I'm curious: how do the "weird ones" do? The outsiders, contrarians, the ones who don't quite fit in and who might even take pleasure in not caring about social media?
> I'm curious: how do the "weird ones" do? The outsiders, contrarians,
the ones who don't quite fit in and who might even take pleasure in
not caring about social media?
Anecdotally, really really well! based on Haidt's watershed of 2009
I'm seeing what's in the pipeline at bachelors and masters level
education 10-12 years on. Most of my L6 and L7 are young adults aged
around 20-25. They've either had about a decade of exposure to
smartphones and social media, or for some reason they have opted out.
There is a very significant difference in their abilities and
attitudes. I can almost see it in their eyes in the first tutorial.
Motivation is higher.
Punctuality and commitment are massively better (they turn up to
tutorials and don't email me at the last minute with an excuse)
Concentration and listening is better, They are not constantly
twitching and looking to their phone.
Emotional range of affect (ability for seriousness and good humour) is
higher.
Positive interpersonal skills are better. This isn't an
introvert-extrovert thing, it's about focus, openness, body language,
eye contact, thoughtfulness of speech, vocabulary. It's just a
different experience to meet people who are phone-free.
Even ability to use technology is improved. Counterintuitive
maybe. But they seem better at searching, referencing and organising
information.
I pretty much breathe a sigh of joy when I see a student has a dumb
phone or tells me they "don't do smartphone and social media". I know
there's going to be more to work with, and the outcomes are going to
be interesting.
The irony is of course, that these "weird ones" would have been us
geeks 30 years ago. The same group you'd expect to have a more intense
relation to authentic knowledge, curiosity and better academic
outcomes.
Things have flipped so that technology overuse is now normative, and
the "geeky" thing to do is be moderate, circumspect and sceptical.
>Things have flipped so that technology overuse is now normative, and the "geeky" thing to do is be moderate, circumspect and sceptical.
Hearing this, even anecdotally, makes me sigh with relief. What is your impression of their lives? Do they hang out with each other, or with normies, in RL, or just spend a lot of time alone?
No. So that's why it's not a "movement" AFAICS, not unless I'm missing
something emerging in youth culture.
As a "weird kid" in the 80s I was delighted to find a Computer Club
and discover there were others. But this is something different. You
can't really rally around things you all don't do.
Thinking about it now though, I didn't see "geekiness" as an
_identity_ at the time. It's like that got imposed ex-post-facto in
the late 90s.
Seems a few are outdoors-sporty, things like long distance walking,
canoeing, mountain biking and stuff. Maybe a bit "health geeky". One
guy is really into astronomy and going up mountains to get better
telescope views. But this is pure anecdote. I don't really have an
archetype in mind. It's like "really into life, but minus the
techno-bullshit and control freakery". One person described it as
"slow living", but I haven't got a handle on that yet. There's
definitely an anti-corporate element too I'd say.
> spend a lot of time alone?
My guess is that they value their time and attention, and just don't
see constant connectivity and "convenience" as that much of a big
deal. They're also individualistic and confident, as in not embarrassed
to be without a phone, or be the one who does things differently, like
holding up a line for an extra 10 seconds by paying cash (and then
being the only one who tips the waitress).
I definitely see myself as part of that, whatever it is - but being a
50 something computer guy who spends WAY too much time at the
keyboard, it's slightly contradictory.
Come to think of it, a better angle is "last of the normies" in a
world gone mad. I think there's a way to celebrate being relatively
tech-free as a kind of traditional normality.
Social media isn't just popular kids posting photos on Instagram anymore; it encompasses the entire spectrum of young people now. In my experience with my younger sisters' friends (17-22), the ones that don't fit in with the normal, popular crowd, just bury themselves in a different type of social media.
Twitter and TikTok are still pretty big for the "weird girls". Witch culture, far-left politics, nerdy fandoms, and outsider music all have pretty big communities online, a lot of which are made up of teenage girls or queer-adjacent kids.
The "weird boys" mostly end up on reddit and Discord, as expected. I remember spending time with their group at one point and asking one of the kids what he was doing on his phone all night, he said he was arguing with another reddit mod on Discord about rules for their new sub. This was at a campfire.
The comic book store or DIY concert hall don't exist as watering holes for nerdy Gen-Z. I think there's something profoundly sad about that.
It's been four years since I graduated high school, but my experience was that even if you were not on a given social media platform, at least one of your friends definitely was. It is very hard to ignore or stop caring about.
Niche forums still exist, even if waning. The instant message service Discord offers something of the intimacy and organization forums have in a different format. There's more or less the same chances to meet and bond.
