Over the last few years, it has become accepted knowledge that the internet — mainly social media and, lately, AI tools — was damaging the mental health of kids and increasing the suicide rate amon…
Not arguing for or against here, but that’s not a very good test. I can’t imagine what my life would have been like without my best friend of over 20 years, but I can still say for certain that I’m in a vastly better place than I would have been without them. Even if I just limit it to my intellectual development.
There are valid criticisms of social media, but I don’t think that’s one of them.
Fair enough, but I think the point is less about the inability to imagine an alternative and more about outsourcing agency or thought. This is something Byung-Chul Han’s writes about: religion, social media, capitalism, etc. can become frameworks we rely on so deeply that we stop questioning them. It is undermining our ability to think for ourselves and question our beliefs.
A 20-year friendship is obviously a very different kind of thing. Maybe a friend you are far too dependent upon and doesn’t want you to hang out with other people is a more fitting comparison to most people’s relation to social media.
Not arguing for or against here, but that’s not a very good test. I can’t imagine what my life would have been like without my best friend of over 20 years, but I can still say for certain that I’m in a vastly better place than I would have been without them. Even if I just limit it to my intellectual development.
There are valid criticisms of social media, but I don’t think that’s one of them.
Fair enough, but I think the point is less about the inability to imagine an alternative and more about outsourcing agency or thought. This is something Byung-Chul Han’s writes about: religion, social media, capitalism, etc. can become frameworks we rely on so deeply that we stop questioning them. It is undermining our ability to think for ourselves and question our beliefs.
A 20-year friendship is obviously a very different kind of thing. Maybe a friend you are far too dependent upon and doesn’t want you to hang out with other people is a more fitting comparison to most people’s relation to social media.
And intentionally makes you feel bad all the time so you keep talking to them.