Disney trips are so complicated now that you need a class to plan one

GoBucks89:

Conventional wisdom often being wrong, wives tales, etc. pre-date the internet. Much of learning is through repetition. Social media just puts that on steroids.

Same with things going viral. I just read this morning that some dude in 1939 swallowed a goldfish on a bet and it was published in Life magazine which kicked off a craze of people swallowing goldfish for a few years.

Mass idiocy isn't just a product of social media.

Stupidity finds a way.

Hm. I remember Life magazine and even though the phrase hadn’t been coined I’d absolutely call it social media. It was where I learned about Dr King, poured through pictorials of the World’s Fairs, saw my first topless swimsuit, and found out that Gay people existed happily and had a name. It wasn’t as instantly interactive as we know it, but still…
I also remember references to that goldfish swallowing craze, and I grew up in the 50’s and 60’s. So once again, viral, but clearly on a much slower scale.

Pace of life and interconnectedness of the world has definitely changed. But most changes bring with them some good and some bad. Assuming everyone can agree as to which is which (something not necessarily easy in and of itself), simply rejecting/avoiding the bad whilst retaining the good isn't always that easy. And all those issues will continue as we move forward and the speed of change increases.

I am not surprised, given what we know of human nature and human history, where social media has taken us. Would I wish it were not the case in many instances? Sure. But see above about taking only the good but not the bad.

I've maintained for years that the single greatest and worst invention in history is the internet. So far.

Not just the internet, but the ability to take the internet with you everywhere.

(I guess that's just the "always connected" thing, but...yeah.)

Amazing and awful simultaneously. Totally.

I basically hate **** my phone every day.

That image of a class of school children on a trip to the art museum says it all. They’re seated on benches in a gallery with a master’s painting behind them. And every one of them is ignoring the priceless art to stare at their phone.

But teacher, we were just researching the art we had seen using our phones.

RCMAC:

a class of school children on a trip to the art museum

To be fair, when I was a child without a cellphone, I would still not have been looking at that painting. More likely getting into trouble somewhere because I was bored at the museum and annoyed we didn't go someplace more fun.

But that getting-into-trouble-while-not-staring-at a-painting wasn't using an addictive algorithm that is correlated with a host of mental health issues.

99er:

To be fair, when I was a child without a cellphone, I would still not have been looking at that painting

Even as an adult, I have -zero- desire to go to a museum filled with paintings... Architecture, artifacts, memorabilia, national history stuff, sure... If it looks interesting enough. But a big nope to paintings.

Yeah, I mean, why would you want to do that, especially if you've done it before.

“A big nope to paintings”. I wish I could see if you have your tongue in your cheek with that one. You don’t, do you?
Anyway, I think the point is that it doesn’t matter whether it’s paintings, statues, gardens, a first-run movie, or a gorgeous amusement park. What we see is a prevelant, overwhelming desire to ignore surroundings and direct attention to devices.

Which, quite literally, rewires the brain in a not so great way.

For me, it's not that they weren't looking up at the art, it's that they weren't looking up at each other.

We don't have to figure ways to entertain ourselves anymore - whether alone or in group. Most interaction happens through the devices. The device is the relationship.

If anything those kids should be getting into **** like 99er is talking...and doing it as a group.

Will they remember the umpteenth time they ignored their surroundings and peers for their phone? Not a chance.

Would they have remembered doing nearly anything else on a school trip to a museum had they not had phones? Without question.

It feels like there's an entire part of life that is missing now. It got replaced by our mobile screens. There's a level of social rot there.

(I do know how old and grumpy I sound)

Lord Gonchar:

The device is the relationship.

Bingo!

Lord Gonchar:

For me, it's not that they weren't looking up at the art, it's that they weren't looking up at each other.

The hate people get being on their phones in group settings annoys me sometimes. We don't have enough context but just assume nobody wants to talk to each other because they have a phone in their hand. Take a picture of me in a group setting of people I don't know (on the subway in NYC) or with some of my most disliked co-workers and you can bet your ass I am going to be entertaining myself with my phone instead of forcing an awkward conversation. Take a picture of me and my friend group and you won't see any of our phones. My face isn't in my phone because I am obsessed and can't put it down, it's because I don't care enough about what's going on around me to engage.

I think the judgment is typically for families, groups of friends, people who go places together.

But I also think that people seem to have lost a sense of curiosity and wonder about, well, everything. Things on the little screen are the same thing over and over again. The phone says that I spend about 15 minutes a day on Facebook and/or Instagram if I'm posting stuff. NYT Games is the winner, for the crosswords, followed by some combination of the actual NYT and Feedly, which I use to keep up on tech and science sites. Total daily usage does not typically exceed two hours, and that's on weekdays when I'm using Slack for work while at lunch or waiting in the school pickup line.

I'm not even particularly social, but even the mundane things going on around me in real life are more interesting than the screen. It wasn't that way for me ten years ago, but if I had to guess, my usage has been declining ever since. Even in a car as a passenger, I'd rather look out the window. YMMV.

Touchdown:

However, I’ll be going to CA this fall again and I’m guessing G+ is much more fruitful out there, especially since park hopping takes 5 min. Back in the Maxpass era I could legitimately do 30+ rides a day. I really enjoyed starting at DL, rope dropping Fantasyland, Maxpassing TL and then doing the left side of the park in standby while I loaded up on DCA fastpasses so I could walk across the esplanade and Fastpass or SRL all the good rides on that side in the afternoon and then eat and book fastpasses again in DL for the evening. If I can eek out 5-10 Lightning Lanes a day at DL I will probably use it, because the campus is just so much smaller, also DLR lacks the amount of shows or long dark rides with short waits that WDW has.

You should easily be able to hit 5-10 per day at DLR. I think we were close to 15 each day when we went last January. The park was also dead but that should give you a frame of reference.