A bit dumbfounded and just had to express it.
I had a 7 hour flight a couple of days ago and it had free wifi on the flight. Neat, I get to message people on the plane. However, I feel that for that long you still bring a book, or puzzles, or in my case I brought my Deck and played games for the duration of the flight.
The guy next to me though watched TikTok for the entire flight. 7 hours of constant stream of algorithm content to his face. I kind of understand why it’s so addicting, it just keeps coming and coming with no end. I was just astonished with how he could keep going for 7 hours. An hour fine, it’s a lot but we’ve all lost ourselves for an hour. 7 hours of constant feed though.
Idk, people come here to Lemmy and the Fediverse and say there isn’t enough content. Well if 7 hours of content like that is expected it’s too freaking much. If anything I feel I’m much healthier with social media now. Maybe they’re angry because it feels more like a withdrawal.
No real point to this post beyond that. Just a very interesting thing to witness.
people come here to Lemmy and the Fediverse and say there isn’t enough content.
Honestly, I consider that a benefit. I can run out of content, which tells me I’ve had enough for the day and I should go do other things.
I occasionally get tons of time to just to scroll at work. I usually had 2 tabs with reddit and lemmy open. Reddit is logged out to discourage me from participating in rage inducing posts. And I had to stop scrolling reddit due to how many rage inducing posts are there on the r/all. And it is endless.
I find lemmy much slower, more connected community, and less rage-bait posts. Some instances are atrocious ofcourse, but that is easily filtered out.
I just got a rush of rage just from you talking about rage inducing posts. It’s fucking awful. People know inducing rage leads to people commenting, positive and caring just doesn’t. It’s a shame there used to be really interesting conversations there.
That’s fucking wild. Seven hours??? No commenting or anything, just literally consuming?
I’m sort of baffled by the way people use TikTok; if I get the train to work in the morning, I’ll see loads of people using it and it very rarely seems like they get to the end of a video? It’s like they flick past them before the videos finish? Unless I’m missing something.
you can see why p47/gop wanted to buy tiktok, if people are this addicted, they will consume right wing propaganda for that long.
It’s the perfect propaganda machine. Subtle messages that aren’t top bad, only a few seconds to plant the idea, then it gradually pushes you further and further.
The guy next to me though watched TikTok for the entire flight.
I brought my Deck and played games for the duration of the flight.
Wonder if he thought you were addicted to video games? 🤔
There are games that engage your brain.
I won’t pretend tiktok scrolling is the same as playing games but this had me laughing. Surely the OP sees at least some level of hypocrisy in their judgement, right?
i cant even play games for that long, let alone 1hr. i usually immediately quit the game, maybe do something else, come back to it and maybe play some more before stopping completely.
Mine doesn’t have an algorithm that was developed specifically to be addicting so it harvest data and promote ads. I think a single-player story based game is a bit different.
You both sat there for 7 hours straight staring at compelling content on screens.
Apples and oranges. I purchased content and chose to spend my time there. They were presented content that a megacorporation decided they should like, with a constant stream of ads. It’s like saying someone reading a book is the same as someone reading the penny-saver for an hour.
It’s not a criticism of you - just a factual statement about objective reality. A few decades ago, you’d have been sitting there reading a book and feeling superior to someone playing Tetris. I get it. It’s only human. I catch myself doing the same thing all the time. My spending seven hours a day watching long-form YouTube videos is clearly also less bad than someone watching TikTok. And it might be. It’s just the activity itself that to an outside observer looks exactly the same.
That’s not the point I’m making, if they say there for 7 hours on Lemmy or Mastodon or even Loops that would be different for me, it was the shovel-feeding of corporate approved content into their eyeballs at lightening speed.
A book, movie, game are all the same to me, they’re telling a story and most they’ll have is a sponsored item in there or something, it’s the algorithmic addiction I was witnessing in person that I’m commenting on.
you know until I read this I thought deck of cards.
My parents watch short-form videos on Wechat. Lol
You can hear it if you stand close to the front door. You can hear it upstairs.
I don’t think they ever watched a movie, or read a wiki page, or ever actually actively look for actual good content to consume.
I remember when I was a kid and on my first plane ride (my only plane ride to this day), I remember feeling so excited. There were no phone, zero smart devices. Never even used the internet before (the region where I lived probably wasn’t even developed enough for internet service yet).
I remember, as a kid, I was just so excited. When the plane started moving, I just looked out the window. Then I see the ground getting further away, and we were in the air. Like just wow, I’m seeing things from above, like a bird. I vaguely remember just playing this golf game thing on the… infotainment system(?), I remember occasionally just trying to look out the window, and seeing things above, but it was just a bunch of clouds (cruising altitude), for hours, so I mostly just messed with the infotainment thing. And I don’t understand why they seemingly randomly turn off all the lights, and close the window shades, I was a kid and didn’t like not being able to see outside. And I then I tried to open the window shades and my mom telling me to close the shade because the light was bothering people sleeping??(idk) [edit: wait why do they do that “turning off the lights and closing the shades” thing?] I kinda try to use the infotainment thing but its dark and I think I stood out, and I remember my mom telling me to sleep and not stare at screen too much, because… nearsightedness (am nearsighted now lol), but it was a rare experience so I just play the games on the infotainment system until I got tired and slept.
It was mostly a blur, didn’t even remember what food there was. I vaguely remember Seoul International Airport, waiting for the transfer flight. Then next thing I remember is JFK airport, I don’t remember much of the customs. But, I was so excited (and I guess nervous too). 美國 (USA; literally translates to “Beautiful Country”). A stange place. My new home country.
Zero phones. Smartphone didn’t even exist lol.
Fuck… I should’ve journaled that, but 8 year old(?) me didn’t do journaling. I never really did any journaling. Fuck, I wish I remembered the whole thing.
P.S. I found a memoir by a fellow Chinese American with the book title “Beautiful Country”, gonna finish reading it (listening to audiobook) soon.
It seems like this could’ve been a long flight, the dimming of lights was likely to help people to adjust to the time zone of the destination. A meal was likely served around what might be the destination morning time too.
Baiyun International Airport --> Seoul Intl Airport --> JFK Intl Airport
I think total travel time was basically almost an entire 24-hour day factoring in waiting times even tho it feels like the same day, left in morning, arrived at nighttime in NYC, but its 24 hours passed.
Googled some airport photos and I kinda remember like a 1 second “mental video” of the airports.
I wanna stay in the memories forever. Because after the excitement subsided… it’s a bunch of memories of abuse at home, new country, very cool, sure, but same family, same shenanigans, same yelling…
I kinda feel like I’d rather just have a random North American or European couple adopt me lol. “Blood relatives” huh…, so much for “blood relations”.
That’s kinda how I remember the flight to Canada I was on with my family when I was 14. Although I unfortunately remember the food… ugh
The now disgraced Louis CK had a point.
Disgraced? He’s on tour right now.
Most people I see doom scrolling on TikTok also can’t be arsed to wear headphones. If I had to endure that for 7 hours straight I’d probably have a panic attack.
I more or less just sat around doing nothing on my last flight (which lasted for over 20 hours), occasionally listening to music or playing with my Game Boy.
I don’t get that, why are there suddenly so many people playing videos on their speakers? I feel like it’s mostly tiktok users that are completely glued to their screens.
I was in a waiting room a few months ago, where a lady was doing this, full volume tiktok. I pulled up Thy Art is Murder (Deathcore) and starting playing them at medium volume, staring straight at her dead eyed. She pulled headphones out her bag a few seconds later, and I turned off my music.
Poor awareness of their surroundings? Plain ignorance? Don’t really know
I can only speak for Americans, but it seems like having respect for your surroundings and empathy for others it’s completely dead. People care for only themselves, and have no sense of shame to override their decisions.
Even if I was going to mostly do something like read or play a video game im the type who wants to observe my space and go to the bathroom partially just to know where it is and likely both and interact with the flight attendant. Im definitely an isle person.
I dislike the thought of having to get up every time someone wants to go to the bathroom and kinda enjoy the view from the window. Flying is surprisingly boring and non-annoying, and navigating airports is way easier than I thought (my last flight was earlier this year and before then I only flew once when I was 14).
thats even more reason im an aisle as I don’t want to be annoying the isle person. im fine getting up and if its a window type person they likely won’t all that much.
I think this is quite different from video games and books from a psychological standpoint. But even reading a book for so many hours straight is impressive, as it does require some mental energy to keep being invested and imagining the scenarios in your head when reading.
A constant feed of short videos with content that is designed to stimulate thought and provoke emotions/reactions however, I’d say it’s almost inhuman to actually invest yourself for this many hours for such. Whence brainrot as a term originates, I suppose; becoming desensitized and unresponsive with no deeper thoughts to impressions.
There are healthier, or, less unhealthy things to do for 7 hours straight. This guy has my sympathies.
reading book is pretty healthy even for long periods of time.
I think you hit on it, I think it may be brain rot and attention spans. People say they get bored playing video games now, and no question about reading. I think you’re right, if you consume a constant barrage of that sort of content, your brain will change.
I was on a long flight,so I read twilight, but the guy across the aisle was non stop playing a video game, was my first encounter with a gaming addict.
i cant even tolerate scrolling on reddit for like 30mins, before i do something else. and yes im “addicted to reddit” it just makes your eyes too tired and i usually close it, and come back later.
I had a very similar experience! I was minding my own business playing GTA V. A gal across the isle was raw dogging a book the whole flight. Was my first encounter with a reading addict.
What are all of you maniacs doing awake on a seven hour flight? Just close your eyes and nap the whole way. Fuckin’ caffeine addicts.
if one is an addict, they would get anxiety or get antsy if they go more than a certian amount of time if not consuming social media.
These god damn sleep junkies always hitting the snooze button. Why can’t they space out into the void in existential dread like normal people on a flight.
I can’t sleep in a moving vehicle at all. I’ve had 18 hour flights where I was unable to sleep the whole time and my brain was absolutely fried by the time I got to the hotel.
Clearly withdrawal symptoms.
I think it’s different consuming content you picked out yourself vs content that is algorithmically chosen for you
Why? I’m not saying you are wrong but if I scroll through tictok I choose what I enteract with,if I read a book I chose it from a list that was given to me by either an algorithm or a reviewer, steam uses algorithms to recommend games. I honestly don’t see a real difference they are all forms of entertainment.
Choosing a game for a one time purchase is quite different from a constant stream of ads and subtle nudges to purchase. I would be more open to calling it the same if it was a live service game where they were constantly bombarded with ads to buy or micro transactions, but it’s a very different thing compared to a one time purchase.
I agree, watching 7 hours of tiktok probably isn’t great for your brain and it would be more healthy to vary activities a bit.
However when being stuck on a flight with nothing else to do, that’s one of the very few circumstances where this is somewhat understandable and not a great indicator of addiction.
Idk I think someone who wasn’t addicted would get bored and at least stare out the window a bit? Read a pamphlet? Engage in reading material? Watch something with plot or story? Even like, phone games would involve some thought.
I guess. Still we shouldn’t dish out diagnosis on circumstances. I also was just binge-watching a youtube-channel on audio while travelling the other day. I think the content is much more sophisticated than tiktok, but who am I to judge. (But I do judge, I am better).
I don’t fly that much, so of course I’m going to look out the window. I book window seats behind the wings just so I can watch the flaps. But I can imagine a lot of people are just bored on flights. I guess I’m just playing the devil’s advocate, I don’t even disagree.
🤷♀️🤷♀️ yeah smth like that. I’m not a doctor and I don’t think the issue as simple as “addiction” but phones are fucking us up and it’s only gonna get worse in the next decade.
