| > essentially second-hand smoke Even if we took this as a valid statement on its face, it's also - A personal safety tool used by vulnerable people to protect themselves, from joggers to the mentally ill - A way of checking in on one's family member suffering from illness - Access to information that is contextually important like specific venue masking guidelines - A means of spending time with family; as long as work knows they can reach you, you are good. Etc. I think it's a good idea to ask not only if we still want to be "blame the tool" people, or "blame the people" people, but also whether we want to open up this general context where we enshroud efforts to project values in a casement that looks like generalized blame of device and person both. IMO we can do better than methods that turn into "see something, shame something" especially when so many details matter. |
I mean, yea it's great you can use the smartphone to do those noble things you listed, but that's not what 99% of the people standing in line, head crooked down, eyes glazed, thumb flying back and forth are doing. They're scrolling insta or snap, or tiktok, chasing that continuous dopamine drip. I remember pre-pandemic walking past a huge line outside of a movie theater, and every single person was scrolling content, eerily silent, not even talking to the people they were with. These people were not checking in on local safety information.
I'm not going to shame them. If that's how you want to live your life, it doesn't affect me. I don't care if the guy in front of me in line is high on drugs or high on instagram as long as 1. I don't smell it and 2. he moves forward along with everyone when the line moves.