Latest news with #screens
Fox News
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Fox News
WaPo editorial admits entertainment is destroying society, calls Trump 'a one-person digital diversion'
An opinion article in the Washington Post admitted that society is "choking on screens" and being poisoned by entertainment, but lays blame on President Donald Trump for being part of the problem. "Neil Postman would know better," Ryan Zickgraf, a columnist for UnHerd, whose op-ed was adapted for the Post, wrote in the recent piece entitled, "The world is choking on screens. Just as this book foretold." The piece highlights the 1985 book, "Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business," by Neil Postman, which talks about the consequences Postman saw when politics and the media became entertainment. "Forty years ago, the cultural critic wrote 'Amusing Ourselves to Death,' a pessimistic yet prescient polemic worth revisiting in the age of algorithm-driven political hysteria," Zickgraf wrote. "Postman, who died in 2003, predicted that America wasn't trending toward existence under the boot of totalitarianism, as in George Orwell's '1984,' but drifting through the languorous haze of a feel-good dystopia that instead resembled Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World,'' Zickgraf said. "Postman was right. Democracy was in danger of being not overthrown but overentertained." The columnist for UnHerd argued that social media and the like have become what Huxley referred to in his book as the fictional, recreational drug "soma," or the "opiate of the masses," which takes the place of things like alcohol and religion. "If he were alive in 2025, Postman would not be surprised to see that our version of Huxley's addictive Soma drug comes in the virtual variety: TikTok's infinite scroll, cryptocurrency speculation and content streams designed to blur time and lull us into a flow state," Zickgraf wrote. "Every flick of the thumb offers a micro-hit of novelty, outrage or reward. Karl Marx called religion the opiate of the masses, but we killed God and began worshiping the murder weapon instead." But Zickgraf laid a sizeable amount of blame on Trump, calling him "a one-person digital diversion who doesn't even try to conceal anything: He haphazardly posts to social media war threats and private conversations with world leaders while friends and enemies alike hang on his every word, however nonsensical or contradictory." The 47th president, however, according to Zickgraf, doesn't fully have what it takes to be an "effective dictator" because "he's ironically too wrapped up in his own media representations." If Trump were to decide to become a dictator, Zickgraf speculated, people might not even notice because they would be too distracted by their phones. "To be fair, there's plenty of dissent in the streets, but it's the paper-thin kind that's designed to be shareable online," Zickgraf said. "These protests don't hint at emerging mass movements; they mask the lack of them. The great majority of Jan. 6 protesters weren't trying to stage a coup: Once they breached the U.S. Capitol, they opted to take selfies, not power. Last month, millions took to the streets in 'No Kings' marches that seemed designed to wrest attention from President Attention and little else." Zickgraf says that a sign of hope that he sees are some members of Gen Z who are choosing to "abstain" from the media deluge. He even highlights that some, especially young men, are choosing faiths like Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity for their "ritual." "This rebellion, fractured and flickering, is one of the few encouraging signs in a culture otherwise largely anesthetized by its tools," he wrote. "Unlike the millennial generation — which largely absorbed technology as destiny, first in its techno-utopian promises, later in its gigified disappointments — these Gen Z refuseniks are not trying to reform the system. They're walking away from it," Zickgraf added. "That's why the 'No Kings' rallies often look like the world's largest retiree convention. This new group's politics, to the extent that it has any, are not oriented toward revolution or regulation, but toward restraint, retreat and restoration. They want silence. They want limits. And if there is any hope of clawing back a shared reality from the hall of mirrors that is the modern internet, it might lie with them. We can only hope."
New York Times
23-06-2025
- New York Times
Privacy Screens Ruin the Fun of Snooping
Maybe you're sitting on a subway, or a plane awaiting take off. You glance over at your neighbor's phone screen — innocently, of course. But instead of a glowing feed of TikTok videos or the draft of an email, you're met with a seemingly inert black screen, though this person's thumbs are swiftly tapping it. It's like a slap on the wrist, a 'keep out' sign, a trap set for nosy people who can't resist snooping on other people's phones. It's a privacy screen, an accessory for phones and laptops designed to significantly darken or totally obscure their surfaces to wandering eyes. Lately, the screen protectors have become a common sight in densely populated public areas. They have become particularly popular among people with sensitive professions, like doctors and therapists, who must be cautious about their patients' personal information when working outside their offices. But at a time when it has become normal to assume a level of surveillance in public places — not just by security cameras, but by our fellow travelers in this mortal coil who may turn us into internet content — the screens have become more appealing to the average person, too. 'I don't like people looking at my stuff,' said Shanaisa O'Neal, who on a recent afternoon was scrolling her phone, its screen visible only to her, as she rode the F train in Manhattan with her daughter. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
I'm a mom of 4, and there's no winning in parenting. People complain if kids are playing outside or if they're looking at screens.
I'm a mom of four, and screens are integral to our lives. When the weather is nice, my kids naturally migrate outdoors, and we hike and swim. I see older people complaining about kids being on screens and also about kids being in public spaces. As a family that has chosen to embrace technology and raise tech-savvy kids, screens are an integral part of our everyday family life. From the Skylight calendar in our kitchen that helps me manage the schedules of four busy kids to the smartphones my adolescents now possess, we see how technology improves our lives. We are just as apt to spend an afternoon working on the family Minecraft world as we are to play a board game (though we love those too). However, as soon as the weather breaks, my kids naturally migrate outdoors. We love to bike, hike, swim, and camp — and warmer temps typically mean my kids naturally reduce screen time. Recently, though, I have been frustrated by the mixed messages society sends us moms. Like most nosy neighbors, I am in all of our community's local groups. I see posts by older generations bemoaning the techy life my kids are living. "Get them off of screens and outdoors!" they lament. But the second the weather breaks, those posts shift from screeds against screens to rants about children playing in public spaces. We live in a walkable, safe community where our adolescents enjoy freedom. Since toddlerhood, we've taught our children how to cross a road, pay at stores and restaurants, and be respectful of others in our community—from picking up their trash to not trampling someone's flowers. The freedom our kids now have was earned. In addition, our town feels like the type of place older relatives reminisce about. My kids literally know to bike home when the street lights come on, like in a 1950s sitcom. That's why I am surprised so many adults seem uncomfortable with kids on the loose. In general, I am not concerned about my kids' safety in our tiny Pittsburgh borough, but I am worried about others' judgment. I worry more about someone reporting my kids to the authorities when they are exercising the freedom we've given them than about anything bad befalling them. I worry that when I send my 13-year-old off on his bike to head to Boy Scouts, someone will criticize me for not biking with him (or driving him). I worry that my 11-year-old twins will receive a noise complaint while playing basketball in the alley until sunset with neighbor kids, because it has already happened once. I was nearby, just on the other side of a fence, and heard nothing but the joyous laughter of happy kids on a summer evening. I am still unsure why that was so bothersome to some anonymous neighbor. Still, I imagine them furiously typing up a Nextdoor post about how they never see kids playing outdoors anymore. It feels both ironic and cruel. It's a common refrain: Today's kids are too lazy, too entitled, and don't want to work. At the same time, when my kids go door-to-door asking to shovel walks for a few bucks, people are scared to open their door. I worry that someone will reprimand me for sending my child to pick up milk at the corner store so I can finish cooking dinner. It feels like an impossible tightrope. How are we parents supposed to raise independent kids in a world that decries our attempts? How can we get them off the screens and outside to play while somehow keeping them endlessly in our sight? To those not currently parenting, I only ask for one thing: grace. Grace to raise these little humans as best we can in a rapidly changing world. Grace to raise up adults who appreciate a lazy gaming day just as much as they appreciate a good day of yard work. Grace that you were given in a world that was smaller and more insular — and yet really not that different from the neighborhood my kids are learning to be adults in. Read the original article on Business Insider
Daily Mail
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Move over Gwynnie! There's another health hustler in town... and, writes MAUREEN CALLAHAN, Hoda Kotb's new 'wellness' brand is guaranteed to make you sick to your stomach
After four months away, one of the most useless women to befoul our screens is back. And brace yourselves: She's here to help. Ostensibly.
