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posted by chromas on Tuesday March 26 2019, @12:34PM   Printer-friendly
from the too-busy-shitposting-to-go-outside dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @05:46PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @05:46PM (#820188)

    It's more a reflection of the fact that we've collectively allowed a bunch of rich kleptocrats to steal away any real humanity for a large part of the population.

    This is largely the result of increased work hours, decreased access to money to spend on vacations and outings with friends. Not to mention the ever increasing efforts to discourage workers from anything that isn't purely focused on improving the bottom line.

    The rich, have the money that it takes to be able to opt out. They don't need to use technology, unless it suits them. They aren't going to have issues when technology X is mandatory during the screening process. They also have the necessary funds and time to meet up with friends and family in person and the space to be able to do things like have real playtime without technology.

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  • (Score: 1) by anubi on Wednesday March 27 2019, @04:27AM

    by anubi (2828) on Wednesday March 27 2019, @04:27AM (#820487) Journal

    Quite understandable...

    The rich know how to control people.

    Whereas the poor survive by doing whatever the rich want.

    I went the techie route. Engineering. Deans List. Graduated with honors, etc.

    But wasn't paid nearly what others who had "Leadership" skills were paid... To add insult to injury, they were always in position to constantly evaluate me and lay me off. Which they did after one particularly insulting weenie wagging contest.

    The guys who know how to interact with the power people to get themselves in control over other people will always be more valuable than the little guy focused on his work.

    Today, Sears is a good example. The executives who ran Sears into the ground vote themselves a 25 Million dollar bonus, while the workers on the floor struggle with cuts.

    Knowing how to interact with those in power trumps any skills of doing stuff for them. Technical skillsets seem to be quite fungible.

    --
    "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]