I think COVID gave big-tech a rather HUGE boost, as it restricted non-tech businesses, while actively promoting tech as the substitute. As for safety hysteria, I want to clarify I don’t believe COVID itself was pure hysteria, although I do believe policy makers overstepped, and in turn caused excessive harm to youth for instance. Instead I’d argue the hysteria for COVID surrounding safety, extends into modern society, and is applied to subjects like social media bans and occupancy levels at buildings for instance. And finally for the “expert” obedience part, or rather a technocratic approach over a democratic one, can be seen in politics being “advised” by “experts” rather than by democratic will, the excessive presence of “experts” at talk-shows for instance, and the most obvious being social-media censorship surrounding COVID skepticism, as outright “misinformation”. Even though a lot of it is purely nonsensical speculation of course.
Regarding technology having increasing since its inception: that may be true, however I would argue the COVID pandemic having expanded its influence drastically, also in areas previously unexplored. Need an appointment at the barber? Got to plan that using a digital calendar on their website. Need some groceries? Oh, we can now just DoorDash. Have a job interview? Have a Zoom call instead of coming over in person. And I could go on, and on, and on. And regarding your last point, perhaps my issue lies more with the enforcement of expert opinions, and them being presented as ultimate truths, disregarding people’s own opinions. Although I do agree genuine experts to be valuable, there’s also a lot that pretend to be that, while having a conflict of interest.
E: clarification
First, the term hysteria is from a fairly mysoginist root, so maybe consider whether that is the best word here.
Second, for all the 8 million plus people killed by COVID it wasn’t hysteria, they died. They didn’t have the sniffles, they died. Dead. Not alive. There isn’t really a lot that is worse as an outcome from a respiratory infection, however we have that too! Tonnes of people who didn’t die have long covid symptoms, strokes, heart attacks, various thrombotic events, loss of function, and additional complications in the rest of their medical issues. On top of that plenty of people had parents, siblings, children, friends, or other people important to them die or become disabled.
Third, digital dependence? I mean, we were moving in this direction for decades before covid. It used to be nobody had phones at all. My partners grandparents remembered the house down the block getting a telephone and went over to see it. They didn’t have electricity. That was less than a century ago. The ramp up of technology over the last century has been insane and accelerating that whole time. In 2004 the coolest phone was a Motorola RAZR flip phone with a terrible 0.3 megapixel camera but a stunning 176x220 pixel display. In 2024 a Pixel 9 has a 1080x2424 display and a 50, 48, and 10.5 megapixel camera. The comparison of a rifle and a spear feels appropriate. We were already heading towards more technology in our lives, it just because super noticeable during lockdowns as it accelerated a little more for a couple of years and it was more obvious.
Fourth, why the quotes around expert? There is such a thing as an expert. Someone who knows more than me doesn’t have to know everything to keep knowing more than me. They can be wrong and learn new things and change their mind all while remaining more informed than I am. In fact, being an expert in a field means doing that constantly. Being at the frontier of knowledge means holding your beliefs more tentatively as you are more likely to change your understanding than an uninformed average person. The fact that they didn’t know how good masks would be at the start isn’t an indictment of their expert status, it is their first guess given previous knowledge. What they did after that is what makes them experts, namely changing their minds when new evidence came about.
I fully agree with you comment. I can understand you’ve interpreted it that way, and have since updated the body to clarify this. Regarding technology having increasing since its inception: that may be true, however I would argue the COVID pandemic having expanded its influence drastically, also in areas previously unexplored. Need an appointment at the barber? Got to plan that using a digital calendar on their website. Need some groceries? Oh, we can now just DoorDash. Have a job interview? Have a Zoom call instead of coming over in person. And I could go on, and on, and on. And regarding your last point, perhaps my issue lies more with the enforcement of expert opinions, and them being presented as ultimate truths, disregarding people’s own opinions. Although I do agree genuine experts to be valuable, there’s also a lot that pretend to be that, while having a conflict of interest.
That’s not a shower thought, that’s crackhead “thoughts”
Maybe if you have to do work early and are severely sleep deprived?
Well then what concepts did it introduce, which extend into modern society? I see no arguments against my question, indicating a quest for discussion. Calling someone a crackhead doesn’t contribute to the discussion it seems; who would’ve thought?
It is customary to first lay out your own arguments and thoughts if you want to start a discussion.
I don’t really care honestly, I’m rather interested in staying on topic, rather than being pedantic about irrelevancies like this.
Irrelevancies like laying out your argument? That seems to me to be the most relevant thing in a discussion, especially if you want to stay “on topic”.
Can we just stop this useless discussion? You want to win the argument? Here, you won. I don’t care.
I didn’t even realise we were having an argument, much less what about. But sure.
Is this the five minute course, or?
You’re not even contributing to your own discussion, you just spewed talking points to start shit lol
I’m discussing now right? Meanwhile you’re posting yet another useless comment
Oh just noticed you’re from lemmy.ml, you can’t do good faith discussions, nevermind.
So now you denounce me again, while STILL not having provided any useful comment. Talking about good faith discussions
I mean, in the US we didn’t even pay attention to the experts past the first, what, year of COVID? And that year we basically eradicated the seasonal flu, which killed ~26,000 people in the 19-20 flu season in the US.That was the last time we even considered that an expert could exist.
As for safety hysteria, I don’t even see masks in public anymore. Most of the time I go to a store I’m the only one wearing one, while people are dying, and being permanently disabled by COVID.
Digital dependence is something that was happening before COVID. I think the only bill I’ve paid using a check instead of paying online was my rent, and that’s because they charged extra to pay online. It definitely increased screen time for a lot of people, but the dependence isn’t set by individuals; it’s set by the fact that paying by check is becoming more difficult, and a lot of businesses are going online-only.
I think that screen time increased for everyone during the lockdown era, and a lot of people probably continue to use their devices more than they used to. But your safety hysteria and expert obedience comments come across as a paranoid, mentally ill conspiracy theorist. Do you want to expand on those thoughts?
I think COVID gave big-tech a rather HUGE boost, as it restricted non-tech businesses, while actively promoting tech as the substitute. As for safety hysteria, I want to clarify I don’t believe COVID itself was pure hysteria, although I do believe policy makers overstepped, and in turn caused excessive harm to youth for instance. Instead I’d argue the hysteria for COVID surrounding safety, extends into modern society, and is applied to subjects like social media bans and occupancy levels at buildings for instance. And finally for the “expert” obedience part, or rather a technocratic approach over a democratic one, can be seen in politics being “advised” by “experts” rather than by democratic will, the excessive presence of “experts” at talk-shows for instance, and the most obvious being social-media censorship surrounding COVID skepticism, as outright “misinformation”. Even though a lot of it is purely nonsensical speculation of course.
Uh oh, it’s caught in a loop.
If you mean I repeat the post’s body? No, it’s the opposite. In fact:
It’s a quote
Covid? What year is this?
