Venting Am I the only one who doesn't understand the hate of smartphone and social media use?

[KillingPain267]

With smartphones, tablets and the internet I can watch nearly every movie that exists, read every article, book and I can call distant family and friends within seconds all from my bed.

People say it's a meaningless life to just consume media, but if the inhernet didn't exist people still wasted time on meaningless things. Being in the gym the whole day is meaningless because your body will deteriorate anyway eventually no matter how much you exercise. Socializing with friends is meaningless activity too because everyone is selfish and will eventually betray you and/or die. Some have friends only because they are rich and famous. If they were poor, all the friends would leave. I don't need such fakery.

As someone with severe back issues I am in pain after just 2 hours of activity outside the bed. If I had to go to a movie theatre to waste my time with meaningless entertainment I would feel very debilitated. So it's awesome to watch movies from bed. But there is so much more on the internet. I would not be as smart if it weren't for the internet. I have a hunger for knowledge. If I had to go to the library to study, again my back would severely limit my patience.

As someone with severe social anxiety and nearly no friends, I don't feel comfortable being outside where people judge me for how I look or act. In my bed I can watch social interactions online from a distance without them seeing me. I can interact with strangers in text just fine. But not in person. So the internet has given me ways to be social without straining and feeling painfully awkward.

But people will say all this is "unhealthy" and "depletes my dopamine". So what. Should I just watch grass grow instead and get joy out of that? What is the point then if all we do is find things to pass time before we die? Why not be as fully entertained as possible?

I tried a few weeks living with only 90s technology (except for my work), and I quickly found myself bored as shit. It felt like life is only work and sleep. Nothing to look forward to.

I guess they just want us to work all the time.

Thank God for the internet!

 

[taysontheory]

When I wake up, I don't use any electronic device, I take care of my skin for half an hour, and I eat for half an hour. This keeps addiction away from me. In any case, social media apps distract the human mind a little from the reality of depressing existence.

 

[Mirrory Me]

Oh, so there will still be these people in 2025? Using smart devices does not have to be passive, you can work with them in a very versatile way on different things.

 

[fallingtopieces]

It can be beneficial for some, but there is no denying the link between skyrocketing loneliness/isolation and technology on the whole. No denying smartphones are harming student learning with constant distraction. Social anxiety also will increase because people will simply not have the practice of socializing more, interacting with people irl. It's like a muscle, if you don't use it, you don't develop it. Talk to an ophthalmologist and they'll tell you of the nearsightedness epidemic amongst children as they grow up staring into screens. I won't even begin to talk about how tech has destroyed privacy, commoditized our clicks, our attention, us as a whole;the enshittification, everyone trying to sell you something, loads of snakeoil/hucksters. Or how it has been weaponized with misinformation/disinformation/conspiracy and torn apart the social fabric. Even the grass, it's not about watching it grow. Being in nature has positive effects on mental health. But I completely understand how you find it helpful as an individual and within your context.

 

[Mirrory Me]

It can be beneficial for some, but there is no denying the link between skyrocketing loneliness/isolation and technology on the whole. No denying smartphones are harming student learning with constant distraction. Social anxiety also will increase because people will simply not have the practice of socializing more, interacting with people irl. It's like a muscle, if you don't use it, you don't develop it. Talk to an ophthalmologist and they'll tell you of the nearsightedness epidemic amongst children as they grow up staring into screens. I won't even begin to talk about how tech has destroyed privacy, commoditized our clicks, our attention, us as a whole;the enshittification, everyone trying to sell you something, loads of snakeoil/hucksters. Or how it has been weaponized with misinformation/disinformation/conspiracy and torn apart the social fabric. Even the grass, it's not about watching it grow. Being in nature has positive effects on mental health. But I completely understand how you find it helpful as an individual and within your context.

They should just create some formal "public school app" with ai that anyone can download (no more need for lots of expenses and other bullshit...):

The top 10 reasons why mobile learning is the future of education |

Mobile learning has grown significantly in recent years. Not just because of the rise of smartphones and handheld devices, but also due to the increasing

training.safetyculture.com

There is also digital notebooks nowdays.

 

[TheHolySword]

sometimes i wish i wasn't connected to every aspect of every thing at all times. but there's more issues in my life than just social media and a phone.

 

[KillingPain267]

It can be beneficial for some, but there is no denying the link between skyrocketing loneliness/isolation and technology on the whole.

Cause and effect. The increase in loneliness may be what is CAUSING more people to become shut-ins only being chronically online. I know it is in my case. I was lonely before smartphones were common.

Social anxiety also will increase because people will simply not have the practice of socializing more, interacting with people irl. It's like a muscle, if you don't use it, you don't develop it.

I developed social anxiety before social media. And pushing myself never helped develop that "muscle". It only gave me more anxious experiences that made me want to isolate even more.

Talk to an ophthalmologist and they'll tell you of the nearsightedness epidemic amongst children as they grow up staring into screens.

I literally did and she told me that newest science shows that risk of myopia is caused by lack of outdoor light rather than staring at things near. They said the same thing about reading books, which turned out to be a myth. So in China they put it to the test. They made one group of children read and do homework outdoors and the other indoors and found that the indoor group developed more myopia, accounting for how much time spent on reading and homework. This is literally what my eye doctor said. Nothing to do with social media and the internet.

I won't even begin to talk about how tech has destroyed privacy, commoditized our clicks, our attention, us as a whole;the enshittification, everyone trying to sell you something, loads of snakeoil/hucksters. Or how it has been weaponized with misinformation/disinformation/conspiracy and torn apart the social fabric.

Correlation, man. These are issues with capitalism and power, not the inernet itself. You mentioned what the problems are: destruction of privacy, commodification, aggressive advertising, product scams, misinformation... all these things existed in other mediums like TV, movie theatres, radio, even newspapers and public parks. The internet had much less of these things in the beginning. The problem was commodification and centralization, not the technology itself.

 

[EternalShore]

it's because we want friendships and stuff irl~ smartphones and electronics take away people from talking to people near them as they don't talk to you at all instead irl and just focus on their phones! :( with friendships and stuff, doing older stuff was more enjoyable too! :3 because everything is more fun with friends! :D
ofc, people will be selfish and awful regardless but perhaps, without these things, they could be less so~ We can be glad in a way that we have neat things like that tho to distract us from all the loneliness~ :) because internet friends are a thing! hehe~
and well, I don't mind pre-90s stuff, but the early 2000s was when everything was at its best imo at least! ^_^

 

[KillingPain267]

Being in nature has positive effects on mental health.

A new study has shown that this effect also exists by merely watching photos of green sceneries.

it's because we want friendships and stuff irl~ smartphones and electronics take away people from talking to people near them as they don't talk to you at all instead irl and just focus on their phones! :( with friendships and stuff, doing older stuff was more enjoyable too! :3 because everything is more fun with friends! :D
ofc, people will be selfish and awful regardless but perhaps, without these things, they could be less so~ We can be glad in a way that we have neat things like that tho to distract us from all the loneliness~ :) because internet friends are a thing! hehe~
and well, I don't mind pre-90s stuff, but the early 2000s was when everything was at its best imo at least! ^_^

With friends we often became bored, and actually had to debate on what activity to do next because we had already played with whatevrr we had planned. The early 2000s only feel better to you and me because we were children. I'm happy to see how the internet has progressed. There are issues with it, but it has so much more stuff on it now that I would be distracted for the next 1000 years.