Randomness

[interest1]

looking at research such as the following:

face processing can no longer be considered as arising from a universal series of perceptual events. The strategy employed to extract visual information from faces differs across cultures.

...isn't emphasizing the importance of eye contact a bit of a laugh? seems to me like somebody's taking for granted the universality of a behavior that's really no more than cultural artefact. i'd like to see some studies of how or whether technology creates similar problems in cultures outside the west. provide at least a little bit more context, for this claim, y'know?

that said, being from a country where eye contact is important, i never look at my phone when i'm talking to someone else. i like eye contact, so it'd feel weird. but i also don't take it to heart if someone i'm talking to does. this article looks like it's mistaking a rule of etiquette for basic human nature.

stand up straight! pull up your trousers! comb your hair! put away your phone! and get off my lawn!

No. I actually don't find it a laughing matter. But I'm just foolishly old-school like that.

[MJRH]

guess i just like a laugh, then.

but, what'd be your response if someone told you that you needed to make eye contact with them 100% of the time, and the 70% your article recommends just wasn't good enough? ever had someone stare at you during conversation to the point it was unsettling? another one:

results suggest that individuals from an East Asian culture perceive another's face as being angrier, unapproachable, and unpleasant when making eye contact as compared to individuals from a Western European culture. (source)

now i know we're talking about western culture and again, i'm on your side, sort of: i generally get on better with folks who make the same amount of eye contact as me, because that's what i'm most comfortable with. but i'm not convinced that a changing environment is a bad thing, and the article you posted, while i like it for encouraging healthy debate, ain't got me convinced, either. i like old-fashioned; what i don't like is alarmism. and i'm still on the fence over which one this issue is.

[kunk75]

IME we are raising a generation of people incapable of conversation. when i ask my almost 14 year old if he calls his girlfriend he says "no one calls anyone". It's also a lot easier to talk shit digitally than to someone's face.

[Faust]

I know 30 year olds who are incapable of having a phone conversation. But, to be honest, I don't know if these "technology is eroding the social fabric" articles have much weight. They sound pretty much like all other "everything was better back when everything was worse" articles.

[volta]

staring at screens is good. the problem is that these idiots only look up facebook starving for attention 160 times per day, crappy as fuck youtube videos, and playing candy crush. it's on a superficial and shallow level.

phones are computers designed for idiots. and don't get me started on fucking ipads.

edit: and i love especially how people think their kids are tech geniuses because they can use an ipad. as said, ipads were designed for idiots to begin with. people don't know even 10% of the shit they think they do when it comes to tech -- and honestly -- in general nowadays.

tl:dr - i don't like primates using tech that they shit on as recently as just a few years ago, and thinking they're experts all of a sudden. too many insecure hypocrites out there.

[mrbeuys]

[Faust]

Mrbeuys, that was brilliant, when the link finally worked.

[croatoan]

Took a couple film transcription projects from a friend recently and started work on them today. Boy is that ever a long and tiring process..

[interest1]

Mrbeuys, that was brilliant, when the link finally worked.

Up until that link was fixed, I'd thought he intentionally posted the empty white box.. like some sort of "blank stare" commentary to the eye contact thing.

Well, if you're gonna post that Louis CK, you gotta add this one, too:

Everything is Amazing and Nobody is Happy

[mrbeuys]

We'll that is my favourite one of his. I use it in presentations all the time.

[interest1]

That, and a well-placed cat gif is all you really need.

[mrbeuys]

I actually just showed one today in a pres... might have been yours in fact. cat punches dog?

[interest1]

Yup. That's the money shot.

[interest1]

footnote:

for the particularly tough crowds, you may want to substitute monkey not happy

[cjbreed]

yahoo japan vs. rakuten