Dustin's problem is similar in some respects to an addiction (which he alludes to), so perhaps the solution is treating it as such; forcing moderation on himself, or even complete detachment (the cold turkey approach). Of course, being involved in technology means Dustin is essentially an alcoholic working at a brewery, so disengagement may be especially difficult. But to throw up your hands and claim there's no way out strikes me as a bit defeatist. If you feel a technology is negatively impacting your thought patterns, perhaps you could find a way to use that technology less.
>*"Dustin's problem is similar in some respects to an addiction (which he alludes to), so perhaps the solution is treating it as such;"
The issue I see with this is that it takes the way we use technology for granted. It's just like saying "that stuff is here to stay, learn to deal with it".
Which it is true in practice, but doesn't have to be true necessarily.
We could have opted as a society to not tolerate those kind of addictive (and mind-crushing) applications of technology, instead of celebrating them.
(The same way we have done with smoking, not just the banning in public places, but the whole attitude towards it).
Placing the emphasis on society, I believe, dilutes the great importance of the decisions of the individual. In life you should take responsibility for your own actions first. The question is more "Is twitter a social problem?" or "Is my twitter use a problem?".
>Placing the emphasis on society, I believe, dilutes the great importance of the decisions of the individual. In life you should take responsibility for your own actions first.
I guess that's also a difference between different country's philosophies.
For me, taking "responsibility for your own actions" is a bad advice when there's stuff that needs to change at the societal level. We wouldn't say that about an issue we deem important, like racism.
We understand there that it's not just what some person believes or not, but also certain general norms, distractions, laws etc that effect this, and we strive to change those.
What I say is that technological change should be seen with the same critical eyes, not just as a inevitable constant each one should put up with or shut up, but as in "do we, as a society want to progress in this or that way? What world would we rather live in?".
There's something very Chinese about banning social media with the ostensible goal of encouraging people to focus on their work.
(Also, where do you stop with your "addictive and mind crushing" barrier? Other forums, like HN? Video games? Fiction books? Theatre? "Thought-negating" music?)
I like the "where does it stop" part, but i withhold my upvote because of the chinese reference. Because I feel that's a bit racist (despite the great firewall of china). Besides, don't they have their own Facebook, google equivalents? So i think the idea isn't to stop people from using such services but to stop them from using such AMERICAN services (after the PRISM incident, it looks like they were the smart ones after all)
While I agree that naive technological utopianism is worrisome and we need to be discussing the social/psychological impact of our inventions, I can't say I would draw an equivalence between Twitter and something like cigarettes... if used in moderation, I think services like Twitter can be very useful to some people. We do need to weigh the costs vs. the benefits, but just as blind acceptance is bad, so is blind rejection... having this discussion is a good start though.
Dealing with addictions has little to do with leaving them, and everything to do with finding something better. Many addicts are addicts cause they are lacking something in life.
There was a time I played video games 12 or more hours a day for months. Now, I spend the same time reading papers and programming and helping people learn programming and hanging out with friends and so on. Trying to stop never worked; filling my life with something more meaningful made it easy.
Dustin's problem is similar in some respects to an addiction (which he alludes to), so perhaps the solution is treating it as such; forcing moderation on himself, or even complete detachment (the cold turkey approach). Of course, being involved in technology means Dustin is essentially an alcoholic working at a brewery, so disengagement may be especially difficult. But to throw up your hands and claim there's no way out strikes me as a bit defeatist. If you feel a technology is negatively impacting your thought patterns, perhaps you could find a way to use that technology less.