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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: August 16th, 2023

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  • What people probably think of is a study that tested how much content people remembered based on whether they read on paper or on screen. On paper, the fixed organisation of text helps with memorising it. It is already well-known that when reading a list you’ll remember the first and the last point better than something in the middle, and text on paper also seems to form this sort of a “grid” that you can map the ideas upon. It’s also easier to orient yourself where you are in a book, as you have the physical thickness of the pages under your fingers rather than the relatively abstract percentage number in the corner or something.

    But overall, the difference probably isn’t something drastic. Certainly nothing to do with “connection to the story”, that’s not something that can be measured… maybe someone subjectively feels like that, IDK.

    Audiobooks are probably quite a different experience, though.












  • You don’t have the power to decarbonize all electricity

    From the article:

    Location also affects how carbon emissions are managed. Germany has the largest carbon footprint for video streaming at 76g CO₂e per hour of streaming, reflecting its continued reliance on coal and fossil fuels. In the UK, this figure is 48g CO₂e per hour, because its energy mix includes renewables and natural gas, increasingly with nuclear as central to the UK’s low-carbon future. France, with a reliance on nuclear is the lowest, at 10g CO₂e per hour.

    This is a massive difference, and clearly doable, nothing that would be limited to the distant future.

    So I get this right? I’m naive for expecting govt regulations to put companies’ behaviour under control, whereas you’re realistic by expecting hundreds of millions of people deciding to systematically minimise their Youtube/Tiktok/Spotify/Netflix/Zoom usage? Hmm, alright.

    And yet in an another comment you also expect that Spotify shouldn’t introduce video streaming, without any external regulation but out of pure goodness of their hearts?


  • No, since the article doesn’t mention anything of that sort. I really, really doubt that in the world of crypto mining and AI training the average people streaming some music and music videos will make a substantial difference. Your degrowth-oriented approach sounds like it would just solidify the already highly monopolised market, as any new players or innovation can be met with the “wastes too much bandwidth” hammer, as is this new service by Spotify right here.

    I highly recommend reading research about the sustainability of the internet.

    This is the first article that I get on Google. Now, as they say, “I ain’t reading all that” (I probably wouldn’t understand most of it), but I did take a look at the abstract:

    Decarbonising electricity would substantially mitigate the climate impacts linked to Internet consumption, while the use of mineral and metal resources would remain of concern. A synergistic combination of rapid decarbonisation and additional measures aimed at reducing the use of fresh raw materials in electronic devices (e.g., lifetime extension) is paramount to prevent the growing Internet demand from exacerbating the pressure on the finite Earth’s carrying capacity.

    Sounds good to me! With no mention of having to limit our internet usage.

    And if reducing bandwidth waste really were that important, it would have go both ways anyway, with the providers optimising their content (probably forced to do so by regulations in some way).


  • To minimise the environmental footprint of your own music streaming, use Wi-Fi rather than 4G or 5G. If you listen to a song repeatedly, purchase a download to play. Use localised storage rather than cloud-based systems for all of your music and video files. Reduce auto-play, aimless background streaming or using streaming as a sleep aid by changing the default settings on your device including reducing streaming resolution. And turn your camera off for video calls, as carbon emissions are 25 times more than for audio only.

    Lol no I won’t.

    What a stupid, bizarre and illogical article. It clearly shows that the key is in moving to renewables yet it still argues for the users also doing this sort of tiny useless gestures. I suspect it’s AI-written at least in part.