Thoughts from John Karahalis
I think of social media like the cigarettes of our time. Of course, cigarettes still exist, but most people today understand their harms and abstain from them. Not so with social media.
One consequence of thinking this way is that I’m particularly horrified when I see very young children using social media. They’re inhaling digital tar and forming habits that will be difficult to unlearn, but the cartoon characters and DIY slime videos make it seem okay.
Should we eat healthy foods because it’s good for our minds and bodies or because it’s the right thing to do? The latter is simpler and more poignant, but it’s meaningless without the former. Maybe we need both, rational justifications to inspire change followed by simple rules that motivate more immediately gratifying habits. This order may be important, too; some find it difficult to follow rules without reason.
When we don’t engage with our ideological opponents, our arguments weaken and our naivete becomes painfully obvious to them. When we don’t engage with our ideological opponents, we also don't notice this.
“In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day.”
—Carl Sagan
We should ask ourselves these questions more often than we do: Is this true, or is this only thought to be true by people in my circles? Do I want it to be true?
When did preaching to the choir become such a virtue? I can take a guess.
I'm not sure if I support banning TikTok. I do, however, very much encourage everyone to voluntarily stop using it.
“We live in a society absolutely dependent on science and technology and yet have cleverly arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. That’s a clear prescription for disaster.”
—Carl Sagan
I think less of Wegmans for its obviously anti-competitive actions against Whole Foods in Rochester.