[HN Gopher] It is as if you were on your phone
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It is as if you were on your phone
Author : bookofjoe
Score : 425 points
Date : 2025-03-09 13:40 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (pippinbarr.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (pippinbarr.com)
| getnormality wrote:
| Wow, I hated this experience within seconds. So I think it
| achieved its artistic aims.
| because_789 wrote:
| Heh, I loved it within seconds. So relaxing while also so
| darkly funny. Everyone is a bit different I guess. I sent it to
| some of my art-biz friends.
| knowknow wrote:
| The worst part about this is that I immediately thought that it
| would be useful in awkward transitory moments. Everybody pulls
| out their phone on the bus, so you could fit in pretty well with
| this instead of staring outside.
| noman-land wrote:
| Just yell instead.
| teamspirit wrote:
| What's wrong with looking outside? I'm at the point where I
| treat my phone like it's radioactive, actively trying to limit
| each encounter with it. I think we should all be staring out
| the window more often.
| knowknow wrote:
| The way the buses are laid out in my city is that the seats
| are directly facing each other. So staring outside could make
| it seem like your staring at people if it's too crowded. So
| it's more comfortable to pretend to use your phone.
| alwa wrote:
| That's kind of the weird trap, isn't it? That it _feels_ like
| there's normative social pressure to do your phone too, right
| at the moment that everyone who would notice you doing or not
| doing so has turned their attention elsewhere?
| jiveturkey wrote:
| What's so awkward about that?
|
| Do you also tip just because there's a line behind you and the
| self-service cashier tells you the machine "is going to ask you
| a question"?
| inopinatus wrote:
| One of my hobbies when visiting London is smiling whilst taking
| the Tube somewhere. Oftentimes I am the only person in the
| carriage not wearing a glum or flat expression.
| dnzm wrote:
| "Swipe right" doesn't do anything for me (Fennec on Android).
| BolexNOLA wrote:
| Same. Firefox iOS
| throawayonthe wrote:
| that's a screenshot, you have to click on the link to play
| ludicrousdispla wrote:
| is this supposed to work on desktop?
| Wowfunhappy wrote:
| Technically yes but absolutely not.
| s1artibartfast wrote:
| Yes, this is a multiplatform game/art experience.
| furyofantares wrote:
| You press Play Online to play. Swipe Right is just a
| (confusing) image on the page.
| ddq wrote:
| Swiping right on that image should definitely start the game.
| olddustytrail wrote:
| Actually, having a simple and straightforward instruction
| that you need to ignore and do something totally different
| instead... kind of sums up the modern computer UI.
| stavros wrote:
| For me, it just drags the image elsewhere.
| furyofantares wrote:
| Yes, by "should" they mean "the site author should have
| made it work that way."
| stavros wrote:
| Ahh, I see.
| AznHisoka wrote:
| I tried swiping right 10 times like an idiot, thinking I didn't
| swipe fast enough or something
| fluidcruft wrote:
| I tried swiping a bunch, figured it must not work in Firefox
| for Android, tried in Chrome only to find out it didn't swipe
| there, either.
| Willingham wrote:
| I love that it tells me when to scratch my ear. I am always
| confused about when I should be doing that. 11/10
| mattgreenrocks wrote:
| Is that the phone analog of your nose suddenly feeling itchy
| when playing music?
| thinkingemote wrote:
| It is good to be able to catch yourself or see yourself from
| another perspective. I liked it.
|
| I wonder about the dopamine effect, could it be made even more
| boring?
| furyofantares wrote:
| You tricked me into meditating. Thanks, I love it.
| amarant wrote:
| I also found this weirdly meditative!
|
| Almost made me worry: how much of a phone addict am I when I
| find _this_ meditative?
| larodi wrote:
| Being non-present on a screen reminds of meditation but is
| more akin to dissociation and is really dreaming awake. It
| takes you away but you dream a weird dream which is not yours
| .
| logikblok wrote:
| Related by the same creator
| https://pippinbarr.com/itisasifyouweredoingwork/
|
| More accessible on desktop.
| multjoy wrote:
| Thanks, I hate this
| nickdothutton wrote:
| The stuff of nightmares.
| yard2010 wrote:
| The sounds made me feel like I live 1998 again. Surreal.
| s1artibartfast wrote:
| Just like a normal day in the office
| ricardobeat wrote:
| This is perfect. Especially the fact that 1) it never ends, and
| 2) you eventually figure out that the best way to get a
| promotion is not to be faster of more efficient but the exact
| opposite - delay ending the current task, and keep making it
| larger, until the next one comes along. Beautiful.
| pmarreck wrote:
| From the same creator (so funny):
|
| https://pippinbarr.com/itisasifyouweremakinglove/
| halkony wrote:
| This is excellent I loved this so much. I cant stop laughing.
| ciconia wrote:
| Hilarious!
| noman-land wrote:
| I hated this. Thank you.
| praptak wrote:
| We need this on a device which is _not_ a phone. It could be a
| simple mechanical device which presents the instructions on a
| slowly scrolling paper tape.
| simojo wrote:
| It's incredible how pointless it seems when there's no wall of
| content in front of us. Great commentary.
| computerdork wrote:
| hee-larious:)
| bmcahren wrote:
| This is actually perfect for AI robots to blend in waiting in
| public. Just like bartenders polishing glasses, you can't have
| them just staring making people uncomfortable.
| boxedemp wrote:
| Found that painful, only got a 3 in
|
| Interesting
| arjonagelhout wrote:
| I like this concept! Although it doesn't accurately reflect how I
| normally use my phone.
|
| Maybe monitoring someone using e.g. some social media app and
| recording all taps and swipes might make it more realistic :)
|
| Maybe also some directions like "now smile" or "now look
| awkwardly at someone in your environment like you're hiding
| something".
| flanbiscuit wrote:
| Love this. Thank you. I'm eating lunch at the moment, by myself,
| in a local casual establishment, so of course I pulled out my
| phone and the first thing I looked at was HN and this was the top
| post. I started playing and couldn't help smiling. Felt like I
| was watching a robot mimicking me as it was studying human
| behavior.
|
| It also got me thinking about what I would do before smart
| phones. During the dumb phone era I was still pulling out my
| phone to text a lot so wasn't too different, but I also read
| books a lot more back then
| thierrydamiba wrote:
| Agreed. This is amazing. Really awesome aha moment when you
| realize what's going on.
|
| I'm going to start reading physical books again.
|
| Thank you.
| johnhamlin wrote:
| Love this. It's the Zen TV Experiment for the 21st Century.
| https://adam.nz/zen-tv-experiment
| dbtc wrote:
| "Jiggle one leg". This is hilarious and very well done.
| atlintots wrote:
| This is perfect for when I'm awkwardly walking past the huzz and
| need to seem like I'm busy on my phone.
| aio2 wrote:
| never fail to impress the huzz
| raldi wrote:
| I'm getting a novel optical illusion with the spinning line in
| the box that shows up near the beginning: Whichever end I'm
| looking at looks normal, but the other end looks like a split
| hair, or an open pair of chopsticks. Like what's spinning isn't
| actually a "/" but actually a very narrow "V" .. only, if I try
| to look at the split part of the V, that part closes up and the
| opposite end splits.
|
| Is anyone else getting that?
| TZubiri wrote:
| Love it, very creative counterattack on the attention wars.
|
| I remember decades ago, first phones came out, and I was at a
| party and I had not much to do, so I took out my phone and
| pretended to send messages with someone. It felt weird, but now
| it would be such a "natural" thing to do when bored.
| johnea wrote:
| Why are so many people suffering mental illness?
|
| It's not funny, it's stupid, and sad.
|
| If you find that "you're feeling intense pressure to be on your
| phone", throw it in the ocean!
| deadbabe wrote:
| The problem is you can't just tell people throw their phone
| away. You have to tell them what to do instead.
|
| Otherwise? They'll just open their phone again and scroll
| Reddit or Hackernews.
| deweywsu wrote:
| I think it's sad that we've created a society that feels social
| pressure to stare at a screen when they find themselves somewhere
| without something to say to someone else. This explains why
| social skills are on the decline.
| Sir_Twist wrote:
| Is it a social pressure to stare at a screen or to just pretend
| to be occupied with something else? Would reading a few pages
| of a book, for instance, satisfy this social pressure? I do
| agree more generally that smartphones are borderline essential
| for many social expectations, though. I personally find
| smartphones really distracting, being a device that allows for
| instant information at merely the hint of boredom, and if they
| were less socially enforced I probably wouldn't have one.
| bongodongobob wrote:
| I want to get caught using this next time I'm at lunch.
| personjerry wrote:
| > Follow the prompts and be free.
|
| Which is it?
| keybored wrote:
| How irreverent and at the same time non-committal. Just right.
| Instant hit.
|
| Become an instant hit in your Internet subculture with this one
| weird trick.
| inopinatus wrote:
| This was not a realistic simulation of my usage. My primary
| glassface activity is reading books. So it should be a continuous
| slow scroll with infrequent access of a burger menu. Fortunately
| I can simulate this by reading a book.
| DecentShoes wrote:
| Make this 10x faster, add music, and you have Elite Beat Agents,
| genuinely one of the best games on the DS.
| Lucasoato wrote:
| Elite Beat Agents changed my life and how I perceive music.
| What an amazing game. If you didn't cry when doing the You're
| the Inspiration level, you have no soul.
| akpa1 wrote:
| Ohhhh, this felt so familiar. Listening to music while mindlessly
| scrolling and waiting for... something. Yikes. I really don't
| think I like technology any more.
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(page generated 2025-03-09 22:00 UTC)