A philosopher asks what’s wrong with a picture of teenagers (presumably American) in an art museum who are — Ah, let me just repost the picture:
A picture taken from the Maverick Philosopher blog
It seems they’d rather stare at frivolous content on tiny screens rather than have a look at these great works of art.
Most of us (in rich countries) now spend much or most of our waking lives in the “virtual/digital” sphere in some way (see #250); some people have come to cocoon themselves inside the virtual world and hardly “exist” outside it. This is troubling. If the purpose of life is authentic experience, existing in a virtual bubble world may seriously diminish it. The virtual world can be a poor substitute for the real in important ways. It can also enhance it, if done right, but I am not sure how to ensure that or even what it means to do it right.
Some will say we can’t blame them; maybe they don’t really like art (that’s okay, isn’t it?); maybe they already looked at the pictures and are resting; and so on. The fact is, though, that t
hese kinds of museums (among other places) were once a kind of hallowed ground, and represented an awe-inspiring experience. One was to treat them reverentially. This would very likely be greatly diminished by widespread and constant use of “mobile devices”.Most of us (in rich countries) now spend much or most of our waking lives in the “virtual/digital” sphere in some way (see #250); some people have come to cocoon themselves inside the virtual world and hardly “exist” outside it. This is troubling. If the purpose of life is authentic experience, existing in a virtual bubble world may seriously diminish it. The virtual world can be a poor substitute for the real in important ways. It can also enhance it, if done right, but I am not sure how to ensure that or even what it means to do it right.
I resisted getting a smartphone until the very end of 2013
(See #22), which was a real shock to Koreans by 2012 and 2013. I told myself it was because of money, but really I think it was because of philosophical principle. In my nearly nine months in Germany and Estonia in 2007, I somehow existed with no phone at all. Can you believe that? It’s hard to imagine now. I occasionally had to make phone calls and did so using pay phones. Pay phone? Yes. You may remember: Telephones, often in free-standing little booths, in public places. You dropped in coins to make a call…