I attend a weekly craft group, it's called Mindful Makes, a place where one can try out a new hobby, from sewing, knitting, different art mediums. The age group ranges from young adults, not in work for several reasons, some young mothers who bring their pre-school offspring, right up to an octogenarian. I help out with guidance on sewing machines, or getting people started with knitting, crotcheting. What I've noticed is the older ones have more concentration, they will keep trying, and do succeed, whereas the majority of the young ones give up at the first hurdle, or get bored very quickly, then chat with other bored ones whilst scrolling on their phones. The mothers who come give their kids their phones to watch videos otherwise they run around screaming. I think these kids have no chance as the young parent is already socially engineered and hooked in.
The recent parent meeting at my third grader's class: half the parents wish that their kids get a parent-free social media group (plus, of course, unlimited internet access).
At the same time, as Norwegian schools hand out iPads with keyboards in grade 1 ('splains quite clearly why the Nordics' abilities are circling down the drain, that plus, of course, mass immigration of illiterates), I'm asking why schools aren't teaching primary schoolers to type using ten fingers--only to receive the answer (at the parent meeting of my 6th-grader) that 'my child doesn't even know how to hold a pencil'.
'These kids have no chance as the young parent is already socially engineered and hooked in.'
As to your point about handing kids pacifiers--ahem, I meant 'smart' devices--look no further than public transport: there's now 'kids cinemas' at department stores, on trains, etc.
Sit still, watch the agip-prop, and be of no nuisance, child.
As per that study: this was known in the 1970s, when comparing reactions to US editing in movies/TV vs European editing in movies/TV.
In Europe, longer scenes and cuts were the norm, and scenes/cuts being ten seconds or longer were not uncommon - may even have been the norm.
In US visual media, rapid cuts and short scenes were the norm.
And US media was what was more captivating, not due to content alone (since European media were smitten with ideas about being overtly didactic and showing what people "ought to" like because it had been decided on-high that it was good for them) but also due to rapid cuts and scenes.
As we had lodgers in their early twenties back in 2017, I can personally testify to how difficult it was for them to watch older movies - even 1980s action-movies presented a challenge initially. Too long scenes, as long as maybe 4-5 seconds between cuts, was a real hurdle demanding conscious concentration.
I agree with Martin Bassani that this will have effects on the demography, but more importantly any form of "democracy" will be made impossible, as will any real people's protest or movement against the oligarchy-technocracy.
In an ironic twist, this is a global-scale version of the difference between Engels' Das Kapital (which almost no-one read or reads) and Marx' Communist Manifesto, which many read and reads.
Make it appeal to lowest common denominator, make it cheap and easy and palatable, make it bland and meaningless, and remove all alternatives.
Maybe the dystopia will not be one of the well-known ones, but instead George Lucas' THX 1138?
The grand, if totally ironic, twist here is--now with everybody™ in the US denouncing the EU for (admittedly tons of issues) almost daily (two minutes of hate, anyone?), we can clearly see the US pretending not to have had anything to do, nothing at-all, with the way Europe (the continent) developed after spring 1945.
The US remade Europe in its image, and now the US leadership, having partially walked away from the US-initiated quagmire in Ukraine (which is now blamed on--the Europeans, of course), is now recoiling from the ugly visage it pretends to perceive when considering the EU (which isn't Europe).
You write, correctly, I'd add:
'Make it appeal to lowest common denominator, make it cheap and easy and palatable, make it bland and meaningless, and remove all alternatives.'
And I'll quip:
Maybe the dystopia will not be one of the well-known ones, but instead the bland, cheap, easy, meaningless, and bankrupt US society everybody who's ever visited the US in recent years has seen?
Over 770 000 homeless on any given night. Richest nation in the world (due to Europe and China and others lending them money).
Make it make sense.
Though, most Americans you meet online are equally outraged over the homelessness, abuse of their welfare systems and the mafia-like housing & real estate-sector as we are.
The ethics of the American populace pull in one direction, the polity in a different one.
What we're seeing is not a kind of civil war, what we're seeing bears more resemblance of a 'succession struggle' of mediaeval or early modern dimensions, with the main belligerents being the official™ gov't vs. the 'deep state' (or whatever you'd like to call it, the 'invisible' gov't), with the result being a thoroughly bamboozled and despondent, as well as demoralised, populace caught in the crossfire, mostly agit-prop but in some cases live ammunition.
I suppose that one of the strong points in that paper™ may be that the demographic base of its analysis is 74% Asian.
South Korea's fertility rate was .72 (last time I checked), and while there's no way I ever believe (any) gov't data on their face value, China's around 1.07 or the like, and there's a high chance it's well below one in many of the country's cities.
I attend a weekly craft group, it's called Mindful Makes, a place where one can try out a new hobby, from sewing, knitting, different art mediums. The age group ranges from young adults, not in work for several reasons, some young mothers who bring their pre-school offspring, right up to an octogenarian. I help out with guidance on sewing machines, or getting people started with knitting, crotcheting. What I've noticed is the older ones have more concentration, they will keep trying, and do succeed, whereas the majority of the young ones give up at the first hurdle, or get bored very quickly, then chat with other bored ones whilst scrolling on their phones. The mothers who come give their kids their phones to watch videos otherwise they run around screaming. I think these kids have no chance as the young parent is already socially engineered and hooked in.
Exactly my observation.
The recent parent meeting at my third grader's class: half the parents wish that their kids get a parent-free social media group (plus, of course, unlimited internet access).
At the same time, as Norwegian schools hand out iPads with keyboards in grade 1 ('splains quite clearly why the Nordics' abilities are circling down the drain, that plus, of course, mass immigration of illiterates), I'm asking why schools aren't teaching primary schoolers to type using ten fingers--only to receive the answer (at the parent meeting of my 6th-grader) that 'my child doesn't even know how to hold a pencil'.
'These kids have no chance as the young parent is already socially engineered and hooked in.'
As to your point about handing kids pacifiers--ahem, I meant 'smart' devices--look no further than public transport: there's now 'kids cinemas' at department stores, on trains, etc.
Sit still, watch the agip-prop, and be of no nuisance, child.
As per that study: this was known in the 1970s, when comparing reactions to US editing in movies/TV vs European editing in movies/TV.
In Europe, longer scenes and cuts were the norm, and scenes/cuts being ten seconds or longer were not uncommon - may even have been the norm.
In US visual media, rapid cuts and short scenes were the norm.
And US media was what was more captivating, not due to content alone (since European media were smitten with ideas about being overtly didactic and showing what people "ought to" like because it had been decided on-high that it was good for them) but also due to rapid cuts and scenes.
As we had lodgers in their early twenties back in 2017, I can personally testify to how difficult it was for them to watch older movies - even 1980s action-movies presented a challenge initially. Too long scenes, as long as maybe 4-5 seconds between cuts, was a real hurdle demanding conscious concentration.
I agree with Martin Bassani that this will have effects on the demography, but more importantly any form of "democracy" will be made impossible, as will any real people's protest or movement against the oligarchy-technocracy.
In an ironic twist, this is a global-scale version of the difference between Engels' Das Kapital (which almost no-one read or reads) and Marx' Communist Manifesto, which many read and reads.
Make it appeal to lowest common denominator, make it cheap and easy and palatable, make it bland and meaningless, and remove all alternatives.
Maybe the dystopia will not be one of the well-known ones, but instead George Lucas' THX 1138?
The grand, if totally ironic, twist here is--now with everybody™ in the US denouncing the EU for (admittedly tons of issues) almost daily (two minutes of hate, anyone?), we can clearly see the US pretending not to have had anything to do, nothing at-all, with the way Europe (the continent) developed after spring 1945.
The US remade Europe in its image, and now the US leadership, having partially walked away from the US-initiated quagmire in Ukraine (which is now blamed on--the Europeans, of course), is now recoiling from the ugly visage it pretends to perceive when considering the EU (which isn't Europe).
You write, correctly, I'd add:
'Make it appeal to lowest common denominator, make it cheap and easy and palatable, make it bland and meaningless, and remove all alternatives.'
And I'll quip:
Maybe the dystopia will not be one of the well-known ones, but instead the bland, cheap, easy, meaningless, and bankrupt US society everybody who's ever visited the US in recent years has seen?
Over 770 000 homeless on any given night. Richest nation in the world (due to Europe and China and others lending them money).
Make it make sense.
Though, most Americans you meet online are equally outraged over the homelessness, abuse of their welfare systems and the mafia-like housing & real estate-sector as we are.
The ethics of the American populace pull in one direction, the polity in a different one.
'Make it make sense.'
I can't. I simply can't.
But I'll chime in these two cents here:
What we're seeing is not a kind of civil war, what we're seeing bears more resemblance of a 'succession struggle' of mediaeval or early modern dimensions, with the main belligerents being the official™ gov't vs. the 'deep state' (or whatever you'd like to call it, the 'invisible' gov't), with the result being a thoroughly bamboozled and despondent, as well as demoralised, populace caught in the crossfire, mostly agit-prop but in some cases live ammunition.
Ah, then I know where we look for a historical comparison:
The Diadochi - Alexander the Great's generals, satraps and so on fracturing what he tried to create, in their greed and stupidity.
I imagine this will result in an extreme demographic collapse.
'Imagine'?
I suppose that one of the strong points in that paper™ may be that the demographic base of its analysis is 74% Asian.
South Korea's fertility rate was .72 (last time I checked), and while there's no way I ever believe (any) gov't data on their face value, China's around 1.07 or the like, and there's a high chance it's well below one in many of the country's cities.
Give it time.