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Being Chronically Offline Is The New Cool — Transcript

by Cole Hastings · 3,044 words · 454 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00In 2004, telecommunications company
0:02Motorola unveiled this thing, the Razer
0:05V3. With its sleek, sharp design and
0:07cool colorways, it became the most
0:09sought-after phone for teenagers
0:11everywhere. While I never owned one, I
0:13was a little too young and had to wait
0:14for the NV2 in 2008, it did mark the
0:17beginnings of a decade with a constant
0:19theme. Technology is pretty damn cool.
0:22In the early 2000s and 2010s, technology
0:24felt like this exciting thing to be a
0:26part of. We had flash games and Facebook
0:29and Limewire. [music]
0:30But after about a decade and a half of
0:31fun, things started to change.
0:34Monopolies bought up everything. They
0:35systematically designed the products to
0:37be as addicting as possible, focusing on
0:39profit over innovation. And now we're at
0:41a point in time where owning more of the
0:43latest technology feels lamer than
0:46owning and using less of it. So, let's
0:48explore this cultural shift a little
0:50deeper. how we went from technology to
0:51touching grass as a signal of status and
0:54whether this will become the new normal
0:56in the future. Let's return to that pic
0:58of me circa 2009. Hey, first off, shout
1:01out to Aerapostel for absolutely
1:03carrying my wardrobe back in the day. If
1:06you know, you know. But let's examine my
1:08excitement a little bit more. I was
1:10fortunate enough to grow up in an era
1:11where information was democratized and
1:13regulations and restrictions on that
1:15information were scarce. How could I
1:17have not been stoked to hold a phone in
1:19my hand? This was about to become the
1:20new normal, and I was at the forefront
1:22of it. Part of that excitement, though,
1:24came from wanting to be someone in this
1:27new world. When you're young, you don't
1:29exactly know who you are yet. So, you
1:31look outward. You want to prove that
1:33you're in the loop and that you get it.
1:35And back then, technology was the
1:37ultimate shortcut to that type of
1:38belonging. Owning a computer and knowing
1:40how to use a phone were the early status
1:42symbols. If I wanted to download music
1:44for free for my iPod Nano, I'd either
1:46ask my older sister, who knew more about
1:48Limewire than me at the time, or watch a
1:50classic YouTube tutorial with Darude
1:52Sandstorm blasting in the background.
1:54Then I could show my friends how to do
1:56the same thing and everyone would be
1:57like, "Wo, this is so cool, man."
2:00On the surface, this might seem like a
2:02new advancement of status, but when we
2:04really dig deeper, it's more like an
2:07evolution of the same thing that's
2:09always signaled wealth and prosperity,
2:11literacy. [music]
2:12Before the advent of electricity and
2:14what came out of it, there was a massive
2:16separation of gathered intelligence
2:17between the rich and the poor. Much of
2:19the world didn't even possess the
2:20ability to read or write because books
2:22were still handwritten, costing
2:23thousands of dollars. It's a point I
2:25went over in much more detail in my
2:27post-literate society video. But if you
2:29owned books and other physical media and
2:31could read them and articulate your
2:32thoughts better through a writing
2:34practice, you had the most sought-after
2:36characteristics any human could hope to
2:38have and were likely close to people
2:40with large amounts of wealth. Now, of
2:42course, when modern technology was
2:43introduced in like the 1990s, that still
2:45mattered a ton, but being
2:47technologically literate mattered much
2:50more, at least from a status standpoint,
2:52than owning a bunch of books and being
2:54able to read them. By that point, pretty
2:56much everyone could read and write. But
2:57what many people couldn't do is use
2:59Google to find exactly what they were
3:01looking for. They didn't know how to
3:02download games or music illegally, or
3:04how to build a website, or how to get a
3:06cool moving background on their phone
3:07with a physical keyboard. So these
3:09became the new signalers of being in the
3:11in crowd and being on trends before they
3:14became mainstream and everyone adopted
3:16them. Having the time and mental
3:17bandwidth required to spend hours on the
3:19computer was seen as something only
3:21reserved for the intelligent. Any
3:22average person trying to approach the
3:24complicated user interfaces of the late
3:26'9s and early 2000s would find it
3:28overwhelming to try and understand what
3:30exactly was going on. And you can see
3:32this reflected in the labor market
3:34during this time. An article from 2003
3:37in the National Bureau of Economic
3:38Research found that those working with
3:40computers or the internet tended to work
3:425 to 6% more hours than other workers.
3:44And those who worked with the internet
3:46worked 4% more hours [music] than those
3:48who use computers but not the internet.
3:50So in a way technology was kind of
3:52gatekept as a place for only the people
3:54who grew up with it. At least in the
3:56cool parts of it like MySpace, Facebook
3:59and flash games. But just as it was with
4:01reading, eventually phones and computers
4:03became the new standard for everyone. By
4:06the early 2010s, it was clear the
4:08internet was here to stay, and
4:09businesses needed to adapt to fit the
4:11change. According to Brookings
4:13institution analysis on the US job
4:15market, the share of jobs requiring
4:17medium-high digital skill levels rose
4:19from 44% in 2002 to 70% in 2016. And as
4:24a result, more big corporations started
4:25to infiltrate the online spaces we hung
4:28out in to have fun and be cool.
4:31Streaming services like Netflix and Hulu
4:33solved the piracy crisis, giving people
4:35unlimited options to get almost any
4:37movie or TV show they want without
4:39potentially downloading a virus that
4:40gave your PC the blue screen of death.
4:42Blogs became riddled with advertisements
4:44as it was clear that digital marketing
4:46was the new frontier for making stupidly
4:48large amounts of money. By this point,
4:50you could not afford to remain
4:52technologically illiterate. The world
4:53was about to live more on here than it
4:55was out there. Then the late 2010s
4:58rolled around and the last couple decent
5:00places to spend time on the internet
5:01without feeling like you're being
5:02bombarded with corporate slop were about
5:04to receive a monetization overhaul.
5:07Social media and flash games. Due to
5:09security concerns and the rise of mobile
5:11gaming, in December 2020, Adobe Flash
5:14Player, the plug-in that powered almost
5:16every Flash game across the web, was
5:18officially removed from all major
5:20browsers. Now, instead of finding loads
5:22of short, enjoyable free games to pass
5:23the time with, you had to settle for
5:25heavily paywalled, often
5:27subscription-based ones. Most major AAA
5:29games became riddled with battle passes,
5:31purchasable DLC and skins, and of
5:34course, gambling in the form of loot
5:36boxes.
5:37>> [screaming]
5:38>> PLEASE. OH MY DAYS.
5:40>> The image of a crusty dude playing World
5:42of Warcraft in his basement was no
5:43longer an anomaly, but rather a very
5:46easy trap to fall into with most modern
5:48games due to their addictive and
5:49incredibly stimulating nature. And
5:51social media grew in a similar trend.
5:53The first nail in the coffin was turning
5:55social media from a place of community
5:57to discovery. When Facebook's wall and
6:00YouTube's homepage showed more
6:01recommended content than content from
6:03people you follow, it was clear that
6:05shareholder value became the main
6:07prioritization of these companies. Sure,
6:09it helped smaller creators get
6:10discovered, but the quality of the
6:12content and how much that content got
6:14people to follow that creator started to
6:16matter much less than just grabbing as
6:19much attention as you could to boost
6:22oneself in the algorithm. And then of
6:24course we kind of gamblified social
6:26media too in the form of short form
6:28content. Short form content works on the
6:30brain the same way that slot machines
6:31do. It is a series of unpredictable
6:34rewards that usually give you just
6:35enough breadcrumbs every few videos in
6:38the form of a laugh or interesting
6:39information to keep you wanting to
6:41scroll forever. In other words, the
6:43internet became less of a new place for
6:45cool people to hang and more of an
6:47addictive inescapable hyper reality.
6:49>> I know we know this, but now it's on
6:51paper. Now it's real. Nat Gio just
6:52released an article regarding a
6:54psychologist who was studying the
6:55effects of traumatic events being shown
6:57on media, social media, whatever. It's
6:59not looking good. With regard to
7:00traumatic events such as 911, the Boston
7:01Marathon, and Charlie Kirk, people who
7:03consumed that content on social media,
7:04where it's more unregulated compared to
7:06newspaper or broadcast news, were more
7:07likely to experience symptoms of PTSD.
7:09And if you consumed more than 6 hours of
7:10that type of content per day, you also
7:12were more stressed out than the people
7:14who were at those events. This is what
7:16people mean when they say we're not
7:17supposed to know the world's problems in
7:18a device that fits in our pocket.
7:19Because that's that's what doom
7:19scrolling is. you see a traumatic event
7:21happen and then you start scrolling to
7:22find more details about it. And in the
7:23process of scrolling to find more
7:24details, another traumatic event pops up
7:25on your feed because the algorithm is so
7:27good at understanding what you want to
7:28watch. So now you're looking for the the
7:29finishing of that one because you're
7:31trying to deal with the drama of what's
7:32going on and you're trying to see if it
7:33was resolved. If it's unresolved, if
7:34there's any more details and it creates
7:36the doom scroll and then what happens is
7:38because you're creating that cycle when
7:39you're not on your phone, when something
7:40traumatic happens, if you hear about it
7:41from a friend or on TV, your immediate
7:42reaction is to go on your phone and keep
7:44the cycle going.
7:45>> The way this has changed our lifestyles
7:47is staggering. If you look at any graph
7:49showing how often people spend time with
7:50friends, they all shoot down
7:52significantly starting in the late 2010s
7:54and the time Americans spend alone has
7:56shot up with it. And it's not just
7:58because social media is incredibly
8:00addictive and stimulating and most of
8:02our jobs require online work now. It's
8:05also because, and this is the most
8:06important point related to this video,
8:09that most people, I'd argue, feel like
8:11they simply just don't have enough time
8:14to dedicate to anything else. We don't
8:17necessarily work more on the clock, but
8:19we work after hours while our bosses
8:21keep pinging us on Microsoft Teams. We
8:23have longer commutes and most of the
8:25third places, aka places outside of work
8:27and home to hang out with other people
8:29that do exist either cost a lot of money
8:32or aren't really designed to make
8:33friends in. These are things I've talked
8:35about in great length. So, if you want
8:37to hear about those things specifically,
8:40like third places and work taking over
8:42our lives, I'll leave some links in the
8:44description of this video. So, we've
8:46gone from book literacy as a sign of
8:48status to cool tech literacy as a sign
8:51of status. But since corporations have
8:54sucked all the coolness out of
8:55technology, the question is what comes
8:58next? Well, the only thing I can see
9:00naturally developing out of a world that
9:02demands you stay locked into your
9:03devices is to become perpetually locked
9:06out. In other words, touching grass is
9:10becoming the new cool. To elaborate, let
9:12me ask you this. What were the defining
9:14characteristics of wealth and status in
9:16the [music] past beyond just literacy?
9:18Well, firstly, it was being able to do
9:20something most people couldn't do that
9:22was going to be the next big thing
9:24before it was the next big thing.
9:25Another characteristic was having the
9:27leisure time available to partake in
9:29that thing. And the last key
9:31characteristic was having the
9:32intelligence to be able to do those
9:34things before most people could. If you
9:37examine what being outside and unplugged
9:39from social media is like today, it
9:41follows all of those characteristics.
9:44Like I said, most people nowadays are
9:46living in constant fear of being left
9:48behind in a world that's moving faster
9:51than we can comprehend. Before you can
9:53even get settled in a software or job
9:55role, that role has evolved into 10
9:57different roles, and the software has
9:59gone through loads of updates. Before
10:00one trend or story goes viral, the next
10:03has already gone viral. And many feel
10:04like this is stuff you need to
10:06understand or know in order to fit in
10:08with our generation. To not have to keep
10:10up with the pace of the world, to be
10:12able to log off and spend loads of time
10:14outside or doing hobbies unrelated to
10:16the internet almost implies that you've
10:18either achieved enough wealth to no
10:20longer be caught in the rat race, or
10:22that you simply just don't care about
10:24knowing online trends and don't care
10:26what others are thinking. Either way,
10:28these are both extremely attractive,
10:29cool qualities. You know, I heard
10:31something interesting from Chris
10:32Williamson from the Modern Wisdom
10:34podcast. He was talking about how in the
10:37past if you had a hobby that like wasn't
10:40related to tech maybe or something
10:42within the cool sphere at that time, it
10:45was kind of seen as like weird. But now,
10:47if you have like a physical hobby where
10:49you're doing physical things, whatever
10:51it is that might have been seen as weird
10:53or nerdy in the past, you're basically
10:55like automatically seen as like, "Wo,
10:57that's a cool guy." because you have the
10:59time to dedicate to something that isn't
11:02related to the internet or social media
11:04and automatically people think, well,
11:06this person's got something. There's
11:08something different about them. And on
11:10top of that, to have the mental
11:11fortitude to not be addicted to the
11:13internet or video games or any of these
11:15things that are now designed to keep you
11:17hooked on them forever signals an
11:19outstanding amount of discipline and
11:22work done on yourself, which is also
11:24cool. While everyone else is scrambling
11:26to stay focused for more than a few
11:27minutes without pulling out their phone,
11:29if you can touch grass and focus on
11:31analog items like notebooks, books, e-
11:34in, or other physical hobbies, it shows
11:36you have in a way mastered yourself. And
11:39who wouldn't want to hang out with a
11:40person like that? And in an era where
11:42literacy rates are declining, why
11:44wouldn't that signal intelligence and
11:46coolness? So, this is why I say being
11:48chronically offline is going to become
11:50the new cool. And though it doesn't seem
11:52like it yet because everyone's still
11:54using their smartphones basically all
11:55the time, I believe we're going to
11:57experience a divergence soon. One that
11:59mimics the separation between the
12:02literate rich and the illiterate poor of
12:04centuries past. Everyone that cannot
12:06either accumulate enough wealth to
12:08afford being offline for long periods at
12:10a time or have the mental discipline to
12:12deal with a lack of stimulation will
12:14become even more wired in than they are
12:17now. When VR and augmented reality and
12:19AI becomes more and more advanced, these
12:22people will start spending almost every
12:24waking minute in a virtual world.
12:26Conversely, everyone that conquers these
12:28things will become the new cool kids,
12:30the ones who can do the peaceful, less
12:32stimulating things that most can't. In
12:35fact, I think we're already seeing this
12:36to some extent. And if you're wondering
12:38how you can become more chronically
12:40offline, listen to this part. I don't
12:43know about you, but I feel like I've
12:44been seeing way more videos about
12:45returning to analog gaming, like using
12:48GameBoys or Nintendo DS's or emulating
12:50through the Steam Deck. Being off the
12:52grid in private instead of having a
12:54massive following, is its own sense of
12:56status in and of itself, too. And then,
12:58of course, the classic reading. Reading
13:00is kind of becoming the new flash games
13:04of the late 2020s. People who actually
13:06have the attention span to sit through
13:08and finish entire books are being
13:09portrayed as possessing high levels of
13:11intelligence or status as well.
13:13Ironically, through social media. But if
13:15social media has to be the medium
13:17through which people see how cool it is
13:19to not know everything, to not be tapped
13:22in, and to spend more of your free time
13:24on things that don't require you to
13:26stare at a screen, then I'm fine with
13:28that for now. Honestly, I'm really
13:30hopeful for the future. I know I said
13:32that there's a subset of people who are
13:33going to become even more digitized and
13:35wired in than they are now, but I also
13:37believe that that subset of people who
13:40are tapping out and locking out and
13:42realizing how great it is to just be
13:45disconnected from the online world is
13:48growing along with it. And if you're
13:50watching this video, chances are you're
13:52one of them. There is so much working
13:54against you to keep you from the joys of
13:56dstimulation and slowness. But if you
13:58can do even the smallest thing to work
14:00against that friction, you are in the
14:03process of mastering the self [music]
14:05and leading the chronically offline
14:07revolution. Ditch the streaming services
14:09for physical copies. Play retro games.
14:12Read long difficult texts and use an e-
14:14in device without internet if that helps
14:16you. Start building or crafting stuff.
14:18Join a club even if the commute is 30
14:20minutes away. Continue revoling against
14:22the forces that want to keep you docile,
14:25unhealthy, uninspired, and unhappy. and
14:27lock out as much as you can, even if you
14:30feel like you're not in a position to do
14:32so. Then influence other people around
14:35you to do the same and watch how being
14:38chronically offline becomes the new
14:41cool.
14:43I'd love to hear some of the ways in
14:44which you love being chronically offline
14:46in the comments. This is usually where I
14:48tell you to watch another one of my
14:49videos, but that's way too hypocritical
14:52for this video. So instead, log off,
14:55lock out, go do some fun thing that
14:58isn't tied to the online

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