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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 GreatAuntAnesthesia on Wednesday March 27 2019, @11:40AM
I don't think anyone is saying it's weird for kids to play with blocks. Pretty much everyone would argue it's entirely normal and beneficial.
The problem you have is that a set of building blocks (a) costs money and (b) takes up space that is less and less people can spare. Living spaces for the non-rich are getting smaller and smaller. Working young people in London are spending way over 50% of their take-home pay to rent single rooms or even a sofabed in someone's lounge. It's fucking crazy, and it's only getting worse. And what's more it's spreading out of the major cities.
For that reason many young people are putting off parenthood. For those that don't and are attempting to raise a kid in a £1800pm* 800sqft** one-bedroom flat then there simply isn't anywhere to store a crate of blocks. Add to that a wooden train set, a shelf of kids books, a colouring set, some cuddly toys... never mind a bed and some clothes and the other absolute essentials... where do you put it all? As for a garden for them to run around in, learn to ride a bike etc... Hah!
A tablet is cheap, takes up very little space, and can (to a limited extent) substitute for toys and books and going outdoors, so it becomes a "choice" forced upon anyone who wasn't born into significant wealth.
* Average rent for a one bed flat in Camden, London. For reference, the average wage there is about £1800pm after tax. Camden's not even the most extreme borough.
** Average floor space of one bed flat in Camden.
We aren't there yet but TFA is pointing out that we are heading towards a world where owning a 1500-piece Lego set is a status symbol not because of the cost of buying it, but because of the cost of having somewhere to put it.
references:
https://www.payscale.com/research/UK/Location=Camden-England%3A-London/Salary [payscale.com]
https://data.london.gov.uk/average-floor-area-by-borough/ [london.gov.uk]
https://www.foxtons.co.uk/living-in/camden/rentals/ [foxtons.co.uk]