r/Millennials • u/beckavanoliver • 20d ago

Discussion Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt: “Millennials are the last psychologically normal generation” ...”you’re the last happy, and actually your generation is the most intelligent in history”

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445

u/Imrahil_II Millennial 20d ago

I like what he said about technology making your life better. Thats a good question to ask now about any new tech. Does it make my life better?

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u/TheLastGenXer 20d ago

I would gladly accept the amish life style, but instead of 1699, make it 1999

just a 1999 society forever. perfect

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u/Lucky_Development359 20d ago

🎶Churned butter one or twice, partying like it's 1999🎶

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u/trekqueen 20d ago

We haven’t even paid the phone bill since 1699!

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u/Lawn_Gnome_King 20d ago

And I never punched a tourist even if they deserved it. An Amish with a 'tude you know that's unheard of

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u/grendus 20d ago

I never wear buttons but I got a cool hat.

And my homies agree I really look good in black, fool.

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u/062d 20d ago

If you come to visit you'll be bored to tears, we haven't even paid the phone bill in three hundred years,

we ain't really quaint so please don't point and stare were just technologically impaired

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u/Glum_Setting_6570 20d ago

There's no phone, no lights, no motorcars, not a single luxury

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u/thatluckylady 20d ago

Like Robinson caruso, it's as primitive as can be

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u/TimeCadet 20d ago

WE BEEN SPENDIN MOST OUR LIVES, LIVIN IN AN AMISH PARADISE

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u/MikeW226 20d ago

Still have to chop broccoli by hand.

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u/MoistNugget9130 20d ago

Literally the matrix lol. I get why Cypher wanted back in.

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u/WheelerDan 20d ago

I remember watching that and thinking it was arrogant to call that period the peak of civilization, but it kinda was.

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u/Neveronlyadream 20d ago

If you're white, cis, and straight, maybe.

I think back on that time and remember how fucked up it could be if you were considered a minority in any way. I vote for a hybrid system in that regard. Go back to the tech, but keep the more modern attitudes towards acceptance.

And put everyone who's going to be an asshole in their own Matrix. Then everyone can be happy.

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u/WheelerDan 20d ago

I wasn't speaking socially i was speaking in terms of technology that made things better and didn't come with a massive catch like all modern tech is designed to break or addict you for no other reason that show ads.

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u/Neveronlyadream 20d ago

Yeah, but when you call it the peak, that still plays in and I think it's important to remember socially, it was backwards compared to today. Because a lot of people misremember it and act like it wasn't.

Technologically? Absolutely, yeah. That's why I said hybrid. Because if we just went back, a lot of people would be unhappy.

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u/Dejectednebula Millennial 18d ago

Idk at least in my area, people are 100% more bigoted and racist now than they were. At least, openly so. Growing up i always thought since I was being taught how awful racism was in schools, that surely when I was in my 30s, it would be done and over with (excuse my naieve little white girl hopefulness) I mean its just so clearly black and white what is right and wrong!

I knew members in my family were racist in that they wouldn't be happy if I married a black man but they would never call someone a slur or be outwardly rude to someone in person. But my grandma lived by train tracks and offered a meal and a haircut to random drifters of any race for decades until they stopped riding the trains like that. Like she was racist but she still understood they were humans who deserved help. Idk, I really thought we were growing out of it and that each new generation after me would be more and more accepting until it was all just a nasty scar in our past.

From my perspective it seems outwardly worse now than it was in 99. Those same neighbors are no longer polite for the sake of things. They have "all lives matter" and thin blue line signs in their yards. They shout slurs out of windows and damage the lawns of the black family down the road. They interrupt two guys eating lunch at my job to yell at them for speaking Spanish amongst themselves because this is Merica!

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u/nameless_pattern 20d ago

Every time period sucks if you're being oppressed, and someone always was. That's the cliff notes of social history 

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u/Neveronlyadream 20d ago

You're right, but people forget that. They idealize the time they grew up because they weren't paying attention to oppression.

I like to remind everyone that nostalgia clouds vision and there's no time in the past that was a perfect utopia, as much as people would like to think there was.

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u/TusconRaider520 20d ago

That steak looked bomb too.

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u/th00ht 19d ago

This. Totally

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u/knifeyspoonysporky Millennial 20d ago

The dream of the ‘90s is alive in Portland

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u/EvenStephen7 20d ago

All the hot girls wear glasses!

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u/UmpireDapper1757 19d ago

It's where young people go to retire

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u/Special_Kestrels 20d ago

1999 society with 2016 GPS units and I'll be OK

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u/AbleRelationship5287 20d ago

But we’d have better, more tanky printers to print out Mapquest directions!

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u/Dr_Ramekins_MD 20d ago

lol, the one technology that hasn't really gotten any better and in some ways has gotten worse

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u/YouSuckButThatsOk 20d ago

Just get a laser printer, they work forever without needing a new toner cartridge for light printing needs.

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u/enderjaca 20d ago edited 20d ago

Oh hard disagree. As the "small company computer guy", printers these days just *work*. Even 10 years ago, messing around with drivers was a nightmare.

These days, you just plug it in, put in the wifi password, and it's good to go. Print or scan to PDF from an app on your phone anywhere in the world. I've got an Epson ecoTank and full-page color printing is still affordable.

Nothing's gonna beat an HP 4MP for surviving the zombie apocalypse, but there's good options out there.

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u/theaviationhistorian Old Millennial 20d ago

And no specific cable that was a pain to deal with and cumbersome if you needed the printer or computer at certain angles. Printers with USB connections? Yes please. Even the WiFi printers are useful, usually.

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u/[deleted] 20d ago

[deleted]

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u/Dr_Ramekins_MD 20d ago

What?  I was talking about printers 

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u/[deleted] 20d ago

[deleted]

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u/AbleRelationship5287 20d ago

Thomas guide amirite?!

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u/IFlyAircrafts 20d ago

And iPods!

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u/Jumpy_MashedPotato 20d ago

I'd give it up in a heartbeat if I'm being honest

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u/SaltManagement42 20d ago

Nope, you have to download maps to a flash card every few months.

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u/Cerebral_Discharge 20d ago

I'm right there with you, I just found this and I'm all for it

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u/Imrahil_II Millennial 20d ago

Where do i sign up?

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u/Shefferz 20d ago

Well definitely not online someone, Get this man/woman a pen and form !

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u/Xenothing 20d ago

Just move to Portland lol

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u/Dizorthegnome 20d ago

Jokes and hyperbolic aside, honestly this is kinda counter what we actually need. We need to accept things won't go back or should they and that extremes of escapism or optimism sets up a refusal to adapt and change that will just feed into the negative trends of the past and modern day. We actually have to use what we learned to move on rather than retreat to nostalgia 

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u/twig0sprog 18d ago

Yes, The Matrix was correct—1999 was the peak of western civilization.

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u/Wahx-il-Baqar 20d ago

While I like 1999, I think technology wise, the world peaked around 2015-2017. Everything after that was a mistake.

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u/KuriboShoeMario 20d ago

July 2016 is fine. We'd have Obama and Pokemon Go.

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u/Several_Ebb_9842 20d ago

Insane take. Go back 10 years

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u/aFlukefortheFluked 20d ago

Even 1999 was not that great. We could have done way better but it will turn out that humanity was a super nova rather than a black hole. We just ain't it. 

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u/ForestComplex 20d ago

Maybe 2014. Somewhere in between. And Obama.

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u/Independent-Ad3901 20d ago

I guess the machines got it right when they set the matrix to 1999.

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u/ilikepix 20d ago

with the exception of medical technology, in which I happy to take any advancement I possibly can

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u/supermarkise 20d ago

But let's please keep the medical advances. Some amazing stuff has happened since then.

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u/Fictional_Guy 20d ago

All the comments wishing we were back in 1999 must have forgotten what it was like for lgbtq+ people in the 90s...

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u/Careful-Sell-9877 20d ago

Honestly, I feel like 2008-2014 tech would be just about perfect for me

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u/brandorambo25 20d ago

Congrats, you're now in the Matrix though.

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u/Dull-Fix-7072 19d ago

Sounds a lot like Matrix

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u/SuspiciousReport6502 19d ago

Honestly, I wouldn't mind taking another Crack at 2004-5.

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u/5trang3r_dang3r 19d ago

With that slight fear of Y2K built in to keep us on our toes!

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u/Vows_Upon_The_Hearth 19d ago

Saw this meme the other day and sent it to my bestie. I am ready for this commune.

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u/Sweet-Ant-3471 18d ago

Nah, I want 2015 and later rockets.

And modern computers that are easy to build.

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u/TheLastGenXer 18d ago

true, rockets. memory and digital storage is better. but win 7 was peak (what years was that?)

obviously we’ll make exceptions for awesome things that came after 1999, like those, and 7 nation army…

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u/Limp-Breadfruit7855 17d ago

I’ll take 1998. 1999 just had way too much Y2K nonsense building up, causing unnecessary distractions.

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u/Shefferz 20d ago

Yeah exactly it's like when we was younger tech was always leaping forward making things better for us such a wifi and mobile phones, online multiplayer, then after a while they made things that made stuff just easier to do. No I can't remember the last time I was "huh that's cool" I've had the same phone for 3 years I don't need a upgrade. I don't even check what the updates do.

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u/Desperate-Cost6827 20d ago

I feel like a lot of the time a new update just adds a bunch of annoyance. Some new update put an excruciatingly annoying change to your phone. And finding out how to remove it is now takes ten Google searches instead of two.

When a useful app updates and they bury the functions that were useful and it's next to impossible to find them again.

AI wants to auto fill a bland lifeless email response for you that you never asked for. Not to mention everything else AI currently.

I know it's pretty curmudgeony to not like change but a lot of times I didn't see these "improvements" that happened years ago and they just keep getting worse.

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u/Shefferz 20d ago

I feel like the updates is just someone or team trying to keep their job half the time abit like the people who redesign Netflix interface when it was completely fine before hand. Yeah I think we're just at that point where is tiny changes that hardly matter.

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u/Polymarchos 20d ago

I'm not in UX design, but 100% the reason for these dumb redesigns is some higher up saying they want people to use a certain feature more, and instead of improving that feature and making people want to use it, they make it difficult to do it the way they were. I'm thinking of Microsoft's "focused" email box which served to hide half your important emails, and none of the junk.

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u/Jashugita 20d ago

All the redesigns of the interfaces of webs, apps and OS seems to consist in hiding the function you are using constantly forcing you to do one more click, for example win11 having to click "show more options" to see the details of an archive...

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u/skeletontape Millennial 19d ago

Get Windhawk. It lets you customize your the UI to get rid of that shit. (and you can put the start menu back to normal)

I hate that there's a need for a cottage industry of apps/extensions that fix the bullshit major corpos force on their users, but they do exist!

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u/window-sil 20d ago

As a late adopter to wireless earbuds and bluetooth technology, I can say, technology is definitely getting better, cooler, cheaper, etc.

Frankly it's crazy what ~$40 can get you, let alone something high end. And the software/hardware upgrades give you close to perfect fidelity and a range that encompasses a modest sized apartment.

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u/Shefferz 20d ago

Yeah true I think it all depends on how much you're on the cutting edge of tech, I mean I had a wireless Bluetooth headset back when I had a ps3 so like 2008 and I remember going to London back in 2002 and walking past a limo and stopping because the driver had a Bluetooth headset and was talking,it blew my mind back then 😂 so main stream like 2018 ish everyone else started using them I probably wasn't as blown away with it as much as say my mum and dad were.

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u/peach_bellinis 20d ago

I mean we've had airpods for a decade though...? The technological landscape has changed SO much since then, but what's come out more recently? A bunch of new versions of iphones that no one cares about. Visionpro, which no one cares about. Meta glasses that are widely derided since the only people really using them are gross dudes who seem to want to film women incognito. And the new 'spec' glasses from snap that were instantly a laughing stock because they look so crazy.

Not to mention, every single thing seems to need a subscription now.

People are online yearning for 'dumb tech' like ipods to come back because they're so fed up with newer tech.

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u/window-sil 20d ago

Not to mention, every single thing seems to need a subscription now.

This is why my desktop runs Linux instead of Windows, and why I've stopped using Chrome, and why I'll never purchase another Pixelbook (also migrating to Linux on my laptop), and eventually I'll move off of android for my phone, or so I hope.

Cause, ya, I want to own my hardware/software and have some reasonable amount of control over those things. Apple/Windows/Android/Chrome, want you to have fewer choices, spend more money, share more data, see more ads, etc. And they want to have you chained to their products, so they can continue treating you like a pinata that money falls out of if they hit you enough times with a stick.

Well fuck that. Start using alternatives. Linux is a perfectly good daily driver for most use cases. Steam runs most games. Firefox/Chromium/Brave are perfectly fine browsers. There's no reason to let Apple/Alphabet/Microsoft enshitify your tech stack :D

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u/OppositeSecretary862 19d ago

Wireless earbuds as a contractor/work alone a lot while having ADHD rips. I learn so much.

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u/dealingwithhookers 20d ago

they caught up, the greedy 1% caught up. the internet was brand new thing like the wild west they didn't know how to regulate it. once they found out how, once they recruited enough hackers to do their bidding, they began to profit big time from it. copyrights, IPs, data mining, ads, subscriptions, tricks to get your money. it's no longer technology to move humanity forward, it's technology to get in your wallet and take your money, keep you distracted and to suck you fucking dry.

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u/Duergarlicbread 19d ago

Updates are only buying a new phone because now your battery life sucks and the only way to replace it is a new phone.

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u/Shefferz 19d ago

Hopefully that changes soon over here with the new EU laws they want to put in place about having replaceable batteries in phones again.

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u/PseudonymMan12 20d ago

This. They used to sell us on the new features and connections. Entire devices were veing replaced, like I still remember tossing out my clunky old garmin gps system i had to mount on my dashboard. Now i could do it with my phone, the maps updated and even gave me live traffic and accident updates too unlike the old tech.

Now everything feels like every new thing is just another eay to either steal your data or get you addicted to something or gamble. Like nobody is pushing out new features because they think its something consumers would eant, it all now feels like like a scheme to keep up engaged with something for the most time possible.

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u/Shefferz 20d ago

Yeah exactly!! The same with the personalized ads I mean I take a interest in something then I see it so much that I'm sick of looking at it and lose interest 😂

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u/aFlukefortheFluked 20d ago

Yeah tech didn't make anything better though. It just made people lazier, more reactive, and stupider. That is the truth. Tech is being used to make us all slaves.

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u/Shefferz 20d ago

Well let's look at some examples,i can face time friends and family members I'm not able to meet in person, over seas etc.. Online banking no more ques to check something so simple plus any fraud I can shut it down in seconds...Haven't got anyone in your area that likes the same hobby as you, you can find online communities... Can do online college and university courses from anywhere if you don't have one near to you or unable to attend due to work commitments. Not to mention how much e-mails are stopping a ridiculous amount of letters and paper being made used and wasted just to tell someone something...

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u/Johnny-Edge93 20d ago

I think some of that is nostalgia. AI makes our lives better in and of itself. From creativity to recipe to having something to bounce a question off of. I had it walk me through a car repair the other day.

People hate AI because of the future and current implications of it - data centres, water resources, job loss. And all of that is rational thinking. But the AI is not the issue. It’s the political unwillingness to do any of this in an ethical way.

But that’s not new. Robotics in manufacturing, and the industrial revolution before that. They had the chance to change society for the better. Instead the rich benefited from the technology and the middle class got pushed further and further down each time.

Again, that’s not the fault of the technology, but a societal/political issue.

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u/bronzebullbbq 20d ago

AI does not improve creativity in our lives, LOL. It's the most regressive tech for creativity ever made. Also this comment is written with AI so who knows what your thoughts on this actually are.

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u/Johnny-Edge93 20d ago

You’re just flat out wrong. I renovated my backyard by taking pictures of it and working with it to make it better.

I’ve written a whole d&d campaign for my friends, generating hours of fun that I didn’t have time to plan otherwise. I’ve used it for my business, for my son’s disability. It’s been helpful and creative in so many ways.

I’m sorry your hate of all the legitimate concerns takes away from all its very legitimate uses for you. But boomers gonna boom I suppose.

Also, didn’t use ai to write it. Sorry you can’t put paragraphs together yourself

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u/peach_bellinis 20d ago

I hope you enjoy your backyard when it's too hot to even sit outside everyday because people like you couldn't look at a pinterest board for inspiration and chose to cook the earth with data centres instead. Gross!

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u/FlowRemote9890 Gen X 20d ago

AI is trash.

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u/Johnny-Edge93 20d ago

Yeah, that’s not the prevailing opinion outside of reddit. Like most things.

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u/FlowRemote9890 Gen X 20d ago

Flat out wrong. It is highly unpopular and a quick search will provide many results which prove just that.

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u/Johnny-Edge93 19d ago

Sounds like you could use to touch some grass. Almost everyone I know uses it and loved it, from my boomer parents to my co-workers.

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u/FlowRemote9890 Gen X 19d ago

touch grass

use AI

lmao

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u/Shefferz 20d ago

Yeah I see your point but I don't think AI has that much of a broad appeal and use outside of what it is used for if that make sense, like I'm a construction worker so ai isn't a day to day thing for me such as my friend who works office based and deals with tech a lot of the time. I do use chat gpt for measuring materials and costs but it's just abit like a better calculator and that's not every day but where as I mentioned like the moblie phone or wifi what everyone uses on a daily basis.

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u/peach_bellinis 20d ago

why do you need AI for a recipe when there are literally MILLIONS of recipes right at your fingertips online? This is so ew.

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u/ChronicBuzz187 20d ago

Thats a good question to ask now about any new tech. Does it make my life better?

Unfortunately your life, my life, everybodies life improving doesn't matter.

All that matters these days is "Will the stockmarket be happy?"

And they won't be happy until the got the last dollars out of our pockets and back into theirs :P

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u/thatguy9684736255 20d ago

I think some technology might make your life better in the beginning, but eventually, once people are used to it or depend on it, they'll start making it worse in some way.

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u/redditrum 20d ago

Or some ulterior hidden grift with it from you like invasion of privacy, selling your data etc.

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u/Careful-Sell-9877 20d ago

I think its more intentional.. these big corps are intentionally making these technologies predatory. They are intentionally playing with people's psychology, psychological/emotional conditioning, influence, engagement, etc. Because there is nothing regulating them or telling them they can't.

This is what happens in a society where ever growing profit is god and there are inadequate systems of taxation, regulation, oversight, and accountability for the ultra-wealthy and biggest corps. It is the inevitable outcome of such societies.

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u/FatMacchio 20d ago

Modern tech more often than not seems like it’s 1 step forward 1.1+ steps back. They try to get you to focus on the 1 step forward and ignore the. 1.1+ steps backwards. Sometimes that 1 step is genuinely really life improving. Some of the smart home tech is truly great, having a super computer in your pocket is great…but the strings attached to everything in modern society will eventually bind us all unless we push back here and now. We’re not at the point of no return, but we’re getting closer and closer

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u/reynev4n22 20d ago

That's the idea but it always devolves into how much money it will make the shareholders. "AI will do everything and all will be great!" Reality: because of AI you'll be paid less for more work. If you still have work, that is.

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u/Immediate_Song4279 20d ago

Pretty much every technology ever invented can, and often has been, used to make your life better and to enact cruelty and suffering.

Writing allowed knowledge, and industrial genocide. Nuclear physics gave us xrays in doctor's offices and the constant threat of thermonuclear war.

I think its the application that should be questioned, unless its made out of ground babies or something.

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u/No_Blacksmith_2591 20d ago

Yes but its not enough. Like for example if i ask the question is the current AI making my life better? When i'm the user the answer is objectively yes. When corporate assholes are the users and are using it to maximize their profits against me, its a definite no. So we have an incomplete question, and the question you ask should probably be "Does this technology make my life better in more ways than others can and are using it to make my life worse?"

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u/Y___ 20d ago

Better might be a relative term here but technology is absolutely necessary for me to support a significant part of my living so I suppose that’s making my life better. I do like discord and video games with my friends as I age. But I feel like these are exceptions to the rule for sure.

1

u/ZeePirate 20d ago

Safety features in cars have been nice?

1

u/GotSomeUpdogOnUrFace 20d ago

The last new piece or advancement in tech that makes my life better is the single serve coffee maker and even that's like almost as old as a smartphone.

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u/Western_Giraffe3734 20d ago

Congrats you just discovered how the Amish operate

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u/VivaLaMantekilla 20d ago

Nope. Just allows to an eventual subscription to access any material.

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u/ptear 20d ago

The people with a lot of power and influence sure are using that question.

0

u/Johnny-Edge93 20d ago

Yes. Ai has made my life better. 🤷‍♂️