Circling back to smartphones, the main problem is not that it removed the intention of certain activities, it’s the fact that it just provides easy alternative activities to fill our day, a lazy cop-out instead of being creative. Why write something when you can doomscroll endlessly for that sweet sweet micro-dose of dopamine? Why listen to an album and find that great song that no one is talking about when you can jump on Spotify and listen to whatever slop A$AP Rocky released that is pushed aggressively by the algorithm?

Source: 100 50 Themes Project

I get where the author is coming from. However, nostalgia is sometimes a dangerous instinct because our brain tends to only keep what was good about that period and completely papers over all the bad things.

Remember the different cables. Remember the various chargers. Remember how heavy your laptop was? Remember carrying your entire desktop computer for a LAN party? Remember paying ginormous telephone charges to talk with your friends? Remember SMS packs and how they were charged?

I am not claiming the challenges that the author suggests are menial in comparison. Nor am I saying that we are somehow “better.”

The inspiration for the solution might be in history - but the solution is certainly in our future - figuring out ways to keep the good and eliminate the bad. That’s progress.

Else we are just stuck. But in different ways.