Amelia Lester

I never once wanted to live in that world.

I wasn't interested in living in a world without TV.

That was not a thing.

Whereas young people are interested in what it was like to live in a world without phones.

And

have a certain amount of yearning for it even as much as they can't bear the idea of not being able to order food immediately like my daughter only wants to take pictures on her with her and her friends on a digital camera not on a phone it's something about the way it looks it's something about that slightly imperfect vibe that they want and I find that really interesting because they've never known this time and I mean you guys haven't known this time as adults and

And yet it feels so appealing.

It's not actually nostalgia.

It's like an imagined world.

It's like yearning for a horse and carriage instead of a car.

Also you find out who someone is immediately that colours all your judgement about them, whereas in a pre-instant research world you had to get to know them first.

You had to rely on pheromones alone.

You had to get to know them before you could judge them and discard them.

I think so, but I also think it did also mean that you wanted to seize the moment.

Do you know what I mean?

Like I think that it seemed so unlikely that maybe this person would call you and you would be home when they did or your flatmate would pass on the message or whatever it was, you know.

So in some ways it probably made you want to seize the moment.

I think there's no question that the containment, what I liked about this Substack was the discussion of the containment of your world.

You know, like the news was this thing, as you said, Claire, when you were explaining it to us that, you know, you opted into, you consumed it, you stepped away from an evening or an interaction was a specific thing and it began and it ended.

And it made me realize that I'm always chasing something