I lean toward “efficient entertainment”, but I do sometimes wonder what that chunk of my free time would look like otherwise.

  • dohpaz42@lemmy.worldEnglish
    80·
    3 months ago

    I would imagine every generation had their vices (lack of better word) that previous generations harped on. Why back in my day it was MTV (ok, occasionally they were right). But I’m sure when newspapers came out it was similar to tablets and phones. When tv came out, the radio-heads bitched about the “idiot box”. So on and so forth. Any history buffs out there care to elaborate?

    • Infynis@midwest.socialEnglish
      85·
      3 months ago

      You can find newspaper articles from the late 1800s IIRC, that decry the slothful youth wasting all their time reading novels instead of playing outside like the glorious generation before them

      • teft@lemmy.worldEnglish
        50·
        3 months ago

        Longer than that. 2500 years ago ancient greek philosophers complained about the youth in the same ways.

        • Echo DotEnglish
          26·
          3 months ago

          One of the oldest written works that we have, and can translate, was written centuries before the Roman empire and it is complaining about “kids these days”.

          This crap has been going on for millennia.

          • Honytawk@lemmy.zipEnglish
            4·
            3 months ago

            The counts of the indictment are luxury, bad manners, contempt for authority, disrespect to elders, and a love for chatter in place of exercise. …

            Children began to be the tyrants, not the slaves, of their households. They no longer rose from their seats when an elder entered the room; they contradicted their parents, chattered before company, gobbled up the dainties at table, and committed various offences against Hellenic tastes, such as crossing their legs. They tyrannised over the paidagogoi and schoolmasters.

            It is commonly attributed to Socrates or Plato, but apparently the real quote was made by some student for his Cambridge Dissertation in 1907

      • Zoboomafoo@slrpnk.netEnglish
        31·
        3 months ago

        Well, I’d rather the youth were reading books instead of watching 5 second clips

      • don@lemm.eeEnglish
        9·
        3 months ago

        “Stop sitting so close, you’ll damage your eyes! Sit farther back!”