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MelodicBerries  virtus junxit mors non separabit  1yr ago (freddiedeboer.substack.com)   3370 thread views

It's So Sad When Old People Romanticize Their Heydays, Also the 90s Were Objectively the Best Time to Be Alive

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You used to do things and have places to do them

Psychologically, humans work best by having delineated spaces for mental activity. The internet reduces the uniqueness and salience of these spaces. This is something that needs to understood if we’re talking about which era was best. Music stores, blockbusters, movie theaters, or even hanging out in a parking lot takes on more meaning when there is no competing stimuli input. Smartphones (why do we call them this again?) are a constant competing stimuli, and are manufactured to be addictive. The act of buying a video game or renting a movie is totally different when you don’t even have the possibility of glancing at a social media feed. Hanging out with friends is an insulated and calmer environment when you are not comparing to social media and posting the act on social media.

Albums and CDs can also act as unique objects that enhance the salience and memory of the music we listen to. From a UI perspective, Spotify is horrible for creating unique memory-spaces

If you ever have the energy to do so. I'd love if you wrote more on this subject because I think it's very much worth discussing (and I very rarely see good discussions about it). I very much agree with what you're saying, however, for some reason, most people do not seem to get this and it infuriates me (because of the damage it causes). Or at least they do not accept it if stated literally while sometimes their actions do indicate that they notice it in someway.

It's also often the STEM guys that seem to fall for this the most (and inflict the most damage on others). Typical (basic) examples are belittling others for enjoying going to the cinema or borrowing movies at physical stores, instead of just watching it on NetflixTM (because it's more efficient). And it does seem to make an impact given that I've noticed a lot of people make disclaimers on the vein of 'I know this isn't efficient, but I still like the experience'.

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