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Comment by SolaceQuantum | Hacker News Reader

You realize back in the older days people did the exact same thing with books and newspapers? At least with phones we can talk with people we’re meeting up with.

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People also thought the same thing with television, and they were largely right about television. They were also right about some forms of print media: next time you go to the grocery store, look at the celebrity gossip magazines in the checkout line. They're basically Instagram for older people. They certainly take advantage of the same human impulse to avarice and escapism.

The internet is an amazing tool to connect with people. It's also an tool for marketers and corporations to mediate friendships, romantic relationships, and consumption of media in ways that are far more effective and inescapable than anything that came before it.

It's slightly different, because at least things like books and newspapers carry a tiny bit of intellectualism. You at least need to be able to read and comprehend language. IG, on the other hand, is literally just pictures: you don't even need to be able to comprehend any language to use it.

And I disagree that everyone you see with a phone is guaranteed to be doing things on IG. For example I am on HN, a friend of mine reads fanfiction, others message their friends about their eta, catch up on Facebook, etc.

How about movies and television, then? You don't need to be able to read to enjoy those, and they've been significantly vilified as well.

It seems like you think art has no "intellectualism". IG is a great way to see contemporary fashion and art around the world in real time.

Pictures of food, dogs, and people lounging on some old guy's yacht who they met through tinder doesn't really count as intellectual art.

Also merely photographing someone else's art doesn't quite count as being an artist. That's just cheap mimicry.

Back at the time when people read books and journals, they read junk books (dime novels) and junk journals mostly. And a lot of socializing was drinking beer and having empty talk about football and that girl.

I really hope you are kidding.

Books and newspapers have the power to enrich the mind with knowledge. Writing a book requires dedication and thought out arguments.

Apps are designed to get you hooked on rewards. Twitter allows people to communicate with each others, but if its just garbage coming out, then it does more harm than good. Look at the president.

Books are like fruits and vegetables. Apps are sugary drinks.

> Books are like fruits and vegetables.

You may have an idealized notion of books.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulp_magazine

There are literally tons of junk books out there.

Not to mention tabloid newspapers.

Except back when books were popular to use like phones they were described as mind numbing and anti-intellectual entertainment for kids who are losing touch with the reality around them for the fantasy in books. We’re just switching tHe technology we’re blaming for the ills of the current day.

> I see you are unfamiliar with the Daily Mail

Or tabloid magazines which is like Instagram..

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