunately, it doesn't fit in my pocket. Neither do the pair of 27 inch monitors. I can thus easily escape.
Television news provides no addiction as it has been dumbified to an astounding degree.
And yet The Economist is less than half the size it was in the 90’s….as is the WSJ. Short form articles of just a few paragraphs form the bulk of the latter’s online version. The shrinkage of attention and patience is frightening. A recent study, ( I realize there are far too many such studies and their legitimacy like everything else today is questionable), found that 90%/of college English majors could not comprehend the first seven paragraphs of Dickens’ Bleak House. Some commenters attributed this to the author’s wordiness, but then as now a “hook” to draw in the reader was important. Those are not dull or difficult paragraphs. The dull wittedness is brought by the students to the work. If so-called English majors cannot understand a work of popular fiction intended for the masses, many of whom learned to read in Victorian adult education programs, what are they reading?
I wonder if it is an attention thing. Seven long paragraphs. I see how people use their phones. Constant scrolling, a few seconds on each thing then on to the next. Rapid consumption but no stopping to read.
This is disturbing! It seems like Substack is the last refuge of long form articles written for the intelligent.
The smart phone is truly a horrible invention.
And now even computer programmers are dumbing themselves down by letting AI write their code. The Terminators might win yet.
---
One important fix: teach phonics rigorously. It takes longer than other methods for reading the first mini books, but once it clicks the reader can go from Hop on Pop to real books. Secondly, let students quit novels they don't like. The standard literary canon is not necessarily the best literature from each era. It is the literature chosen by the kind of people who become English teachers.
Students need the option of dropping the Shakespeare in favor of Le Morte D'Arthur in order to get their fill of early modern English. Unlike Shakespeare, Mallory is all about the action vs. emoting about the emoting about the emoting about the potential action. Mallory reads like the transcript of a Dungeons and Dragons game, albeit in archaic language and more gangsta.
There is much about present day technology that is truly convenient and enjoyable, but as with most things in that category a little goes a long way and too much is broadly negative. Wasted time, lack of retention of mass consumed information, trading meaningful pursuits for trivial entertainment.
I am just as plugged in as anyone else, but I try to make sure that what comes in through my eyes and ears is nourishing in terms of learning, thinking, enlightening and yes, entertaining. A balanced diet of information in other words (or as one would most likely read those last three words today: IOW). Condensing words into their first letters is becoming ubiquitous. What? No time to read a few words, when often it takes more time to translate some of that shorthand!!
YouTube Shorts, and the like are all time sucks of tiny tidbits of sounds and pictures that disappear into oblivion the second you scroll past. I prefer long-form writing and listening, because the subjects that interest me don't condense easily, but it is increasingly difficult to find any content over 15 minutes in duration. I want a feast, not a snack!
I probably spend a minimum of 8 hours a day reading, mostly on my computer screen, but my eyes are old and it's much easier for me to read that way. But I'm not immune to the plethora of content by which my concentration is disrupted and distracted by clicking away unless I make a commitment to be mindful of the temptations, and finish one thing before moving on to the next point of interest that awaits.
I am much more of a reader than a video watcher myself. I too like longform although the temptations are legion. I tend to abstain as much as I can. Try to remain focused on what I need to consume.
Writing these articles helps too. I think for many addicts their solution is to produce something. Dig the garden, clear out the garage, outline a business idea. Action is the cure.
Alas I see so many lost to the dopamine. It is a worry. Their attention spans must be completely broken.
One must be ever vigilant to avoid the time suck! Yes! My 8 hours of screen time is broken up by frequent walks outside, tending garden, cooking meals, gazing out the window at a beautiful sunrise or sunset, watching cloud formations, taking a nap, lounging on the patio, sun dappled and breezy on a warm summer day or crisp fall afternoon and any nice day in between, writing in my journal or making the umpteenth edit on some story that's been in the works for years that's purely for my own enjoyment.
I'm a little more attracted to the negative click bait but more and more I've learned to just ignore it, no matter which side of the isle is vying for my attention. If I can't learn anything or change anything by reading or listening to it, I give it a pass.
I've read the ones you've posted and been totally intimidated holding mine in comparison to yours. I'm teasing myself with the possibility of publishing one or two on my page, but chicken out before pressing publish🫤
I know how you feel. Hesitation is normal. Everything we publish exposes some personal part of ourselves which can be uncomfortable. But do it anyway. By even writing a short story you are in the top one percent. Publishing even more so. And remember, there may be others like you who are hesitating and would draw strength from your courage.
Publishing does matter. Without it you may find you endlessly tinker rather than finish.
Turns out the real unplugged rebellion is just putting down the phone — and picking up your own thoughts.
Loved this: nostalgia for 1975 isn’t about bell-bottoms, it’s about not being spoon-fed digital doom. If deep focus becomes the new punk, I’m dusting off my library card.
📌 The healthiest screen time might still be between two covers.
⬖ Paging the unplugged at Frequency of Reason: bit.ly/4jTVv69
Just saw, for the first time, a news billboard here in the netherlands this past weekend. Alongside a double lane highway yet! You are supposed to pay attention to traffic, not read news, I’d say. I was shocked. All intrusive and pervasive “messaging”. Thanks for another good read!
Everyone has a portable computer in their pocket! When I was a kid, that was unimaginable. Laptops were huge!
It's not impressive to me, because I've been doing all this stuff since the dialup days.
It's interesting because it's a scarcity issue in a way. Back when these sorts of "always connected devices" were in their infancy, people looked for users for them. It was new and exciting.
Now that everything is connected, the newness has worn off. Now it's standard. So there's no excitement in the general application of the technology. Now you can buy a $50 phone from Walmart that will have resolution so high you can count nose hairs from 50-feet away. There's not much more the hardware can't do.
That's where AI comes in.
There's always this balance between hardware capability and software. Hardware has long since caught up, now it's software's turn again. And AI is the new software.
Will it result in people being dumbed down? Absolutely! To see the results -- just look at calculators. How many kids are taught to memorize their times tables anymore?
Tech is not good for humanity as a whole. Especially when it starts replacing humans -- just because it's cheaper. But we're already there.
It is a test. I know many who are already failing. They use AI to write emails etc. Their core issue is their inability to manage the boredom needed to master skills, like letter writing. Why bother?
But, people still go to gyms and lift weights. Some eat a careful diet. And some manage their online consumption. The masses will succumb, but we don't need to. Reading books alone is enough to begin to reset our minds.
Hey! Maybe I am a fool, having my phone shut off in three layers of aluminum foil with plastic in between, after listening to Lissa Johnson in omniwar symposium?
Hey! Yes. Maybe I am really fucking stupid wanting everyone to unite in a broad rainbow coalition for peace, real democracy, truth in media, and People's Courts, before the next plandemic hits?
I propose a neologism that came to me, right out of nowhere yesterday afternoon. I was trying to make headway into Heidegger's "Der Satz vom Grund" (being fluent in either German or Swedish is almost required to get the full gist of it, I'm afraid - a lot of it hinges on native understanding of the many meanings and depths of the words "Grund" and "Satz" and the combinations, synonyms and antonyms and so on) and from some deep Marianas-trench of the mind a word came bubbling up:
"AItism"
(A-i-t-i-s-m)
Then I see your post, read it, and realises that what you describe is what I was subconsciously pondering when that word emerged.
[Person unable to function without being prompted by social media, news media, and or AI; person who lives online and interacts with and in reality as if they were online. Person handles, experiences and interacts with and in/on social media as if it was real life.]
The above is a bit wide and general, so it needs narrowing down, and also needs examples to differentiate it from normal useage.
I'd suggest a comparison to the autistic practice of "stimming" would be the way to go. Autistics "stim" themselves to regain control, and do this by creating sensory overload which makes their brain reset after a breakdown, alleviating them of stress.
For the aitist, this works in reverse: without their AI-prompt via social media on how to feel, act and think about whatever it is they are presently engaged in/encountering, they go into stress and anxiety and experience severe loss of sense of self. A form of existential crisis if you will.
This is just to get the ideas-ball rolling, of course.
Interesting. A total dereliction of ability to sustain their sense of self solo; they need external reassurance from technology.
I am not sure AI or machine intelligence would be the key focus. It is more a blending of online and offline interaction that is the defining role. But there is something there and it is set to become more common as people adopt wearable tech and ultimately chips.
Liar Liar; Set Yourself On Motherfucking Fire. You know exactly what I'm talking about and you still have all of Costin Alamariu's BUTTFAGGOT Thielite Friends in your Reads List.
You're a BAPTard. I know you're a BAPTard and I'll continue to call you out for being a Fucking BAPTard for the rest of your fucking life until you block me over it and then I'll parade around the screen cap as proof of you being a Cucked Out Fucking BAPTard.
Liar Liar. Set Yourself On Motherfucking Fire. You know what it means, You're In The Group Chats. Your Reads List Proves It, You Claremont Institute BUTTFAGGOT.
That's Retarded. You're Retarded. Stop using that BULLSHIT LINE to hide your fucking associations and Bring Your Knives Out Front, BAPNigger!
Your Reads List Proves You're In The Group Chats! List off the ones you disagree with and prove to me you're not a BAPNigger with a Claremont Institute Sinecure!
I witness first hand people using AI to respond to emails, even personal ones. Others are turning to AI for spiritual and digital love, and I've seen this also.
Staying sane with technology has become my primary challenge. Indeed, I have also faced the dilemma of "being out of the loop".
I have a high powered PC running Linux, I program in C++ and C#, but have no television. I'm currently reading George Eliot from a book printed in the 1800s. Substack is about the only social media I use. I tend now to avoid political dramas. My partner is Gen Z and collects 18th century clocks, old books and is averse to technology.
There are too few us like this but the number, at least, is increasing.
I do see a fork in the road. I don't think this is the same as the introduction of CDs or DVDs. Those were evolutions of existing technology. I see some of the technology heavily influencing how we behave. A CD was not so different from a vinyl record by comparison.
So I do think people like yourself are encouraging others to reassess their relationship with technology. Is this helping me or trapping me? I think that is healthy and overdue for many. The smartphone is handy. I am using one today to measure steps while walking, for instance. But the trick is to ensure you control it and not the other way around.
I think you are lucky to have a partner not into tech.
Simple checks:
Are you using the machine to do something?
Is the machine doing something and is the design and function of the machine limiting your options/ability to make choices and perform actions?
Example:
A car with electronic window-lifts, locks et c.
vs
A car with analog/manual such.
The electronic doo-dads do things for you; you are not doing the thing. If the electronics/software shits itself, you're SOL since there's no manual anything.
The manual/analog stuff, you use to do something. If it breaks, you can see with your eyes what's broken and replace the broken bit. Even if you have to improvise in some cases.
And: the putting in electronic computer-controlled everything by designers and engineers is a conscious one. Someone, or groups of someones, directs everything towards less ability for you the human to do things while using technology. Instead, you are to ask the technology to do things for you.
And then, in the near future, the robot-AI learned to say "No"?
I think electronically assisted devices like electric windows are slightly different from technology that rewires our brain. Doomscrolling or destroying attention spans with a series of six-second videos is a relatively new thing. It does seem to overload the reward centres of the brain.
Mind you, the Greeks worried that reading books would weaken the mind. So perhaps this is all irrelevant.
We, us, the ones who save books are the people Bradbury introduced in 'Fahrenheit 451'.
And yes, the number is increasing. 'The Hobbit' in Hebrew or Kropotkin's biography, it matters not: a book saved is a book saved.
I think books will definitely make it. I am also in favour of as many physical and digital copies as possible to ensure they do survive Woke.
I believe physical copies of books, especially non fiction, are extremely important. Digital means that changes can be made to fit a narrative, and without physical copies, you can't prevent that.
I quite agree. Multiple copies of digital versions help as a backup. These can now be fingerprinted to make them impossible to tamper with. So the technology exists to make digital copies.
But I agree physical copies are absolutely crucial. The more the merrier.
Absolutely.
In fact I'd wager books - meaning older ones, especially fact/how to guides and all forms/sorts of books on history from pre-1990s is the next thing to be declared "right-wing extremism".
If people in earnest and with great gravitas can declare the "OK"-sign, milk, eating real food, appreciating classical architecture and going to the gym as "right-wing extremism", nothing is out of bounds as being labeled Haram.
The decolonization is well underway. Everything from Shakespeare to Tolstoy. All those dead white men need to be purged.
I do think their modern puritanism will backfire.
“Technology is the knack of so arranging the world that we do not experience it.”
- Rollo May
Carpentry, music, gardens...and bellbottoms. I like to rawdog life and get some callouses, keep it real, JC. 😎
This article is spot on except for not mentioning the worst of all: AI ("asshole intelligence"). I'm pure human, grew up with TV but got rid of the sat dish over a decade ago. And I refuse to have a smart phone. Thanks for spilling this all out for folks. Sadly, those who need this most won't see it, but I'm sharing it anyway.
Thank you. Please do share it. I appreciate it.
As for AI. I wanted it to be about tech addiction generally. AI is just the latest tool. It is disruptive but ultimately is just more technology.
I do think more people are rediscovering the analog world mind you. 35mm film is fun to use; real books obviously; even going for walks without a phone in their pocket, the lunatics. I try to treat it all as a test of mettle.
I got rid of my TV long ago. People used to think me insane, but fewer do now. Some even envy me a little as they would love to ditch theirs.
AI is indeed a tool of big tech to feed us junk. All the more reason to tune out. The main stream media feeds us enough misinfo. Nice to know, too, that I’m not alone is seeing what some of this tech has done to people. Enjoy your day.
I think many more are waking up to the dangers of technology.
I ditched all my social media a little over a year ago. I set up this substack account a couple months ago mainly to read. I'll never go back to multiple social media accounts again unless they are marketing accounts for some project or other.
My goal is to get to a place in my life where I can sequester all my computer and internet stuff in one room and switch to a flip phone. Not currently possible, but it is my medium-term goal.
I am with you. I would chuck it all away and go back to 1975 analogland if I could. Alas it is not realistic.
But we can take reasonable steps to minimize its control over us. I appreciate some can dip in and out with ease. Others really struggle with the temptation and distraction of it all. In that sense it is like alcohol or drugs; anything that interferes with our ancient reward systems. Some just need a mild reset, others need total abstinence.
But I think the first step is always awareness. Then asking a simple question; is this in my best interest to continue?
I don't use any form of social media. I have toyed with Twitter to help promote this Substack, although I have resisted as it is another overhead I could do without.
I think the technology is largely neutral. It is our ability to use it as a tool rather than as a form of consumption-based distraction that matters. The people I see at bus stops seem absolutely addicted. And that is the thing to avoid.
The only reason you think technology is neutral is because you're friends with the BUTTFAGGOT TechNiggers being paid by Peter Thiel in Costin Alamariu's Group Chat on Twitter Dot Com.
BAPNigger.
Now now, Will. Lets keep it civil. That's why it is called a civilization after all.
No. I'm not going to "keep it civil" I'm going to keep screaming about this shit until you block me and then after that I'll screen cap the block and parade it around all of Substack Dot Com proving what a Cucked Out BAPNigger you are.
Fuck your shit, Hopium Peddler. Re-Enchantment Ain't Happening. Your Media Marketeering Is Cooked.
I have no idea what you are on about. Are you off your meds again?
You Know Exactly What I'm Talking About, You Claremont Institute BUTTFAGGOT Palantiri. Your Media Marketeering Is Cooked.
I haven't been on meds since I was a kid. Never going back; All Shrinks Are Kikes.
I'm going to keep screaming about this shit until you block me and then after that I'll screen cap the block and parade it around all of Substack Dot Com proving what a Cucked Out BAPNigger you are.
Nicholas Carr wrote at length about this phenomenon in his book "The Shallows". It was written in 2010, but when I picked it up (okay, disclosure: I got it on my Kindle. I know, but anyway) in 2020 when I read it, the prescience was impressive. Things have accelerated if anything over the last short time with AI-driven content, machine-generated clickbait headlines and so on. I suppose now people have a very wide but very, very shallow understanding of more subjects than ever before.
I've not read it, but there are a few books along those lines. I suspect it is all worse than predicted.
I also reckon more and more are figuring out ways to tune it out, or at least tone it down. I see many walking the streets mind you, zombified. Phones in hand, unaware of their surroundings.
There is another disturbing dimension to our now micro-electronically saturated world including our smart cars and homes
If you could see all of the micro-electronic transmissions occurring in a city of any size you would be horrified! A super-sized (thick) invisible smog!
Arthur Firstenberg thoroughly investigated this topic during his life time. It was summarized in his book The Invisible Rainbow - the last chapter alone is truly scary.
http://cellphonetaskforce.org/
http://arthurfirstenberg.substack.com/p/light
There are now thousands of satellites bombarding almost every square inch of the planet with their micro-radiation. Thousands more are in the pipeline.
It is concerning this invisible assault. It must be having some effect. Society seems to be unravelling so it is maybe a factor.
I’m so glad I was 40 before I even had a computer in my house and 46 before I had an iPhone. I still love reading books, physical hobbies and many other non online activities. If I had been born more recently than the early sixties I might have been as caught up in all of this internet bullshit as younger people are. Thank God
I think it is the current batch of teenagers who will be destroyed by it. They don't know anything else.
The addiction to news problem predates the Internet. Dad being effectively absent while hidden behind a newspaper was a TV trope in the 1950s. Many an adult insisted on watching at least an hour of TV news every day. Back in 1975 I knew families who kept the television running all day long. (They didn't give it their full attention the entire day; it was background for much of that time.)
I tried getting the Wall St. Journal back in the 1990s. It was WAY too much information, an incredible time and attention suck. I got some of the same brain fog that Xitter induces today.
I miss the old weekly American news magazines. Newsweek had enough coverage to feel up to date on events of the day. (Newsweek and Time still exist, but in idiot zombie form. The only real weekly news magazine is The Economist, which is way too much information unless you are running a colonial empire.)
Yes I agree. I just think the immediacy afforded by a computer in your pocket probably adds an extra dimension we are not really coping with. Then there is the reduction in quality. It is now faster and shorter, perhaps quicker is the word. Certainly more shallow.
But the scale has been a problem for a long time, I agree. I found my life improved when I made a decision to actively cut out as much news as I could. No papers, TV or internet news at all. Takes a little work, but worth it.
One way I try to convince people is tell them to look at the headlines from a year ago. Almost none of it matters at all.
I'm protected from phone addiction by an utter loathing of the form factor. I learned to touch type in high school and got hooked on large workstation screens in the 1980s. Downgrading to a tiny screen with virtual keys that are smaller than my fingertips is slow torture.
But yes, I can get stuck in doom scrolling mode while at my small tower machine. Fortunately, it doesn't fit in my pocket. Neither do the pair of 27 inch monitors. I can thus easily escape.
Television news provides no addiction as it has been dumbified to an astounding degree.
I agree about TV. It no longer has the power it once did. Too diluted by their narratives. Plus the kids are all on TikTok anyway.
And yet The Economist is less than half the size it was in the 90’s….as is the WSJ. Short form articles of just a few paragraphs form the bulk of the latter’s online version. The shrinkage of attention and patience is frightening. A recent study, ( I realize there are far too many such studies and their legitimacy like everything else today is questionable), found that 90%/of college English majors could not comprehend the first seven paragraphs of Dickens’ Bleak House. Some commenters attributed this to the author’s wordiness, but then as now a “hook” to draw in the reader was important. Those are not dull or difficult paragraphs. The dull wittedness is brought by the students to the work. If so-called English majors cannot understand a work of popular fiction intended for the masses, many of whom learned to read in Victorian adult education programs, what are they reading?
I wonder if it is an attention thing. Seven long paragraphs. I see how people use their phones. Constant scrolling, a few seconds on each thing then on to the next. Rapid consumption but no stopping to read.
This is disturbing! It seems like Substack is the last refuge of long form articles written for the intelligent.
The smart phone is truly a horrible invention.
And now even computer programmers are dumbing themselves down by letting AI write their code. The Terminators might win yet.
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One important fix: teach phonics rigorously. It takes longer than other methods for reading the first mini books, but once it clicks the reader can go from Hop on Pop to real books. Secondly, let students quit novels they don't like. The standard literary canon is not necessarily the best literature from each era. It is the literature chosen by the kind of people who become English teachers.
Students need the option of dropping the Shakespeare in favor of Le Morte D'Arthur in order to get their fill of early modern English. Unlike Shakespeare, Mallory is all about the action vs. emoting about the emoting about the emoting about the potential action. Mallory reads like the transcript of a Dungeons and Dragons game, albeit in archaic language and more gangsta.
There is much about present day technology that is truly convenient and enjoyable, but as with most things in that category a little goes a long way and too much is broadly negative. Wasted time, lack of retention of mass consumed information, trading meaningful pursuits for trivial entertainment.
I am just as plugged in as anyone else, but I try to make sure that what comes in through my eyes and ears is nourishing in terms of learning, thinking, enlightening and yes, entertaining. A balanced diet of information in other words (or as one would most likely read those last three words today: IOW). Condensing words into their first letters is becoming ubiquitous. What? No time to read a few words, when often it takes more time to translate some of that shorthand!!
YouTube Shorts, and the like are all time sucks of tiny tidbits of sounds and pictures that disappear into oblivion the second you scroll past. I prefer long-form writing and listening, because the subjects that interest me don't condense easily, but it is increasingly difficult to find any content over 15 minutes in duration. I want a feast, not a snack!
I probably spend a minimum of 8 hours a day reading, mostly on my computer screen, but my eyes are old and it's much easier for me to read that way. But I'm not immune to the plethora of content by which my concentration is disrupted and distracted by clicking away unless I make a commitment to be mindful of the temptations, and finish one thing before moving on to the next point of interest that awaits.
I am much more of a reader than a video watcher myself. I too like longform although the temptations are legion. I tend to abstain as much as I can. Try to remain focused on what I need to consume.
Writing these articles helps too. I think for many addicts their solution is to produce something. Dig the garden, clear out the garage, outline a business idea. Action is the cure.
Alas I see so many lost to the dopamine. It is a worry. Their attention spans must be completely broken.
One must be ever vigilant to avoid the time suck! Yes! My 8 hours of screen time is broken up by frequent walks outside, tending garden, cooking meals, gazing out the window at a beautiful sunrise or sunset, watching cloud formations, taking a nap, lounging on the patio, sun dappled and breezy on a warm summer day or crisp fall afternoon and any nice day in between, writing in my journal or making the umpteenth edit on some story that's been in the works for years that's purely for my own enjoyment.
I'm a little more attracted to the negative click bait but more and more I've learned to just ignore it, no matter which side of the isle is vying for my attention. If I can't learn anything or change anything by reading or listening to it, I give it a pass.
Are you going to publish any of your stories? Substack is not ideal, but it is a start. I have published a few myself.
I've read the ones you've posted and been totally intimidated holding mine in comparison to yours. I'm teasing myself with the possibility of publishing one or two on my page, but chicken out before pressing publish🫤
You are very kind.
I know how you feel. Hesitation is normal. Everything we publish exposes some personal part of ourselves which can be uncomfortable. But do it anyway. By even writing a short story you are in the top one percent. Publishing even more so. And remember, there may be others like you who are hesitating and would draw strength from your courage.
Publishing does matter. Without it you may find you endlessly tinker rather than finish.
I hope you do.
Thank you for your words of encouragement. When I'm on the verge of preventing myself from pressing "continue" I'll take heed and just do it.
Turns out the real unplugged rebellion is just putting down the phone — and picking up your own thoughts.
Loved this: nostalgia for 1975 isn’t about bell-bottoms, it’s about not being spoon-fed digital doom. If deep focus becomes the new punk, I’m dusting off my library card.
📌 The healthiest screen time might still be between two covers.
⬖ Paging the unplugged at Frequency of Reason: bit.ly/4jTVv69
I think more and more may decide disciplined phone use may not work. Abstinence always does, however.
These tools are useful. As long as they don't take over your attention.
Just saw, for the first time, a news billboard here in the netherlands this past weekend. Alongside a double lane highway yet! You are supposed to pay attention to traffic, not read news, I’d say. I was shocked. All intrusive and pervasive “messaging”. Thanks for another good read!
It is intrusive. We should ban it. If you want to look at headlines on your phone, go ahead. But I object to them being on the street.
I see it as a sign of terminal decline for the traditional media. They never used to do this. Now they need to as people tune out.
And thank you for reading.
What do I see? Everyone is a total nerd now.
Everyone has a portable computer in their pocket! When I was a kid, that was unimaginable. Laptops were huge!
It's not impressive to me, because I've been doing all this stuff since the dialup days.
It's interesting because it's a scarcity issue in a way. Back when these sorts of "always connected devices" were in their infancy, people looked for users for them. It was new and exciting.
Now that everything is connected, the newness has worn off. Now it's standard. So there's no excitement in the general application of the technology. Now you can buy a $50 phone from Walmart that will have resolution so high you can count nose hairs from 50-feet away. There's not much more the hardware can't do.
That's where AI comes in.
There's always this balance between hardware capability and software. Hardware has long since caught up, now it's software's turn again. And AI is the new software.
Will it result in people being dumbed down? Absolutely! To see the results -- just look at calculators. How many kids are taught to memorize their times tables anymore?
Tech is not good for humanity as a whole. Especially when it starts replacing humans -- just because it's cheaper. But we're already there.
God help us.
https://ogre.substack.com/p/is-ai-artificial-intelligence-coming
It is a test. I know many who are already failing. They use AI to write emails etc. Their core issue is their inability to manage the boredom needed to master skills, like letter writing. Why bother?
But, people still go to gyms and lift weights. Some eat a careful diet. And some manage their online consumption. The masses will succumb, but we don't need to. Reading books alone is enough to begin to reset our minds.
Hey! Maybe I am a fool, having my phone shut off in three layers of aluminum foil with plastic in between, after listening to Lissa Johnson in omniwar symposium?
Yes. Maybe I am a wacko trying to make people cooperate broadly against the military operation in civilian disguise? https://dhughes.substack.com/p/lissa-johnson-transhumanism-and-covid
Hey! Yes. Maybe I am really fucking stupid wanting everyone to unite in a broad rainbow coalition for peace, real democracy, truth in media, and People's Courts, before the next plandemic hits?
https://rainbowcoalition.substack.com/p/final-warning-dr-mike-yeadon-about
Hey! Maybe I should just write postcards? Or just say no? https://janescharf.substack.com/p/why-just-say-no-is-not-enough-and
Just tell me why I am stupid!
I would love that!
Is resistance in solidarity futile?
I propose a neologism that came to me, right out of nowhere yesterday afternoon. I was trying to make headway into Heidegger's "Der Satz vom Grund" (being fluent in either German or Swedish is almost required to get the full gist of it, I'm afraid - a lot of it hinges on native understanding of the many meanings and depths of the words "Grund" and "Satz" and the combinations, synonyms and antonyms and so on) and from some deep Marianas-trench of the mind a word came bubbling up:
"AItism"
(A-i-t-i-s-m)
Then I see your post, read it, and realises that what you describe is what I was subconsciously pondering when that word emerged.
What say you, does the term fit the condition?
You'll need to tell me your definition of aitism first.
Here's a suggestion for how to start defining it:
[Person unable to function without being prompted by social media, news media, and or AI; person who lives online and interacts with and in reality as if they were online. Person handles, experiences and interacts with and in/on social media as if it was real life.]
The above is a bit wide and general, so it needs narrowing down, and also needs examples to differentiate it from normal useage.
I'd suggest a comparison to the autistic practice of "stimming" would be the way to go. Autistics "stim" themselves to regain control, and do this by creating sensory overload which makes their brain reset after a breakdown, alleviating them of stress.
For the aitist, this works in reverse: without their AI-prompt via social media on how to feel, act and think about whatever it is they are presently engaged in/encountering, they go into stress and anxiety and experience severe loss of sense of self. A form of existential crisis if you will.
This is just to get the ideas-ball rolling, of course.
Interesting. A total dereliction of ability to sustain their sense of self solo; they need external reassurance from technology.
I am not sure AI or machine intelligence would be the key focus. It is more a blending of online and offline interaction that is the defining role. But there is something there and it is set to become more common as people adopt wearable tech and ultimately chips.
Lol, you’re still on that retarded Prudentialist/BAPTarded Re-Enchantment thing? LMAO EVEN!
Will! You are still with us! I was beginning to think the psychiatrists had tracked you down to whatever hole you are hiding in.
As ever, I have no idea what you are blathering about. But glad to see you are alive and kicking.
Liar Liar; Set Yourself On Motherfucking Fire. You know exactly what I'm talking about and you still have all of Costin Alamariu's BUTTFAGGOT Thielite Friends in your Reads List.
You're a BAPTard. I know you're a BAPTard and I'll continue to call you out for being a Fucking BAPTard for the rest of your fucking life until you block me over it and then I'll parade around the screen cap as proof of you being a Cucked Out Fucking BAPTard.
I am still not clear what a BAPtard is. Bronze Age Pervert?
Liar Liar. Set Yourself On Motherfucking Fire. You know what it means, You're In The Group Chats. Your Reads List Proves It, You Claremont Institute BUTTFAGGOT.
I subscribe to many things. Including people I disagree with. We should all do this. No one knows everything after all.
That's Retarded. You're Retarded. Stop using that BULLSHIT LINE to hide your fucking associations and Bring Your Knives Out Front, BAPNigger!
Your Reads List Proves You're In The Group Chats! List off the ones you disagree with and prove to me you're not a BAPNigger with a Claremont Institute Sinecure!