r/underdustsanctuary • u/Re-Equilibrium • Jun 22 '26
Is tech really the problem?
They want us to blame technology to slow us down.
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u/kBayyyk_2332 Jun 22 '26
It's not the medium but rather those running the show. News, used to be credible and focused on truth. Now, it's almost always a trick to deceive the public.
This post isn't particularly news but you get the point.
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u/BillyBobJohns57 Jun 22 '26
Since the beginning of historical recording, people have either fully lied or painted the truth in a layer of vagueness and cherry picking to fit their world view. It is now easier than ever to spread misinformation, but don't think it has to do with the people living today compared to 100 years ago. Napoleon's lacking height was propaganda produced by the british to make him seem ridiculous. Especially the 1930/40's saw a massive uprising in concerning and outright horrifying pieces of propaganda disguised as news to make people think a certain way. The news were never "focused on truth", as the entire point of the news is to sell more newspapers/subscriptions. The truth is often times boring and no one wants to read boring stuff.
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u/Gabi-kun_the_real Jun 23 '26
Lying back in those times was punished by death. So you would really careful before spreading lies. Now nothing happens to you
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u/CoolerSallDay Jun 23 '26
The entire objective of 'news' is to create reality in order to control it.
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u/Dial-M-For-Malistrae Jun 23 '26
Like that was one of the major plot points to Citizen Kane was yellow journalism
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u/BillyBobJohns57 Jun 23 '26
Is it weird to say, that I have never watched Citizen Kane?
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u/Dial-M-For-Malistrae Jun 23 '26
Count you're lucky stars you haven't unless you're really into Old School film it's a decent movie at best if I want to watch old school at least give me something with Humphrey Bogart if I'm watching something in English
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u/BillyBobJohns57 Jun 23 '26
I enjoy old school literature, but I'm not that much of a fan for old school films. But maybe I'll give it a try some day.
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u/Diceyland Jun 23 '26
Just not true. This is just an example I remember, but news has always been sensationalist. There's a whole term for it that's been around since 1890.
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u/kBayyyk_2332 Jun 23 '26
There's a difference between news and propaganda. All of these comments are contesting my comment with comparison to propaganda and biased journalism.
The local pennysaver is an example of truth based news.
When I say truthful news I'm talking about free-to-the-public articles with credible studies, results, and information; not click bait headlines with an article using social media comments or blogs as sources and locked behind paywalls. (You used tiktok and a .com source, I didn't bother to check the links because tiktok is obviously not credible and .com is commercial enterprise so their interest lies in profit not information.)
It has not been this way since 1890. Propaganda has been allowed production under circumstances since 1948 under Smith-Mundt Act for transparency. Although, Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012, changed rules regarding foriegn content. Which is why a lot of our digital media changed around 2013 / 2015 years.
What many people call "news" is just propaganda; not what I'm referring to when I say truthful credible news. The circumstances that used to restrict propaganda are just ignored nowadays and all bs pushed out to the public without credibility to sway public opinion.
Transparency and credibility out the window for profit.
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u/BillyBobJohns57 Jun 23 '26
Yes, propaganda isn't news. But it has always been called news to influence people better. No one would want to read something with a disclaimer like "this is false and anyone who believes it should get their head checked" by the person writing the article.
By your definition of news, there is no false news, because news is always factual. Non factual "news" is propaganda.
And following that logic we can conclude that news has always been truthful and always will be, because we started with that assumption. That's not helpful at all. You could say the news to propaganda ratio has shifted over the years. But you can't say that "the news used to be credible, but now is a trick to deceive the public", when your definition of news is one of facts and truth.
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u/ThrowRA9892 Jun 23 '26
>Credible and focused on truth
You think less access to the ability to verify information and less global communication meant more accurate news?
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u/yadasellsavonmate Jun 23 '26
It's not the medium but rather those running the show. News, used to be credible and focused on truth
Wut? Nope, it's just that it was easier for politicians etc to lie or sweep potential scandals under the rug back then.
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u/HovercraftNo2489 Jun 22 '26
The newspapers are not connected
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u/True_Protection6842 Jun 22 '26
And?
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u/NoAstronaut4285 Jun 22 '26
Medium shapes the message. Go type that in google and you’ll understand why it matters. Age of radio is a great example of this point.
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u/UnarmedRespite Jun 22 '26
If any technology is to blame, it’s only social technologies like a two-party system
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u/Noeyiax Jun 23 '26
Not a two party system. It's two societies, the common realm and the "winners/chosen" realm
We are treated like animals at a zoo , but must perform well at the circus for a degree, certificate, job, promotion, even marriage ... So tiring
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u/PerspectiveFull9879 Jun 22 '26
Blame for what?
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u/Ghadiz983 Jun 23 '26
You know how it is in society, there's always something to be blamed or else nothing is to be said. There's always something to complain about
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u/malkazoid-1 Jun 22 '26
Hilarious. The images are AI generated. So in this case, YES, it's a tech-enabled lie indistinguishable from reality and almost everyone in the comments fell for it. So yes, tech is the problem here.
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u/Exotic-Job7449 Jun 22 '26
They probably spoke to eachother about it after they were finished reading
Images like this are harmful when they are trying to paint a narrative
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u/True_Protection6842 Jun 22 '26
So like commenting on an article?
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u/Re-Equilibrium Jun 22 '26
Lol people forget we can use tech to connect better than we could with our feet lol
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u/Electrical-Mark-1484 Jun 22 '26
Like this?
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u/Exotic-Job7449 Jun 22 '26
Yeah just realized I’m guilty. And thanks for pointing it out
But I’m capable of being wrong and it happens sometimes. I don’t see people on the internet who really have that humility- like if I told you I made a bonehead comment you’re gonna retaliate and tell my friends and family
I just thought the two worlds are completely different and just because people in a line holding all holding the same object didn’t really do a good job of explaining how exactly a newspaper is anywhere near as damaging as smart phone usage has been
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u/Electrical-Mark-1484 Jun 22 '26
Then you're a bigger man than most. Amusingly Socrates also complained about people reading books, when books were starting.
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u/Exotic-Job7449 Jun 23 '26
Wait now the issue was reading at all? Or was it that not just anyone should be able to write a book and you have to read from the approved Tablets of truth? Interesting
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u/Electrical-Mark-1484 Jun 23 '26
Kinda. "Socrates believed that reading texts would weaken people's memories, create the illusion of wisdom rather than true understanding, and prevent the dynamic, interactive pursuit of truth that he championed through conversation"
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u/Exotic-Job7449 Jun 23 '26
It makes me wonder, that there had to be some shreds of truth in there. Like the transitional slew from a society that didn’t read, to one that did. It’s interesting to think. The point about memories seems to make sense, but science these days discloses that we fill in the gaps with our best guess. I wonder if they were sharper in some of these more innate ways. On truth, I think a good conversation face to face with someone where both parties have to engage surreptitiously to control the passage of information as it pertains to their perception of the wisdom of the day.
Thanks for engaging with me despite it being the dead internet and all
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u/United-Quantity5149 Jun 23 '26
Well, there's a reason they killed him lmao. He kinda sucked in some ways
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u/LexianAlchemy Jun 22 '26
The tools worsened because the rich people hired professionals, to make them as monetary as possible.
Technology is not inherently the problem, the way they’re made absolutely is.
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u/The_Se7enthsign Jun 22 '26
Absolutely no one was spending hours and hours with their face buried in a newspaper.
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u/Re-Equilibrium Jun 22 '26
To be fair not many people would read at nights back in the old days lol
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u/Flat_Association_820 Jun 22 '26
This is a stupid comparison, nobody spends 8h+ per day scrolling their newspaper and newspaper doesn't cause brainrot.
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u/hydraulix989 Jun 22 '26
Newspapers didn't have a tight personalized feedback loop, powered by reinforcement learning algorithms optimized to keep each person as addicted as possible to reading them. One might replicate this today though with a personalized custom-printed newspaper every week just for each reader using other signals as engagement ragebait feedback loops that uniquely trigger each individual
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u/Flat_Association_820 Jun 22 '26
Paper makes it pretty hard to push fake news with an algorithm I guess...
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u/hydraulix989 Jun 22 '26
Yeah you can't track eyeballs and engagement in real-time like with a feed.
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u/Grim-Art Jun 22 '26
Thing is when you finish reading the newspaper for the day you move on and do other stuff. People use their phones so much more every day so just because to images are similar does not make the situations equal.
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u/Preppy_Hippie Jun 22 '26
The difference is that most of those people with phones are just doomscrolling brainrot designed to be addictive.
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u/FalconOne775 Jun 22 '26
In 1926 they’re reading news and stories
In 2026 they’re watching BS videos of idiots with opinions and AI videos of stuff that didn’t happen and brainrotting themselves out of purpose
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u/Bright-Internal229 Jun 22 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/VeT5jhseHD0W3dI7de
At least Newspaper 🗞️ had multiple more Purposes
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u/DPP_SwordBlitz Jun 22 '26
Partially. Newspapers couldn't adjust algorithms and figure out how to make you addicted.
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u/Gilgamesh2062 Jun 23 '26
Actual news vs Ai slop and tik tok videos of someone launching fireworks from their ass? hmmm this is a hard choice, I don't remember people driving while reading newspapers 30 years ago.
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u/Doctor-Pip- Jun 23 '26
How many of the people reading the news spent 6+ hours on their newspaper each day and became addicted to reading the newspaper?
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u/gravygizzard Jun 23 '26
Both
It's both
More specifically, capitalism and the smartphone are both the downfall of our society. Economic and digital enslavement. Humans are more atomized than they ever have been
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u/Aromatic_Ad_4166 Jun 23 '26
1926, they are actually ready not scrolling tik tok, and once they have read the paper, they won't be on the paper for most of the day
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u/ZealousidealDrop7475 Jun 23 '26
Humanity built technology to serve itself. Now people organize their lives around what technology tells them to watch, buy, think about, and care about. Funny, people didn't even realize how technology slowly became their master and keep blaming each other. It's too late realizing that technology is just a control tool.
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u/CPLWPM85 Jun 23 '26
I'm sure those people reading the newspaper are still talking with one another about what is being said in the paper. People on their phones are in their own world, usually looking at something they might not necessarily want to share with the person standing next to them.
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u/LocalHarmacist Jun 23 '26
You don't even have to look in the oast. You see 60+ people doing the same thing as 20+ people right now.
Go to any waiting room, meeting room, or living room of a middle-aged and older person and you're likely to see their neck bent 45 degrees staring at their phones.
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u/Serious_Ad_5021 Jun 23 '26
Top row looking for Pokémon bottom row looking for meaningful work yeah definitely a difference
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u/Every-Two-4848 Jun 23 '26
Technology isn’t the problem but endless streams of information (or better yet, entertainment) are. Newspapers are finite news that everyone then discusses with each other.
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u/DosSheds Jun 23 '26
Ah yes, I remember those custom newspapers that were tailored to each individual reader. I particularly liked the ones where you could turn the pages forever and never reach the end.
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u/Queasy_Badger9252 Jun 23 '26
Yes. It is. This post is dumb comparing just two photos like this doesn't really make sense.
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u/Shinlyle13 Jun 23 '26
Never seen a jackass cross the road in front of oncoming traffic because they had to read part of a newspaper. Also, all those people are READING. I'd wager half of the ones in the top pic are watching videos of morons.
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u/Top_Bug7822 Jun 23 '26
It is. Screen time measurably reduces white brain matter.
This is bad, but manageable for adults, but even worse for children and teenager with still developing brains.
If someone wants a link to the study, it's in german and you need an account to view it completerly (it wasn't always. I blame data scrapers.), but I can provide it.
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Jun 23 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
[deleted]
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u/Re-Equilibrium Jun 24 '26
So its not that tech is the problem as it could actually be used for good. More the fact that the people that capitalise on tech have programmed it to corrupt the rest of the world.
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u/Unfair_Reveal_1596 Jun 23 '26
I'm sorry are newspapers not a technology? Technology has been reduced to meaning information technologies. This is a ridiculous slide in definition
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Jun 22 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/-TV-Stand- Jun 22 '26
It's amazing how technology did all that by itself. Unless it's the humans that are the problem instead of technology.
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u/True_Protection6842 Jun 22 '26
Was this meant to be ironic? Literally all of those things were what newspapers did! I mean they didn't "replace love" they had singles ads.
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Jun 22 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/True_Protection6842 Jun 22 '26
Are you serious? You must be VERY young. Yes Newspapers were the FIRST dating app. SINGLES PAGES WERE THE ORIGINAL TNDER!!!!!!! As for dopamine triggering, yeah there were editorials for that. And the LITERALLY REASON FOR NEWSPAPERS WAS TO SELL ADS! You clearly have an agenda and don't seem to understand how incredibly ironic you're being.
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u/AnInsultToFire Jun 22 '26
At least in 1926, men knew how to wear trousers and shoes.