#tablet form factor

[arkon-z]

Anyone else get strangely attached to your electronics or is it just me?

[dilsdesigns]

hate to say it but i definitely need a new drawing tablet.

[spaghettioverdose]

regarding your recent posts on petit bougeoisie, one thing ive never managed to understand is how someone like an independent digital artist isnt considered to be selling their labour. in that scenario there is nothing they own that is making them more capable of making artworks, as they could fairly easily just be working off of a library computer or something, and what they’re selling is basicaly just the time and skill they’ve invested into producing their clients request. so besides the fact that they arnt being paid hourly and are instead charging based on how much work they’ve done, i dont really understand how they’re not considered to be selling their labour?

with something like a carpenter selling chairs or something i can more understand it as theres at least a physical thing being owned with the wood, and another being sold with the chairs, but even there it still seems like a stretch to say they’re not selling their labour at least in part, as the increased price of the chair compared to the wood is due to the work the carpeter put into sculpting it.

so far any reading ive done has been only really adressing small buisness owners who employ others and not really touching fully independent people working off of commisions or similar models of buisness, so im hoping you can clarify this for me or direct me to somewhere that does

Firstly, a clarification: a worker is not selling their labour, but rather their labour power. In some of the earlier works by Marx and Engles, they talk about selling their labour, which is later corrected to labour power. This is a more precise and useful term. When we refer to selling labour power, we are talking about the worker selling their ability to work for a given amount of hours in exchange for a wage. The worker who builds phones in a factory does not sell phones to the capitalist and their are not paid per phone. They are paid per hour. What is being purchased is their ability to work during those hours.

According to the formulation of labour in your ask, essentially everyone would be proletarian. In all commodities, regardless of who produces them and how they are made, the labour hours used to create them are factored into the price.

When it comes to independent artists, they are putting their labour power into the commodity (regardless if it is physical or digital) that their are selling, rather than selling the labour power itself. When an artist makes art in exchange for patreon money or doing comissions, the commodity that they are selling is the piece of art that they have made, rather than their labour power. They also receive income in the form of profits and not wages. This is in contrast with, for example, a digital artist who works for a AAA games company and is paid a wage for their ability to produce a certain amount of art per hour, rather than the piece of art itself.

In theory you could be an independent digital artist as someone who draws with a mouse on mspaint at a library computers and perhaps someone has done this before, but it is absolutely not how independent digital artists tend to operate. In reality, an independent digital artist is someone who owns a set of tools (copy of art software, computer, drawing tablet etc.) which act as the means of production when they produce a commodity (a piece of art that they intend to sell). When they invest their money into their further ability to produce more commodities (buying better software or hardware for example), that money acts as capital.

If I misinterpreted any part of your ask, please let me know.

As far as reading recommendations, and assuming that you have read Wage Labour and Capital, I would recommend Value, Price and Profit which touches more on this.

[knullanon]

Omg yes please continue the New Years Eve story, I’m literally obsessed 😭 I’ve requested parts before -Doc-Ock obsessed Anon 😞❤️

New Years Eve

4

I love u doc ock anon I hope this is good enough for u :)

words: 2157

warnings: chasing, abandonment, being left in the dark, lmk if I missed any!

~~~

Octavious sighed as he leaned back into his chair. He tapped his fingers against the table, inpatient. His arms were already getting antsy, moving around, opening and closing. He looked around the empty warehouse, the walls, floors, and ceiling all covered with mold and dust. The 2 door entrance was barely an entrance, as the left door was almost completely rusted off, making a shriek when he had to pry it open. The place was perfect for an overnight meeting with Martin to deliver him his cloaking device… if he were to show up on time.

He was already making a move to call Martin to tell him the meeting was off when there was a light passing by the window in the night, and he heard a car roll to a stop near the entrance. Within a few moments, Li and his guards sauntered into the room, and he took a seat on the other edge of the table.

“Good to see you, my friend.” He introduced, “I apologize for being late. Traffic, you know?”

Octavious was in no mood. He just wanted to get back and see you, and make sure you did your homework that he had assigned for you. And to tuck you into bed. One of his arms pulled out the device, which looked like a dash cam, and dropped it into his palm. “I’ve made it easy to control: the only thing is that the device will need to be manually operated. This button on the side turns it on, and, I’ve computed it to include various models and persons so that if you just need cover, then you don’t have to be invisible all the time.” He placed the device in the middle of the table, letting Li pick it up and inspect it.

“Thank you, my friend.” He looked back to Octavious, “By the way, were you still working on that ‘override’ project?”

Octavious raised a brow, and felt his arms start to stray. He pulled them back, “Yes, I have completed it. Why do you ask?”

Li shrugged a bit, putting the cloaking device in his pocket. “I’m planning a few heists in the next few weeks- it would help cause less frustrations in getting them set up.”

When Octavious didn’t answer, he added on, “A favor for a favor, then?”

This was taking too long. His arms were starting to become more and more impatient, reaching out and twitching. “No, that won’t be needed. Here,” he pulled out one of his chips, along with a tablet. He slid the chip over the table over to Li, and the table lit up.

“You may borrow it- maybe indefinitely depending on how many I am able to make. And don’t think about taking it, as I have all of them tracked.”

He placed the screen on the table, letting Martin look at every single one he had currently, most of them back at his base. He opened a side table from the GPS map, showing different uses and how it forms keys and cards and everything in between. His arms were whirring down at the tablet, but he ignored them, thinking it was just them being impatient about seeing you again.

“As you can see, depending on where and how you use it, it can serve a multitude of factors, not just opening doors, but creating system failures, hacking databases and-”

It was finally then that his arms started to do their little movements towards the tablet while he was talking with Li. Before he could make them retreat, he noticed what they were looking at. Almost all of the little red dots of the override chips were all at his base: except one, which was moving down different streets and alleys, much farther than his base. He picked up the tablet watching it move away from most of the other dots.

Li chuckled seeing Octavious be stumped. “I thought you were very overprotective of your projects, Doctor?”

He couldn’t understand. Was it a bug? In his technologies? Every genius has their flaws, he knew, but it wouldn’t make sense. He had built every single one of them differently, and had made sure there were no imperfections. But then that would mean someone had taken it and ran off with it. That was impossible, he reasoned, as the only person at the base right now is-

Oh. Oh, dear.

His arms, either reading his thoughts or realizing the same time he did, started to move around uncontrollably, writhing to get him out, to get to the base. No, he rationed, if they aren’t the ones who had taken it, then they would still be at the base safe and sound. If someone had come to steal the chips, they would’ve taken all of them.

When he stood up, pushing the chair all the way to the wall with the force, Li stood up as well. “I assume you must catch your runaway chip, then?”

Octavious was already climbing up to the wall, with the windows broken, breaking a few more so he could pass through. “Don’t you dare loose that chip, Li.” He called out, before he jumped away, moving in a frenzy to chase after you, ignoring whatever Li had said back.

---

When you escaped, you didn't really know where to go. His lair that he had was underneath a river, and while you thought it would be a nightmare to get out of, you guessed the door that you had found from that corridor was the easiest way out since it led you all the way up to some alleyway. You realized that, yes, you probably were under the Hudson River because you could see it running downstream when you had reached the top.

However, that didn’t matter to you. You hadn’t seen the moon in a long while, and it was a full one. Just your luck. You knew that Octavious would be busy with whatever he was doing in his lab, so you weren’t worried about him finding out until the early hours of the morning.

You were not lucky, however, in knowing where to go. You didn’t really know the area around the river well, especially in the dark, where you couldn’t see anything. Hiding in the alleys and running through the abandoned buildings didn’t help either.

There was no one around, and while you had thought about it, calling out for help probably wouldn’t do you any good. So, instead, you kept going, hoping that you could find an exit to the dark labyrinth soon.

As the moon got higher, and you could no longer hear the river run, you had slowed your pace, speed walking down streets and roads. Your feet hurt by now, but you trudged on, hoping to find someone eventually.

While walking, you pulled the rectangular chip from your pocket. It looked useless, besides that one hole in the wall. It was strange, because you never saw that hole in the wall before. You had scoured up and down that apartment, especially the doors, trying to find a way out. But there was nothing, at least when you looked. Looking at it more closely, the chips weren’t in the same spot as they were. In fact, as you moved around more, they kept changing, morphing into different things. Some looked like actual keys, others motherboards, and some just kept changing geometric shapes. It was constant, but subtle.

You had never noticed that. You were so busy watching them change shape and morph that you almost didn’t hear it. You turned your head, listening to some clanking noise. It was almost rhythmic if it didn’t sound frantic, almost like a car or truck. Maybe it was someone coming to pick something up from one of the buildings! You could get help from them, you thought.

You turned around, ignoring how your feet hurt, and ran towards the noise. You shoved the chip back into your pocket, and ran down the side of the building. The clanking noise was getting louder and closer, but it sounded… strange. Not like a truck or car kind of noise, where the shocks were holding large amounts of cargo, but more like a slamming of a metal pipe on the ground. You slowed your stop at the edge of the building, and peeked your head out, wondering what it was.

To your horror, just a few dozens of meters away, Otto was charging at you. You turned back, and started to run away, really praying that someone would find you now.

“_____!!” You heard him screech, which made you run even faster. You felt the ground shaking by now, and you could hear him push anything that was in his way away. “Get back here, NOW!!”

You kept running, hoping to get the hell away from him. You knew he was getting closer, and you could hear his arms becoming more hectic with every step they took. It made you run as fast as you could, hoping to outrun him, or to run into someone else. However, your luck ran out that night as you felt something slam into your side, and lift you up high into the air.

Catching your breath, you looked down and saw Otto, and he looked furious. The arm around your waist squeezed, making you yelp in pain. You went to say something, but he interrupted you, “Save it. For. Later.” He talked in between moving back towards the base, moving in large swift jumps of his 3 other arms.

While being held, he pulled you close to him, and while you thought he was going to hug you or slap you, instead he reached inside of your pocket and pulled out the rectangular chip that you had. “Hey, don’t-” you reached one of your hands out, trying to grab it from him, but he slapped your hand away.

���Save. It. And this-” he held up the chip, before putting it in his pocket, “Does not belong to you. You stole it.”

You rolled your eyes at that. “I did not-”

Otto stopped suddenly, making you jolt from being held. You grabbed onto the arm tightly, afraid of being dropped. He brought you very close to his face. “What part of save it do you not understand?” He gritted out. He was seething. You could see his eyes shake with anger, he was almost spitting out every word he said.

You decided that you had done enough, and you remained quiet. When you said nothing, he turned back to the road and continued going back to the base. For a short while, it was quiet. At least my feet aren’t hurting that much anymore.

Embarrassingly, you didn’t make it that far from the base based on how short the trip was back. This time, however, he brought you to a new entrance, one you didn’t even know was there. It was through a building, and then through a large pipe in the center of it. While you had thought it was the stupidest entrance ever, the multiple traps, cameras and security measures that he easily moved around or accessed proved it was not an easy way to get in. When he finally reached the bottom of the pipe, it brought you to a room that looked similarly to his lab. Except, it almost looked more evil. It was way bigger, and had tanks and monitors. Everything looked evil.

He walked (still using his arms) over to a large sphere, that looked like one of those Plasma balls you saw online. However, at the top, it had a little latch. He opened the latch, and unceremoniously dropped you in. You slid down the glass onto the floor of it, and you jumped to your feet just as he shut it and locked it. Looking around, it was literally just a fishbowl with a hole in the back.

You turned back to Otto, who was staring at you through the glass. He pressed his hand up against it, at your eye level.

“I am extremely upset with you.” He stated as he visibly tried to calm himself down. His voice sounded around the glass, like an echo. It really was like a fishbowl. “I don’t know or understand why you would run off like that- I know you are scared and frightened, but that is no way to treat your father.”

He had never referred to himself as such before. It took you by surprise, seeing him so… emotional. He started to walk away, even while you tried to say something, to say you were sorry, that you would never run away again. But he just turned around, and said, “I’ll see you in the morning. Think about your actions. We’ll have a talk in the morning.”

He walked out, and the lights turned off, leaving you sobbing in the darkness, alone and afraid.

~~~

i hope u like it doc ock anon, i made it with u in mind <3

[dwellordream]

“Medieval scholars inherited the idea from ancient times that there were seven primary colours: white, yellow, red, green, blue, purple, and black. Green occupied a central position, symbolically balanced between the extremes of white and black. It was also regarded as a soothing colour. Scribes often kept emeralds and other green objects nearby to rest their eyes. The poet Baudri de Bourgueil even suggested writing on green tablets instead of white or black ones for this reason.

Michel Pastoureau writes that “the true medieval opposite for white was not so much black as red.” This can be seen in the way Europeans adapted chess. When the game was adopted in Europe, the pieces and chessboard were painted in white and red, contrasting with the black and red sets common in India and the Middle East.

It was only towards the end of the Middle Ages that the white versus black dichotomy became more favoured. A key factor in this shift was the advent of printing, where black ink was used on white paper, reinforcing the perception of these colours as natural opposites.

Arthurian romances, one of the most popular forms of literature in the High Middle Ages, frequently employed colour symbolism, particularly in the depiction of knights. Pastoureau notes that these narratives used colours to convey deeper meanings and character traits. He writes:

The color code was recurrent and meaningful. A black knight was almost a character of primary importance (Tristan, Lancelot, Gawain) who wanted to hide his identity; he was generally motivated by good intentions and prepared to demonstrate his valor, especially by jousting or tournament. A red knight, on the other hand, was often hostile to the hero; this was a perfidious or evil knight, sometimes the devil’s envoy or a mysterious being from the Other World. Less prominent, a white knight was generally viewed as good; this was an older figure, a friend of protector or the hero, to who he gave wise council. Conversely, a green knight was a young knight, recently dubbed, whose audacious or insolent behavior was going to cause great disorder; he could be good or bad. Finally, yellow or gold knights were rare and blue knights nonexistent.

During the Early Middle Ages, monastic rules stipulated that monks should not concern themselves with the colour of their clothing. However, over the centuries, their attire became increasingly darker. The Cluniacs, one of the most influential monastic communities, believed that black was the appropriate colour for one’s habit. This perspective faced backlash in the twelfth century when the Cistercians adopted a white habit.

The debate over monastic colours was intense among the leaders of these orders. Peter the Venerable, abbot of Cluny, argued that black represented humility and renunciation, while white symbolized pride and was suitable for holidays and resurrection. In contrast, Bernard of Clairvaux, abbot of Clairvaux, claimed that white stood for purity, innocence, and virtue, whereas black symbolized death and sin, even likening it to the devil’s appearance.

Green is widely associated with Islam, but this association only developed in the twelfth century. The Quran mentions green eight times, always positively, as a colour representing vegetation, spring, and paradise. The Prophet Muhammad favoured green garments, including a green turban. While green was linked to Muhammad’s descendants, different colours were associated with the ruling Islamic dynasties: white for the Umayyads, black for the Abbasids, and red for the Almohads.

Pastoureau believes that green became a unifying colour for Muslims in the 1100s. He writes, “Its symbolism is associated with that of paradise, happiness, riches, water, the sky, and hope. Green became the sacred colour.” Consequently, many medieval copies of the Quran had green bindings or covers, a tradition that continues today. Religious dignitaries often wear green, whereas green gradually disappeared from carpets to avoid trampling on such a venerable colour.

Michel Pastoureau’s book on blue begins by highlighting the neglect this colour faced among the ancient Greeks and Romans, who rarely wrote about it or used it. He even explores the intriguing question of whether ancient peoples could perceive blue at all! This neglect persisted through the early Middle Ages until the twelfth century. “Then suddenly,” writes Pastoureau, “in just a few decades, everything changes – blue is ‘discovered’ and attains a prominent place in painting, heraldry, and clothing.”

The first significant shift in the ‘blue revolution’ was the use of blue to represent the clothing of the Virgin Mary. The scene of Mary mourning Jesus’ crucifixion was popular in the Middle Ages, and once artists began depicting her cloak in vibrant blue, it quickly became the standard. Additionally, artists, especially those working in stained glass, overcame technical limitations in creating blues, allowing the colour to be used in various mediums and clothing. Pastoureau notes that by the thirteenth century, monarchs such as France’s Louis IX and England’s Henry III began wearing blue, leading it to become the colour of medieval royalty.

Yellow initially benefited from its resemblance to gold, which bolstered its reputation. Many medieval heraldic symbols incorporated yellow, and possessing blonde hair was considered highly fashionable. However, in the Later Middle Ages, yellow began to acquire negative associations, including envy and heresy. Judas, the apostle who betrayed Jesus, was increasingly depicted wearing yellow clothing. Consequently, it was unsurprising that when the Catholic Church convicted the Czech reformer Jan Hus of heresy in 1415, they dressed him in a yellow robe for his execution.

Yellow also became associated with Jews, and as European Christians enforced clothing regulations on Jewish communities, yellow was often (though not always) included. By the early modern period, yellow fell out of favour, perceived as gaudy and unpopular.”

- Michel Pastoureau, “Colour in the Middle Ages”

[scarletwritesshit]

🕯️ Mortefi x F!Rover 🕯️The Rover and Her Red Cat Researcher

Mortefi scratched his head in utter confusion. He had absolutely no leads to go off of as a starting point, and even worse was that he had never seen a case quite like this before. Granted, he was more specialized in other fields of research, but denying the opportunity to learn more about the peculiar would be a fool’s choice. She returned seeking answers. He wanted answers himself. Unfortunately for the both of them, basic testing came back completely normal, and Mortefi did not know why.

What he did know, is that he didn’t know anything about the girl who went by the name of Rover. She had the clothes of a foreigner, most certainly a region that he was most unfamiliar with. Without as much of a formal name that could at least provide some clues to her heritage, Mortefi was at a complete loss for tracing back her origins. It was perplexing, to say the least. The thought of contacting senior researchers at Huaxu Academy had crossed his mind more than once, but what would they be able to do, if every result was as average as it could possibly be?

Rover came to him seeking some form of answer, and he was determined to give her something of value. A response along the lines of “I haven’t the slightest idea” simply was not acceptable. Unfortunately, he was stumped. He understood none of this. Mortefi was even sure to run multiple tests, and carry out the exact same procedures on another researcher he knew was average as a control. He could find absolutely nothing.

“Any luck yet?” Rover asked, peeking around his shoulder.

“Regrettably, no,” Mortefi admitted. “All of the tests that I have conducted have yieled completely normal results. You’re clearly a deviation from the norm, yet I fail to determine what factors exactly make you stand out in such a way.”

“But what about my memory loss?”

“No leads in regards to that either. Not even the medical specialists could find anything wrong with your head neurological system.”

Rover sighed, a bit disappointed with his response.

“If it were not for your unusual appearance, as well as the inclusion of that most curious sundial, I would have been led to believe that you were faking all of this for attention.”

“If I had the answers, then I would have no reason to pester you.”

“That may be so, but despite multiple attempts with a control variable taken into account, neither me nor my colleagues can find anything explicitly wrong with you. It’s slightly infuriating, to put it lightly,” Mortefi said, with a slight growl to his voice.

Rover noticed that Mortefi’s once curious expression quickly began to fade away. He exhaled a bit of smoke, clenching his fits as if his frustration was becoming unbearable. With another sigh tinged with smoke, Mortefi pulled out a lighter from his pocket and flicked the cap open. Rover’s heart jumped, and she backed away from him worried that Mortefi was one bad decision away from burning down the entire laboratory, the two of them included.

He clicked the lighter a couple of times, the flame igniting and dissipating, almost as if he was sizing up the equipment around him for the maximum carnage possible with such a small lighter. However, after a good couple of clicks, Mortefi let out a deep breath, this time no fiery smoke to be seen.

“I…apologize for that bout of unprofessionalism,” Mortefi said, sticking the lighter back into his pocket.

“Were you debating burning this entire place down just now?” Rover said, still tense and prepared to bolt.

“I merely find the click of my lighter to be soothing. I cannot let my nerves to get the best of me.”

“I can assume very much so. I could see you exhaling literal smoke.”

Mortefi cleared his throat, and picket up his tablet once more.

“With that being an issue best left in the past, I suppose that this mystery is not going to solve themselves. Shall we proceed?”

Although she was still somewhat shaken up from Mortefi’s actions just moments prior, Rover nodded her head and allowed for Mortefi to resume thoroughly examining her. He grabbed her hand and noticed her Tacet Mark, bringing it closer to his eyes in an attempt to find anything that stood out as unusual. As he squinted his eyes at her hand, Rover awaited the moment where he would be struck with inspiration and shove her under some laboratory equipment for vigorous testing. However, he simply held her had rather tight and continued observing it intently.

“Something super fascinating about my hand?” she asked.

“Ah…no. Just simply conducting a thorough examination.”

He leaned away a little, allowing a Rover a little bit more personal space. Now that he had lifted his head up a bit more, she caught a clear glimpse of his eyes for the first time. His pupils were slit, somewhat like those of the reptiles she had cut down on the way. They, however, felt more curious and alive than just plain bloodthirsty. In fact, they were almost cat-like, giving him the look of a man occupied with a lot of thoughts rather than just a beast whose only thought was what its next victim for a meal was.

Noble, majestic, respectable. It was like she was face to face with a dragon in human form, which made her heart skip a beat every time the light of the laboratory reflected the amber shine in his eyes.

Despite these thoughts of a well-respected dragon standing before her, Rover felt as if Mortefi kept the demeanor of a cat hidden beneath an aura of authority and intelligence. The way he lit up with curiosity while working on his research, his normally calm mannerisms, and the eyes that widened like a curious cat every time even the slightest detail caught his attention all further supported her strange feeling of fondness for Mortefi. Hell, it was becoming mighty tempting to reach out and pet his hair as if he really were a friendly cat.

Just one little pat wouldn’t hurt, she hoped. At the very worst, he would push her hand away, but this nagging urge of hers had to be satisfied. Just one little pet. She could just play it off as a side effect of the brain damage Mortefi insists she doesn’t have.

With her free hand, she reached up and gently pet him. His eyes widened and was a bit surprised by her sudden move, but showed no clear signs of taking any insult. In fact, she could argue that for a moment, she saw him enjoying the attention.

“You really are curious about me, aren’t you?” she said.

“I believe you to be the more curious one, in terms of both attributes and apparently behavior,” Mortefi said, releasing her hand to ruffle his hair back into place.

Some of Mortefi’s lingering tension appeared to have eased thanks to Rover’s playful gesture. Maybe her wild guess wasn’t too far off in actuality. She wouldn’t hesitate to continue if it meant putting Mortefi at ease, but even she had enough common sense remaining to think that petting someone performing tests on you was a bit unusual. Her mind was already upside down, and Mortefi was clearly withholding a great deal of stress, so both of them would have an excuse, should he desire more.

“You look like you’ve lightened up a bit,” Rover commented.

“I believe that I am the one who is supposed to be assisting at the current moment in time. Worry not about me, it’s nothing I haven’t experienced before.”

“Are you sure that you don’t want just a little more? You can think of it as a way of me repaying you for putting all of this effort into attempting to help me.”

Mortefi looked around the lab, as if he was anxious that someone had opened doors that have clearly remained shut throughout the duration of their conversation.

“A subject eager to assist is certainly an usual case. Usually, individuals that do come into the lab constantly ask when the tests are concluded as they get pried and poked,” Mortefi said, puzzled, yet intrigued.

“As we have clearly concluded, I’m not a normal test subject.”

“You are normal, in a sense. In a contradictory manner, that is rather abnormal. Abnormalities in some way are to be expected to be turn up in at least one test. You however, have shown- “

“Normal this, abnormal that, just say that this has been confusing you and you wouldn’t mind another pat to destress,” Rover said, reaching out her hand up once more.

“I suppose this could be a prime opportunity for us to both discover something about ourselves,” Mortefi said with a sigh.

He put his tablet down onto the table and glanced at Rover’s hand, nodding to signal that it was okay for her to proceed. With a smile, she once more began to pet him, only just realizing how soft his hair actually was. It was a bit of an unexpected feeling for a man whose chest was partially covered in what appeared to be scales.

“Do you like it?” she asked.

“In the most unusual way possible, I find it to be quite the soothing experience.”

As she continued gently petting Moretfi, she noticed that his eyes were relaxed and he was blinking rather slowly. Rover’s impulsiveness somehow managed to pay off for both of them, though now it was possible that she could be petting him all day if he was this fond of the attention. He was showing no signs of resistance or wanting to stop either, despite the tests waiting to be ran (or, re-ran) on Rover.

“If it helps you keep your cool, I would gladly keep going all day,” Rover said, mainly as an excuse to continue feeling his surprisingly soft hair.

“Are all outsiders like you this considerate for the well-being of others?” Mortefi asked, almost as if he were slowly becoming drunk off of the affection from Rover.

“Maybe. I don’t know how someone like me is normally supposed to think.”

“Right, my apologies,” Mortefi said, lifting his head up. “As nice as that truthfully feels for the soul, we must continue attempting to discern the extent of your…condition.”

“Mortefi, has anyone ever been nice to you in such a way?” Rover asked, completely disregarding his statement.

“I never considered such things as my studies have always taken top priority. An honest answer would be no, up until now, but I find it most strange that a stranger would be the first to think of me in such a regard,” Mortefi said, attempting to piece together his thoughts. “…Let’s resume the operation before I once more allow myself to get carried away.”

[just-someone-online]

There's something about Precure chatfics that becomes funnier to me once you factor in Hirogaru and Wonderful. Like, yeah, either Komugi and Yuki are sharing Iroha and Mayu's phones or the girls' parents got them one, but there's still something really novel to me about pets using phones.

Then you've got Ellee, assuming the Mirror Pad can be used as a tablet for her (For a little while. Ageha and Mashiro are not about to let her become an ipad baby). For one thing, can she even read? Does her teenage form give her that knowledge? If so, then you've got all the other Precure trying and failing to censor themselves in front of the literal baby. Like, I can so easily see one of the Hirogaru Cures forgetting to keep an eye on her for a moment and dying inside when she asks them what 'fuck' means.

[16woodsequ]

Sunday Steve - Day Three

Things that would be new or unfamiliar to Steve in the 21st century, either due to the time period he grew up in, or his social-economic status and other such factors.

Day Three: Yogurt

Although yogurt has a long history, it is possible Steve didn't eat much of it. At least not in the typical format we expect.

Yogurt was introduced to America in the 1900s and was available in tablet form for "those with digestive intolerance and for home culturing". (Link) (John Kellogg used it for enemas too.)

In New England, the main consumers in the 1930s were Near Eastern immigrants. The first yogurt factory to open in the States was in 1942. Yogurt was popularized in the 50s as a health food and sold in pharmacies.

But was still too sour for most people. This is when added fruit preserves became more common place and yogurt became a common American food in the late 20th century (around the 70s).

If Steve ever did try yogurt (maybe for health reasons) he probably didn't like it because "During the 1920s and 1930s, yogurt milk was described as having poor flavor because of its high acidity". It would have also probably been thinner than the thick 'greek' yogurt we are used to.

But most likely Steve never ate, possibly never even heard of yogurt. They did eat it more in Europe so he could have heard of it there during the war.

Sunday Steve Masterpost

[andmaybegayer]

As well as installing nix on the x64 laptop, I finally got around to migrating the ARM tablet to Plasma-Mobile from Phosh. Phosh is GNOME based which means it inherits all the annoying weirdness of GNOME, although it is slick if you happen to like GNOME.

Tablet PC gotta be one of my favourite genders. It's so versatile and I wish that there were more good tablets. Even that x64 laptop is a 2-in-1! If you're already going for portability and compactness in a laptop going full hog into tablet land works out quite well.

Plasma Mobile plays quite nicely and has solid cross-app integration. Like everything it suffers from the mid performance and driver support available on this 7c chip but hey! Could be worse. This form factor is really good for browsing photos off the server but also for reading webcomics.

[lemonpixycat]

Let's talk about how so many disabled people become artists because they can't work a 'conventional' job.

Let's talk about how because of AI 'art', companies and other people will be overlooking these actual artists in favor of using AI for cheap or for free

Let's talk about how because of how quick AI 'art' can be created, a real, disabled artist will be incapable of competing in the market because people hiring ai artist will now start expecting instantaneous results form commissions and the like, which is something real artists can't provide.

Let's talk about how abysmal it is attempting to make a living off being an artist is even NOW, and then let's talk about how because of AI art being cheaper, the value of art will come down and a real artist will not be able to charge anywhere NEAR a living wage for their art because they actually have to factor in things like time, effort, and equipment into their art where as an ai artist can afford to charge obscenely cheap rates for art they don't have to really produce themselves. they dont' have to factor in the cost of an ipad or a tablet or paint or charcoal or a pencil or their labor. Let's talk about how eventually, disabled people won't even be able to be AI artists themselves because AI imagery will over saturate the market, further driving prices down to the point that you'll have to spend all your time everyday churning out prompts in order to make a living wage off a now valueless "product".

Because of all these factors regarding AI, disabled people are now shut out of a career path they previously could have done and that was at least a somewhat viable alternative to the 'conventional' jobs they couldn't do. AI does not help disabled people. It is hurting them. It is robbing them of a career path that was previously open to them. Ai art will result in no longer being able to make a living off their ACTUAL artistry. And even if disabled people were to lower themselves to using AI themselves to try and make a living and compete in the market, they'll soon be unable to even do THAT. AI art is bad for disabled people. I'm sorry if you're disabled and you feel like your only option is putting words into a prompt and having a computer use art from other people to generate an image for you. But ultimately, it is bad for you, it is bad for people LIKE you, it is bad for disabled artists, it is bad for ALL artists. This thing exists to REPLACE artists. It does NOT exist with the intention of being a tool.

[runesmithsmadscribblings]

Runes Together Strong - Chaining rune effects

In some univereses, runes are standalone pieces of magic. You can only imbue one rune into an object or spell effect to get one specific effect from it, and adding more is either outright impossible, spells disaster, or both.

We will not be talking about these universes today.

Most universes that feature rune magic allow them to be combined in some fashion, ranging from ritual circles to music to runic circuits. This enables a lot of extra complexity and depth to be explored, and often these universes will feature so called "guile" or "scientist" heroes that prosper in such conditions.

The most common implementation are so called "modifier" runes. Modifier runes, as their name implies, serve no function besides changing the attributes of other runes and as such can only exist in universes that allow the combining of runes. Usually they exist as timers, inverters, attribute controllers, and other such utilities. A rune that projects a cone of energy might be modified with an elemental rune (say fire,) and a distance rune. The elemental rune changes the type of energy, and the distance rune affects either where the cone originates, or how far it travels/stretches.

There are a host of other such examples, but for now we'll move on to how these runes are actually chained together.

The simplest fashion of chaining runes is sequence casting, as the name implies, sequence casting involves creating runes in a specific order to achieve the desired effect. It typically also involves a large dollop of The Power Of Intent (POI) to ensure that the magic functions as the caster intended, given that a chain of runes may have many interpretations. This is what causes the same combination of runes in the same order to produce a blizzard for one caster and a high velocity icicle for another. The circle of eight based system found in The Magitech Chronicles and Shattered Gods (Chris Fox) is a fantastic example of this for individual spells.

One of the more complicated methods is what I call "Runic Circuits", otherwise known as Matrixes. These circuits are the result of placing multiples runes on a surface (usually an expressly made tablet or flat space on an object) and connecting them like... well... a circuit board. Take caution around these, as damaging them tends to have much more drastic consequences than most other forms of rune magic, due to their typically high containment requirements. This is a very common system for enchanting specifically, due to it's permanence, but it doesn't have to be. I am writing this late at night and can't come up with a good example right now, feel free to reblog if you have one.

The final example I would like to discuss today is the Ritual Circle, a natural evolution from sequence casting and runic circuits both. True to their name, their form is often a circle (grounded or otherwise) compose of runes meant to accomplish a goal. These circles vary in permanence, from a single shot of the effect to a consistently maintained magical machine that lasts for centuries. The uniting factor is that, again, damaging the higher ends of these things is a death wish and they take serious study, practice, and preparation time to use properly. CAL's interpretation found within his game of Eternium (Completionist Chronicles, Dakota Krout) is an unusually loose, but effective example of these.

So, yeah, to summarize:

Runes are very powerful on their own, but their true magic shines when combined in innovative ways.

So called "guile heroes" or "scientist heroes" THRIVE in universes with such systems.

Like all rune magic, damaging chained runes is a risky endeavor, even more so due to sheer quantity and scale.

[birgittesilverbae]

Jillian & Bea (platonic, must it be said?): embrace

"The swelling has subsided somewhat," Jillian comments, gaze fixed on the tablet in her left hand. She flicks her fingers and a three-dimensional model appears on the monitor in front of Beatrice, a brain rotating slowly in space. "That may have a positive effect on the headaches, if that's been a contributing factor."

Beatrice wets her lips. "And if not?"

"If they persist, I'd like to get you in for a more comprehensive suite of neuroimaging. See if we can induce an attack while we're actively scanning and pinpoint a root cause." 

"Do you expect to uncover anything?"

Jillian lifts her head and locks eyes with Beatrice. "I'm not… I'm not sure that it will," she admits. Her eyebrows draw down as she focuses inwardly, seemingly turning the problem over and over in her mind. 

Beatrice takes stock of Jillian's words in the intervening silence, forces herself to consider the possibility to which she's so steadfastly turned a blind eye. The perpetuity of serious injury has never truly been a concern, not when Sister Warriors so rarely live long enough for acute ailments to turn chronic. A sister is healthy, then injured, then dead. Devoured by the mission before the bill for years of cumulative trauma comes due. Mortality as a given.

But now, in the aftermath of the holy war, Beatrice must look to the future and consider that she will likely survive to see it, survive long enough to truly live. Survive long enough to be dogged by the lingering effects of combat, by constant low-grade joint and muscle pain, by headaches that lance through her skull with all the brutality of an icepick to the temple.

Jillian is closer, now, her mouth moving, but Beatrice can't quite put the sounds together to form words. She's crying, she realises with removal, recognising it only when the ice cold pad of Jillian's thumb brushes hesitantly across her cheek. 

"I don't know why I asked," Beatrice says, the words catching in her throat. "I didn't want to know."

Jillian's tone turns more gentle and she leans forward to put an arm around Beatrice's shoulder, to hold her in an unpracticed embrace. "It's better to know," she says, "to be able to use that knowledge to guide our next actions."

"I don't want a next action," Beatrice protests, petulance slipping into her voice without her consent. "I just want a nap."

[madamlaydebug]

What is Addiction?

Addiction is when a person continually takes a substance - or engages in a behavior - with a destructive impact on their health and life.

In Ancient Rome, when a person couldn’t repay a debtor they were forced to become their slave, or ‘addictus.’ This is the origin of being “a slave to your addictions.”

Addictions take many forms; some of them may surprise you. Do you struggle with any of these?

Alcohol

Body piercing

Book collecting

Exercising

Food

Gambling

Hoarding

Narcotics

Plastic surgery

Pain

Pornography

Prescription drugs

Rejection

Relationships

Screens (smartphones, computers, tablets, TV’s, etc.)

Social media

Sex

Shopping

Tattoos

Tobacco

Video games

Working

Addicts crave the behavior or substance, even when they know it causes them physical harm, mental harm, and/or harm to their relationships. Addiction can lead to criminal behavior, poverty, homelessness, and death.

Addiction is not defined by how much a person engages in the behavior but by the impact it has on their life. A workaholic may be very successful in the office, but at home their relationships are failing and their anxiety is increasing.

What Causes Addiction?

People become addicts through many different paths, but seeking pleasure (or avoiding pain) is the ultimate driver.

Whether a person is addicted to heroin or video games, their goal is to alter their mental state and reduce subconscious-stress.

Some people believe that taking drugs leads to addiction - but this is only part of the picture. Not everyone who takes narcotics becomes addicted to them. Therefore, there must be another factor involved - the human factor.

Research involving mice found they became easily addicted to cocaine when kept in isolation. But, when the environment was enriched with social activities, interesting food, places to explore, toys to play with and new mice to meet… they stopped taking cocaine! Just like mice, humans get depressed, miserable and bored when trapped in an unfulfilling life.

Unresolved Emotions

Addiction often stems from trauma. Adverse experiences during childhood (e.g. divorce, emotional neglect, poverty) predispose us to addiction later in life. Addiction is a response to painful or traumatic events, not simply a poor choice that people make.

Demonizing addicts is counterproductive; they need to be treated with care and compassion to maximize their chances of recovery. Brain scans on people with a range of addictions reveal the same neural circuits are involved, and they all share feelings of shame and low self-value.

People develop addictions to try and cover up issues and uncomfortable emotions:

To cope with stress and life events.

To escape the pain of past trauma.

To create connections with others.

To achieve a sense of control in life.

To avoid facing feelings of inadequacy.

To hush internal voices of self-loathing.

Overcoming Addiction

There’s no one size-fits-all solution for all addicts, but here are some general tips:

1. Find the Right Help

Addicts using opiates and narcotics need help. Addiction experts can provide the highly specialized support needed for this kind of recovery. Addicts can also be aided with behavioral re-training and dedicated recovery groups.

2. Increase Self-Value

All addicts can benefit from increasing their self-worth. Any activity that improves physical or mental health enhances esteem. Getting a massage, eating vitalizing alkaline foods, and going for walks in nature are acts of self-care that enhance how we feel about ourselves.

“Because the one thing you want to do is to LOVE, and that love should begin with you” - Dr. Sebi.

3. Be Ready to Give Up

The addicted person must be ready and willing to give up their addiction; if they are forced to give it up they are likely to relapse.

What are you ready to give up?

[seradae]

It's a hot take, but I really wish that Nintendo would take the Sega route and focus on making great games regardless of platform, rather than keeping things on their own hardware. I love the Switch, but it's a 10 year old tablet platform in a convenient form factor, and it shows. I can only imagine what their amazing designers and game developers could do on something like the Xbox Series X.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Jon Haidt and Zach Rausch

Published: May 15, 2023

When parents are asked to identify their top fears about the safety of their children, what do you think tops the list? According to a survey last year by Safehome.org, it’s not cars, strangers, or any other physical threat; it’s “internet/social media.” That’s not just for parents of teenagers and pre-teens, whose lives seem to revolve around their phones. It’s even true for parents of younger kids, ages 7-9 because every parent sees it coming and few know what to do about it. Parents don’t want their children to disappear into phones, as so many of their friends' children have; some resolve to wait until 8th grade, or later. Then their child hits them with the main argument that makes parents buckle: “But everyone else has a phone, so I’m being left out.”

For parents who resisted, or who plan to resist, a new report may encourage many more parents to join you: Sapien Labs, which runs an ongoing global survey of mental health with nearly a million participants so far, released a “Rapid Report” today on a question they added in January asking young adults (those between ages 18 and 24): “At what age did you get your own smartphone or tablet (e.g. iPad) with Internet access that you could carry with you?”  When they plot the age of first smartphone on the X axis against their extensive set of questions about mental health on the Y axis, they find a consistent pattern: the younger the age of getting the first smartphone, the worse the mental health that the young adult reports today. This is true in all the regions studied (the survey is offered in English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Arabic, Hindi, and Swahili), and the relationships are consistently stronger for women.

We believe these findings have important implications for parents, heads of K-12 schools, and legislators currently considering bills to raise minimum ages or require age verification for some kinds of sites (especially social media and pornography). We’ll address those implications at the end of this post. But first: what did Sapien Labs do, and what did they find?

1. The Sapien Labs Study

Sapien Labs is a non-profit research foundation with the goal of understanding how the rapidly changing social and technological environment is changing human brains and minds. Their main research project has been the Global Mind Project, an ongoing program that tracks mental well-being around the world using a comprehensive assessment of mental health along with questions about demographics and various cultural, technological, and lifestyle factors. They have issued a variety of reports on the state of mental health around the world. Among their most important findings is that in all the regions they’ve studied, mental health is worst for the youngest generations.

It didn’t used to be this way. There is a well-known finding in happiness research that, across nearly all nations, happiness or well-being forms a U-shaped curve across the lifespan (See Rauch, 2018). Young adults and people in their 60s and 70s are happier than those in middle age. But that may be changing, especially for women, as Gen Z (born in and after 1996) enters young adulthood. You can see the sudden collapse of young adult mental health in some of our previous posts on this Substack. For example, Figure 1 shows that up until 2011, young Canadian women were the most likely to report having excellent or very good mental health. By 2015 they were the least likely, and the decline in their self-reported mental health accelerated after that, while it changed very little for older women. (The same pattern holds for Canadian men, but to a lesser degree.)

[ Figure 1. Percent of Canadian women reporting excellent or very good mental health, by age group. Canadian Community Health Survey (2003-2019). Graphed by Zach Rausch. ]

Why would this be? What changed in the early 2010s that could have rapidly reduced the mental health of teens around the world, with a bigger impact on girls? At the After Babel Substack, we have argued that the sudden switch of teen social life from flip phones (which are designed for communication) to smartphones (which enabled continuous access to social media and much higher levels of phone addiction), is the major cause, though not the only one. There are unique factors at work in each country, but we know of no alternative that can explain the synchronized, gendered, and global decline in teen mental health. 

At Sapien Labs, they decided to test the smartphone hypothesis by adding a question about the age at which people got their first smartphone (or tablet). Is it just a coincidence that the first global generation to grow up on smartphones became the first global generation to have lower well-being than the one before them? 

Sapien Labs uses a comprehensive assessment of mental well-being that asks participants about 47 elements of mental, social, and emotional functioning on a life impact scale. These 47 elements are aggregated into a single score called the Mental Health Quotient (MHQ), which gives extra weight to patterns that indicate severe problems. It also uses subsets of these 47 elements to create scores along six domains: Mood & Outlook, Social Self, Adaptability & Resilience, Drive & Motivation, Cognition, and Mind-Body Connection. 

(You can take the MHQ yourself and you can request access to the full dataset. For scoring and validation of the MHQ, see Newson, Pastukh, & Thiagarajan, 2022, and see this blog post that offers a clear explanation of how the MHQ is scored, and why.) 

Figure 2 shows the most basic result in the report: they simply plotted the responses from the nearly 28,000 participants who answered the “first phone” question, from all countries combined. 

[ Figure 2. As age of first smartphone goes up, so does the mental health reported by young adults, assessed by the MHQ. Data from SapienLabs.org. ]

MHQ scores are calculated from responses to the 47 questions and converted to a scale that runs from -100 to 200, as shown here: 

As you can see, the respondents who got their first smartphone before they were 10 years old are doing worse, on average, than those who didn’t get one until they were in their teens. The most mentally healthy respondents are those who did not get a phone until their late teens.1 You can also see that the slope is steeper for young women than for young men. The Gen Z women who got their first smartphone before they were 9 years old are in negative territory, on average.

The power and unique contribution of the Sapien Labs dataset come from two features of their work: First, they use a far more detailed measure of mental health than is used in most other large surveys. The second important feature is their international coverage. So, let’s zoom in and explore the six domain scores that make up the MHQ, first for the global sample, and then for the region and culture we know best: the Anglosphere.

2. Domains of Functioning

As you’ll see if you read the full report, the next step after examining the overall MHQ scores is to examine scores on the six domains of mental functioning:

Mood & Outlook: Includes items about optimism, calmness, anxiety, mood swings, sadness, and anger. 

Social Self: Includes items about self-worth, relationships with others, empathy, cooperation, aggression toward others 

Adaptability & Resilience: includes items about adaptability to change, ability to learn, and emotional resilience.  

Drive & Motivation: Includes items about motivation, curiosity, enthusiasm, and addictions.

Cognition: Includes items about memory, decision-making and risk-taking, focus, and concentration, unwanted thoughts, hallucinations

Mind-Body Connection: Includes items about sleep quality, energy level, appetite, and physical health issues. 

Figure 3 shows that for young women, all six domain scores show the same basic pattern as the MHQ: a consistent rise. You can also see that a few of the domains seem to rise more slowly or level off somewhat after the age of 13 or 14: Drive and motivation, Mind-body connection, and Cognition. However, the other three dimensions continue to rise all the way to age 18. The domain that rises fastest, meaning that it is most highly correlated with age of first smartphone, is the “social self” domain. 

[ Figure 3: The 6 domains of well-being, for young women, as a function of when they got their first smartphone. From SapienLabs.org. ]

Figure 4 shows the same analysis for young men. The pattern is similar, with two important exceptions. First, the slopes are substantially lower, meaning that the mental health and well-being of young men are not as strongly related to the age at which they got their first smartphone as it is for their sisters, although it is still related. (All of the significance tests and effect sizes can be found in supplementary materials posted in this Google Drive link.2) The second difference is that all of the lines are higher for boys, meaning that boys are doing better than girls at all ages (at least, according to their self-reports). The one exception is that the line for Adaptability & Resilience reaches the same level for both sexes by age 18. Given the steeper slopes of all six lines for girls, this means that sex differences in adult mental health are larger among those who got a smartphone earlier.

[ Figure 4: The 6 domains of well-being, for young men, as a function of when they got their first smartphone. From SapienLabs.org. ]

One major issue in analyzing an international dataset is that there are just so many differences between countries, regions, and religions that there are many opportunities for confounding variables to lead us astray. For example, in the Sapien Labs dataset, in the less wealthy countries such as India, few young adults had received a smartphone before the age of 10, which means that the data points on the left sides of the graphs contain almost no Indians, whereas the data points on the right side (no phone until 17 or 18) contain many Indians and fewer from the USA. If Indians are mentally healthier than Americans (for other reasons), this could cause the lines to slope even if smartphones had no effect on mental health. It is important, therefore, to look at individual countries and regions. (The Sapien Labs report does this in its appendix, where you can see that the trends hold for each of the world regions). 

The region that we (Jon and Zach) know best and have written on extensively is the Anglosphere (the English-speaking countries of The United States, Canada, The United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and sometimes Ireland). We, therefore, decided to examine what Sapien Labs had found about those countries and compare it to what we have found. 

3. Zooming in on the Anglosphere

At the After Babel Substack, we have been documenting the patterns of rising mental illness among teens around the world, and, like Sapien Labs, we have found that the sudden decline of teenage mental health is an international phenomenon. Our research so far indicates that the increases in mental illness in the 2010s were slightly larger in the Anglosphere than in any other region we’ve examined. Figure 4 shows the large and sudden rise in self-harm rates among teens, particularly girls, in four of these nations (you can see much more in Zach’s initial report on the Anglosphere).

[ Figure 5. Since 2010, rates of self-harm episodes have increased for teens in the  Anglosphere countries. For data on Australia and for all sources, see Rausch and Haidt (2023). ]

In every Anglosphere country, the mental health of teens declined sharply around the same time (~2012) and in the same way (depression, anxiety, and self-harm, with bigger increases for girls). We have also found that the five Nordic nations show similar trends, particularly when examining changing rates of depression and anxiety (though not always for self harm). 

The Sapien Labs study began in 2019 so it cannot show us trends since 2010, but it can show us how young adults are doing today, and it can link variations in mental health today to variations in age of first smartphone. We wanted to get more familiar with the data and examine these links for ourselves, so we downloaded the full dataset as it was available on their Brainbase site on May 13, 2023, which was just about 2 weeks later than the dataset used in the Sapien Lab report. Our dataset contains 1,798 more participants, for a total of 29,767. The number of participants from the six anglosphere countries was much smaller: 1,465 (823 females, 584 males). By country: 682 in the USA, 297 in the UK, 224 in Canada, 239 in Australia, 10 in New Zealand, and 13 in Ireland.

We cleaned and organized our dataset in the same way as the team at Sapien Labs, with a small modification to account for our much smaller sample size. To reduce the jerkiness of the graph lines when we drop down to lower numbers of respondents for each point, we grouped participants into 2-year buckets (or three years, for our youngest bucket, 5-83). Figure 5 shows that the MHQ scores of Anglosphere boys and girls show patterns very similar to those reported in Figure 1 by Sapien Labs for the full 28,000-person international sample: The later the age of smartphone acquisition, the better the mental health. At least, that is true for the girls, all the way up to 18. For Anglosphere boys, there is a leveling off after the 11-12 mark. Delays beyond age 12 do not seem to be related to further increases in MHQ scores.4 

[ Figure 6. Anglosphere countries only: As age of first smartphone goes up, so does the mental health reported by young adults, especially for women. Data from SapienLabs.org, graphed by Zach Rausch. ]

We also plotted the six MHQ domain scores and found similar results. For females, all six dimensions of mental well-being improve as the age of smartphone acquisition increases.5 The effects are particularly strong for the “social self” and “mood and outlook”, which correspond well to the rise of internalizing disorders (depression and anxiety), which Zach has shown is rising within every Anglosphere nation. 

[ Figure 7. Anglosphere countries only: female MHQ dimension scores. Well-being on all 6 dimensions increases as age of smartphone acquisition increases.  ]

The trends for boys are similar to girls, though the effects are smaller and there is more fluctuation.6 Figure 8 shows that at the youngest ages, increasing age corresponds with improvements in each of the six dimensions. However, for boys, improvements tend to level off after age 12.

[ Figure 8. Anglosphere countries only: male MHQ dimension scores. Changes are smaller and more varied compared to females.  ]

4. Limitations

It’s important to note that the report from Sapien Labs is one of their “rapid reports” made possible by their fast-growing number of participants and the easy access they offer to their data. They added the question about age of first smartphone in January and they are publishing a report, with data from nearly 28,000 participants, in May. We believe that this ability to move quickly is a public service during a global pandemic of teen mental illness. While their rapid report is not a standard academic publication and has not been through peer review (which often takes a year or more), the open access to the data has allowed us to investigate and confirm the trends they are reporting. We hope and expect that other researchers will download the dataset and offer critiques of the data, the analyses, and the conclusions drawn. This sort of “post-publication peer review” is becoming increasingly common as the problems with the existing peer review system become more widely known.

One issue to keep in mind with the Sapien Labs dataset is that the participants in each country are not a random or representative sample of the people in that country. Such studies would be extremely expensive to run, and now that so few people agree to phone solicitations or even answer their phones, it is unclear how representative such surveys can be. Those who agree to be interviewed, or who are motivated by money to participate, are not representative of the broader population. For this Sapien Labs report, participants came to the site on their own, or from online advertisements paid for by Sapien Labs, for the purpose of getting a detailed report on their wellbeing. So, the means reported for any country should not be treated like direct measures of the true means. However, samples such as these are still very useful for examining differences within the sample, such as those between men and women, or between those who got a smartphone early and those who got one late. And the much larger size of the Sapien Labs dataset, compared to Gallup and other survey organizations, allows for many additional analyses. 

A second factor to keep in mind is that like all surveys, what we get is correlational data that is open to alternative interpretations. The graphs in the report are likely to suggest to most readers that getting a smartphone early causes later mental health problems. But with correlational data we must always consider the possibility that the causal arrow could run in reverse. In this case: having low well-being as a young adult could cause people to believe that they got a smartphone earlier than they did, but this seems unlikely. We must also always consider that there could be “third variables” that cause both of the first two variables to rise. In this case, one plausible confounding third variable is permissive parenting. Perhaps permissive parents (in each country) simultaneously do two things: they give their kids smartphones at very young ages, and they also give them few boundaries and little structure, which then interferes with development and produces struggling young adults. While this hypothesis is plausible and should be investigated, it is not clear how it would explain the fact that, in all the regions studied, it is the girls who show a tighter connection between early phone acquisition and later mental health problems, just as it is the girls who show a tighter connection between heavy social media use and concurrent mental health problems. Nor would it explain why mental health dropped so rapidly in the early 2010s (especially for girls) if permissive parenting (or some other variable about family life) was the real culprit.

And finally, we note that no one study is definitive, and more research is needed. We have been able to find a few other studies that examined the age at which children got their first smartphones (We have created a new appendix [8.14] in our collaborative review doc on Social Media and Mental Health). So far they are mostly smaller studies that have produced mixed results. If you know of any others, please add them to the doc or put a link to them in the comments below. We want to get this right.

5. Implications

We cannot be certain that the correlations shown in the data are evidence of causality, but we think it is appropriate for those who care for children to act on the preponderance of the evidence (which is the standard in a civil trial) rather than waiting for evidence beyond a reasonable doubt (which is the standard used in a criminal trial. See proposition 2 in this post.) There is increasing evidence that smartphones have a variety of detrimental effects on child development including reductions of sleep, focus, and time with friends in person, along with increases in addictive behaviors, so it makes sense that the cumulative effect of getting one’s first phone in elementary school would be larger than for those who don’t get a phone until high school. This is an important point made in the Sapien Labs report: The relationships they find suggest that there is a cumulative effect of having had a smartphone (and its many apps) over many years of childhood; they do not represent the effects of having used a phone a lot in recent days or weeks (which is the focus of most of the published research).

We think the implications for action are strongest for policies related to children and younger teens––those still in elementary and middle school (that is, age 14 and below) In most of the graphs in this post, including those for the Anglosphere, the slopes of the lines are steepest for those ages, and the links are visible for boys as well as girls (though smaller for boys). This concern to protect children before and during early puberty is consistent with a study published last year which found that in a large longitudinal study of British adolescents, the peak years for evidence of links between social media use and lower satisfaction with life were 11-13 for girls (which corresponds to the early part of puberty), while for boys (who begin puberty a bit later) it was 14-15.

On the other hand, the implications for action related to older teens and especially boys are less clear, at least within the United States and other Anglosphere nations. The lines for boys are somewhat flat in those ages, and the increases for girls generally slow down too. Furthermore, the arguments for why high school students need a smartphone (rather than an alternative, such as a flip-phone) are stronger than the arguments for why elementary and middle school students need one. 

We, therefore, believe that the Sapien Labs findings should motivate us to think carefully about whether and when to give children their own smart devices, especially before high school. It is not the Internet per se that is harmful; so much of the internet is fantastically educational, useful, and entertaining. The most relevant questions, we think, are: 1) At what age do you want to give a child continuous access to the internet and social media, even when away from home, even when sitting in class? 2) At what age do you want to give social media companies, and other companies, continuous access to a child’s attention? And 3) does a child really need a smartphone when other kinds of phones (such as “flip phones” or Light Phones) work just as well for general communication (phone calls and texting)?

Implications for Parents

The group Wait Until 8th was founded to solve the collective action problem that parents and teens are in: Even if most parents wanted to wait until high school to give their children smartphones and social media, as long as most kids have those things by 6th grade, there will be enormous pressure on their children, and hence on the parents, to relent. Unless the parents can coordinate. So Wait Until 8th asks parents to sign a pledge, when their children are in elementary school, that they will wait until 8th grade to give them a smartphone. The pledge only takes effect once ten families in that child’s grade have signed the pledge so that the child will have a community of peers and will not feel so isolated before 8th grade.

We think this is a great idea, we just suggest that the pledge should be: Wait Until 9th. Or Wait Until High School. Children are usually 12 or 13 at the start of 8th grade; that is still within the period of early puberty. Plus, if 8th graders have smartphones, that means that smartphones will be everywhere in middle schools, increasing the desire of 7th graders to get them. To solve collective action problems, we think it’s best to focus on setting good norms within collectives (such as schools): make elementary schools and middle schools be smartphone free. 

Parents understandably want to be able to reach their children when they are away from home, and a flip phone or other “dumbphone” is a very reasonable first phone that allows parents and children to reach each other. We suggest that parents not give smartphones as first phones. Let children learn to master a simpler kind of phone, one that cannot be loaded with addictive apps. Wait Until 8th offers an excellent list of the many smartphone alternatives.

Implications for Schools

Many of the teachers and heads of schools that Jon talks to are bitter about the effects of smartphones on their students and their school culture. They complain about the constant drama unfolding on social media during the school day. They complain about the distraction and the increased difficulty of getting students’ attention during class, since many students sneak looks at their frequently-buzzing phones, especially those sitting in the back rows. Many schools say that they ban phones, but what they often seem to mean is “the rule is that you can’t take out your phone during class.” That means that some students (the ones most suffering from phone addiction) will learn to do it stealthily, and many of the rest will just pull out their phones as soon as class is over, thereby missing out on face-to-face interactions with the students right next to them. 

We suggest that schools consider going phone free, meaning that students can use their phones to arrive and depart from school, but once they enter, their phones (smart or dumb) would be placed in a phone locker, or in a lockable pouch. We think the case for doing this in elementary schools and middle schools is strongest. In a few weeks, Jon will write a substack post laying out the empirical evidence that smartphones distract students and disrupt education, even when they are kept in students’ pockets.

We also suggest that school districts collaborate with social scientists to do experiments on entire schools, rather than on individual students. What if a state or district identified 20 middle schools that were willing to cooperate, and then randomly assigned half of them to go phone free?  There is no research of this kind that we can find, yet such a simple study would give us results within a single year that could potentially yield findings that improve both mental health and educational outcomes. 

Implications for Legislatures

If there is a cumulative effect of smartphone ownership in childhood, and if the effect is due in part to heavy use of certain kinds of apps (such as social media) rather than other kinds of apps (such as watching movies, or using Wikipedia), then it becomes even more vital that we develop ways of age-gating certain apps and content. At present, US law sets a minimum age of 13 at which children can sign contracts with companies to give away their data (when they check a box on the terms of service). But the law was written such that the companies are not required to verify ages. As long as a child says that she is 13 or older, she’s in and can create a social media account. 

This must change. If the minimum age were enforced, it would help parents solve their collective action problem, at least with regard to Instagram, Tiktok, and other social media sites for underage users. It is precisely Congress’s failure to enforce the age 13 rule that puts parents in the trap. Many states are now introducing legislation to remedy this omission. And there is one federal bill that does a particularly good job of focusing on age limits and age verification: The Protecting Kids on Social Media Act, introduced by Senators Schatz (D-HI), Cotton (R-AR), Murphy (D-CT), and Britt (R-AL). The act would “set a minimum age of 13 to use social media apps and would require parental consent for 13 through 17 year-olds.  The bill would also prevent social media companies from feeding content using algorithms to users under the age of 18.” The bill also requires social media companies to develop rigorous age verification methods. (There are already many in existence, and many more would appear if the bill gets passed.) We also think the Kids Online Safety Act of 2022, introduced by senators Blumenthal (D-CT) and Blackburn (R-TN) would do a lot to make social media less damaging to children, and easier for parents to control. The fact that so many bills are bipartisan, at both the state and federal level, is a very encouraging sign in our polarized time. Legislators often report seeing the problems in their own children.

In conclusion: there is a great deal that can be done, individually and collectively, to address one of the top fears that parents express, about the safety and health of their children. The Sapien Labs data offers us new insight into the nature of the problem, and it alerts us that the problem may be global. It also guides us to the ages at which reform efforts are most likely to work.

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POSTSCRIPTS (added on May 18, 2023)

1—We welcome additional and deeper analyses of the Sapien Labs data, and will post links here to such reports whether they support or contradict our analyses in this post.

2—One issue we should have discussed in the text is the inclusion of tablets, along with smartphones, in the Sapien Labs’ questionnaire. If their findings differ from those of other labs which asked only about age of first smartphone, then we won’t know whether part of the difference is the inclusion of tablets. We hope that future studies will ask about the two devices separately to figure out which devices are associated with harm at which ages (if any).

3—Some commentary online has made the important point that it’s not the phone itself which is harmful; it is the particular apps that the child uses, a child with a particular personality, in the context of a particular family that does (or does not) exercise oversight and apply restrictions. We agree. The original iPhone introduced by Steve Jobs was three devices: a phone, an iPod, and a web browser. Great! Three tools. Probably not harmful. It’s the addition of the app store that turned the smartphone into a portal to everything. If early acquisition of a smartphone is shown to be reliably associated with developmental problems, it would likely be because it enables continuous 18-hour-per-day access to hundreds of activities.

[cosmica-galaxy]

Name: Victor

Image:

Mimic species: Tablet Species.

 ..

Is it friendly or not: He is friendly. But avoids the Alliance since the one he mimics does the same.

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Where can it be found: Victor can be found within an abandoned apartment that mother nature has begun to take over. So within the main lobby is a tree, and many other floral plants. He takes cares of the things around and on the top floor has a green house-like structure to grow many vegetables. He rests on the second floor as he has many rooms for different things and room enough for others if he trusts them enough. Its rare though and no one is able to figure out where his place is exactly.

 ..

What does it eat and how does it get food: He mainly eats vegetables but will eat meat as long as it’s either processed or if he takes out any prey that comes along. He does an ambush attack when he’s hunting, coming from above using his extra arm to catch his prey. It has serrated claws so when they are used it cuts worse than regular claws. His jaw unhinges and he can open his mouth wide. His screen darkens before a single eye appears on his screen and the pupil is tiny making him have almost a manic look when he’s angry. (which is rare.) To add to the scare factor he slowly opens his mouth and then snaps it open wide letting out a guttural snarl.

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Does it have any special abilities: Victor is really stealthy and despite being tall in his hunt form he can’t be detected unless he shows himself. He is extremely fast on foot and in air. When he’s upgraded he transforms into a dragon form. He’s just as scary, maybe even more so in this form. He is bigger than a large Speakerman and TVman when in his dragon form. But is smaller than the large speaker and TV in his idle form and reaches the Speaker’s shoulder in hunt form.

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Personal backstory: For a long time Victor lived alone, he was the only one that retained his human form. For months he kept hidden from other mimics and agents. But one day he went in search of some supplies and found an injured human. Always feeling bad for them hence why he doesn’t harm or eat humans, but this notion also led him into trouble as others would take advantage of this. 

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And this was one situation, as soon as he approached them they attacked him and so did many others. He tried to defend himself but was surprisingly overwhelmed and so with  injuries he quickly switched forms from idle to mimic form and defended himself. Once he was done he ran off, only to be trapped within a mimic trap and his pursuers following him close behind. As he began to panic he felt a faint thudding that only got stronger until he turned to see in front of him was a titan heading this way. He felt even more panic as it approached. As soon as they came, they turned towards the humans who had paused upon seeing the titan. It spoke up, scaring them off and then he thought it was all over for him so he watched waiting to see what would happen next. Soon they bent down and set two people down, he looked at them apprehensively as one was a human and the other an agent? 

 ..

Not one that he has seen before…. Or has he? Soon he was out of the trap and he tried to run away but with an injured ankle he didn’t go far, after some convincing, they convinced him to go with them and they took care of him. He was surprised. Why help him? A mimic of all things, slowly but surely they earned each other’s trust and he learned more about the tablet race and he told his own story, eventually decided to change his form, and he asked for permission to take on this agent’s form. He decided to stick with them and protect them as they saved him. It was the least he could do.

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Slowly he learned more about the humans themselves and eventually he opened up more and began to prank them for fun, it took him some time to learn about how to use his new form. Learning that he can climb up things better than what he used to be able to do, had sharper claws and stronger form despite his size and leaner build. He was made for stealth and could help with tending to wounds as his counterpart does. He prefers to only be near his found family and was iffy around other humans/agents as he didn’t know how they would react to him.

 ..

If or when he’s at the alliance base he is always on his best behavior especially around other titans and mimics. So that it, this is his story.^^

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Hope that you all like him!^^–Here is @novastorm223​‘s entry, Victor! I adore his backstory and that you even created a mimic that wasn’t one made previously! Excellent work, Nova!! : DD