We’ve made tech way too accessible - and now we’re paying the price for it.
Back in 1995, we got our first family PC. Dad was never able to use it; despite our efforts to teach him. Couldn’t grasp left and right mouse button, much less concepts like directories, installing software, drivers, etc.
But on his iPad? He can do almost everything: e-mail, Facebook, watch TV, YouTube. And get subjected to boomer brainrot. Just like a toddler.
Is he more tech literate? Absolutely not. In fact, he’s regressing if anything. But we’ve made it so easy, even my completely tech illiterate dad can now argue with strangers on Facebook or post dumb shit on YouTube.
And it fucking shows. The amount of goddamn complete idiots online is shocking. I miss 1995, when you had to be a nerd to get online. It filtered out a lot of folks who simply shouldn’t be online.
Man it sounds so lame to say “I prefer the good old days” but its genuinely true when it comes to the internet, back when forums were the only social media, where banner ads were the only ads to worry about, before every website started collecting cookies and profiles, before celebrities started jumping on AMA’s on reddit, I mean even when reddit was small enough there was a stupid phrase so you’d know if someone else was a redditor. When does the narwhal bacon?
The narwhal shall forever bacon at midnight, even if its home has turned to shit :(
It all comes back to community. Back in those days, forums and platforms like IRC were great. They had a human scale; you quickly learned about the regulars, their personalities, likes and dislikes. Heck, on most forums that I visited, plenty of people used their actual name - including myself. The internet felt like a nice, safe community, like its own digital suburb.
Sometimes that was even literal. I used platforms like Cybertown and later on Second Life. Those let you own actual houses and and build stuff on there. In Cybertown - we usually just called it CT - I knew every resident on my block. I hosted house parties, had giveaways. We’d even have commemorative digital statues as gifts for guests. I still kept in touch when CT died. I still miss it.
your fault, and THANKS for doing this to the people that i’ll need to have take care of me when i’m old and feeble. water? like, in the toilet?
I know, right? It doesn’t even have electrolytes. That’s not what plants crave.
They know how to navigate the phone in a corporate-approved way better than I do, but they have no idea how any of it works.
Don’t give your kids velcro shoes after about age three. Deal with teaching them to tie them for a few months. No, it’s not convenient, but you’re doing it for them, not you.
3? Lol, we know you don’t have children.
come on! it’s a lot easier to not toilet-train your kids if you can afford all the diapers
It’s real. My 3 yr old can’t speak his mother tongue properly but can use phone like an adult
Well that’s because the phone is far more engaging and enjoyable than day to day life. By providing a 3 year old with a device it’s effectively cementing the dependency on having some electronic devices available at all times
Tieing shoes is done in 3d. One more dimension of complexity. Tablets on the other hand have a flat screen, so the toddler only needs to work two dimensions to use it.
All I see is blonde, brunette, redhead.
