If someone spends their life in a shallow, binary (liked / not liked), artificial world, then they inevitably become separated from their basic humanity.
Other people become seen simply as cartoon allies or cartoon villains, simply on the basis of their screen relationship with you. Allies are to be praised, villains to be destroyed. There is no room for concepts such as context, understanding, forgiveness and humility.
The phone-obsessed are at the same time entirely ignorant, and completely certain that they are righteous.
If that simplistic mentality becomes commonplace in the real world, then seriously bad things are liable to happen. It could be argued that we are seeing the early signs of that already.
These phone people have truly learned the secret of living a crap life.
Their entire locus of validation is outside of themselves, that is, they measure their worth entirely by what other people think about them, via likes and infantile emojis. This leads to anxiety, stress, unlimited narcissism and an addiction to constantly surveilling the online landscape.
They are looking in the wrong place for self-worth. Any decent psychologist would advise that the only place to find true worth is by looking squarely inside yourself to judge how well you are living up to your ideals (whatever those are).
Added to everything, these phone people have zero personality or interesting conversation. They know nothing and have no ideas - except maybe for a new piece of Tiktok imbecility with which to wow their 'friends'.
You make an excellent point. External validation is centrical to the anti social media phenomenon. In their efforts to be validated, they compare themselves and their lifestyles to the other fabricated curated online personas and experiences flaunted by others. It's a vicious cycle of self-perpetuating inferiority that is wrecking the mental health of multiple generations. They need role models, and from what I can see in Bangkok, Mum, Dad, and even Granny and Grandpa are all captivated by their screens. You are also right that their conversational skills rely on discussion and presentation of the latest clip doing the rounds. It's really sad, in every sense of the word.
So well put. It's like the whole world is gorging on ego gratification. But as you mention, saddest of all is the all-too-common sight of a fully distracted parent pushing a stroller. Or just out walking with kids but talking to a friend on the phone.
That's right, and eventually the child emulates the parent and on it goes. Now a parent riding a motorbike whilst playing with their phone, with their family of four crammed on the back including an infant, all wearing facemasks but not wearing helmets...that is quite something to behold. Every single day in Bangkok.
Very well said but so depressing to contemplate how few even look up from the screen. I do see signs of life after antisocil media here in Phuket just this morning a group of four farang, British based on their accents, took a break from their bike ride through our neighborhood to cool off with some chilled coconuts. Not a smart phone screen was being stared at, which was encouraging. I've completely tired of the social media thing it seems so fake. My older daughter never even touched it and in fact has all cameras on her phone and computer covered with black tape. The biggest argument I had with my ex was regarding that: he thought this meant the teenager needed to see a therapist, while I thought she might have been ahead of her time! Looking at Skype usage though it is at 1610 minutes in the past month...all to landlines. I prefer talking to people.
Thanks for reporting signs of intelligent sentient life down in Phuket Amy! There is always hope. I am also wary of my spying devices and hope the deactivate sensor button on this lineage OS does what it says on the tin. You've raised a smart one there with your daughter being self aware of devices spying too. The best therapy is good old fashioned human interaction, life experience, and time in nature.
The end-game of this is not pretty.
If someone spends their life in a shallow, binary (liked / not liked), artificial world, then they inevitably become separated from their basic humanity.
Other people become seen simply as cartoon allies or cartoon villains, simply on the basis of their screen relationship with you. Allies are to be praised, villains to be destroyed. There is no room for concepts such as context, understanding, forgiveness and humility.
The phone-obsessed are at the same time entirely ignorant, and completely certain that they are righteous.
If that simplistic mentality becomes commonplace in the real world, then seriously bad things are liable to happen. It could be argued that we are seeing the early signs of that already.
These phone people have truly learned the secret of living a crap life.
Their entire locus of validation is outside of themselves, that is, they measure their worth entirely by what other people think about them, via likes and infantile emojis. This leads to anxiety, stress, unlimited narcissism and an addiction to constantly surveilling the online landscape.
They are looking in the wrong place for self-worth. Any decent psychologist would advise that the only place to find true worth is by looking squarely inside yourself to judge how well you are living up to your ideals (whatever those are).
Added to everything, these phone people have zero personality or interesting conversation. They know nothing and have no ideas - except maybe for a new piece of Tiktok imbecility with which to wow their 'friends'.
You make an excellent point. External validation is centrical to the anti social media phenomenon. In their efforts to be validated, they compare themselves and their lifestyles to the other fabricated curated online personas and experiences flaunted by others. It's a vicious cycle of self-perpetuating inferiority that is wrecking the mental health of multiple generations. They need role models, and from what I can see in Bangkok, Mum, Dad, and even Granny and Grandpa are all captivated by their screens. You are also right that their conversational skills rely on discussion and presentation of the latest clip doing the rounds. It's really sad, in every sense of the word.
So well put. It's like the whole world is gorging on ego gratification. But as you mention, saddest of all is the all-too-common sight of a fully distracted parent pushing a stroller. Or just out walking with kids but talking to a friend on the phone.
That's right, and eventually the child emulates the parent and on it goes. Now a parent riding a motorbike whilst playing with their phone, with their family of four crammed on the back including an infant, all wearing facemasks but not wearing helmets...that is quite something to behold. Every single day in Bangkok.
OMG! 😳
Very well said but so depressing to contemplate how few even look up from the screen. I do see signs of life after antisocil media here in Phuket just this morning a group of four farang, British based on their accents, took a break from their bike ride through our neighborhood to cool off with some chilled coconuts. Not a smart phone screen was being stared at, which was encouraging. I've completely tired of the social media thing it seems so fake. My older daughter never even touched it and in fact has all cameras on her phone and computer covered with black tape. The biggest argument I had with my ex was regarding that: he thought this meant the teenager needed to see a therapist, while I thought she might have been ahead of her time! Looking at Skype usage though it is at 1610 minutes in the past month...all to landlines. I prefer talking to people.
Thanks for reporting signs of intelligent sentient life down in Phuket Amy! There is always hope. I am also wary of my spying devices and hope the deactivate sensor button on this lineage OS does what it says on the tin. You've raised a smart one there with your daughter being self aware of devices spying too. The best therapy is good old fashioned human interaction, life experience, and time in nature.