it's been the age of consumerism for a long time. Arguably since the 50's and 60's. Definitely since the 80's and 90's.
well even within online communities. you built up your reputation. you started as a nobody and if you were lucky and involved, became a valued member of the community. thats something thats been lost with modern social media. I guess, strangely enough, anonymous internet actually functioned much more like real life than current "social" internet. Funny how that works.
I guess when there a no pre-associations with a person (a situation where it's not fb) this is where everyone starts from scratch and it becomes evident very quickly about who is 'real' and who cares about the communities that they're in.
Well it does affect our attention spans. It actually shocks me when i sit down to watch a movie I haven't watched in a while, maybe lets say, an 80s or 90's movie, and I start getting antsy, I need to be doing something simultaneously. if im watching a video on youtube I realize im also posting on a forum.
it's scary honestly.
I'm a bit like that, more so if I've been sitting at the dinner table for a while. I have to actually resist playing with my phone. But I've always been someone who has to do things, I've always tried to maximise my time, so it may just be a personal thing in that sense with me.
I would argue Mental illness isnt the result of the internet, (though it doesnt help) but the trend that started in the 90's of self medication. depressed? take pills. feeling tired? take pills. And the worst:
your kid can't sit still in his overcrowded classroom? GIVE HIM PILLS. JUST GIVE JIMMY SOME RITALIN, THAT'll SET 'IM STRAIGHT.
the 90's were the era of "ADD/ADHD". any kid who was fidgety in class and overly energetic was hyperactive or had ADHD and NEEDED pills for it.
which has caused a whole generation of problem children because their brains are fucked up from having basically been on drugs during their childhood. Mom and dad couldn't deal with the stress of trying to keep tabs on billy's whereabouts outside, so they just give him some pills and sit him in front of the tv for 5 hours.
I think the problem is the internet's wealth of information has led to self-diagnosis and looking for silver bullet cures.
However it can work the other way, I once had a family member who didn't want to visit hospital, with no other choice I googled their symptoms, looked to about 4 webpages and ended up diagnosing them correctly. Needless to say they agreed to go to hospital after they saw the information on a medical website written in black and white. Though I admit this was a once in a blue moon type of scenario, still it helped.
The internet/ pc generation is a funny thing though. Because PC's are associated with work, education or homework nobody ever says "get off the pc" these days, yet back in my childhood if you watched tv for too long your parents
would tell you to go outside and run around.
It's sad because I have a friend who is depressed, he's a normal guy, quite social, knows a lot of people, his female friends were hot back in uni days, he worked for 5 years post-graduating. Now he stays at home and sits online all day watching Twitch streams and sleeps at really odd hours to avoid holding down a real job. Luckily he still has the support of his family. I strongly believe that 95% of his depression is aided by him having a kick ass PC (his tower is as big as my oven) and having "everything he needs" in one room - mostly in that tower. It's so crazy to me, because a long time ago he wanted the things most people want in life, now it's almost like he's just 'viewing life' 99% of the time and no longer cares about attainment, what others think of him, actually the only people he cares about appeasing are his online friends from other countries (part of the reason why he sleeps at crazy hours).
holy shit this. my biggest pet peeve is the social norm that its ok to always be on your phone even when you are having a conversation or eating dinner.
I think it's dependent upon context. My partner and I both use our phones at the dinner table when we're having dinner, but we're not putting our conversation 2nd to our devices and it's all about the conversation. However, when we're with family, or even friends we put that shit away because other people are there trying to speak with us and may feel a certain way, particularly the older generation.
all good things in moderation, they say. internet and tech was nice, when we maybe browsed the web for an hour or two a day and had to wait 15 minutes for a picture to download, but with instant access, the internet has become a skinner's box. Instant gratification if we "press the button"
I think slower internet was more satisfying in the sense that if you downloaded something large, you had to put the hours into monitoring that download, keeping other people off the phone (unless you had a separate line) etc. Downloading a movie was like scaling Everest, and you had to know where/ how to look.
I think that the more 'anonymous' dial-up internet taught me a thing or two about people. Sometimes talking to someone you don't know with an absence of audible tone and visible body language can assist in sharpening your social and/ or literary skills. Not only do you have to think on your feet, but you also have to type as your ideas are forming which can be half the challenge/ benefit. I think the last place this now exists would be online networking/ dating sites (Tinder not inclusive if you're just swiping yes/no - not that I've personally used it).
My motto is if it's the internet that's making you get up off your ass and do something or interact with people, then it's a good use of the internet,
I mean, even within the millennial generation there are many that reject that idea and get flipphones instead of smartphones.
That's nice, I miss the Motorolla RazR.. I lost mine on a drunken galavant, NOT surfing the web