Technology is one of the themes that runs through Nectar of Time. Below is everything in the Nectarium that touches on it.
Where it comes up 2
Within this theme 16
Concepts 3
- Social Media Addiction
Ian argues it is still culturally acceptable to spend all day on Instagram in a way it isn't to drink whiskey for six hours, and predicts it will enter the DSM. People know it's a problem…
- FOMO
Fear of missing out. Tamir's explanation for why people can't leave social media: everyone has to check on how so-and-so is doing or how a scandal is unfolding.
- Monk Mode
A hypothetical Instagram setting Tamir mentions. He says a company maximizing shareholder value would never build one.
Books 2
- Recursion
Sci-fi novel Tamir had just finished. Researcher Helena builds a chair that records memories, and a billionaire funds it. Combined with a deprivation tank that briefly kills the user and…
- DSM-5
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Ian predicts social media addiction will eventually be listed in it, as video games were.
People 3
- Blake Crouch
American science-fiction novelist, author of Recursion, which Tamir had just finished reading. Its lesson that life can't be engineered to avoid pain anchors the second half of the…
- Mark Zuckerberg
Named as one of the 'tech overlords' whose products compete for hours of attention a day.
- Jeff Bezos
Named alongside Zuckerberg as tech leaders driven by the same profit motive as Costco's CEO, in the discussion of why social media draws more anger.
Quotes 1
Insights 1
- Social media is culturally sanctioned addiction
A friend drinking whiskey six hours a day would get an intervention, but six hours on Instagram is normal. Blaming tech companies isn't enough, since their incentives are the same as…
Practices 1
- Social media fast
Delete Instagram from your phone for a weekend or a few days to notice how habitually the brain 'hunts' for it.
Stories 1
- Four days without Instagram
A couple of weeks earlier Ian deleted Instagram from his phone for about four days and felt his brain 'hunting' for it every day, an internal battle that showed him how habitual the pull…
Organizations and movements 4
- Costco
Ian's contrast to social media companies: just as profit-driven, but nobody resents Costco because it doesn't demand six hours of your day.
- Facebook
Ian argues Facebook 'has no product': if everyone left social media, it would lay people off the next day. Tamir jokes it would survive on WhatsApp.
- Instagram
The social app Ian deleted for four days, during which he felt his brain 'hunting' for it. Tamir notes Instagram has no incentive to offer a 'monk mode'.
- WhatsApp
Joked about as what Facebook would survive on, followed by doubts that it even makes money.