...asking for a friend... well no, this story is about a friend.... Mostly because it's easier to spot the errors of others than to soul-search yourself, I guess.
OK: Intro: Via Negativa
This is a concept that came to me via Nassim Taleb's writing (yes, that bitcoin-hating dude). Basic idea: It's easier to identify what's wrong than what's right. It's not that simple to formulate exactly how to live, but we can tell when something is wrooooong.
Don't Do What You Hate is a chapter title in Jordan Peterson's second book (well, third if we count Maps of Meaning) with a similar underlying message: just, you know, don't do stupid shit.
NEXT: main dish, what happened.
I spent the long weekend with a close uni friend whose behavior and ideas are giving me all sorts of things to think about. Captive to his phone (addicted?): mindless click-click-click games, browsing mainstream media headlines (not even reading the articles, just checking and skimming), and the worst of all: the endless stream of ten-second YouTube/TikTok/IG videos — the "short" revolution in tech has really eaten his mind.
It's all he does. Whenever there's a spare moment, he's there, scrolling and watching; mindlessly hypnotized, fueling the screen lords, their algos and their ads. When I come back fr the bathroom, it wasn't uncommon to see him (plus the other two peeps I was with) on their phones, swiping incessantly — not even for Tinder, lol.
So far in our relationship, it has only troubled me as his behavior... I'd like my friend to be better, live better, fill his brain with valuable things or even just sit in silence and engulf the world. That'd be better for him (or indeed anyone), but what can you do? People live the way they live, whatever.
This trip, I noticed how it affected ME!
Like externalities or passive smoking or whatever, the spillover sounds of the endless, captivative, 10-second interrupted videos made me go bananas.
= We'd come home from a long day or evening at our old uni watering holes (#1021163), and he'd proceed to spend 30 min staring at his screen. I'd step out of the shower, and he'd be there scrolling, just where I left him.
One evening, as I sat and did my evening stretches (and, I confess, checked my messages and emails for the day... hypocrisy? Don't quite think so.), the noise really egged on my nervous system. I didn't wanna say anything, but after half an hour I was all rallied up, ready to run or scream or give a lecture.... instead of calming down, this bop-bop-bop noise was rallying me up.
It's was a noticeable physical feeling: that constant attention-grabbing sounds fr the videos getting my nervous system all worked up.
It was similar to what I call the "CNN voice" — that artificial, non-organic noise that make you all stressed and engaged rather than the relaxing purling of a stream or leaves flickering in the wind.
I had to go sit outside for twenty minutes and read my book in peace. (Getting separate hotel rooms next time, I suppose.)
UP NEXT: Assessment
I can't exactly pinpoint or identify what is wrong about this behavior — we all calm down/de-stress/relax from a day in different ways — but this is so obviously mind-numbing and stupid and addictive and dopamine-infuesed and nervous-system accelerating that I can't believe anybody willingly want to do it.
Yet here we are, having to battle not just our own screen behavior (#985862) but others' as well.
Info overload, dopamine-fuelled and attention-grabbing addiction is just NOT HEALTHY. It's the informational equivalent of fast food... fast-everything is bad and yet it runs modernity.
I don't know, man; with all due respect to the Stackers, the monks and the Amish may have gotten this one right. I'm getting closer and closer to purging tech from my everyday life.