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    7 months ago

    Who does Tim’s father represent? What does him throwing the tin cans in the trash represent? How does this analogy represent the topic we’re discussing?

    If the tin cans are old but sufficient technology, then the proper analogy would see Tim and Susie discarding the tin cans themselves voluntarily because the walkie talkies do what they do but better. Maybe there are drawbacks too, but Tim and Susie made their choice. Maybe Jack and Jill down the street like the intimacy of tin cans better and decide not to get walkie talkies, that is also their choice.

    Maybe the window ritual is socially beneficial, but who enforces that, and how? Does Jack’s mom get walkie talkies banned? Now what about all the emergency responders who used walkie talkies to save lives? Just banned for children? Who decides who qualifies as a child, and what about the children in the country who’s houses are too far apart for tin cans?

    I’m not saying there are no benefits to simpler options, and obviously every person has the freedom to use the simplest technologies they wish, but we’re having a conversation about society not individual choice . I’m saying that there’s no practical way to incentivize or force them at a societal scale. Unless you can think of one which isn’t just Big Brother censoring the Internet, in which case I’m all ears.

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      7 months ago

      Just answer the question. Did Tim’s tin can stop the world from spinning? Did it have purpose? Was its replacement adequate?

      Tim’s dad represents Tim’s dad. Not everything is an analogy. Of course we can extrapolate it but I’m trying in the most simplest terms possible to make you see my point.

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        7 months ago

        If it’s not an analogy then… yes, the world continues spinning if kids talk with tin cans? I don’t see what any of this has to do with the topic of the societal effects of widespread use of algorithm-driven social media platforms. restraint with regards to the Internet?

        Edit: got this conversation confused with a similar one. My bad

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          17 months ago

          … right, because that is what I was talking about in the first place. Societital effects of widespread use of algorithm-driven social media platforms. Pretty impossible w/ you.

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            17 months ago

            That’s on me, I’m also having an extremely similar conversation with someone else specifically about that

            What you did say was:

            I’m not saying there should be no internet. I am only saying maybe some restraint would be advantageous for everyone.

            So what I meant to say In my last comment was:

            What does any of that have to do with the restraint with regards to the Internet?

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              7 months ago

              To spell it out again, not everything has to be done on the internet. Many people go on thinking ‘out with the old in with the new’ without ever considering scope and practicality. If you suddenly became manager of an office building with a complete pneumatic tube system your first instinct might be to gut the pneumatic tubes and do everything over email. That’s an OK thought but should that really be your first instinct? Most people wouldn’t even understand how pneumatic tubes work in the first place. Wouldn’t it be more prudent to to understand what the tubes are there for. Why they’ve lasted 60+ years. If the building is already wired with ethernet and has internet connection what should it matter if you use both keeping the tubes in place to continue their purpose?

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                7 months ago

                Okay, sure? That was always allowed. Again, “People should behave differently than they do” without any proposed method of bringing about whatever “differently” is, is just impotent platitude. That’s why I keep reiterating “incentivize or force”. Without one of those two pressures, people will continue to make individual decisions about their behavior, including which things they choose to do on the Internet, like they have been doing the whole time. Some will choose to do things on the Internet which can be done sufficiently other ways, others will choose to use simpler technologies.

                When you start talking about how restraint would be advantageous, without any concept of how to incentivize or force said restraint, you’re just becoming old-man-yells-at-cloud.jpg.

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                  7 months ago

                  When you start talking about how restraint would be advantageous, without any concept of how to incentivize or force said restraint, you’re just becoming old-man-yells-at-cloud.jpg.

                  I would challenge that. Say tomorrow I invented the eat-o-matic 5000 a top of the line eating utensil. Built in wifi, self cleaning, tracks how much food your eat, easy to manufacture, biodegradable, comes with a native streaming service that allows you to stream your eating experience to friends and family, affordable, etc.

                  Do you think in everyone would throw away their forks and knifes immediately and start using the eat-o-matic 5000? How about in 10 years? 20 years? 30 years?

                  Maybe the eat-o-matic is that good. I tend to believe forks and knives wouldn’t go anywhere, though. I also know forks and knives are already not the only technology that exists and the fact that one utensil isn’t ubiquitous proves that incentives and force are not the only factors at play.

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                    17 months ago

                    I feel like a broken record:

                    Yes, obviously, people are allowed to make their own choices. Not using the flashiest new toys and services is allowed. Acknowledging that fact is not useful. You telling people what they should and shouldn’t do is not going to have a societal effect.

                    If you would like to propose some regulatory or incentive policy to nudge people toward simpler technologies, then that is a useful conversation. But just stating your opinion? Old man yells at cloud.