[HN Gopher] It is as if you were on your phone
___________________________________________________________________
It is as if you were on your phone
Author : bookofjoe
Score : 801 points
Date : 2025-03-09 13:40 UTC (1 days 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.
| kobalsky wrote:
| > So relaxing while also so darkly funny
|
| it has that early internet screamer vibes, I was a bundle of
| nerves all the time.
| 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.
| wkat4242 wrote:
| People have a pretty good sense of whether you're staring
| at them or something just beside or behind them. Not really
| from the angle of your eyes but the way you react (or not)
| when the other person looks back.
|
| I wouldn't worry about that so much. And I worry about a
| lot of social things :)
| 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"?
| throwway120385 wrote:
| I feel like I should program an easter egg into one of those
| that occasionally asks people the question "do you like me?"
| and then has two boxes to tick that say Yes or No.
| 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.
| hkpack wrote:
| Ha ha, I remember I was beaten in USSR when I was a teenager
| and smiled on a bus without a reason for some time (was
| daydreaming about some random things).
|
| Was approched with "why are you fucking laughing?"
| wruza wrote:
| You can simply scroll and tap a black locked screen. No one's
| going to ask anyway.
| 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.
| jeffhuys wrote:
| Goes to show; you can check every box and try so hard, but
| still fail and lose lots of people on screen 1.
| wruza wrote:
| The trick is to not have screen 1.
| cafeinux wrote:
| In the end, it doesn't even matter.
| 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
| .
| furyofantares wrote:
| Well, I used the opportunity to be present. I was being a
| bit facetious about being tricked into it; it's a state I
| like to enter instead of being on a screen to begin with.
| 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.
| irjustin wrote:
| haha hilarious, it does end though when you become "CTO". You
| can read the code and it takes a LONG time to get there by
| "typing emails" or you can run `givePromotion()` or update
| the variables holding that.
| wkat4242 wrote:
| This sounds like something that needs to be automated with AI
| ;)
| tomjen3 wrote:
| You can progress by just putting something heavy on the
| spacebar.
| 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!
| testplzignore wrote:
| I feel like I played this wrong, but it eventually let me win
| anyways.
| derangedHorse wrote:
| That was hilarious. I wasn't expecting to play it all the way
| through at first.
| tjbiddle wrote:
| I wasn't going to play all the way through - but felt like
| I'd be a tease if I just stopped
| mlmonge wrote:
| Well this is odd... my mouse ran out of charge a minute into
| this "exercise." That's never happened before
| 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.
| gblargg wrote:
| I enjoyed it. I wish it had gave performance metrics so I could
| track improvement in speed.
| 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.
| autoexec wrote:
| You can bet that it won't matter if the robot is looking at
| you, it'll be capturing audio/video and collecting huge amounts
| of sensor data about its surroundings at all times. A robot
| looking at a phone would be redundant. Maybe the publishing
| lobby could push to get them to read physical books instead.
| 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".
| seabass-labrax wrote:
| Did the creator of the site just update it? Because it
| definitely has instructions like that now: it told me to narrow
| my eyes and grimace!
| arjonagelhout wrote:
| Ah it might be that I didn't try long enough!
|
| It does appear the instructions are randomized, so I might
| have been unlucky.
| 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.
| jagged-chisel wrote:
| Knowing I would be out alone for a meal, I would have carried
| reading material- book, magazine, paper articles. Maybe a
| notebook to scribble notes.
|
| Now, I have an internet of reading material via my phone. Or my
| tablet.
|
| My family and I are close. We talk lots and often and tend to
| have enough context when a sentence or two needs speaking. We
| go out together, we chat a bit at the start of a meal, and we
| don't need to speak much afterwards. We don't get awkward, we
| can be quiet. But my brain continues - write a note, surface-
| level research on an idea ... so we each look at a device for a
| few minutes. My daughter is keeping in touch with her
| significant other, my wife is likely gaming or maybe window
| shopping. If anyone speaks up, we pull away from the devices to
| talk.
|
| I'm personally not addicted to the device itself. But I'm like
| Johnny 5 - my intellectual curiosity is difficult to satiate.
| The readily available access to "input" is what keeps me
| plugged in.
|
| Back on topic: these art projects, or statements, or whatever
| that are designed to bring attention to our attention to our
| phones ... interesting, fun, perhaps important. But I'm not a
| fan of the social nostalgia that sometimes appears in the
| comments. I never did just interact with strangers. Never had a
| meaningful conversation with a random person. I would have had
| my face in a book.
|
| In 2025, my phone is my book.
| nicbou wrote:
| I went on a trip without a smartphone, as an experiment. You
| get used to the lack of entertainment. On the second day I got
| a book and a notebook. I talked to people more, paid more
| attention to my surroundings. It was a fun time.
| jajko wrote:
| There was even an era before dumb phones :) Some people burried
| their heads in newspaper or books, some looked and watched the
| world go by. I still do it, phone is really last resort since I
| strongly believe its slowly making me more addicted to it (more
| like my brain is doing it on its own).
|
| Which is pathetic IMHO, I don't want to be tied to gizmo who is
| spying on me to sell me more tailored adverts, I want to have
| it as a servant and nothing more and certainly not reverse.
|
| There is an art in enjoying a situation while doing absolutely
| nothing, just looking around at the world and people. One
| shouldn't be uncomfortable when left with oneself alone for a
| while. This does a lot with stress management and cleaning up
| cluttered mind.
| 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.
| kindeyoowee wrote:
| do people not get tired of the ooo phones bad trope?
| praptak wrote:
| Most of culture is (hopefully) new takes on topics which are
| much older than smartphones. "The topic is old" is not a
| sufficient condition to consider something tired/cliche/old.
|
| I'd say this one is different enough to be considered at least
| mildly interesting, even if you take into account that the
| genre "purposefully absurd pastiche of attention-stealing tech"
| is not new.
| 256_ wrote:
| Welcome to Hacker News.
| 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.
| eimrine wrote:
| People with mental ilnesses on HN? Too low probability IMO.
| 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.
| Ylpertnodi wrote:
| I'm reading hn - your comment - at the doctors. I'm early,
| she's gonna be, of course, slightly delayed = free hn time,
| for me.
| wkat4242 wrote:
| It's always been there. Before the phone we had the walkman.
| Before that the newspaper. There's always something to indicate
| 'do not disturb'.
|
| When I'm having a busy day I don't always feel like talking to
| randoms. I live in a city, not a village and I'll never know
| everyone.
| 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.
| DecentShoes wrote:
| Yeah. I was so sad they nobody ever made a bigger better
| version for the WiiU.
|
| Wish I could emulate it on my phone with S-Pen too but audio
| latency killed it last time I checked.
|
| I have been meaning to get a drawing tablet and try Osu, and
| I will, but the songs in it are unknown Japanese anime stuff
| and don't appeal to me so it's not quite the same.
| skyyler wrote:
| There are countless songs in Osu!, but you may need to seek
| the ones that don't appeal exclusively to weeaboos.
|
| Heck, I think most of the tracks from Elite Beat Agents
| have Osu maps now.
| frostyel wrote:
| A great addition to this would be if everything was synched from
| a central server. 20 commuters pressing their toes down and
| letting out a sigh at the same time. It would be like a
| multiplayer protest against attention-grabbing phones. Everybody
| playing the game would know if someone else was playing the game,
| but no one else. It may defeat the original purpose of the game
| to blend in, but I think it could be pretty fun to observe
| something like that.
| seabass-labrax wrote:
| No idea why this was downvoted; I love your idea. After all,
| what are social activities but doing things, and sometimes
| pointless things, together?
| 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.
| EugeneOZ wrote:
| Repetitive and boring.
| Handler9246 wrote:
| That's the point lol
| dailykoder wrote:
| Ok good, but I don't browse the web on my fone. Thank you for
| posting this
| themusicgod1 wrote:
| yet another github project. STOP USING GITHUB
| nerdile wrote:
| why?
| eimrine wrote:
| It is owned by the Evil corp?
| boomskats wrote:
| Irrationally disappointed that I can't install this as a PWA.
| wkat4242 wrote:
| It won't need much. Just a manifest really.
| nakedneuron wrote:
| Author could add 'close your eyes' at some point.
|
| Instant meditation app.
| svennidal wrote:
| Thanks! I needed this. My youngest son pointed out to me the
| other day while waiting in a doctors reception that I was the
| only adult not on my phone. When I looked around me, everyone was
| on their phone except for the occasional uncomfortable look they
| gave me every now and again. Now I can be on my phone without
| exhausting myself.
| anotheryou wrote:
| oh you have to click the title and the swipe thing is an image...
|
| that took me.. long
| scottmcdot wrote:
| Whenever I'm waiting for the bus or waiting for anything, I love
| to people watch (while not making anyone uncomfortable). People
| are so interesting!
| nakedneuron wrote:
| Whenever I spot people watchers , I secretly observe them (not
| to make them suspicious or feel uncomfortable). They are the
| most interesting species!
| rullelito wrote:
| This doesn't work on my phone. What is it?
| nsxwolf wrote:
| Is this supposed to be interactive? I see it says "Swipe Right"
| but nothing happens on iPhone.
| magic_hamster wrote:
| I guess this really shows my age because I can't find any reason
| for this to exist. Do people really feel "pressured" to be on
| their phone? What kind of terrible dystopia do these people live
| in? Why do you give a flying f** about what people on the bus
| that you'll never see again think that you should be doing? I
| feel so much pitty for anyone feeling this. It's not a healthy
| mindset.
| DCH3416 wrote:
| Well yeah. Otherwise what are you suppose to just sit there
| awkwardly in public?
| drumttocs8 wrote:
| Public buses existed before cellphones
| TeMPOraL wrote:
| So did newspapers, which served the same social purpose on
| the buses before cellphones.
| mostlysimilar wrote:
| I would encourage you to take a breath and observe the world
| around you every once in a while.
| awongh wrote:
| I've actually been socially pressured to check my phone at a
| dinner table if at a certain point everyone else at the table
| checks theirs (which is not even a jab at them- at least a few
| people probably had a legitimately urgent-enough notification
| to attend to... making after-dinner plans, checking train
| schedule etc.) It's just funny how strong the social urge is to
| not just sit there if everyone else is also checking their
| phones.
| DCH3416 wrote:
| It's kinda like the early 2000s where someone on their
| cellphone (and later bluetooth pieces) had the appearance of
| must be important because they're on the phone.
| wasabi991011 wrote:
| I'm pretty sure it is a sort of art game / digital experience.
| Compare with "it is as if you were making love"[1] by the same
| creator, which gives a sex-inspired series of input tasks with
| an extremely barebones interface yet claims to be a "usable and
| efficient experience of pleasuring a partner".
|
| [1] https://pippinbarr.com/itisasifyouweremakinglove/
| zyklu5 wrote:
| You know how in every zombie movie there's a bit where our
| intrepid protagonists must blend in to avoid capture. I think
| this is that sort of thing.
| pmontra wrote:
| An anecdote about that pressure and how we assume that people
| are messaging or browsing all the time.
|
| I was playing a game of Power Grid [1] about one year ago and I
| noticed that everybody were tapping on their phones all the
| time between their turns. After half an hour I finally said,
| "Oh well, I'll also start sending messages or you guys will
| think that I have no social life." They raised their eyes and
| looked at me startled. "But I'm using the calculator!" "Me
| too." "Me too."
|
| [1] https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2651/power-grid
| RandallBrown wrote:
| It's art.
| dunham wrote:
| It reminds me of the book "Press Here" by Herve Tullet
|
| https://www.amazon.com/Press-Here-Board-Herve-Tullet/dp/1452...
| floren wrote:
| Somebody gave us that when our child was born. I donated it
| somewhere pretty quickly, not interested in reading a
| smartphone training guide to a 6 month old.
| hn666 wrote:
| I'm gonna use this for when I gotta pretend I'm on my phone in
| public.
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(page generated 2025-03-10 23:02 UTC)