Re:Almost half the world will be online by end of 2016
by Jtsummers on Tuesday November 22, 2016 @09:32AM
(#13014327)
I spent my last years of high school in Las Vegas. My school was downtown, just blocks from the Fremont Street Experience. We were surrounded by people who were impoverished by gambling. A lot of the people running and working in casinos don't gamble themselves (smart). And those who opposed gambling on moral grounds but participated in the gambling economy justified it with statements like, "Gambling is a sin, but I'm not gambling, so I'm ok." Neglecting the negative impact they had on many people.
They slept just fine at night. Most people seem to be quite capable of this sort of detachment from the impact of their choices.
It's also a very lonely place. Human beings are reduced to casual stimulation. No amount of information is ever enough. We don't know our neighbors.
I try as hard as I can to stay away from the internet, especially social media. Hacker News is the only exception, the only drug that I can't quit.
I sometimes wonder how the tobacco executives feel as they promote a harmful product, even while many of them do not smoke.
Detached consumerism is a disease. It is hard to cure because we are all complicit in this ailment. The internet, with its stimulating advertising and glossy social media perceptions of a flawless moment in time, is a vector for this disease. I'm not sure the internet is helping us. It may be instrumental in us hurting ourselves, and each other, instead.