Social media divides us, makes us more extreme and less empathetic, it riles us up or sucks us into doom scrolling, making us stressed and depressed. It feels like we need to touch grass and escape to the real world.

New research shows that we might have largely misinterpreted why this is the case. It turns out that the social media internet may uniquely undermine the way our brains work but not in the way you think.

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  • jarfil@beehaw.org
    32·
    11 months ago

    I recently (yay Black Friday Week!) got asked by someone in their 70s, who never worked with a computer, to help them pick a laptop:

    • Me: OK, so what do you want to do with it?
    • Them: I just want to login to the internet.
    • Me: […] You can do that on your phone.
    • Them: But how do I go onto the internet.
    • Me: Use the browser to go to the webpage you want, or search for it in Google.
    • Them: So I have Internet on the phone?
    • Me: Yes, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to watch YouTube, read your mail, or access Facebook.
    • Them: [unconvinced] And should I upgrade to a smartphone?
    • Me: [facepalm] You already have a smartphone.
    • Them: Oh, and I don’t want TikTok.
    • Me: You don’t have TikTok.
    • Them: [pointing at the YouTube icon] This isn’t TikTok?
    • Me: No, that is YouTube [damned be the Shorts]

    They still want a laptop, which is fine, even if they don’t know what for (“not for gaming, not for fancy rocket stuff like you do”) after having showed them some basic office stuff on mine. Still not sure whether to recommend them a Chromebook, a tablet, or what.

    • Hirom@beehaw.orgOP
      4·
      11 months ago

      If they don’t know what they’re going to use it for, I’d focus on practical things most non-technical people use laptop for:

      • Fair battery life to carry it around.
      • Operating system that does auto-updates, needs little to no administration.
      • SSD so the thing feels fast, and starts quickly. May not need a large storage capacity.
      • Built-in webcam for video calls with relatives, etc.

      The rest can be done on the software side:

      • To browse safely, install security tools (antivirus, browser extensions like privacy badger) and verify auto-udate is on.
      • Install an office suite (et Libre Office). Even if they don’t write documents, they’ll probably need to read them.
      • If using Windows, tweaks settings to disable abnoxious things like ads, telemetry.
      • Backup software. Ideally with automatic remote backups. Window’s built-in backup sucks.