> The wall we all hit at some point during the pandemic was digital. It was a wall of video meetings, Slack threads, text chains, and emails. A wall built from Netflix and Disney+, Facebook and TikTok, Instagram, and the endless onslaught of urgent tweets. It was the wall in our hands, on our desks, and beside our pillows, a wall that we turned to for salvation but kept smacking into and then wondering why on earth our bodies were so damn beat at the end of each day. The wall was the full unleashed reality of the digital future as it completely consumed our lives.
And have no sense of it at all. "We all" did not hit that wall. It makes me glad I'm not on social media and work in an industry that allows me to switch off when I exit the building. My fondest memory of the pandemic was teaching my son to ride his bike, there was no traffic so it was safe to do it in the street.
I worked remotely before the pandemic. My world was already Zoom meetings and Slack threads and text chains. The digital world made it so I could attend friends' birthday parties, or game nights, and I was suddenly on equal footing at work with regards to participation, but where I could still be at home with my family and raising my puppy. The future is probably more hybrid than it is now, but it's not what the article claims, either, which was light at best.
I think you missed the point, respectfully. Halfway through the article it states about that you said - nobody remembers the digital, but they remember the “analog” moments such as you teaching your son to bike.
I think you missed the point, respectfully. The OP doesnt remember the digital, because it didnt happen for him. I suppose he was living digitally minimal life before and throught the pandemic
I skimmed the article trying to find the conclusion/main point. And I think it's not about getting back to the office. Actually, the word "office" doesn't even occur in it - the article is about the difference between the actual experience and its digital representation, praising the former. So, fortunately, it's not one of these employer propaganda articles where they find creative ways to get their cattle back to the box.
ChatGPT summary (by copy-pasting main text of article): The pandemic has caused many people to turn away from digital distractions and seek solace in things they can touch, feel and sense with their whole bodies. This has led to a surge in outdoor activities, as people crave the feeling of being outside and disconnected from screens. Some experts believe that the pandemic will leave a lasting legacy, as people remember the joy of being outdoors and the bonding experiences they had with their families. This could lead to a permanent shift away from the digital world and towards a more analog existence.
I think many of the HN responses have proven the articles point having read it digitally. In a digital world people are consuming so much information they don’t have the time to properly think about the meaning behind an article—and they get it wrong, perpetuating false ideas in the blink of an eye.
Perhaps if they sat at the table, coffee in hand, and read a well-thought-out article in a newspaper or journal without digital noise they would have actually spent the time to understand what they’re reading.
You make a good point but im not sure a physical newspaper/journal would be the best example of a non-digital endeavor. I don’t intend to nitpick here but maybe one of the biggest “tradeoffs” of the digital space is access to information; when it rains it pours hey?
In my opinion access to diverse news and professional/academic journals is one of the best parts of the internet.
Maybe reading a newspaper at the table with coffee with family/friends would be appropriate though - one perk of many being sunday crosswords.
You’re definitely right about having a wealth of accessible information! The Internet was of course the next innovation since the Gutenberg press paved the way for knowledge transfer.
But The Internet is plagued with the disease of infinite moving adverts, and when we log in with the intent of performing some task, it is simply too easy to get distracted.
Not only is there supplemental content-oriented distractions—but form factor dictates the speed with which we read. Newspapers are indeed perhaps a bad example because the short columns of prose encourages rapid reading and potentially encourages misinterpretation. On a mobile phone with the delight of accessible, responsive websites, the shrunken column is now how we read articles of all shapes and sizes. Shapes that would traditionally be designed for a larger form factor, for slower rate of consumption.
> The wall we all hit at some point during the pandemic was digital. It was a wall of video meetings, Slack threads, text chains, and emails. A wall built from Netflix and Disney+, Facebook and TikTok, Instagram, and the endless onslaught of urgent tweets. It was the wall in our hands, on our desks, and beside our pillows, a wall that we turned to for salvation but kept smacking into and then wondering why on earth our bodies were so damn beat at the end of each day. The wall was the full unleashed reality of the digital future as it completely consumed our lives.
And have no sense of it at all. "We all" did not hit that wall. It makes me glad I'm not on social media and work in an industry that allows me to switch off when I exit the building. My fondest memory of the pandemic was teaching my son to ride his bike, there was no traffic so it was safe to do it in the street.