I think there should be a movement against postmodern tech

[vlkmo]

There should not only be a movement, but an entire cultural shift away from modern cell phones and social media websites. I grew up as a child in the last "fun" era where I got to have a glimpse of a world before the rise of social media, Tinder-like dating, etc. I believe that if I was a teenager or in my 20s well before the arrival of that stuff, then I might have not have been single through those years and wouldn't still be a virgin today. I wonder if the political culture would've evolved in a more tolerable direction if it wasn't for the 24/7 always-online internet grid.

I loathe the 21st century, I would prefer to live in the older Western culture especially the period of the latter 20th century. I long for a time machine. I think the 50s to the 90s were sort of a golden values compromise and the 50s-60s were an economic golden age. But I am stuck where I am now and when I was born, and I am frustrated by that.

We can also change the present to be better, but a mass culture shift is unlikely to happen. I wonder if we should just blame the postmodern tech (especially modern internet and apps, smartphones) as the root for the present social ills instead, it would also be indirectly solving the problem without calling it. People should try at least.

[Lucas88]

There should not only be a movement, but an entire cultural shift away from modern cell phones and social media websites. I grew up as a child in the last "fun" era where I got to have a glimpse of a world before the rise of social media, Tinder-like dating, etc. I believe that if I was a teenager or in my 20s well before the arrival of that stuff, then I might have not have been single through those years and wouldn't still be a virgin today. I wonder if the political culture would've evolved in a more tolerable direction if it wasn't for the 24/7 always-online internet grid.

I loathe the 21st century, I would prefer to live in the older Western culture especially the period of the latter 20th century. I long for a time machine. I think the 50s to the 90s were sort of a golden values compromise and the 50s-60s were an economic golden age. But I am stuck where I am now and when I was born, and I am frustrated by that.

We can also change the present to be better, but a mass culture shift is unlikely to happen. I wonder if we should just blame the postmodern tech (especially modern internet and apps, smartphones) as the root for the present social ills instead, it would also be indirectly solving the problem without calling it. People should try at least.

I don't foresee people doing away with smartphones en masse. Nor do I see such a Luddite response as desirable. Smartphones, like most modern tech, are far too useful to do away with, essentially constituting a miniature computer that can connect any human being with a wealth of knowledge and information far greater than anything even remotely imaginable in any previous generation. Furthermore, they've become practically indispensable for many aspects of daily life. Rejecting them simply isn't feasible.

There certainly is an argument for restricting social media though, especially as more studies highlighting its negative psychological effects come to light. One could argue that social media platforms — and even more so things like Tinder and OnlyFans — present a form of social harm and should therefore be banned in the name of fostering a healthy society. However, the reality is that such platforms are multi-billion dollar industries and so no government — other than perhaps the most authoritarian — is likely going to ban them.

The same thing applies to most emergent technologies such as AI and biotech. There are recognized risks and possible downsides, but the long-term benefits and potential for revenue are estimated to be so great that it would not be feasible to abort such technological pursuits. Moreover, AI and synthetic biology and the breakthroughs that they are making possible will undoubtedly prove necessary for current nation-states to overcome the various problems that they're currently facing such as housing crises, inflation of food and consumer goods prices, overburdened healthcare systems (the idea is that you can bring down costs with more efficient AI-driven production techniques), and widespread pollution. Not to mention the need to maintain military and geopolitical advantage.

To be honest, I don't think that social media is the only reason for the loneliness/incel epidemic. Far from it. Sure, social media certainly does create false needs while artificially inflating standards, but at the same time people have been getting objectively more ugly, ill-constituted and dysfunctional in the last 20 years due to an increase of environmental toxics and bad lifestyle, while the economy has gotten worse for average people. This is all a recipe for a disastrous dating culture.

I too have a soft spot in my heart for the 80s and 90s. I feel like those of us who are millennials were able to experience the tail end of a time when things were still normal. I also feel that right now we're walking a tightrope over the abyss that is this current time of technological change and social upheaval — the chaotic interval between a relatively simple time that we came to take for granted and a possible high-tech future of AI-driven abundance and unparalleled human enhancement (via gene editing) on the horizon, but still neither here nor there.