Our Times
Other drugs that are not considered to be harmful and are used regularly—caffeine, for example—are accepted as enjoyable accoutrements to life, as helping us get along with, or at the very least bear, our daily tasks. Social media is not just accepted—it’s also seen as something functionally beneficial, something that not only supports but also
... See moreit • Using - Damage
Along these lines, one recalls, too, Arendt’s warning in the prologue to The Human Condition: “The future man, whom the scientists tell us they will produce in no more than a hundred years, seems possessed by a rebellion against human existence as it has been given, a free gift from nowhere (secularly speaking), which he wishes to exchange, as it
... See moretheconvivialsociety.substack.com • The Paradox of Control
In a recent newsletter, “The Shopping Cure,” Anne Helen Petersen explored the compulsion to buy and accumulate stuff that’s been fostered by technologies of frictionless consumption. Every conceivable activity or hobby one sets out to enjoy becomes an occasion to buy stuff: “They transform from sites of actual pleasure and diversion to means of
... See moreL. M. Sacasas • Ill With Want
Sehr viel. Toxische Männlichkeit ist ja nicht nur für Frauen und Kinder zerstörerisch, sondern sie schadet auch den Männern. Sie führt unter anderem zu einem Gefühlsverbot: Männer dürfen nicht ängstlich, traurig, schamhaft sein, das ganze mittlerweile bekannte Programm. Diese Gefühle schon in der Kindheit abzuwehren, macht Männer krank. Das ist
... See moreSimone Schmollack • Psychologe Über Gender Und Krieg: „Männer Sind Verunsichert“
By way of contrast, the ideal of limitlessness consumption serves the modern economy quite well, but it does not serve the person well at all. [2] This ideal imparts to us all a spirit of scarcity that darkens our experience: not enough time, not enough attention, not enough capacity to care. But upon what does this spirit feed? It feeds, in part,
... See moreL. M. Sacasas • The Art of Living
In his note, Abramov, who’s worked at the social network for four years, compared Facebook to a nuclear power plant. Facebook, unlike traditional media sources, can generate “social energy” at a scale never seen before, he said.
“But even getting small details wrong can lead to disastrous consequences,” he wrote. “Social media has enough power to
... See morebuzzfeednews.com • “Facebook Is Hurting People at Scale”: Mark Zuckerberg’s Employees Reckon With the Social Network They’ve Built
I often think of the Noah Smith quote: “Fifteen years ago, the internet was an escape from the real world. Now, the real world is an escape from the internet.”