LOOK Up :P

Zuko

Couldn't resist the Achaea pun since what I am about to mention is called "Look Up".

Saw this video on Facebook, and I had to share it. It is a very important message about our modern lifestyle, and something that I have always worried about but am also a guilty part of. Watch the entire video, there is a great twist towards the end when just as you think it is winding down. 

All I know is after watching, when I leave my hotel room shortly Ill be leaving my phone behind on the bedside table. 

Zuko

@Scarlatti‌ You'll appreciate the poetic aspect of this!

Strata

I got like 65 texts to scroll through. Will watch later.

Kafziel

What about all those people that met their wives/husbands on online games? If they put down their phone and sold their computer they'd have missed out.

Zuko

Kafziel said:

What about all those people that met their wives/husbands on online games? If they put down their phone and sold their computer they'd have missed out.

Aye, good point. I think this is more about the binge usage of technology we see in modern society. Being on your laptop an hour or so a day, that's fine. But when in public so many people are glued to their phones, I think that is the idea

Edit: In short, it's saying cut back instead of being on technology 24/7

Kuy

No thank you. People are fucking scary. If it wasn't for the Internet and my phone, I would have absolutely no interaction outside the kids at work.

And yes, this is a completely and totally serious post. There is no sarcasm here. I, for one, completely shut down around people. A person recently came up to me at a Chinese food buffet. She told me she liked my shirt and asked what band it was. I was wearing my favorite MCR tee under a RJA jacket. I just stared at her, stammered a little, and she smiled awkwardly and walked away.

The Internet is like people light. Anytime I'm uncomfortable and feel like I'm about to tuck tail and run, I can just turn them off. I like it, it works for me, and it probably won't change for a long time.

Nakari

yeah, I really hate this argument, there's good points to be made, but this video mostly just invokes nostalgia. It's pretty much just a fallacy, a claim that the way people remember living is better then now, just because now is different. Most people are just fine integrating social media with the rest of their social interactions, and frankly, the people I know who are most social on Facebook are also the most social away from the computer.

This video pretty much displays all the reasons this rather common perspective is wrong. It describes other activities you do alone as "productive" with no actual explanation of why those activities are more important then online ones. The whole scenario about missed opportunities is an incredibly silly argument, and essentially a slippery slope. 

Now, this isn't to say that there isn't a case to be made for this argument, but the relationship is far more complex then simply trying to create a dichotomy between "being online" and "being offline," particularly when you lump things like social media, gaming, and other things people do on the internet into one big clump. And hey, lucky for us there's real data out there about a lot of this stuff, which pretty much all agrees that things are complex. Here's a couple of good sources.

So yes, the video is right, we shouldn't solely use online interaction, but it's also wrong to argue that the two are necessarily opposites that trade off with each other, and to label the problem as being "our modern lifestyle" is both ahistoric and a misrepresentation of how this technology is and can be used. As the linked Atlantic article points out, all technology throughout history, from self-serve grocers, the telephone, or probably even mail, have all allowed people to decrease personal interaction. We can't just pretend that computers-merely the most recent in this trend-are somehow uniquely an issue.

Nim

I have a really hard time with 'real life' relationships, because they've usually only lasted a few months or maybe a year or two. Comparing that to friends I've known over the internet, that's a really short amount of time... and to add to that, I usually talk to internet friends a lot more often than real life friends.

So, it's like, I barely get to register them as a friend before circumstances change and I don't get to see them anymore.

Ironically, though, I don't really social media that well. I usually far prefer instant communication (like AIM, IRC, Skype, etcetc).

Berenene

Yeah, the video makes a couple of good points, but on the whole, saying that everyone is enslaved to their technology and needs to leave it behind in order to enjoy life because it's finite is not the answer either.  I know I carry a phone on my when I go out so I can be reached by friends or family for emergencies or to find out where I am and if I want to join them for a coffee.  Also, I've met some awesome people online, which I wouldn't have done had I "looked up".  Also, whenever I hear the argument parents make saying "oh, back in my day, I was outside playing, but today all my kids do is play on their playstation/gameboy/etc, it's sad they'll never experience what I did" I grind my teeth.  You are the parent, they are the child, who was the one who bought that game device they are playing.  As the parent, MAKE them put down the device and go outside and play if that's what you want them to experience, but usually that means they you have to actually stop playing your own facebook games and watch your kids to make sure they don't get hurt or something and be an actual parent, so it's just easier to complain that playing games is all they do.  My brother's children don't spend all day playing those devices.

Zuko

Right, Its a little extreme but I think there are some good points to be made! For example there is a family gathering setting at one point, and everyone is indulging in technology instead of socializing, which commonly happens. But yeah, arguments for both sides im pretty neutral, but thought it was a good video!

Jhaeli

Everything in life is about balance. If you're sitting at the dinner table, make a house rule that phones aren't allowed during dinner. (Hell, that's old school - you couldn't pick up the old landline during dinner at my house either!) Set limits on video games/tv time, for yourself as well as your kids. And so forth. It's more important for families, especially young families, to find that balance.

But for your average young adult? Let me say this - when I was finally asked out by a fleshy person in my early 20s, not long after I moved four hours away from home and everyone I'd ever known in person, it was @Metzger (an internet friend!) who helped talk me through going on an actual date. Said person eventually asked me to marry him and now we has a pretty baby. Internet friends are just as important as real ones for modern young adults and there's nothing wrong with that. 

Synbios

I don't need to look up. I have evolved omnidirectional senses to help detect VILE HUMANS LOOKING TO HUNT ME DOWN FOR THEIR OWN NEFARIOUS PURPOSES. 

YES, I HAVE DISPOSED OF THE HUMAN ASSASSIN CLINGING AGAINST THE CEILING, WAITING FOR ME TO 'LOOK UP'. YOUR VILE TRICKERY WILL NOT WORK ON ME. 

I also got rid of the other assassins lurking behind me, below me, flanking me and hiding in between dimensions, so nice try.

Nim

Synbios said:

I don't need to look up. I have evolved omnidirectional senses to help detect VILE HUMANS LOOKING TO HUNT ME DOWN FOR THEIR OWN NEFARIOUS PURPOSES. 

YES, I HAVE DISPOSED OF THE HUMAN ASSASSIN CLINGING AGAINST THE CEILING, WAITING FOR ME TO 'LOOK UP'. YOUR VILE TRICKERY WILL NOT WORK ON ME. 

I also got rid of the other assassins lurking behind me, below me, flanking me and hiding in between dimensions, so nice try.

I-I just wanted to add you to my collection T_T wh-why do you spurn me so, star spawn? T_T

Nellaundra

I met my closest friends online, and I can say without a doubt that without them, I'd be in a much much worse situation than I am now. One of them pretty much indirectly saved my life, so.

Mithridates

This thread is full of anti technology hipsters and special snowflake self diagnosed social anxiety wannabe idiots

Nellaundra

And now it has a stupid fuck that no one likes. Hi!

Ohm

This seems like the wrong forum to post something like this.

Wait, this is a video on the internet suggesting we use the internet less. The irony.

Mithridates

@Nellaundra‌ oh your flattering me really.

Zuko

@Nellaundra Back off my bb Mith or we are gonna have a problem

Hanley

@Zuko finally! You fixed your signature!

Averi

I was waiting for the twist throughout the entire thing, where he was going to realize that the virtual world is just a different way of communicating or that the internet is actually a connection of angry fire ants and if people don't stop using it, they will end up controlling the world in a matrix-esque fashion or something.  

But seriously... it never came.  

Liked anyway for good writing and a cute accent. 

Ohm

There was sound?

Aepas

I'm on both sides of this argument.

When I see people that can't look up from their phone, I hope they accidentally step into traffic. Awareness of your surroundings is part of being a human.

When I see you've put down your phone and you're still an jerk, I really wish you'd pick it back up and stop talking to me.

Wei

People! 

Life is finite and we're wasting time we could be using to play on the internet!

Saeva