Living in Cyberspace

I guess I actually need a new thread for once. This can be for any discussion relating to people living digitally integrated lifestyles.

I find this really fascinating. Count me in the 31%, obviously.

The simultaneously too high and not high enough.

Too high because really we should be living a life other than sitting in front of the computer. Maybe the machine learning platforms can help with this by increasing efficiency. If we can get our computer work done faster, we can have more time to go biking and such.

It’s not high enough because too many US adults are not fully participating in our society. They’re not online enough to stay full informed of everything that’s going on. And they’re digitally integrated enough to understand technology, and how it works. You can see this reflected in our government every time incompetent congresspeople bring tech execs into a hearing.

I’m not betting on it. Some economist, 1930:

There is evidence that the revolutionary
technical changes, which have so far chiefly affected industry, may soon be
attacking agriculture. We may be on the eve of improvements in the efficiency
of food production as great as those which have already taken place in mining,
manufacture, and transport. In quite a few years-in our own lifetimes I
mean-we may be able to perform all the operations of agriculture, mining, and
manufacture with a quarter of the human effort to which we have been
accustomed.
[…]
I feel sure that with a little more experience we shall use the new-found bounty
of nature quite differently from the way in which the rich use it to-day, and will
map out for ourselves a plan of life quite otherwise than theirs.

For many ages to come the old Adam will be so strong in us that everybody
will need to do some work if he is to be contented. We shall do more things for
ourselves than is usual with the rich to-day, only too glad to have small duties
and tasks and routines. But beyond this, we shall endeavour to spread the bread
thin on the butter-to make what work there is still to be done to be as widely
shared as possible. Three-hour shifts or a fifteen-hour week may put off the
problem for a great while.

I meant the work we do on the good screen. We all know how the work on the bad screen goes.

Scottsune Miku.

1 Like

I wonder what the breakdown is based on type of use (i.e., social media, streaming services, etc.). How many people consider themselves “constantly online” but are mindlessly scrolling through Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, or watching an endless drip of YouTube videos? Not everyone carefully curates how they engage with the internet, and even for those that do, it’s very easy to create an echo-chamber if you don’t seek things out that are new or challenge your worldview.