I’m curious what the generational divide is for this. I’m 57, love tech and enjoy the positive side of the internet in limited doses. But I find most social media boring.
There is incredible and AMAZING art, accidental moments, serious discussion and fascinating analysis of the world to be found online. But without grounding myself in genuine experience in the stinky, cruel real world of human interaction, nature, and emotions it’s hollow. It only has meaning with this grounding reality.
Infinite scroll has never captured my attention beyond a few seconds. I can’t determine if I’m an anomaly? Normal for my age group?
I’m distressed about how much time my 24 year-old daughter spends on instagram. She lives at home, works as a dance instructor, and spends most of her time staring at her phone screen.
As a child I loved television. The six million dollar man was a highlight of the week (unless a spaghetti western was on). But it quickly became stultifying garbage when I spent more than a couple hours on the screen.
Am I just not normal? I love the grittiness and dangerous unpredictability of the real world. Yet love movies. I’m not sure what to think
> But without grounding myself in genuine experience in the stinky, cruel real world of human interaction, nature, and emotions it’s hollow.
The ability for younger people to actually experience life is fading. Having to work multiple jobs to keep a roof over your head, massive inflation, burnout from everything, covid spikes recently, etc, etc, etc, etc.
Instagram/other social media is free and doesn't require any commitment or planning that real life experiences often require.
I wish, but no. My biggest take away from watching economies and governments get borked by people who don't know what they're doing is that anything I could suggest will probably make matters worse. I'm a software developer, not a specialist in societies.
And in many cases, those votes don’t have a direct impact one way or the other on those broken systems.
In the US, it’s pretty clear now that both parties will keep the private health insurance racket intact (and tied to an employer), education costs will increase and student debt won’t be forgiven, retirement age will increase and social security will remain underfunded, climate change will at most be paid only lip service, military+police funding will increase over any meaningful social programs, the minimum wage will not keep up with cost of living, we will continue to incarcerate rather than rehabilitate, national debt will continue to increase even though none of the above is being meaningfully addressed…
Yes, I’m painting with a very broad brush, but you can probably see why a very large contingent of younger people would be discontent with the state of the world — even if you personally believe these aren’t the government’s issues to fix (or even if you think they’re not issues at all).
Sure, we have two different parties to choose from (once in a blue moon, sometimes a viable third). There’s still a large contingent of 18+ millennials today, even among those who do vote, who are asking: what are we even voting for?
And in many cases, there wasn't a choice but to vote for it.
If you are struggling because your 40 hour workweek won't let you rent apartment and you live in the US, who are you going to vote for to fix it? Probably no one, since you realistically only have a bianary choice and neither side seems to have the will to fix this. (Both major parties in the US have had majorities, yet haven't helped folks. This has been a growing issue for years). Sure, you can run for office, but it'll take years before you are in a position to hopefully help - and even that is going to depend on you having other progressive folks in office to vote with you. Otherwise, you are simply "raising awareness", which does little to help folks pay for their food.
I think it's a fallacy to presume this is generational. Thirty years ago, the previous generation of grumpy old farts had basically the same class of remarks to make about us, and our preferences, since a great many of one's peers were practically glued to that TV screen. Social media is designed to weaponise our dopamine/reward pathways; if you're a holdout against that, fine, but so are a ton of twentysomethings. My assessment is that responses to attention capture stimuli are individual, not generational, and the observable variations have more to do with technological change, than cultural or anthropological change.
More generally, making value judgements on the basis of media consumption is something to let go of, in my experience.
That’s odd, because your own reply explains why this is different (the weaponisation / manipulation). The technology is qualitatively different or “generational.” Growing up with it has given this generation a different experience and different behaviours.
I never said it was different. Quite the opposite. I said that the behaviour is the same. The technology it attaches to is different, that’s all. Making a dispositional inference at all is the error.
Or more bluntly, every generation complains about the next one, but most old farts don’t realise they’ve sleepwalked into the cliché.
I can recall pretty much every episode of the first 10 seasons of the Simpsons in ridiculous detail because I watched hours of TV after school in the 90s, and my parents lamented that I didn't go outside enough. This isn't new.
Lizards brain conditioned to infinite scroll crave it more. If you grew up without it and have avoided training that part of the mind, then it's easier to avoid getting hooked.
Humans seem to forget that we are always in the process of making ourselves. By choosing how we spend our time and effort today we are choosing the kinds of things we find more rewarding tomorrow.
I very much worry about people who spend all their time tuned to social media, which seems to have become an arms race to figure out how to become the most addictive form. TikTok is currently winning - somehow sucking hours and hours of people's lives away, be constantly fed a steady stream of just the right kinds of videos to make the lizard brain happy.
It's cruel really. To take our human desire to connect and socialize and monetize it in such a shallow and empty way.
TikTok was so instantly compelling that I was scared away from further interaction with it, but Twitter is my weakness that I sometimes feel like I've conquered, but as soon as I allow myself back in to check my DMs...
A scary possibility is that it has to do with how much of the alternative you've experienced in your life, i.e. infinite scroll grabs you less if you've experienced the joy of a hobby, a good book, being outside a lot, etc. - things that take more effort but that can give deeper satisfaction. If this is true, then the more damaging it is to encounter infinite scroll at a younger age.
Similar to me. I’m 26, but only got on the social train in 2015 or so. I scroll for a few minutes, but I’m just seeking for something interesting to learn about. To distract me, a video or article need to trigger that thirst of knowledge. And it’s not something you find on most social platforms - which is why I check HN more than anything else these days.
That is me as well in 40s. Infinite scroll doesn't capture me. So I dont understand how people could mindlessly scroll through instagram. My brain is constantly looking for new signals, not noise. And signals are very very rare. Especially once you know enough about a subject, it seems the only thing left are discussions in professional settings or you dig yourself into books.
I think most people dont scroll through social media to seek knowledge at all. They do it for leisure. Which is really switching much of their brain off, and that is normal. Unfortunately my brain is constantly thinking about many things. How? Why?
And as far as my life has gone, I am really abnormal.
I wonder if growing up with it changes things? I've been more or less addicted to the screen since I was in elementary school. It started with web forums, then other social media. I was concerned about it then and now. I distinctly remember abstaining from screens for a week when I was 11 to see what it was like.
In many ways social media is a reality these days. It's the main way you interact with your peers, form romantic relationships and so on.
I’m mid thirties and have no social media, but I’m still hooked on the internet (HN and reddit, mostly), so friends online isn’t necessarily the difference.
i don't scroll but i do find my self refreshing to see if anything is new a lot. like being bored and checking the fridge over and over. i seem to have lots of 30min breaks here or there that i fill up with bs time wasters
I found myself doing that a lot (especially with being at home now), but recently, I've started using that "dead" time to play the guitar like practice a scale or something straightforward. That allows me to feel less guilty for getting bored while still getting a bit better at a skill that I value.
If you were looking for a generational segmentation you would have to compare different generational cohorts at similar ages (meaning a long-term study) to have any hope of controlling for people's having different levels of maturity, discipline, social needs, and for lack of a better term, being-fed-up-with-things-that-are-bullshit. I suspect it's not generational per se, but heavily age-dependent. If you no longer crave the Twinkies or McDonald's meals you did as a kid, you kind of know what I'm talking about.
I'm (almost) 24 and I can relate so much with your feelings. Except that I don't like movies. Or more exactly, I am not super down to watch movies alone. It has to be in a social setup. Most of my friends (mostly girls though) are addicted to their Instagram feed. It's a bit the norm, but there are some outliers. Maybe it's a generational thing, maybe not. But I guess in your days there was something to replace social media (TV maybe?).
I’m only 36, but it’s the same for me with infinite scrolling (not for TV, I love TV shows and hate movies). I rarely even scroll far enough for a load to trigger.
But then I also am still using Facebook as a place to connect with people I know, which the vast majority, with prodding by FB, has abandoned, it seems.
edit: I should also mention that I rarely use my phone for anything.
There is incredible and AMAZING art, accidental moments, serious discussion and fascinating analysis of the world to be found online. But without grounding myself in genuine experience in the stinky, cruel real world of human interaction, nature, and emotions it’s hollow. It only has meaning with this grounding reality.
Infinite scroll has never captured my attention beyond a few seconds. I can’t determine if I’m an anomaly? Normal for my age group?
I’m distressed about how much time my 24 year-old daughter spends on instagram. She lives at home, works as a dance instructor, and spends most of her time staring at her phone screen.
As a child I loved television. The six million dollar man was a highlight of the week (unless a spaghetti western was on). But it quickly became stultifying garbage when I spent more than a couple hours on the screen.
Am I just not normal? I love the grittiness and dangerous unpredictability of the real world. Yet love movies. I’m not sure what to think