this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2024
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Are they a thief of focus or simply very efficient entertainment? (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 months ago by The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world to c/microblogmemes@lemmy.world
147 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I lean toward "efficient entertainment", but I do sometimes wonder what that chunk of my free time would look like otherwise.

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[–] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 80 points 3 months ago (4 children)

I would imagine every generation had their vices (lack of better word) that previous generations harped on. Why back in my day it was MTV (ok, occasionally they were right). But I’m sure when newspapers came out it was similar to tablets and phones. When tv came out, the radio-heads bitched about the “idiot box”. So on and so forth. Any history buffs out there care to elaborate?

[–] Infynis@midwest.social 85 points 3 months ago (2 children)

You can find newspaper articles from the late 1800s IIRC, that decry the slothful youth wasting all their time reading novels instead of playing outside like the glorious generation before them

[–] teft@lemmy.world 50 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Longer than that. 2500 years ago ancient greek philosophers complained about the youth in the same ways.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 26 points 3 months ago (1 children)

One of the oldest written works that we have, and can translate, was written centuries before the Roman empire and it is complaining about "kids these days".

This crap has been going on for millennia.

[–] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 4 points 3 months ago

The counts of the indictment are luxury, bad manners, contempt for authority, disrespect to elders, and a love for chatter in place of exercise. …

Children began to be the tyrants, not the slaves, of their households. They no longer rose from their seats when an elder entered the room; they contradicted their parents, chattered before company, gobbled up the dainties at table, and committed various offences against Hellenic tastes, such as crossing their legs. They tyrannised over the paidagogoi and schoolmasters.

It is commonly attributed to Socrates or Plato, but apparently the real quote was made by some student for his Cambridge Dissertation in 1907

[–] Zoboomafoo 2 points 3 months ago

Well, I'd rather the youth were reading books instead of watching 5 second clips

[–] noodlejetski@lemm.ee 13 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] AGD4@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago

Thank you very much for sharing that article! t's an awesome read.

[–] BackOnMyBS@lemmy.autism.place 13 points 3 months ago (1 children)

“idiot box”

it was called the boob tube

[–] don@lemm.ee 9 points 3 months ago

“Stop sitting so close, you’ll damage your eyes! Sit farther back!”

[–] Belgdore@lemm.ee 6 points 3 months ago

Pastime I think is the correct term.