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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.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday March 26 2019, @07:32PM (4 children)
They're job creators! I'm surprised I ran across this just last night [youtube.com].
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday March 26 2019, @08:06PM (3 children)
Sweet gigs if you can get it, and yes, some people do get paid to eat food and make various noises on camera, possibly to a small private audience.
At $80/hour, you could probably scrape by cuddling just 3 hours a week. Anything over that can start adding luxuries to your life. And you could certainly spot opportunities to branch out into findom, straight-up prostitution, etc. if you find the right rich person.
Today's whack ass economy will have its winners, and the people cuddling the winners.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Funny) by krishnoid on Tuesday March 26 2019, @08:18PM (2 children)
The real winners will figure out how to marketize, equitize and invest in a physical contacts exchange. Hell, I'm willing to put a little money into hey wait a sec ...
Done big enough, you could even:
I guess there's a sweet spot somewhere between those two.
In memoriam, Michael David Crawford.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday March 26 2019, @08:41PM (1 child)
Are there any publicly traded cuddle brokers?
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @10:37PM
Yes
They are called "pimps"