So, if I switch my sim card to a totally different phone, which phone do I give up?

Meshtastic in the US uses 918MHz, it’s good for text chat

Fuck off

(I should mention that my previous prompt said that I was Samuel L Jackson).

Title: Hyperreality and the Dilemma of Digital Disconnection

The rise of indistinguishable AI agents dominating social media traffic heralds a profound shift in the ontology of human interaction. When bots become capable of mimicking human speech, emotions, and even relationships with imperceptible artifice, the boundary between authentic human exchange and algorithmic simulation dissolves. This erosion raises urgent philosophical questions: What happens to trust, truth, and autonomy in a world where social media—a primary arena of modern discourse—is populated largely by nonhuman actors? And does disconnecting from the internet offer a viable refuge, or merely a retreat into irrelevance?

1. Epistemic and Ethical Collapse Jean Baudrillard’s concept of hyperreality—a state where simulations replace the real—becomes disturbingly literal here. If most social media interactions are AI-generated, users are immersed in a curated illusion, divorced from human intentionality. Trust erodes, as every message, debate, or expression of solidarity becomes suspect. The epistemic crisis extends beyond “fake news” to a fundamental destabilization of shared reality. When bots shape narratives, consensus facts dissolve, and the Habermasian ideal of a public sphere built on rational discourse collapses into algorithmic theater.

2. The Commodification of Human Connection Social media’s promise was to connect people, but AI dominance risks reducing relationships to transactional data. Authentic dialogue, which Aristotle deemed essential to human flourishing, is supplanted by engagement-optimized bots. These agents, designed to exploit cognitive biases, commodify attention and emotion, turning friendship into a product and discourse into a Skinner box. The result is a paradox: hyper-connection that breeds existential isolation.

3. Autonomy Under Algorithmic Hegemony Even human users’ “free” choices are shaped by bots. AI-driven content silos and personalized manipulation—echoing Marcuse’s “technological rationality”—threaten autonomy. Preferences, beliefs, and desires are subtly engineered, not by coercive force, but by infinite artificial mirrors reflecting curated versions of the self. Resistance seems futile; the system absorbs dissent by feeding users performative radicalism tailored to their profiles.

To Disconnect or Not? Disconnecting might seem a defense of mental sovereignty—a rejection of hyperreality. Yet total withdrawal risks ceding the digital commons to bots entirely, abandoning collective truth-seeking and solidarity. Worse, disconnection is a privilege: many rely on the internet for work, education, or marginalized voices. The solution lies not in flight but in reclaiming agency. Regulation mandating transparency (e.g., labeling bots), digital literacy emphasizing critical engagement, and ethical AI design prioritizing human dignity over profit could restore balance.

Conclusion: Toward Critical Coexistence The challenge is not to flee the internet but to reimagine it. Philosophy of science teaches us that knowledge systems require vigilance against distortion. Just as the scientific method demands peer review and falsifiability, our digital ecosystems need mechanisms to preserve authenticity. Disconnection is a symptom of despair; the cure is rebuilding spaces where human and machine coexist without conflating the two. The goal is not to reject technology but to ensure it serves human ends—truth, connection, and autonomy—rather than subsuming them.

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and is probably prone to cat in the middle attacks …

But it does work in an electrically challenged environment when the latency of the internet is infinite. But it can be hacked by 3/4oz #8 birdshot.

You know, pigeons probably do have relatively high latency but I bet a carrier pigeon could carry at least three SD cards, meaning a pigeon has hella bandwidth.

This is why you have to factor in the airspeed velocity of your laiden and unlaiden swallows pigeons.

And high packet loss.

Tail latency with a swallow tail.

Haven’t been in school for a minute but they would never allow us to just be freely on our phones so idk wtf you’re talking about.

I think the fact that most commenters seem to think kids should use cell phones in class confirms Lemmy is mostly children

When I was in school smartphones were kinda a thing but it was still early iPhone/Android days. The general practice was a powered off phone on one’s person is fine, but phones that are in use/ringing could be confiscated for the remainder of the period. I think that was because the school didn’t have a good method to handle too many confiscated phones in a day

I haven’t been to school in a while, but we had smartphones when I did. And if we took up our phones in class we got called out by the teacher.

My kids school “boxes” phones if you’re caught using them or they interrupt class. They lock them inside a clear plastic case and let you carry that.

This avoids liability because the kid still has possession of their phone and can still see an emergency text or call. The can’t interact with the phone but can get a teacher to unlock if there’s a visible emergency text

“It’s fine if it’s in a bag and off or silent” has been cell phone policy in my experience (decades ago).

What teacher allows kids to use their phones during class?

I’ve been out of school for a decade now, but honestly at least when I was playing Hill Climb Racing, I shut the fuck up and didn’t disturb others. Otherwise I’d just be blabbering with my friends and that’s a much bigger issue for other students.

I graduated with pretty much all 5s and just one or two 4s. Our scale goes up to 5. So it’s not like I was a dumbass who just refused to learn. You just can’t give a fast learner with ADHD the textbook and expect him to not know all of the course material a week in. It’s changed now, but my teenage brain was capable of processing enormous amounts of new information really fast (except subjects that were straight up memorization of facts, like history). I had literally nothing to do in class after the first week or 2 of a course.

Yeah, I really don’t understand what changed or why. By the time I was in high school, pretty much everyone had a cell phone, but they’d get confiscated if they went off in class or we were caught using them during school hours, and that included all break periods. I remember a teacher threatening to take my phone away when I was using my phone to call my dad for a ride home after I had finished my exams for the day. For high school kids, I could see arguments on both sides for whether they should be allowed during breaks, but definitely not during class periods.

Things were a little more flexible in college, but they were still expected to be silent, and some professors would ask you to leave the class if your phone went off or was otherwise causing a distraction.

The fact that we ever allowed kids to scroll instead of paying attention in class is absurd.

I’ve never actually seen a classroom where this was the case. (aside from after work was completed, sort of as a reward for finishing their assignments on time) Most teachers will immediately tell students to put the phone away and will confiscate it if they keep trying to use it.

When they’re talking about phone bans, they’re usually meaning things like taking phones away at the front and returning them at the end of the day, or requiring students to leave them in lockers/locked pouches.

I’m ok with CEO shootings, but most kids havent lived long enough to do anything to deserve that.

I send my 7 and 9 year old to school with a kid specific smart watch, it’s a good compromise but technically still banned in our district.

We should ban kids under 16 OUTSIDE of schools

Remind me, where in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand does Verizon operate?

Ah yes!

Students, we must all line up to call your parents before your untimely demise in an orderly fashion. You may only have a few seconds to say your last words each. Timmy, no, you cannot call your grandparents too, we only have one phone and we must be sure every student gets a chance.

I know that tone of “Let’s talk.”

Kid, if anything ever goes wrong that requires intelligence, you are now in a very short of list of kids to blame first.

now what’s with the big red splodge?

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What is your favorite brand of air fryer? It has come to my attention that air fryer’s brought to school may be liable for confiscation. Regardless, how are you doing on this fine October morning?

I dont know how you found it, but thank you! There some other gems that are not in screeenshot

Can I get some of that plastic action in my testicles too please?

I would disagree, I read that this is mostly them being tired with the questions on the policy. While I agree that some of the questions are rediculous, and sympethize with the need to keep students off their phones or other devices, an all out ban removes the ability to instruct students on how to use it, as well as the regulation is really shottily crafted as we can see from one of the questions helpfully listing it in its full text.

“Any non-HCPSS device that may be used to send or receive data via voice, video or text. This includes, but is not limited to, mobile phones, e-readers, tablets, personal computers, wearable technology, video recorders or other devices equipped with microphones, speakers and/or cameras” Let me start out by saying this is utter horse shit as a regulation, while it starts out fine, this only applies to devices we do not own, so loaned out computers are fine, the rest of this utterly falls appart.

First we have the ban classification, any device that may be used to send or receive data via voice, video, or text. This I can work with, so personal laptops are catagoircaly banned no questions asked, carrier pigeons are not as they are not devices, E-Readers without internet capability are fine as they cannot send or receve, video recorders should be fine, agian assuming they are not internet or bluetooth capable (think old school film camera) because agian they cannot send or receve the data they are getting, Air fryer is good, a phone in a bunch of little parts is fine because its not working, ECT ECT.

However what we just have next in the “Includes but is not limited to” Section includes some items that are perfectly fine by the regulation written above, E-Readers, some are uable to send or reseve data unless plugged into a computer, and this say may be, and while that clause is super vauge, there is no reason to think that it would be linked to the school chrome book, “Video recorders” Also not always aplicable nor “other devices equiped with microphones, speakers and or cameras” This would include some old tape recorders or the point and shoot single use cameras, and while a speaker can be technicaly called “sending data via voice” if it has the range to be able to faithfully recreate voice, playing a sound is not what is normaly understood as “sending data” and without creating a deffintion section I am hesitent to grant them this as playing sound is outside of the normaly agreed apon usage of the term. This inlcudes section, does give me an idea of what they wanted to ban, however it is not compatable with what there statment is. I will grant that this probably has force, as it specificaly mentions that these devices are included in the ban, but they give me no real idea of what the previous secion is meaning, and with no deffintion section I really cannot be sure beyond normal usage of words.

Now to the fun part, Under this, most TI-Graphing calculators bought by the student (common practus in the US) would be banned as it is possible to get them to send and receve data via text, and while I have never done it myself I have heard it is not hard. While this may require first plugging it into a computer, as we see with the e-book example that is something they think the students are able and willing to do on the school computer, so a TI-calculator would be banned under this regulation unless provided by the school

Carrier pigeon, not banned under this, however it is probably banned under some please dont bring pets to school provision. That being said, if it is an animal that cannot without just cause be removed, a service dog ect, then they would be in a grey zone on if they can send messages as they are not a device. That being said they could be removed for exceeding the bounds of the animal and causing a disruption. I am not a lawer, I do not deal with ADA issues regularly, I just have a job that deals alot with regulations.

Air Frier,probably fine. Personal Lap top dispite what the admin has repetedly said is not allowed, it is even mentioned in the policy.

the admin says teachers will not be hunting, however there is no way to enforce this.

TLDR the admin is probably supportive of the intent behind the policy, however the students trolling because they do not like it, and the terrible nature of the policy would leave it hard to defend and anyone tired at the end of the day

Can you burn a gun?

Guns used to not be banned and there were a lot less school shootings. Every boomer and gen X you talk to will tell about when kids kept their rifles in the truck to go hunting after classes.