• NarrativeBear@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Correct, its not about the phone its about “distractions” in general.

    The phone is just today’s equivalent, of yesterday’s thing that keeps people entertained and distracted from the world around them. Whether that is a TV, Newspaper, Book, Play, or a cold beer.

    • stopdropandprole@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      are you saying ‘its all just different flavors of the same thing, just different ways to entertain yourself’?

      isn’t who controls the content and the nature of that content extremely important too?

      is spending 4 hours/day watching TV reruns of Golden Girls and… spending 4 hours/day locked in a frenzy of algorithmically targeted highly personalized addictive right wing propaganda… the same thing?

      • the_crotch
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        3 days ago

        What comes on after golden girls? The 6 o’clock news, where if it bleeds it leads.

      • NarrativeBear@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        The Romans had the coliseum to entertain the populous, all to distract from the problems their empire was facing.

        So as you put it, its different flavours of the same thing.

        Yes algorithmically targeted highly personalized addictive social media might no be the same as a TV rerun of Golden Girls, but both are still a form of entertainment and one could argue both are fighting for your attention/distracting you from the world.