Our phones are killing our ability to feel sexy (2024)

Role of Phones vs. Social Media & Algorithms

• Many see phones as neutral tools; the real problem is social media and algorithmic feeds that enable “infinite scroll” and constant dopamine hits.
• Others argue phones and social media are inseparable: ubiquitous cameras + pocket access normalized always‑online behavior and made current social media toxicity possible.
• Some mitigate by disabling notifications, avoiding social apps, or using dumb phones / watches instead.

Nostalgia, Risk, and Romance

• Several comments resonate with the article’s longing for pre‑smartphone romance: missed connections ads, waiting by landlines, physical media, and chance encounters.
• The key loss is seen as risk and uncertainty: not knowing the menu, getting lost, walking into a random store, or flirting in person instead of curating profiles.
• Others dismiss this as selective nostalgia; every era has its own “edgy” youth culture, and earlier decades also had plenty of passive consumption (e.g., TV).

Time, Work, and Instant Gratification

• One camp blames economic pressure, long commutes, and complex lives for pushing people toward instant digital gratification and away from embodied experiences.
• Another insists most people actually have more leisure than they admit; detailed time audits often reveal hours lost to TV and phones.
• “Opportunity cost” of screen time is emphasized: no single scroll is catastrophic, but the cumulative diversion from hobbies, relationships, and “third spaces” is large.

Sexiness, Image, and Embodiment

• Some agree that constant phone use looks and feels unsexy: staring down at a slab, staging fake candid shots, losing bodily presence and eye contact.
• Side debates cover watches (Apple Watch vs. Rolex) as signals of utility, money, personality, or superficiality.
• Others counter that smartphones can increase confidence, health, and connection, and that “sexy” is highly subjective.

NEETs, Addiction, and Responsibility

• The article’s framing of NEETs “robbing themselves” via games and porn drew strong pushback: some see these as survival buffers for people excluded from work and relationships.
• Long subthreads argue over addiction, free will, and responsibility: how much is individual choice vs. engineered environments and social structures.
• Similar arguments surface around diet and obesity as an analogy for phone overuse.