Stop staring at internet videos all day and go get a life. Learn Spanish, take up woodworking, volunteer at your local school, walk around the block… do something useful instead of staring at Internet videos, or worse, making internet videos for people to stare at
This is an unhelpful and condescending comment. It dismisses the meaningful activities people engage in online as “not life”: self expression, creating art and community, working, socializing, enjoying entertainment, and learning new things. It proposes a false dichotomy wherein not-online is utopic with universally accessible activities and, especially, an absence of the very same people who make online spaces toxic hellholes. They are present in “real spaces” too. These are not mutually exclusive things. You are likely to find that pro-social activists online are often try to be pro-social activists in person as well.
That being said, I agree that people get terminally online and that balancing digital and physical lives are important. Managing attention and mental health are important, especially when content about important and meaningful topics turn into viral and incessant feeds that are geared to overwhelm human brains that weren’t evolved to handle such constant cognitive/emotional stress.
What about this idea:
Stop staring at internet videos all day and go get a life. Learn Spanish, take up woodworking, volunteer at your local school, walk around the block… do something useful instead of staring at Internet videos, or worse, making internet videos for people to stare at
Hey. I’m learning Spanish, I’m a volunteer, and I run and cycle on the regular!
Somehow, that doesn’t stop you sounding like a bigot though…
What else am I going to do when I’m stuck in an office 10 hours every day?
No thanks.
This is an unhelpful and condescending comment. It dismisses the meaningful activities people engage in online as “not life”: self expression, creating art and community, working, socializing, enjoying entertainment, and learning new things. It proposes a false dichotomy wherein not-online is utopic with universally accessible activities and, especially, an absence of the very same people who make online spaces toxic hellholes. They are present in “real spaces” too. These are not mutually exclusive things. You are likely to find that pro-social activists online are often try to be pro-social activists in person as well.
That being said, I agree that people get terminally online and that balancing digital and physical lives are important. Managing attention and mental health are important, especially when content about important and meaningful topics turn into viral and incessant feeds that are geared to overwhelm human brains that weren’t evolved to handle such constant cognitive/emotional stress.
Take care out there folks.