A Documentary On Screens, Technology, the Internet and humanities relationship to them

As being a mid thirty something, this documentary really speaks to the detrimental impact I have received through a life-time of screen addiction. I am posting this in the "Weapons" section as we should all know by now that the first computer and the internet itself were either founded by or funded by the US Mil Complex. In fact, most big tech companies received military funding. The quote which suggests none are more hopelessly enslaved than those whom falsely believe they are free makes me think of another quote which reads none are more entirely exploited than by way of a weapon that they don't realize is a weapon. I love the internet and wish I had parents who helped me form a healthier relationship with it from a young age as opposed to an unhealthy one. However the inconvenient truth is it has, is, and will do more damage than good short of a much needed course-correction.

Directed and written by Jordan Brown, Stare Into The Lights My Pretties is a fascinating, horrifying and thought provoking documentary film, exploring this uneasy new world around us and the dangers we face following our dependence on these machines. Sep 2, 2019

It's available for free here: odysee.com... (copy paste->) (or search Stare Light Pretties on odysee.com) /@ScottishWatchman:4/www.KeepVid.to--Stare-Into-The-Lights-My-Pretties-VOSTFR-Documentaire-Big-Tech-La-Domination-de-GOOGLE-ET-DES-RESEAUX-sur-le-Net- et-leurs-Impacts-562455a6b126b82aa46bc4785a606d1c-:e

a reply to: livinglight108

It’s called “the compulsion loop” in the biz

a reply to: livinglight108

Thanks for sharing. Screen addiction is something I struggle with and am actively attempting to fight it with books, real research, and hobbies. Yet, here I am posting on this site.

A few years ago, someone told me they were researching some conspiracy theories and all they were doing is watching YouTube videos. That's not research. YouTube provides some useful content but most of it is entertainment.

Google search has become a terrible tool for research since it claims to have millions of results but only allows you to see a few hundred...most of which are links to entertainment.

The situation saddens me because I remember a time when the internet was incredibly useful for research. Now, the best utility comes from seamless connectivity for paying bills, investing, email, calendars, etc. The rest has gone down hill, imho, even our ability to connect with others has degraded to polarized content.

Thank you for the link OP. That's perfect for my time on the road.

I grew up reading the newspaper, and on most days I'm online for as much time as I used to spend reading ink on paper. Or a book, for that matter. We're creatures of habit, and my generation had the habit of getting our news and entertainment (The comic section) from the paper. The time spent on that transferred to the time spent online. Which isn't that much.

That's why my suggestion to you and anyone trying to cut down on screen time, is this: Go buy a newspaper. Start small. Start reading the news there. When you find a story or op-ed piece you like, look at the byline. Then look up that person online and do what you need to do to make it easy to find that person and read them. The alternative, of course, is just reading anything that crosses your path on that screen, which increases the time you spend online, gives you more options, which increases your time online when you start sifting through those options. People have forgotten that having less options to sort through will not make them “stupider”. It streamlines the time you take to get information, leaving more time to put that information into your real, offline, life. Which in turn makes you appear smarter.


Want to check your bank balance? Go to your bank's ATM. Want to play a game? Go outside with friends. For everything you can do online, there is an offline option. The sticking point, it seems, for many people is that things take a little longer to do offline than on. People are getting used to that convenience, and that convenience is putting us online more. I think that's what they call irony. You spend time online to save time, but it takes more of your time because you get addicted, in a way, to that convenience of “time saved”. Do we need to be online in 2023? Yes. No question. But the majority of us don't need to be online as much as we are.

Television screens are kind of the same thing. Again, growing up we had 3 channels: NBC, ABC and CBS. Unless there was something physically wrong with you, you didn't spend all day in front of a T.V. screen. Even those of us with social anxiety didn't do that. We got outside and tried anyway. That's just what people did.

As an aside, people didn't use dating sites to find people they shared personal traits with. They, ironically, went outside and found them. The upside is that you can't really lie about who you are when you are face to face with someone. Online? All the time. "I have social anxiety and 10 million dollars" Guess how many people you're going to find that are nervous in public too.

Now, I'm a realist. I understand that the generations who grew up with a screen are not going to do what people of my generation are suggesting. But for people like you, OP, who are sick and tired of being sick and tired (in a manner of speaking) there are baby steps people can take to reduce screen time and any negative effects that may incur. The last time I looked, stores still sell newspapers and there is an on/off button on screens. If it's a problem for anyone, just remember that we are, indeed, creatures of habit and that it takes somewhere between 6 and 9 months to break away from old habits and slide into new ones. You just have to want it badly enough.

Sometimes it takes patience, and sometimes it takes more patience than the screens have taught you to have. That's the kicker. We have to do something in a way that we were not “programmed” to do. Swimming against the current. Going against the grain. Being in a gunfight with a knife. However you measure it out, the outcome is the same: It's hard to do. But it can still be done if you want it badly enough.

The bottom line is this: Whatever you do online, you can do offline. It just takes more time.

Thank you for making a thread on this - I keep trying to get my husband and daughter to understand how insidious 'screen addiction' is, but they won't listen...

Maybe if they watch this documentary, it will help..

Here's a YouTube version:

It is a powerful weapon- A psychological weapon. Who started the internet? Drrrp First patent for TV? hyyyp

a reply to: livinglight108

I used a cheat sheet summary instead, but I get the gist of it.

www.thereviewgeek.com...

One of the highlights of the film comes from a fascinating psychological experiment that sees our filmmaker walking around and filming random people, paying particular attention to how awkward and self-conscious people get over it. It’s actually a very clever experiment that really proves a point about how oblivious we are to technological dangers, especially given people have devices that record and track every move we match. It’s such a fascinating experiment and works to signify just how apathetic we are to the mega-machine at work in the background of our lives.

I can see where some people would need a wake up call regarding excessive screen time but isn't it just another life's issue to be acknowledged as being bad for you and to use self-discipline to correct it. It may be easy for me to talk because I was not exposed to excessive screen use until adulthood and that was for work. I can easily turn everything off and do non-screen activities, which I have incorporated into my life since a very young age. It may be conditioning and habit that needs to be changed or replaced.