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I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole of looking into daily life in the past, and I think a big issue is that modern “always on” culture with instant communication and instant gratification have basically overclocked our brains beyond what that brain was designed to deal with. Our hardware absolutely was not designed to handle the deluge of information and stimulation we have today. And part of that is the inability to cope with the lack of stimulation that allows people to want to do deeper work. Boredom is in fact necessary to get people to do that work, as it removes all stimulation outside of just doing the things if you like.
One thing I’ve found absolutely fascinating about these sorts of “live like it’s X year” experiments is just how surprising and even interesting the “analog” real world is once your brain adjusts to it. People who do this find things fascinating that they never paid attention to before, find themselves able to read books or draw or work on projects, find themselves enjoying their food or really paying attention to music or ambient sounds in the environment. They also sleep better and find themselves less stressed, and are getting more exercise. I think this allows the kinds of actual work that used to happen, especially when you also remove the constant commentary of social media either encouraging or blasting everything and creating performance anxiety and creating inertia.
IMO it's not even really fair or appropriate to say, "Yeah you could scroll Tiktok, but you could also choose to learn origami! Or write a story!"
Because Tiktok (and recreational drugs, high stimulus TV, and porn) exist on a sort of "alternate mental plane" where 99% of reality is irrelevant. Like, the other day I was working on mindfulness and it was storming, and I crouched down at my kitchen window then to look up at the sky. I was shocked to realize I hadn't done this since childhood, where I'd actually tangle myself up in the living room curtain, get comfy, and just watch it rain for a while. And the thing is, even if I somehow had the idea to do this while I'm overstimulated, I know it wouldn't hit very hard. Kids aren't fascinated by their environments because they pay attention, but rather because their nervous systems are relaxed enough to pick up on things we can't.
Anyway, what's clear is these two ways of perceiving the world are incompatible. The "Gen Z stare" happens because the mental pace of the zeitgeist right now is breakneck, so teenagers have to get stoned before work and keep their air pods in just to make it bearable.
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Any links to examples? How far back are some of these people successfully resetting their clocks, as it were?
Vintage dollhouse does one that’s basically no screens and living like it’s 1940. There are a few that did 1990s and 1980s tech. There was a group of reinactors who did a LARP of the 17th century England, and a couple of odd ones (mostly women) doing the regency era which I think is 18th century. But the common denominator of the experience seems to be exactly that they are much more creative and able to get things done once they basically “detox” of Internet, screens and so on.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=f9mZJ9Z-mfM?si=r5aaEso6h8SdXl79
https://youtube.com/watch?v=z_ZGk-tVIUA?si=ayvCEsgMu4rjA0aZ
https://youtube.com/watch?v=J-uRFPbaKEw?si=UkxQBHSy3g2rP5Yd
These two are women living a 1940s lifestyle. The first two are Vintage dollhouse who does a lot of other reenactment work for 1940s stuff.
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