
Originally Posted by
rousseau
The research isn't robust because this is a new phenomenon, but it's not too hard to put two and two together. If you spend all of your time playing video games or posting to your Instagram story, rather than learning real skills, you will be great at posting to your Instagram story, and have no skills.
I think posting a compelling Instagram picture that gets attention is a skill. Considering how much time people spend on their phones, I think it's probably a valuable skill.
I remember a while back I was dating a girl and I asked her her age. She told me that she's the age where she's unable to take a good selfie. That's pretty telling. These kids on their phones are developing skills. Whether they are useful or not, is another question. But the idea that all their time is wasted is questionable IMHO.
Our culture is shifting from primarily verbal to more of an emphasis on the visual. That's not a value judgement. That's just a fact.

Originally Posted by
rousseau
This means that being able to pull your attention away from useless shit offers you a competitive advantage, just as it does using willpower in tons of other domains.
I can't see the connection. Having the ability to regulate your own dopamine reward system is good and desirable, no matter what. All you've done is shifted around what is desirable behaviour and what isn't. How do you judge what is desirable? You clearly don't value Instagram.
I have a friend who is a stripper. Instagram is a tool of her trade. She's become an Instagram personality in her own right. But it's still just marketing for her. She pulls in big money and is a free agent, not dependent on any agency that will take cuts. I can't see how her Instagram use is in any way problematic?