Hi David, The more comfortable one's living the less the need to 'worry' about what else is going open and the more time one has available to spend doing relaxing/invigorating/rewarding things. I think you are right - as a Boomer, I witness that my friends who have done well have little desire to chase the information availability revolution by being tied to a phone (or AI?). They don't need to augment their reality unless they have a strong interest driven by other than survival/paying the rent. and they can afford to indulge in and value all the things that can be done when disconnected. They believe that alongside luck and education and character, it is astute use of intelligence and curiosity rather than information that has made their difference. So the question becomes, as you have been exploring in the Exponentialist, when does the lack of access to AI for its ability to foster a discussion rather than to deliver information make the difference. The debate for the kids at Eton is about does learning to train the mind to think laterally, make thought connections and explore without easy access to what is online as a teenager (during term time) prepare them sufficiently to then leap on to the tools at a later age and succeed as they are led to expect to be able to succeed.
Thanks Anthony; much more on all this coming from me soon. Fascinating that you already see this playing out among your successful friends. My feeling is that putting strong guardrails around the internet use of children will help make them well-rounded and creative thinkers, and that will ultimately make them better users of information and AI in their adult lives.
Im sure you are right. Maybe you should add Eton as one of your clients to consult to? I was fortunate enough to go to a competitor school where the concept of climate change, for instance, was introduced to me in the mid seventies. Mind expansion iOS what they are trying to achieve. DM me thru RV if you want to pursue...
This school year, a lot of Dutch schools banned the use of smartphones in the school (they have to leave them at home or in their locker). It isn't mandatory (yet, although it is 'advised'), but still hundreds of school went ahead and implemented these rules. I'm a teacher myself and I welcomed these rules. We started after Ascension, and already in those few weeks, my students are behaving differently in class, but even more so in the hallways and during breaks. They play (card or board) games, talk more and making a lot more noise generally: you can clearly see the effect it has on socializing when there is no smartphone present.
I don't see it as a upper class-lower class thing, but as society reacting where politics is too slow. Already there are groups of parents, in different countries including the UK, trying to convince their schools and other parents to ban smartphone use in school. Some countries are starting to make this into law. The UK is just slower than other countries.
Fascinating to get the perspective of a teacher on this; thanks Joost. I think some state schools in the UK are also moving towards a ban on phones, or at least much more strict rules about how and when they can be used. It seems faintly insane to me that we ever decided to allow teenagers to bring smartphones to school.
Well, with the wisdom of hindsight, that's a bit easy to say. As someone who grew up with internet, cell phones and smart phones slowly coming into our lives (born in '88), smart phones were and still are wonderful devices. For everyone, even kids and teens! For example: I'm writing this on my phone while on the road for a vacation in France, and at the same time this phone is connected to our car, telling my girlfriend how to get to our destination using Waze and playing songs for our kids sitting in the back seat. If you would have told me this would be a reality in 25 years time when I was the kid sitting in the back seat of my parents' car, I would've sat you were mad.
Where it went wrong in my opinion, is that we allowed tech companies to make apps that are first and foremost build to be addictive. It's the logical result of the way we use the internet: we are used to pay for acces, not to use websites or apps (especially kids, who don't have enough money). So we 'pay' with our data. More use time means more data equals more revenue. So, if you can make an app that's addictive, you make more money. The correct question to ask is not 'how did we allow smart phones into our schools', but 'how did we allow tech companies to turn our kids (and ourselves, let's be honest) into addicts?'
Sidenote: there's a great interview with the guy who invented to first pop-up ad. He blames himself for the state of the internet nowadays because of this invention, because it created the way companies monetize users. Check out episode 5 'The Accidental Emperor' of the podcast 'Rabbit Hole' (which is hosted by NYT reporter Kevin Roose, who is co-hosting another great weekly tech podcast 'Hard Fork').
What a great article…the vague outline of this idea has been floating around in my head for awhile…but you articulated it so well!
I love the idea that at least some of the population would take back their humanity from the machines
Thanks Jared; will definitely be writing more about these ideas.
Amen, Jared! Should we be buying shares in Nokia?!
🤣😂 or Blackberry!!!!
Haha!
Hi David, The more comfortable one's living the less the need to 'worry' about what else is going open and the more time one has available to spend doing relaxing/invigorating/rewarding things. I think you are right - as a Boomer, I witness that my friends who have done well have little desire to chase the information availability revolution by being tied to a phone (or AI?). They don't need to augment their reality unless they have a strong interest driven by other than survival/paying the rent. and they can afford to indulge in and value all the things that can be done when disconnected. They believe that alongside luck and education and character, it is astute use of intelligence and curiosity rather than information that has made their difference. So the question becomes, as you have been exploring in the Exponentialist, when does the lack of access to AI for its ability to foster a discussion rather than to deliver information make the difference. The debate for the kids at Eton is about does learning to train the mind to think laterally, make thought connections and explore without easy access to what is online as a teenager (during term time) prepare them sufficiently to then leap on to the tools at a later age and succeed as they are led to expect to be able to succeed.
Thanks Anthony; much more on all this coming from me soon. Fascinating that you already see this playing out among your successful friends. My feeling is that putting strong guardrails around the internet use of children will help make them well-rounded and creative thinkers, and that will ultimately make them better users of information and AI in their adult lives.
Im sure you are right. Maybe you should add Eton as one of your clients to consult to? I was fortunate enough to go to a competitor school where the concept of climate change, for instance, was introduced to me in the mid seventies. Mind expansion iOS what they are trying to achieve. DM me thru RV if you want to pursue...
This school year, a lot of Dutch schools banned the use of smartphones in the school (they have to leave them at home or in their locker). It isn't mandatory (yet, although it is 'advised'), but still hundreds of school went ahead and implemented these rules. I'm a teacher myself and I welcomed these rules. We started after Ascension, and already in those few weeks, my students are behaving differently in class, but even more so in the hallways and during breaks. They play (card or board) games, talk more and making a lot more noise generally: you can clearly see the effect it has on socializing when there is no smartphone present.
I don't see it as a upper class-lower class thing, but as society reacting where politics is too slow. Already there are groups of parents, in different countries including the UK, trying to convince their schools and other parents to ban smartphone use in school. Some countries are starting to make this into law. The UK is just slower than other countries.
Fascinating to get the perspective of a teacher on this; thanks Joost. I think some state schools in the UK are also moving towards a ban on phones, or at least much more strict rules about how and when they can be used. It seems faintly insane to me that we ever decided to allow teenagers to bring smartphones to school.
Well, with the wisdom of hindsight, that's a bit easy to say. As someone who grew up with internet, cell phones and smart phones slowly coming into our lives (born in '88), smart phones were and still are wonderful devices. For everyone, even kids and teens! For example: I'm writing this on my phone while on the road for a vacation in France, and at the same time this phone is connected to our car, telling my girlfriend how to get to our destination using Waze and playing songs for our kids sitting in the back seat. If you would have told me this would be a reality in 25 years time when I was the kid sitting in the back seat of my parents' car, I would've sat you were mad.
Where it went wrong in my opinion, is that we allowed tech companies to make apps that are first and foremost build to be addictive. It's the logical result of the way we use the internet: we are used to pay for acces, not to use websites or apps (especially kids, who don't have enough money). So we 'pay' with our data. More use time means more data equals more revenue. So, if you can make an app that's addictive, you make more money. The correct question to ask is not 'how did we allow smart phones into our schools', but 'how did we allow tech companies to turn our kids (and ourselves, let's be honest) into addicts?'
Sidenote: there's a great interview with the guy who invented to first pop-up ad. He blames himself for the state of the internet nowadays because of this invention, because it created the way companies monetize users. Check out episode 5 'The Accidental Emperor' of the podcast 'Rabbit Hole' (which is hosted by NYT reporter Kevin Roose, who is co-hosting another great weekly tech podcast 'Hard Fork').