Current Events > Majority of Americans would like to return to time before cell phones, internet

(+) Yeah! (+)

I remember getting my bills in the mail (postal mail). It was nice only having to pay my bills in the span of an hour after getting home from work.

With email billing, companies send you your bills at any damn time they please. You'll crawl into bed at 2300 and read an ebook for a bit...

...only to find that at 0023 in the morning, you just received your credit card bill.

And now you have the choice of paying it right then and there... or trying to get to sleep knowing that you need to take care of it the following day.

(I know that I can't fall asleep knowing I owe money.)

I mean, I can legally get married now for one, compared to this 'perfect time' boomers yearn for.

Social media is a blight, no doubt, but so much other good has come from the 'internet age'

The internet and cell phones aren't the issue. Unregulated social media and too many Americans having zero media literacy are the bigger problem and I think it's an instance of not being able to close Pandora's Box, especially in the years that came after smartphones and residential broadband internet access becoming affordable.

Before the advent of affordable smartphones, most Americans, even dumb ones, had some semblance of media literacy and were able to easily circumnavigate around stupid shit on the web, or at least be able to take it for what it is. Nowadays you have massive swaths of Americans who don't understand the concepts of clickbait, misinformation, astroturfing and predatory advertising/media practices and give absolutely no fucks because they just want to be able to see content 24/7.

Are you saying that the vast number of teenagers suffering a record level of depression and anxiety simply lack media literacy? I don't think that's the issue. Being plugged in 24/7 to what are ultimately fictitious social circles is simply not compatible with how our brains have evolved to function.

Imagine today if the only way to decide if you wanted a new game was reading a two paragraph review in a magazine.

I think its so easy to look back with rose-tinted glasses.

But reality is, tech has improved life in so many ways.

Not saying that there are zero downsides to modern life, but the pros outweighs the cons.

The internet is a grand, great thing, and people don't know what true power they have today. I prefer knowing about the atrocities of the world rather than it all being kept from us.

My entire livelihood depends on the internet but I would totally abolish it if I could. Phones and all. Dial up only maybe. Its similar to my gun views. Abolish all guns except for like muskets. Muskets = dial up in this metaphor ok?

People who want to go back to the dark ages seem to be those with no self control and those who cannot raise children. Not sure how Im the fuck not having a phone or internet prevents or solves either issue as both types have likely been around since the beginning of the genus homo no doubt.

My entire livelihood depends on the internet but I would totally abolish it if I could. Phones and all. Dial up only maybe. Its similar to my gun views. Abolish all guns except for like muskets. Muskets = dial up in this metaphor ok?

Yeah, let's also abolish medicine except like natural herbs or something and have the human body fight off diseases naturally. If it can't tough luck, that's weeding the wheat from the chaff, that's how nature and evolution was intended amirite?

How about we keep the internet and cellphones but Thanos Snap social media away?

Opt out of that then

How about we keep the internet and cellphones but Thanos Snap social media away?

Sounds like it's mostly older gen Xers who need to get with the times

What the majority of these americans really mean is they want to live without social media. Cellphones and the internet are not the real issue.

What the majority of these americans really mean is they want to live without social media. Cellphones and the internet are not the real issue.

So what, then, VHS porn?

I blame smartphones. I was in college around circa 2010, the perfect timing for the transition of the old world to the smartphone world. When I started college you would hang out with friends without the Internet intruding. It was pure "living in the moment" you could say. By the time I graduated you could tell the Internet seeped into life and all gatherings and a lot of people were always glued to their smartphones.

I'd bet $100 that if 70% of respondents got their wish and were sent back in time to their desired time period of their youth. It would only take a month for the vast majority of them to regret their decision and choose to come back to the present.

As in actually have nothing to do.

They would not like it.

I would also not like going back to the old methods of paying bills and balancing checkbooks. Or researching topics. Or figuring out directions. Or being unable to communicate while in transit.

How about we keep the internet and cellphones but Thanos Snap social media away?

"Majority of Americans want to return to better past time that never actually existed"

umm... pretty sure there was a time not too long ago where the internet did not exist.

How about we keep the internet and cellphones but Thanos Snap social media away?