At the risk of sounding like an old broken record...I attribute much of this malaise to the advent of 'smart phones'...Phone gossip is much more interesting than keeping abreast of what is going on out there in the real world.
I put television at the top of the list. It is the global "baby sitter"and mass distraction. There is no TV in our house. Twenty minutes of every hour is ads for zombified audiences.
"Americans spend an average screen time of 4 hours and 25 minutes on their mobile phones daily. Reports further tell us that the top 10% of heavy phone users have an average of 5,427 daily touches on their mobile phones.
In fact, the numbers show that the average hours spent watching traditional television every day have fallen since 2021. That year, viewers spent 196 minutes, or three hours and 16 minutes, watching traditional TV. This fell by six minutes, to 190 minutes (three hours and 10 minutes) in 2022."
I wonder about the hours bloggers spend on computers?
Jun 24, 2024 — The average American spends 7 hours and 3 minutes looking at a screen each day; South Africans spend 9 hours and 24 minutes on screen per day ...
It's the "transit age" just playing out. Radio really started this latest sociological change, and TV really kicked it off, training people to sit and stare, but onward it's gone to phones and whatever is next.
At the risk of sounding like an old broken record...I attribute much of this malaise to the advent of 'smart phones'...Phone gossip is much more interesting than keeping abreast of what is going on out there in the real world.
I put television at the top of the list. It is the global "baby sitter"and mass distraction. There is no TV in our house. Twenty minutes of every hour is ads for zombified audiences.
My guess would be that today many more 'smart phone' addicts populate our world than home TV viewers.
Just checked , looks like cell phones win !
"Americans spend an average screen time of 4 hours and 25 minutes on their mobile phones daily. Reports further tell us that the top 10% of heavy phone users have an average of 5,427 daily touches on their mobile phones.
In fact, the numbers show that the average hours spent watching traditional television every day have fallen since 2021. That year, viewers spent 196 minutes, or three hours and 16 minutes, watching traditional TV. This fell by six minutes, to 190 minutes (three hours and 10 minutes) in 2022."
I wonder about the hours bloggers spend on computers?
Jun 24, 2024 — The average American spends 7 hours and 3 minutes looking at a screen each day; South Africans spend 9 hours and 24 minutes on screen per day ...
It's the "transit age" just playing out. Radio really started this latest sociological change, and TV really kicked it off, training people to sit and stare, but onward it's gone to phones and whatever is next.
Society's toxicity!!! :(
Excellent post, and thanks for the poem. All of it seems elegiac at this point, but at least we have that much.