This is what scares me most about screen culture. It's extinguishing hobbies, communities, print culture, curiosity, embodiedness. All the things that once brought meaning and fulfillment. We need a return to reading, a return to nature, a return to tangible living.
In high school, I was complaining about how long the school day was and my teacher turned to me and said, "the days are long, but the years are short" and I was like "what the fuck are you talking about you lunatic" and then the bell rang and now I'm in my 30s.
As I've been saying, if you willingly relinquish your mental abilities, you will lose them. The fact that millions of people seem eager to give up their intellects, to be freed from the burden of ever having to think or create, is a nightmare out of our darkest science fictions.
Growing up before the internet means watching something that was initially promising get steadily worse. I hate that every platform is now trying to imitate tiktok. I hate the soul-killing viral slop. I hate what it has done to our collective ability to reflect and focus.
the internet was better when it was on a computer in your house and didn't consume our whole lives. time passed more slowly before there were endless distractions. you had space to read, space to think, space to grow bored and create something.
idk i think they SHOULD ban tiktok. rotted everyone's brains and attention spans, spread insane amounts of propaganda and misinformation, created an artistically bankrupt attention economy that is good for no one