https://archive.ph/OLGDp paywall

At first I was like wtf is with this author. I’m millenial/gen z and even I remember what we did. TV, books, and calling your friends on your wired phone attached to the wall.

But as I read the article, I kinda get it. There was a ton of down time and boredom. However, I disagree that the nothingness was this horrible thing. I think the “nothing ever happens” is what our brains handle much better than “there’s too much happening.”

Our brains literally can’t process the firehose of information streaming into our eyeballs 24/7 365. It starts to go in your eyes and right out your ears. My memory is shit now. I’m forgetting important stuff because it keeps getting deleted to make room for more garbage data like endless dank memes and posts. I think the nothingness, along with REM sleep (which is also disrupted by screens), is what’s needed to help process and therefore retain new information.

I’m trying to spend less time on screens because it feels like dementia and it’s freaking me out.

Wow I hate everything about that. It needs to be made illegal.

It may seem like “jumping to an extreme response” but once you’ve had enough experience in online forums you can see the storm clouds forming from a mile away, and you know you’re just better off with an immediate ban to nip it in the bud before it inevitably turns into a huge problem. People without experience see mods doing this and think they’re too heavy-handed, but it’s just basic internet etiquette to keep things friendly and clean.

I personally saw a few red flags, gave the admin the benefit of the doubt, but when the issue was raised enough to him, and he failed to ban the offenders, I knew exactly where it was heading and just packed up and left. The nicer places will move too eventually once they see enough of it.

It’s always a joke until it’s not anymore. It’s why places like 4chan led to the creation of QAnon and real-world white supremacist terrorism. Even on sh.itjust.works, the mod of the Trump community insists it’s all just “ironic”. But I’ve heard that before and it never stays that way.

That’s why I left that instance. I tried to explain the paradox of tolerance but they refused to listen. They didn’t want “censorship” of their “free speech”. I don’t have the patience to watch people learn the same lesson that has been learned over and over again all throughout history, in millions of different contexts. It’s always the same thing that will happen because sheeps keep thinking it’s “healthy” to have “discussions” with “dissenting” hungry wolves.