
Boy, Disconnected - cgoodmac
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/29/style/the-clout.html
======
anon1m0us
> Mostly he sold ads on his Instagram to other teenagers looking to promote
> their own pages, apps or online storefronts.

This is so MLM-esque. You can get big because I got big and if you follow me
and do what I do, you'll get big like me too.

Meanwhile, exactly no value is being created. We need value creation not ...
piggy backing? What is it? You might learn how to persuade people or know what
people will click on or generate ad revenue, but what are _you_ creating? What
are you doing that makes the world a better place?

What practical skills are you improving or sharing or developing that will
move the world forward?

The value appears to be merely convincing someone that something without value
has actual value.

He wanted the clout to convince people of something that people shouldn't be
convinced of. Don't go to college and get an education, because you can make
10k a month regurgitating someone else's meme photos.

Frankly, I don't understand it. I don't think it's good. Yes, in the article,
there was mention of someone who appreciated what he was doing because it made
them feel better, but so would developing a skill and being a productive
member of society.

I can't see how the instagramification of the world is a good thing.

We were at Thanksgiving dinner and my friend's 8 year old was _glued_ to his
iPhone. He had almost zero interaction with anyone except to say, "I turned it
down!" after he was finally called out at the dinner table for a super loud
music video that started playing and the old folks around the table could
recognize the song. It was ironic because finally those without a phone could
connect to him by the sounds that had the prior part of the evening been
distracting noise. We couldn't talk to each other because we were so
aggravated by the phone.

You can't even get away from the internet when you aren't on a computer
anymore. It's infiltrated every aspect of life. People don't share their lives
in person anymore. If you ask how someone is doing, they say, "Didn't you read
my feed?"

No. I didn't read your feed. I want to connect with you in real life. I want
to create something with you if it's only a conversation.

I don't know what to do or where to go to change, but I fear the opportunities
to rectify this bad direction are diminishing.

~~~
burlesona
I recently read and enjoyed Cal Newport’s “Digital Minimalism.”

After reading it I locked Safari and Mail off my phone — those are the two
that distract me constantly. I also deleted my Facebook account and removed
the Twitter app from my phone.

I haven’t missed any of that, it’s been really liberating actually.

The next step, which was a bit harder, is I starter politely asking the people
around me to put their phones away when we’re together. At work I ask my
coworkers to close their laptops in meetings.

It’s kind of weird. Nobody has ever said no, and while one or two have found
it a funny request, it has consistently led to much nicer meetings and social
time. Some people have even thanked me for this.

Honestly I think it’s that simple.

As for the kid in your story, I don’t know. I have young kids and I don’t plan
to let them have phones, and I don’t really let them have a lot of screen
time. It’s a bit hard for me as I was that kid glued to the green and black
computer screen learning by hacking... so instinctively I want them to have
that same experience, but I’ve come to realize it just isn’t the same at all.

One day, when they’re a little bigger, I’m hoping I can interest them in
building an 8 bit computer together, programming Pong on it, things like that.
I don’t know if that’ll work, but I hope so.

I’ve kind of resigned myself that if I can’t get them interested in simpler /
retro / hacker tech, that I’d rather they not use tech much at all than be
digital zombies. :/

~~~
randomsearch
Is it acceptable to ask people to put away their phones? Anyone have ideas on
how to do this diplomatically?

~~~
burlesona
It seems to be acceptable when I do it. I just say something like, “Hey would
you mind if we all put our phones away for the afternoon so we won’t be
distracted by them?” Or going into a meeting I’ll say “hey can we all keep our
laptops closed to avoid distraction, please?”

Nobody has ever gotten upset, or said no for that matter.

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foobar_
Hacker news is a social network too. I think it's unfair to demonize young
people's memes, it's just different. I've learnt a lot from young people's
take on things than some old bitter oldfag.

------
8bitsrule
tldr: 15yo boy has a FB account with 1.2M followers, which he fills with 100
posts a day. He makes $10k/month. Instagram _shut down the account without
warning or reasoning_.

\----

Reported months ago in this article in Atlantic:

[https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/08/insta...](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/08/instagram-
hiring-meme-liaison/595552/)

It notes that "More meme accounts than ever are monetizing, and memes have
become the default way many young people consume news information on the
platform" ... and notes that: “Curation is a kind of creation. Within the
right bounds, there can be a lot of value in finding gems and sharing them...”

------
dang
We changed the linkbait title to what seems to be the most representative
sentence from the article.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

(Edit: the sentence was "What Rowan wanted was clout". Since changed.)

~~~
GuiA
FWIW there’s a footnote at the end of the article mentioning the print title
of the article: “Boy, Disconnected”.

~~~
dang
Good catch! let's go with that.

------
cmdshiftf4
And not one mention of the ethics of the unattributed monetization of content
other people spend their time and energy creating, likely for and without any
payoff.

Then taking whatever money was coming from that and utilizing the schemes
/biz/ discovers (bot purchases for high demand goods, drop shipping).

Zero value created, ethics trampled and yet his depression is over his lack of
importance in the lives of transient internet celebrities.

One to watch, for sure.

~~~
dang
Please do better than dyspeptic rants and personal attacks in comments here.
As the site guidelines explain, we want curious conversation.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

