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     6 days ago  

    A brief reply pointed this out in response to a Luddite "magnum opus" that argued smartphones will bring about the end of civilization

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       6 days ago  

      That piece claimed, “As you have probably noticed, the world of the screen is going to be much a choppier place than the world of print: more emotional, more angry, more chaotic.” That claim is unconvincing. By the mid‑20th century the world had already seen one world war and was heading toward another. The following decades comprised a prolonged Cold War with the constant threat of nuclear conflict and the needless deaths of tens of millions under Communist regimes. Earlier centuries were even more brutal

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         6 days ago  

        The most absurd element of that loose assortment of tangents was the attempt to cite the French Revolution as evidence that literacy civilizes. With reasoning like that, literacy might be in jeopardy

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           6 days ago  

          It is acknowledged that social media and ready‑to‑consume short‑form entertainment are distracting. Many young adults now read fewer novels than desired, often spending evenings on social platforms or short‑form video instead. These are routine observations and do not justify broad inferences about wider political trends. Proposing de‑technologization as a cure for declining literary consumption is naive and unserious; no feasible solution lies that way

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             6 days ago  

            Some have called earlier critiques "harsh." No apology is offered: that journalism exemplifies the cognitive pathologies being denounced. It is at root myopic and intellectually lazy, suited to short‑form consumption and lacking the depth, rigor, and nuanced awareness needed for serious cultural criticism. Defenders may reply that this is to be expected from a newspaper columnist, but it remains legitimate to criticize columnists who propose half‑baked, counter‑progressive remedies that ignore the benefits technology has produced

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               6 days ago  

              This problem is not confined to one individual; it appears endemic to journalism. A prior critical review of the book "The Genius Myth" observed: "Journalists often write books for general audiences on demanding subjects with the hope of shaping public thinking. They should be held to an intellectual standard commensurate with those aims"

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