Human Contact Is Now a Luxury Good:
Screens used to be for the elite. Now avoiding them is a status symbol.
[...] Life for anyone but the very rich — the physical experience of learning, living and dying — is increasingly mediated by screens.
Not only are screens themselves cheap to make, but they also make things cheaper. Any place that can fit a screen in (classrooms, hospitals, airports, restaurants) can cut costs. And any activity that can happen on a screen becomes cheaper. The texture of life, the tactile experience, is becoming smooth glass.
The rich do not live like this. The rich have grown afraid of screens. They want their children to play with blocks, and tech-free private schools are booming. Humans are more expensive, and rich people are willing and able to pay for them. Conspicuous human interaction — living without a phone for a day, quitting social networks and not answering email — has become a status symbol.
All of this has led to a curious new reality: Human contact is becoming a luxury good.
As more screens appear in the lives of the poor, screens are disappearing from the lives of the rich. The richer you are, the more you spend to be offscreen.
I remember when the tag line for AT&T was Reach out and touch someone and it was portrayed as a good thing.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @03:31PM (2 children)
Don't worry about the percentages. Just do your best. Live a good life. Vote for decent social security. If people follow your example, all the better.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday March 26 2019, @05:57PM
It's also good to vote for people who don't take away school lunches for four year olds. Just thinking of GWB.
People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday March 26 2019, @07:52PM
Well, you can use one of the percentages [wikipedia.org] as a good starting point.