I was working in a bookstore for a while and basically all of my coworkers had flip phones, which was the first time I had seen so many first hand.
This felt to me like a particularly concentrated subset of the population (bookstore workers tend to be weird, leftist, and obsessed with physical media) designed strongly against the ills of social media. One of them had even been a massively followed Twitter user who burned out hard and found life majority post internet to be much more fulfilling.
But I wonder if this kind of view could ever be strong enough to create economic impact? The tendency towards more Luddite behavior feels strong momentarily but never sustainable, and points to why products like Yondr at concerts or Brick at home have been so successful. Do they have any lasting staying power? Or is this another fad when the pendulum briefly swings the other way? Sometimes scrolling through anything I’m struck with the feeling of “who is this for?”
Can the relationship with these things improve? Are we built for moderation? Do they allow us, even, to be moderate when the algorithms and UX’s are so built for addiction?
And how does the third space shift when people, likely driven by social media in another way, are hyper fixated on health? What does socializing look like in cities when you don’t drink at a bar?
In a similar vein, the value proposition of a city is trading space for access to people, restaurants, events, work, etc, but when we become more atomized they feel remarkably built for loneliness rather than community.
I think people can take breaks from phones, and that's what most of this is, it's not abandonment. It's focus for a moment on something other than screen and i think that has staying power. As for cities- look closely at what is happening, I feel people want cities to be cities again and are making efforts to create community.
I agree, I think people are desperate for it, in a sense, but I’m skeptical about a sustained movement towards community or collectivism because of how slow the process is relative to how fast online life is.
Also worth noting the affordability crises in many major cities, pushing out those who historically have fostered community in favor of drag-and-drop PE businesses and housing as investing new developments.
It’s so good to talk! And, I now know of 229 psychology and neuroscience researchers who need to get their heads out of their arssess.
I was working in a bookstore for a while and basically all of my coworkers had flip phones, which was the first time I had seen so many first hand.
This felt to me like a particularly concentrated subset of the population (bookstore workers tend to be weird, leftist, and obsessed with physical media) designed strongly against the ills of social media. One of them had even been a massively followed Twitter user who burned out hard and found life majority post internet to be much more fulfilling.
But I wonder if this kind of view could ever be strong enough to create economic impact? The tendency towards more Luddite behavior feels strong momentarily but never sustainable, and points to why products like Yondr at concerts or Brick at home have been so successful. Do they have any lasting staying power? Or is this another fad when the pendulum briefly swings the other way? Sometimes scrolling through anything I’m struck with the feeling of “who is this for?”
Can the relationship with these things improve? Are we built for moderation? Do they allow us, even, to be moderate when the algorithms and UX’s are so built for addiction?
And how does the third space shift when people, likely driven by social media in another way, are hyper fixated on health? What does socializing look like in cities when you don’t drink at a bar?
In a similar vein, the value proposition of a city is trading space for access to people, restaurants, events, work, etc, but when we become more atomized they feel remarkably built for loneliness rather than community.
I think people can take breaks from phones, and that's what most of this is, it's not abandonment. It's focus for a moment on something other than screen and i think that has staying power. As for cities- look closely at what is happening, I feel people want cities to be cities again and are making efforts to create community.
I agree, I think people are desperate for it, in a sense, but I’m skeptical about a sustained movement towards community or collectivism because of how slow the process is relative to how fast online life is.
Also worth noting the affordability crises in many major cities, pushing out those who historically have fostered community in favor of drag-and-drop PE businesses and housing as investing new developments.