I'll be showing my kids this...
both, at home
and at school!

Wow! I'm tweetin' that to all my followers :)

Thanks for sharing. Glad I don't have a smart phone. Although not sure what I'd do without my daily Seabreeze fix......
Cheers
Marty

Wow - true story - glad we took up windsurfing and our friend circles are increasing every week.

Thanks for sharing - I have posted on facebook

Cheers
Morgan and Co

Nahhhhhhh, I don't agree with this video.

If I think back to my highschool days in the late 90's (pre mobile phones being owned by kids), we really didn't have a lot of face-to-face conversations outside of school. You'd have your 10-15 main school friends, who you would see/talk to at school, but AFTER, school that number would drop down to the 2-3 friends who lived within walking distance of your house. I maybe would use a telephone only on the weekends to organise some party plans etc. Basically you spent a WHOLE lot of time waiting for people who were late or got the meeting place wrong because there was no way to communicate once you left your house ... it really was a very unsociable time.

Nowadays, instead of having 2-3 core friends you interact with on a daily basis, you have probably 20-30 people you interact with on a 'less' committed basis. It's MUCH easier to organise group activities (parties, going windsurfing etc) because there's continuous interaction. When I was a kid I couldn't organise to go windsurfing with people, I would just go whenever dad would drive me. Now, I can message a bunch of people during the week and see who has time off work and organise to go when there's wind ... I grew up windsurfing usually by myself all the time, now I always go sailing with a bunch of people (who I then have face-to-face conversations with; but only because we organised them by FB/whatsapp conversation snippets during the week).

Here's an article by a friend of mine in Holland on the video - https://medium.com/p/e9cd1cb8097c. He's basically complaining about the same thing but he makes a good point about how digital conversations have moved to "snippets" of information over the course of the day, with little or no commitment or direction to and 'end-game' in the conversation (like, WHEN are we gonna go meet up). It's really just a shift in the way we use technology, and seeing as it's only the "adults" complaining, I doubt it will make any changes to how kids operate...

When the first kid brought a 'walkman' to school when I was a child, all the parents said that we would grow up losing the ability to talk because we would listen to music all day. hahahaha. It's a technology shift people... just deal with it and adapt. Life is 1000x better and more interactive than it was 15 years ago. WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO GO BACK? I won't even get started on how ARCHAICALLY difficult it was to ask a girl out on a date before smartphones...

^ the life of a playboy huh

I think it's a little bit of both, yes technology is great now and great for connecting but how many times do you go out to dinner or something and see people glued to their phones instead of communicating with the people they are there with. I can remember a new years eve party early on when mobiles became cheap and popular and everyone was there texting people, on a reflection of society it's quite sad (as opposed to a few years earlier when people were focused on the massive drunken orgy).

Everything in moderation, I think we are yet to see that with social technology- how many people panic when they leave the house without their phone, how many do you see check their phones first thing when they come in from sailing.

The difference SeanAus is that you are using, not abusing social media.
You are using it to organise real life activities and social events (windsurfing, going out etc) that give face to face contact and stimulation rather than denying yourself those opportunities by living in a virtual world like so many young people are doing now.

Many people you see these days are at somewhere (dinner, party, sporting event etc) that deserves their attention and interaction with those that are there. But instead you see them on their phones texting and tweeting to people about where they are, rather than living for the moment.
There are plenty of people living in a virtual world.

It's about getting the balance right and not becoming addicted.

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Bondalucci said..

It's about getting the balance right and not becoming addicted.

YEAP!

Ironic we are using social media, ie a web forum to discuss and for some to be critical of using social media on mobile phones. Ironic too the video has been pulled. That's social media for you.

The best thing about technology is you can google stuff and write on forums while on the dunny, like what I'm doing now!

RELAX! Thanks to keeping my head down in social media I have found the original video ...

what's more frightening than the fact that people find revelation in this video is that no-one has asked who is behind it and what is the purpose.

it's easier to hit the forward button or give something a like.

Sean don't forget you are able to compare what you USED to do as a kid/teenager and what you do now. You are able to look at the positives and negatives. Our children nowadays have been born into a society where it is the norm. They have no past reference to compare with. Not really comparing apples with apples in my opinion. I know we probably sound like old fogies to our kids, but I worry about how many of them will suffer tinutis (sic) at an abnormally young age through using ear phones turned up way too loud, back and posture problems through continually being stooped forward and also eye sight issues through constantly staring at a 3/4/5 inch screen. My eldest is about to get his P plates and his sense of direction and knowledge for remembering how to get places is pathetic. All because he spends the whole time he's in the car with me looking at his phone and not where we are actually going. It's a rod we've built for our own backs unfortunately but I really think that video is brilliant and a true reflection on society.

I think sean is comparing apples with apples.

the defining difference is parenting.

I like the effort to use poetry in the video but think that maybe it still need some work ......there is plenty of rhyming stuff out there on youtube and not all of it is rap.

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sick_em_rex said..

Sean don't forget you are able to compare what you USED to do as a kid/teenager and what you do now.

Yes, I agree .. BUT...

Isn't this just another technology shift? There were really radical changes in technology through the 90's when I was growing up. It was the dawn of computers in the household; kids were 'supposedly' going to never go outside again and stare at screens. Now it's fine, we all go outside and stare at screens (problem solved).

My generation was born in to the age of mainstream children's television; Agro's Cartoon Connection and Chese TV meant we could watch cartoons back to back before/after school and later Saturday mornings could be devoted to 5 hours of music videos (Rage etc). I was told as a kid we'd all grow up as social hermits unable to relate to the real world because we were watching so much TV. None of which happened. TV has jumped the shark; I don't know many young people who watch very much of it anymore (apart from torrenting shows on their computers).

I feel like the video is pointing it's finger at facebook. When if you look at user stats for Facebook, kids aren't even using it. The average user age for Facebook in most countries is +40 ... AVERAGE! It's only adults (mostly old people) who are stuck using Facebook all day. The kids have moved on. We're in a radical age of technology shift right now; it will change again in a few years ... already we are seeing this as Facebook is starting to aquire startups to widen it's use (whatsapp messaging, Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets, instagram for photos etc). PC sales have died to iPad sales, which are about to die to +5" mobile sales ... it shifts. So will the people and how we use technology ...

Just ride it out for a few more years and we'll all be fine ;-)

I was thinking it was just another compounding factor in our de-evolution, that we'd gradually lose the characteristic that makes primates so endearing. But then some bright young aussie invented the selfie.


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonverbal_communication
"Only a small percentage of the brain processes verbal communication. As infants, nonverbal communication is learned from social-emotional communication, making the face rather than words the major organ of communication. As children become verbal communicators, they begin to look at facial expressions, vocal tones, and other nonverbal elements more subconsciously"

Selfies have changed the internet. Look at this guy (the leader of the selfie movement). Where would he be before social media? that's real progess...

www.instagram.com/mrpimpgoodgame/

I watched the first vid and though " wow that's so true"

Watch the other and though " oh hang on maybe social media is ok?"

Then realised before I started reading this thread I was meant ring my girlfriend and ask how her day went?

Instead

Just wasted ten minutes watching pommies sing rhymes ? And to make it worse I'm now wasting more time writing this stupid reply?

Agree time to put down the bloody phone and do something

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Bondalucci said..

I'll be showing my kids this...
both, at home
and at school!

Yeah Im sure they will watch the vid and thank you for opening there eyes and setting them straight!!

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Ian K said..

I was thinking it was just another compounding factor in our de-evolution, that we'd gradually lose the characteristic that makes primates so endearing. But then some bright young aussie invented the selfie.


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonverbal_communication
"Only a small percentage of the brain processes verbal communication. As infants, nonverbal communication is learned from social-emotional communication, making the face rather than words the major organ of communication. As children become verbal communicators, they begin to look at facial expressions, vocal tones, and other nonverbal elements more subconsciously"

I like this idea of devolution because I think "de-evolution from what"...then I think of Douglas Adams.

"Many were increasingly of the opinion that they?d all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no one should ever have left the oceans."

Smart phones, dumb people. Hmmm

And the real kicker is i finally call her and she tells me her friend just died of a sudden heart attack, and has been waiting for me to call....

I guess real life things can be going on while your checking stalkbook or watching stupid vids about watching stupid vids on seabeeze.

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SeanAUS120 said..
Nowadays, instead of having 2-3 core friends you interact with on a daily basis, you have probably 20-30 people you interact with on a 'less' committed basis.

Yeah - speak for yourself. My weekend interactions are with whoever can stay up after 11pm. So it's just I and I, a vapouriser and a bottle of something these days. (scary thing is I've been having a great time)

The great desocialiser is being married with children.

(and now I've actually watched the reposted 'look up' video)
What's wrong with being alone?

It's lovely. Think about this: All your problems come from other people. One way or another. When they're removed we're free. Alone comes from "all one". It can be a spiritual thing.

I really quite like being alone. I can put whichever music I want on. I can go wherever I want. I can do whatever I want. etc.

If you can't handle being alone I honestly think you have issues.

And what important conversations are you having with people anyway? I bet you don't even remember the last one. Or if something interrupts a conversations (children!) when we come back to it how often do we say "what were we talking about? I can't remember" My point is it's mostly drivel. And if you really pay attention to what people are saying you'll see they are pretty much just talking to themselves anyway. When they get going. I guess this is what makes me such a "good listener"; I'm not really listening to you at all. You're having a monologue. (women are much, much worse for this. Luckily there aren't any on SB so I'm safe to say that eh?)

OK, I'm being a bit one-sided, but really, most conversations to me are just ...nothing. There's no journey, or something.

evlPanda's heirarchy of conversations:

Ideas
Events
Yourself
Other people

Or is that just a guy thing?

Geez EvilOne, I think you have hit the nail on the head.

I always get into trouble replying to her people's monologues, and happy just doodling around doing my own sh1t.

But I can also sit around for ages talking crap to other windsurfers waiting for the wind to come in

In the 19th Century aristocrats would communicate with each other via letters or short notes delivered by staff. Basically emails and tweets.

Intellectuals did similar: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Letters

WOW! That guy from the video got two times more friends than me on Facebook!