[coldtea]

And they would be right. Television did fuck social connection. And the smartphone did it much worse.

[swores]

No they clearly wouldn't be right. Even if we accept as fact the idea that both those things have had negative effects on society and on us, quite clearly huge numbers of people DO want TVs and smartphones, even if those things aren't leading to better, happier lives.

[_heimdall]

I'm not sure how we could possibly quantify and compare better, happier lives before and after TVs or smartphones, but it would be impossible to narrow down the metrics to peg the change over such a long period of time on just those technologies. The scale is just too big and the timeline to long to possibly know why happiness may have increased, if it did at all.

> quite clearly huge numbers of people DO want TVs and smartphones

This really ventures into the space of addictive behaviors. Do meth addicts really want meth, or are they using for some other reason? Can we assume that they DO want the meth and that's the primary driver simply because they keep using it?

[lotsofpulp]

Pretty sure meth addicts really want meth, based on the chemical reactions involved between the brain and meth.

[_heimdall]

I guess I just am not as certain that I'd classify chemical addiction as a true "want", but maybe that's wrong.

[rqtwteye]

That's true. But as far as business and popularity go, TV and smartphones were a huge success. In the end what makes money will be sold without regard for social consequences.

[echoangle]

That’s shifting the goalpost, the original point was that nobody wants this, not that it’s bad for society