Oddbean new post about login | logout With phones in everyone's pockets, we've eliminated boredom. But also eliminated contemplation along with it.
We have tea for contemplation
Agreed, and I think in doing so we’re also kind of gradually killing creativity on a societal scale in a systemic way. It’s like a slow suffocation. You can see how this changes the way people write, the way contemporary authors set scenes, recount details, make observations, etc. Difficult to make compelling, sustained observations, which birth connections and lead to unexpected and interesting thoughts, when one is habituated to spending massive amounts of waking life on a smartphone and leaves no space for quiet, for boredom, and for contemplation.
What a shame, doesn't? I leave for a walk twice a week without my cell phone, exactly to be able to appreciate the surroundings.
Diligent research has also gone out the window. A two second Google search often times becomes ones base of thought as well as their cornerstone of perspective. Pretty abysmal.
Use your tools wisely or your tools will use you!!
Yes, keep your kids away from them for as long as you can.
True, I call it the “Wonder Killer”.
I'm not sure if we eliminated boredom or augmented it. I think the word boredom is prob uttered more times per capita today than ever before. Cos being constantly connected means that you get used to constant stimulation and hence resilience to boredom decreases.
Trust me I’m still bored AF
Writing with pen and paper forces slow and deliberate thought
Really does. I just got a kindle Scribe to journal (trying to get one more habit to be offline/not on a computer). I can feel my blood pressure dropping while I use it. Its better for reflection and contemplation than typing....I can't even write fast enough to vent. Venting at .25x speed just makes you feel silly. Lol.
💯 the blood pressure, breathing, focus, similar to meditation I assume
My earbuds were out of charge. So I worked out without phone/entertainment this morning. I need more of that.
The contemplation is forbidden these days because is not _productive_. Great ideas comes from boredom and right now, we don't have time to get bored because we have so much "to do", "to see" and when the day is over, you don't have any space to improve because you were busy all day long. The **vita contemplativa** is not productive to the fiat capitalism style because you're not consuming enough content, your attention is outside of the money-making-algorythm machine. That's why too many people get angry when they see you do _nothing_. And when you do nothing, you get bored. And boredom is the chamber next to a new brand idea. nostr:note100gfkrpltuxvqtz5tl220rmxhl3px954wkmdh8u87alev972zutqmvms2g
100%. I switched to a flip/dumb phone for a few months at the beginning of this year and I felt like a completely different person. I would actually daydream and come up with ideas again. It ended up being too obstructive and I unfortunatey switched back. Since then though, I've tried a couple easy habits that have really helped. 1. Keep it put away (out of sight and out of touch). I'll zip it into a pocket of my backpack when I'm working and close it into the nightstand when I'm in bed. Just not seeing in your peripheral vision or feeling it in your pocket really cut down on a MASSIVE percentage of that passive, compulsive feeling to "check" something. Even just 1 second of extra friction is enough to make a huge difference. 2. Set the phone UI to greyscale (black and white). It is amazing how much less interesting / engaging this makes your phone even though it is still usable/functional its just not very enjoyable (which is what I want). Anyone else got any simple habits for reducing phone usage?
I use a dumb phone as my daily driver but have a cheap smart phone without a sim card in it. I generally don't bring my smart phone out of the house with me, but I will if I envision needing it. I treat it like a mini computer and pull it out only when needed for some specific task. Doing this I get the best of both worlds in my opinion.
Not sure about the first thing though
Every now and then we need to stare at a tree or bird, contemplate the smell of grass and hear the wind. That’s the best way to detox ourselves imo.
Opt out. Come touch grass in Berlín SV 🇸🇻 https://m.primal.net/Kdyo.jpg
"There is no longer respite for reflecting or choosing or adapting oneself, or for acting or wishing or pulling oneself together. The rule of life is: No sooner said than done. Life has become a racecourse... a succession of objective events which drag us along and lead us astray without anything affording us the possibility of standing apart, taking stock and ceasing to act." - The Technological Society by Jacques Ellul
Indeed, how many of the world-changing ideas were thought of during boredom-induced day-dreams??!! How will we ever make progress now??
And elevated genital cancer.
For some maybe… without technology, I wouldn’t be able to extend my contemplations very far. We have to choose how to use technology, or it will use us & siphon all our attention away. Delete apps sometimes. Lock in. Cycle back and forth. This is the way.. Escape from boredom with an intellectual pursuit, not the useless drudgery. Our phone is a portal to the whole universe, adventures sitting at our fingertips.
