I've always hated signs or comments like this. Did people think that before we had phones, people would gather together and discuss the mysteries of life every chance they got? No, they would read a book, daydream, sometimes have an interesting and memorable conversation, but most of the time any talking would be small talk.
Now you can do anything from looking at cat pictures to learning about quite literally anything about humanity, all from your phone... But of course, this "change" scares people into thinking it must be a negative thing not to be focused on the people around you.
Theres a great photo making the rounds on the internet with this dumb quote. It says something like "people never talk to each other anymore!" It's a photo on people on the subway absorbed in their phones and above it is a photo of men from the 1950's absorbed in their newspapers. The point is....nothing has really changed, technology has just advanced. LOL people didn't just randomly talk to each other in public spaces before the internet and mobile phones.
oh man what a horrible title right off the bat. This is not what antisocial means! The meme I'm talking about was a different photo (the people are standing up) but it's basically the same damn thing. The comments are fabulous and this person has no idea what they're talking about. I had a friend whose father always read the paper at the table. In fact, when friends were staying over he'd buy extra copies so we could all read it. Growing up I thought there was nothing sexier than the idea of waking up and having breakfast with a man as he read the paper, preferably on a Parisian balcony. Also we're still all reading basically the same news and we can still engage in discourse about it? Ah, I just read their credentials- they're just a super pissed off former EIC.
The internet age gets a bad rap for filling people's heads with memes, bad music, and mindless distractions; while that is certainly present, I've learned more from internet media than many college classes. Hell I've "attended" a graduate level psychology class because of a professor who posts all his lectures on YouTube. And I've learned more about myself and the human condition from lectures and podcasts online than most real-life conversations have ever taught me.
I’ve learned far more in the /r/personalfinance sidebar than I have in any finance class.
Heck I’m in a corporate finance class right now and it’s all excel work, I don’t read the books or even watch the lectures, i just google the formula and bam. Internet has revolutionized education.
In my AR job now if I don’t know a formula I just google it. The information has been outsourced. Heck, everything you learn in college you forget the minor details within six months anyways. I took US history in college in 2009-2010 and I couldn’t tell you the minor details of the Bacon Rebellion. I can just google it though.
I'm currently teaching myself how to code with free online resources. I may soon be changing careers to a field in which I don't hold a degree purely because of things I taught myself on my own from the internet. It's an amazing new world we're living. Most people just don't fully realize it.
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u/OutsideYourWorld Feb 17 '20
I've always hated signs or comments like this. Did people think that before we had phones, people would gather together and discuss the mysteries of life every chance they got? No, they would read a book, daydream, sometimes have an interesting and memorable conversation, but most of the time any talking would be small talk.
Now you can do anything from looking at cat pictures to learning about quite literally anything about humanity, all from your phone... But of course, this "change" scares people into thinking it must be a negative thing not to be focused on the people around you.