What happened to deep conversations?

[Immortal]

Dr.Grass said:
It's because people aren't deep anymore. They watch TV series and spend hours and hours on blogs viewing and commenting on totally meaningless junk that has no real impact on their lives. My parents used to regularly spend the day at the library simply reading. How many people today have the patience to read a book?

Smartphones are just as guilty. Totally FRYING up your brain by giving you the opportunity to 'browse' and 'just have a look' at every point in time. What happened to mental gravity? GONE. Self control? GONE.

How about spending some time gardening instead of commenting on useless things on facebook. Bah. We are devolving fast.

There is too much emphasis on quick access to information. People are becoming less knowledgeable DUE to having 'the world at their fingertips' 24/7. Better learn to plant some vegetables than spending hours and days salivating over a new phone that will be old news in a few months time.

Good topic.

Firstly, I'm just loving your philosophical standpoint here. Depressingly few people have the empathy to realize that we're in the exact same position as so many before us and that our ideas and conclusions are likely to seem as foolish to future generations as older theories do to us. Considering some thinkers had this stuff down millenia ago, we really are sub-par in some respects.

Despite this, I think it's much more interesting to disagree with you. In particular, you're being far too cynical about modern human culture. I mean, surely you realize that this idea of newer generations being too irresponsible and not thinking enough is also as ancient as they come? Why would you think you're right about this when, historically, people haven't been?

Also, I don't think watching TV and commenting online a lot are necessarily opposed to thinking and self control at all. If you really think people lack self control today, I think that they always have and you're attributing a causal relationship to this lack of thinking and an increase in these modern indulgences because you've just taken note of them at the same time.