
On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction - prostoalex
https://lareviewofbooks.org/review/can-jazz-musicians-and-short-order-cooks-make-you-less-narcissistic
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FreedomToCreate
If you read articles from previous decades about the previous decades before
them, I think you will find yourself a Crawford after Crawford. Woody Allen in
Midnight in Paris nailed this. Statements like "People used to talk to each
other", "People used to meet up and enjoy company", "People used to know real
skills and critical thinking", are all false. This generation might stare and
screens all day, but communication is easier than ever and people are
communicating. People may not know how to be motorcycle mechanics, but they
know how to develop programs, build electric drives etc... I strongly believe
we have a capable and driven society, and the people are not "drunk on there
screens".

~~~
agumonkey
I'd love to believe this, and I agree things weren't that better in the past
(some form of nostalgic bias)[1], but when I hear people from the 60s, 70s
talk, they have finer way to express themselves in more straightforward style.
Especially politics (at least in my country), it's disarmingly sad to hear
debates of that era, people seemed like far subtler and sophisticated compared
to those in place now (they can't even hold a simple argument without
resorting to low fallacious tactics).

I'm fairly convinced that when society is too comfortable (while being messier
at the same time) then you see diminishing returns in people's existence.

[1] how society repeats itself, new tech bad for work, old good ways are
dying; these are recurrent generational waves.

~~~
Chris2048
Arguably, people today have more sophisticated politics. Resorting to
fallacious tactics isn't a failing if it works. Maybe the problem is a moral
one?

~~~
agumonkey
That's what I don't want to see. I care more about how it's done than how it
'succeed'. I'm realist, politics are a mess, and will never be all white.

I don't think the people who leverage these 'tricks' today do this because of
superior intellectual skills or understanding. They just use it for blind
results.

