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Platforms like TikTok and Instagram are engines of distraction and cultural rot. They stand in front of the more difficult but more rewarding aspects of life: deep work, intimate connections with friends and loved ones, focused attention for hobbies with intrinsic rewards. By training users to crave constant novelty and the immediate approval of an... See more
Adam Singer • TikTok and Instagram are intellectual poison
Here’s the other problem with Facebook and Twitter and even The New York Times. When you expose yourself to those things, especially in the constant way that people do now—older people as well as younger people—you are continuously bombarding yourself with a stream of other people’s thoughts. You are marinating yourself in the conventional wisdom. ... See more
William Deresiewicz • Solitude and Leadership
Reflecting on this email from a Sublime believer:
Consuming media has become a massive time-suck for humankind. Only decades ago, the average person had one source of information, if any — the newspaper. Journalists chronicled happenings relevant to their community. And that was it. Someone got married, someone is selling their house, someone died,
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I’m convinced that it’s going to become a straightforwardly high-status, elite play to renounce phones, social media, and many other aspects of digital culture. In a world of insane information abundance and always-on connection, reclaiming the stillness of your own mind will be akin to flying private.
If I’m right, we’ll see a growing divide betwee
... See moreDavid Mattin from New World Same Humans • New Week #138
The internet has dramatically changed our ability to know things, but our ability to change things has remained the same, or possibly diminished as a) most of our free-time is now spread out in unsatisfying micro doses of scrolling throughout the day b) seeming has become more important than doing.
On the Internet, clapping for essential workers is
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