Louis C.K. Hates Cell Phones | CONAN on TBS

It's no surprise that, when left unchecked, teenagers (whose brains actually lack some capacity for empathy) would generate extremely un-empathetic content. And it is certainly not limited to children -- adults can be just as bad or worse. This is a topic that has come up in different forms many times as the Internet has grown. One way to reign in the vitriol would be to force everyone to use their real names (see Google+'s 'real names' policy), but I don't feel this should ever be a requirement for participation in an online service. For the service itself to require it is one thing, but if the government ever tried to enforce this I'd consider it a human rights violation. (The debate over real names vs. pseudonymity vs. anonymity is a topic I could go into at much length). In the case of Yik Yak, rather than shifting blame onto the app, I instead wonder how/why any parents would allow their children to freely install such apps on their phones. Sure, kids will be kids (and will always find covert ways of misbehaving), but there should be some form of supervision available for parents of smartphone users, don't you think? I think Louis C.K. has a pretty smart perspective: [this video]

Sometimes people coerce me into using services, eg development team found a cool service to manage the project issues or designers want to check out the tool to manage the assets. There's no way around it. I found password manager tools to be invaluable in maintaining the accounts, "fire and forget". They usually opt you in for the marketing emails, but unsubscribing is just one click away in 99% of the cases. You are spot on about the mobile devices enabling addictive behavior. I used to have an old Nokia phone, with physical buttons during the smartphones craze and wasn't able to consume entertainment media while away from my computer. I though I'd upgrade to be able to interact better with friends through WhatsApp and whatnot and realized how much more time I fill my brain with junk media, because the phone is always there hence everything is at the tip of the finger. Although, I found playing chess on my phone to be very convenient, it's been ages since I wanted to try to learn playing chess. Technology is a double-edged sword and it definitely requires to exert more self control. It's easy not to be bored, to be somewhere in between of being satisfied and not achieving or progressing much. I love this bit Louis CK did about smartphones, even though a bit jokish but rings true: [this video]

My experience with curing loneliness is very contrary to what the article states in the sense that I found a way to not feel lonely by being more disconnected from other people. I realized that I only felt lonely when my expectations as to how other people should give me their time/attention were not met, so I purposefully decided to decrease the number and intensity of interactions with other people. I haven't felt that soul crushing loneliness that cripples you in about a year now, and I like to think that that only happened because of lowered expectations (over time as you interact less intensely with people you'll naturally come to expect less of them) and because of learning how to be alone (being alone and being lonely are not the same thing). The article states you should be around people you know every day and I find that pretty weird. I think the best way to learn how to not feel lonely is to learn to be content with yourself, otherwise you'll always rely on other people and so your feelings of loneliness will fail to go away as soon as other people fail you. Kinda related: [this video]

The level of abuse the author has endured is ridiculous and she certainly has my sympathies. It reminds me of Louis CK's routine about why he doesn't give his kids cell phones ( [this video] ) which boils down to without seeing the other person they can't empathize about the effect their words will have on other people. I can't help but wonder how these pseudo-anonymous people will feel when they find out that they aren't all that anonymous in the long run. When gawker unmasked "Reddits biggest troll" Violentacrez he certainly had a change of feelings when he had to stand behind his words and actions[1]. Freedom of speech is one of our most important values and anonymity is an important source for social change and equality for all. Using these gifts to rain down insults on others rarely works out well though in person and likely won't work out well on the internet in the long run either. [1] [link]