A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
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I’ve grown up enough to understand that, but it still really bothers me how ignorant people are. You could go further: no curiosity, no adventure, no hobbies, and total lack of effort in almost every facet of life.
People just like to stagnate, and it shows in almost every situation. Not even technology related things, but everything.
My teenage little brother, as much as I love him, is kind of disappointing. He doesn’t do anything but play Roblox. When he is grounded (often) he elects to take pictures of his feet and say stupid things to his “friends” instead of holding real conversations.
I’ve never been able to get him interested in anything that requires a modicum of effort, except for modded Minecraft. He likes the machines, and has built cool things, so I know he has the smarts, but he doesn’t have the attention span or the patience to troubleshoot them if they don’t work the first time. He gives up and starts doom scrolling social media. He has expensive shoes, the latest iPhone, and perms his hair. My mother encouraged this vapid pretty boy personality he’s adopted, and I don’t know why, he wasn’t like that when he was younger.
He tries to make fun of me for having and Android phone and using Linux, and I explain to him that software development is what I do for a living and as a hobby. Look, I never ever ever see an ad, anywhere. He thinks AirPods sound good, and calls all earbuds “AirPods”.
And he’s not the only one, I’m tutoring a kid around his age for programming and math. This kid will answer “I don’t know” to every single question, and when I check every 5 minutes to make sure he follows, he is obviously preoccupied.
When I was their age, I hated school just as much as any other kid (and I still think it needs serious reform because it might cause this kind of damage that I’m describing) but I still spent all of my free time either outside trying to make explosives, reading, or programming.
I do not understand the lazy I see all around me.
I mean we all know, that modern social media overstimulates kids’ brains. But I think that they use it in the first place to cope stress, just as older people tend to smoke to cope stress.
Everyone has a limited about of time, ability to learn, and executive function. It’s rational to be lazy about things that aren’t important to your well-being or interests.
That said, there does seem to be an issue where people are getting overly habituated to instant gratification and constant stimulation. Many valuable things don’t work that way.
I do understand the “lazy”, I saw them around me when I was a kid too.
It’s really simple: everyone is born curious, that’s how we learn to walk and talk, or the difference between sucking a thumb and chewing on sweets. Then, some get encouraged to keep being curious, while others get forced into strict rules and punished for any displays of curiosity, until they stop trying.
I almost got pushed over the line, was labeled a “bad kid” more than once for not following the rules, and just by a lucky twist of destiny, they couldn’t push me more into a mold. That lead to later rebellion, family conflicts, further attempts that completely backfired, and I ended up being one of the few weird kids in class who kept being curious. I still kind of envy some of the others, who instead of getting stifled, got truly encouraged in their curiosity, they’ve ended up much better later in life.
My point being, these people are not lazy, or like to stagnate, or like being ignorant. I’m sorry for your brother, it sounds like his curiosity has been beaten out of him into oblivion. You say your mother has encouraged it, and at the same time that he keeps getting grounded; that’s how the process works. If any time one tries to get out of the mold they get punished, while getting encouraged to stay safely inside, it leads to just giving up, at least until they get to live on their own, which prevents one from achieving their full potential.
As for the answering “I don’t know” to every question, I’ve seen it as a defense mechanism in people who got criticized/punished for every answer in an arbitrary manner, so they’d rather automatically pretend not to know, than risk thinking and saying the wrong thing. Not sure how you could help them, nothing of what I tried did work in that case. Hope you have more luck.
As someone who did poorly in math and science classes because I spent all my free time reading Stephen King novels, binging horror movies on VHS, playing the original Final Fantasy, and walking around town aimlessly with my friends, I assure you we were there, and I knew people with even less motivation than myself.
You are not the same. You read, watch, and play FF to ingest stories. The group of kids I’m talking about just open Roblox and fucking check out.
Then maybe they aren’t worth talking to.
They’re my little brother, his friends, and the kid I’m tutoring. Can’t exactly just get rid of them.
I’m pretty sure I mindlessly checked out just as often. I cringe thinking about how I just used to watch TV ads without batting an eye. Imagine being numb to that.
Make the kid play GT:NH as a trial
Thank you, I will. Seriously.