Hey Justin, a clearly thorough, well-thought-out piece. I've only just made a Substack, and have been tinkering with my philosophy around social media/tech. Your posts have nudged me in different directions. Been a great help in keeping me up to date too. As all this news about generative AI is filling up news feeds I and others have this sort of tiredness? this looming feeling that the doom is getting old and we just want to get off. A growing part of my philosophy as my user suggests is abstinence altogether. It's useful to know when to call out AI BS but as a Gen Z girl I have a sense that I just want to shut my phone off altogether and leave the internet as much as I can. Digital minimalism to the max. Anyone else?
First of all, APPstinent is a great name. I always try to remember that the Internet is ultimatley a tool. But it's not always the right tool for the job. Like it's great for checking the weather but when it comes to maintaining friendships the Internet can't hold a candle to IRL (despite what tech companies will pretend).
That said, I do think it's important to at least know about new tech, because knowing innoculates us against being easily manipulated by it. Like if someone never learned about how advanced AI voice mimicry has gotten, they could be easily be scammed out of their money by a fake phone call from a "friend".
Thanks for the insightful comment and I'm looking forward to checking out your writing!
Haha, thanks, the name came to me during a rare event of my generation-- a long, uninterrupted period of boredom in complete silence. I had a conversation the other day with my older aunts about the increase in scams in my county. This wasn't a doing of AI, the scammers had just started using local phone numbers so many more people started picking up their calls. Anyways it led to me discussing the foolery of so much AI, and without having this discussion many of them would not be as aware of how they could be tricked.
This convo with you is leading me to the part of my philosophy around news consumption. I have been testing different ranges of time I can go without reading the news and still be "informed" (whatever that means anymore) and it seems to be that reading the news myself every ten days is good, and any huge events always get to me (a sort of quality control tbh).
Totally! I had the same realization with news after going on a trip without a phone signal for ten days. Also, let's be honest, a lot of what is called "news" isn't really news if you think about it. I still read national and global news, but I also have an RSS reader I keep stocked with local blogs and the free weeklys. Also Instagram (on a computer, not a phone) is actually a good place to keep up with local goings-on. So I'm reading "news" but it's stuff like- "there's a new bird watching group starting in a park nearby" which is a lot less likely to cause anxiety 😅 As you said- the truly important national stuff seems to find its way no matter what.
I've been thinking lately about the role of dinnertime in being aware. I have been away from my family for years (most meals were then eaten by myself or quickly with friends) and the nature of my social awareness has totally changed since I got home. When I was eating with my friends (all late teenagers or early 20 somethings) there was an unspoken assumption you knew everything that was going on, to the point that there was a slight shame in bringing up topics for fear that you weren't "aware enough." With my 60-something parents however they had a habit of bringing up the daily news (my grandparents are the same, I'm sure it's a generational thing right?) so I could always rely on them to get me the meat of the news run without all the fluffy stuff. The more time I spend with my parents the less news I read because they get me in the know just enough. They do not have any social media and have a news site or two per person that they read every other day or so. Classic paradox of the young generation being overconnected to a point of disservice, and the older generation still sticking to media habits from decades ago.
Y'know, I could have sworn the full essay was online somewhere but I don't see it now. I think I may have originally got the book (the collection it's the first part of) from the library. A real gem!
This was great.Always good to read your stuff. Love how you broke down bullshit. One point of departure for me though. I can see why people lately trust TikTok as a media source. They see a genocide unfolding there that they do not see on the news. Or to quote a recent tweet by ARX-Han: "In virtually every other context, the smartphone is an engine of state surveillance and control, and yet in the case of an ongoing genocide, it suddenly inverts in function and the consent manufacturing apparatus spins out of control. Truly a dual-use technology." But other than that, I wish saw more posts from you. Great to read you again.
IDK, choosing to give ones trust to a demonstrably untrustworthy platform like TikTok because someone has lost faith in "mainstream" journalism, feels to me kinda like buying drugs from the guy behind a 7-11 because purdue pharma is untrustworthy. It strikes me as ill-considered. This isn't an arab spring scenario, TikTok boosts performance, not activism.
(Also thanks for the kind words! I always hope to see a comment from you, Mo!)
Hey Justin, a clearly thorough, well-thought-out piece. I've only just made a Substack, and have been tinkering with my philosophy around social media/tech. Your posts have nudged me in different directions. Been a great help in keeping me up to date too. As all this news about generative AI is filling up news feeds I and others have this sort of tiredness? this looming feeling that the doom is getting old and we just want to get off. A growing part of my philosophy as my user suggests is abstinence altogether. It's useful to know when to call out AI BS but as a Gen Z girl I have a sense that I just want to shut my phone off altogether and leave the internet as much as I can. Digital minimalism to the max. Anyone else?
First of all, APPstinent is a great name. I always try to remember that the Internet is ultimatley a tool. But it's not always the right tool for the job. Like it's great for checking the weather but when it comes to maintaining friendships the Internet can't hold a candle to IRL (despite what tech companies will pretend).
That said, I do think it's important to at least know about new tech, because knowing innoculates us against being easily manipulated by it. Like if someone never learned about how advanced AI voice mimicry has gotten, they could be easily be scammed out of their money by a fake phone call from a "friend".
Thanks for the insightful comment and I'm looking forward to checking out your writing!
Haha, thanks, the name came to me during a rare event of my generation-- a long, uninterrupted period of boredom in complete silence. I had a conversation the other day with my older aunts about the increase in scams in my county. This wasn't a doing of AI, the scammers had just started using local phone numbers so many more people started picking up their calls. Anyways it led to me discussing the foolery of so much AI, and without having this discussion many of them would not be as aware of how they could be tricked.
This convo with you is leading me to the part of my philosophy around news consumption. I have been testing different ranges of time I can go without reading the news and still be "informed" (whatever that means anymore) and it seems to be that reading the news myself every ten days is good, and any huge events always get to me (a sort of quality control tbh).
Totally! I had the same realization with news after going on a trip without a phone signal for ten days. Also, let's be honest, a lot of what is called "news" isn't really news if you think about it. I still read national and global news, but I also have an RSS reader I keep stocked with local blogs and the free weeklys. Also Instagram (on a computer, not a phone) is actually a good place to keep up with local goings-on. So I'm reading "news" but it's stuff like- "there's a new bird watching group starting in a park nearby" which is a lot less likely to cause anxiety 😅 As you said- the truly important national stuff seems to find its way no matter what.
I've been thinking lately about the role of dinnertime in being aware. I have been away from my family for years (most meals were then eaten by myself or quickly with friends) and the nature of my social awareness has totally changed since I got home. When I was eating with my friends (all late teenagers or early 20 somethings) there was an unspoken assumption you knew everything that was going on, to the point that there was a slight shame in bringing up topics for fear that you weren't "aware enough." With my 60-something parents however they had a habit of bringing up the daily news (my grandparents are the same, I'm sure it's a generational thing right?) so I could always rely on them to get me the meat of the news run without all the fluffy stuff. The more time I spend with my parents the less news I read because they get me in the know just enough. They do not have any social media and have a news site or two per person that they read every other day or so. Classic paradox of the young generation being overconnected to a point of disservice, and the older generation still sticking to media habits from decades ago.
Thank you for introducing me to George Saunders's quote, crazy how accurate it is to this day. Which, I suppose, was the point.
Y'know, I could have sworn the full essay was online somewhere but I don't see it now. I think I may have originally got the book (the collection it's the first part of) from the library. A real gem!
No worries Justin, I was able to find it
This was great.Always good to read your stuff. Love how you broke down bullshit. One point of departure for me though. I can see why people lately trust TikTok as a media source. They see a genocide unfolding there that they do not see on the news. Or to quote a recent tweet by ARX-Han: "In virtually every other context, the smartphone is an engine of state surveillance and control, and yet in the case of an ongoing genocide, it suddenly inverts in function and the consent manufacturing apparatus spins out of control. Truly a dual-use technology." But other than that, I wish saw more posts from you. Great to read you again.
IDK, choosing to give ones trust to a demonstrably untrustworthy platform like TikTok because someone has lost faith in "mainstream" journalism, feels to me kinda like buying drugs from the guy behind a 7-11 because purdue pharma is untrustworthy. It strikes me as ill-considered. This isn't an arab spring scenario, TikTok boosts performance, not activism.
(Also thanks for the kind words! I always hope to see a comment from you, Mo!)
Great analogy