I know we have more than people in the past and people see that as a good thing, progress, but I'm not so sure and wonder if people who had less were in fact better off.
Growing up as a kid in 1970's Australia (a rural town) I had little but I think my upbringing was better, more of an adventure for a young lad. No phone, devices, video games fancy shit...just an imagination, trees, wide open spaces, the creek, tadpoles, my bike, sports, other kids to play with, a sand pit...that sort of thing. Anyway, I think people are growing up with the wrong ethos, the wrong things in mind to chase and work for and that leads to job slavery I suppose...exactly what the corporations and governments want. This sort of thing is habit forming.
I was a townie but surrounded by rural. I spent most of my childhood riding bikes, swimming in pools and rivers, and playing. At the same time we had latest tech and that’s what led me into IT so I had the best of both worlds.
I think blaming tech is the wrong way to go. I think society in general has changed so much that it’s hard for kids to be kids without someone trying to do bad things to the kids. It’s easier to use tech to “get out” than it is to actually get out and do things.
Sure, back when we were young bad people existed but they were few and far between. But we never discussed this sort of thing, it got swept under the rug as the town’s dirty little secret.
Now though, people have gone from bad to worse and no one trusts anyone.
Tech gets to be the scapegoat but the dirty little secret is society has collapsed inside itself and so we get lovely little trinkets put in front of us to distract us from that fact.
We then get addicted to the trinkets because dealing with the problem is too big for us. This then leads to all sorts of problems such as slavery to the monetary system to pay for the trinkets that we’re told will make us happy when deep down we all know the system is broken and no one’s trying to fix it.
THAT’S the circle of life.
Well said.