India village goes offline daily to help people talk

soulofmischief 3 years ago |

It's easy to romanticize this decision from a distance, but it's actually quite authoritarian and a bad take at solving the tech addiction problem.

nightowl1995 3 years ago | |

What authoritarian ? The article states that the village council installed a siren which goes off at 7 P.M. everyday and they urged people to switch off their devices. Nobody is being forced to do anything here. There is a difference between urging one to do something and coercing.

sidewndr46 3 years ago | |

It's really interesting to me that the BBC romanticizes the actions of a state known for using utilities and communication as a means of controlling it's citizens.

anaganisk 3 years ago | | |

Which state is not doing it?

sidewndr46 3 years ago | | |

At least in the US we don't generally turn off communications infrastructure just as a response to criticism or political unrest. Or if it does happen, the government is exceptionally good at preventing that fact from surfacing.

soulofmischief 3 years ago | | |

Most recent protests in the US, until 2020, have been fairly soft and lacking the vigor behind movements like the Arab Spring.

If we the people become enough of a threat, you can bet there are strategies in place to disrupt our communication infrastructure.

anaganisk 3 years ago | | |

Nah US is too advanced for that, they would rather intercept those communications and send UAV/SWAT teams to directly handle them with accuracy.

Bakary 3 years ago |

People turn to the internet when real life is not very stimulating. Banning the internet does not remove that problem.

That being said, it's a small village, and it's only for a few hours. I find the measure authoritarian, but then again my context is that of individualism and urban Western culture. The village did agree to it in a communal sense, and being less reliant on entertainment could make life better there. We would have to know about more about the community and its inhabitants.

jp0d 3 years ago |

I think adults shouldn't have to be told what's bad and what's not. Not to mention that it's almost impossible to enforce and it shouldn't be anyway!