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Comment by scaladev | Hacker News Reader

Such an easy thing to say from a privileged position in (probably) the richest country on Earth. I was lucky enough to be born in one of those "remote locations", which you could not find on the map if your life depended on it. The internet connection I now have _enables_ my creativity, however limited. It allows me to learn and use technologies I wouldn't even know existed. I'd rather off myself than go back to ye olden times when the only thing I had to entertain myself was a limited collection of 40-year old books from a local library.

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This is a mis-understanding of the OP. The internet is inherently a very __useful__ tool. The problem is that social-media companies have turned the need for social interaction into a crack-like addiction (by design) where peoples attention-spans are being sold piecemeal.

Social media is often a junk-food version of social interactions designed to sell ads to people. This leads to short attention spans and social anxieties. How many dinner tables have you sat at where couples sit there on their phones, and scarcely talk? This seems commonplace now...

I take those dinner table situations as a challenge; in invitation to making that moment more interesting than their phones.

> The internet connection I now have _enables_ my creativity, however limited. It allows me to learn and use technologies I wouldn't even know existed

100% agree. The internet provides knowledge right at your fingertips. It is amazing and sad at the same time that most people don't take full advantage of this.

> I'd rather off myself than go back to ye olden times

However, I have 99.999% confidence that you or most of us wouldn't do this. Human beings are extremely adaptable.

Internet makes the smart smarter and the dumb dumber. Its an amplifier. Same thing with Twitter, you can find amazing independent content or you can end up with commenting and dunking the outrage story of the day.

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