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Culture War Roundup for the week of March 13, 2023

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If anyone has suggestions for other things worth doing or being, or that satisfy that "check my phone while waiting in the line to pickup the kids" nudge that avoids my new no-nos, I'm all ears.

I know that I'm late to the party since you probably already left. But how about being bored like a psychopath without distracting yourself? You know what we used to do back in the day before we got psychologically manipulated to give our attention so we can be force fed ads by AI algorithms? I know that your own thoughts are scary but that is a big part of a worthy life is the ability to think instead numbing yourself without your devices.

Chapter 4 of McLuhan's book Understanding Media has the heading "The Gadget Lover", but the subheading is equally apt to this situation "Narcissism as Narcotics", and the fucking book is written in the 60:s and the whole chapter is a prediction on what happens when we get social media. Right down to the "amputation" when we cut access to it.