December 9, 2025 • 37 mins
Hour 2 of A&G features...
- Lacking in remedial math skills & bloody Christmas movies
- Education tech
- Paramount/Warner Bros/Netflix bid & the movie industry
- How people spent their time
Stupid Should Hurt: https://www.armstrongandgetty.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong, Joe Getty.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Armstrong and Jetty and now he Armstrong and Getty listen
to this, guys.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
The Louver just announced that hundreds of Egyptian books were
damaged in a recent water leak.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Egyptians like, well, they would have been fine if you
just left him here in the desert.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I'm taking right now.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
The director of the Lover is like, I'm ready for
twenty twenty five to be oh ber Okay.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
That was another black eye for one of the world's
most famous museums. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
I was watching I think it was ABC News last
night and they mentioned that a bunch of the books
got wet. But the museum has said none of the
books were damaged.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
I know, I heard that's one of the thought. But
wet a lot and they were books from the nineteenth century,
So one hundred and fifty year old books got wet
and that's nothing.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Okay, whatever, nice pre very French thing to say. Huh oh,
hey just dawned on me. What you're so excited about
hearing about how Americans spend their time.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yes, yes, that's what I want to know. We will
get to that in a bit.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
I also want to get to the piece entitled we
gave students laptops and took away their brains. But before
we get there, wanted to touch on do you remember
the University of San Diego or University California at San
Diego put out a report that they have to have
(01:42):
remedial math for lots and lots of their enrolled students.
You're at a university, you're in theory, talented enough, elite
enough to get into a UC school, but need a
remedial math class.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Right right?
Speaker 1 (01:58):
And I came across commentary on this, and I've been
holding on to it and edited the rest of it.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
But let's see this.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
First one is the fabulous Alicia Finley, and she mentions
that kids learn how to add fractions and around numbers
in elementary school, but many students that you see San
Diego can't do it. Roughly one in eight freshmen lack
rudimentary high school math skills, and it gets worse. Students
who've been placed in the remedial high school math class
(02:27):
in twenty twenty three had roughly fifth grade level abilities.
Only about forty percent could correctly round the number blankety
blank to the nearest one hundred, which is a third
grade skill.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
And because so many incoming students were numerically illiterate, the
University editor amedial class for middle and elementary school math.
Elementary school math. Yeah, I remember the numbers, the number
of people. There were percentages of people that like couldn't
do first grade or second grade third grade math, right right.
And here's one more shocking thing that I hadn't remembered. Remarkably,
(03:01):
among students placed into that math course, ninety four percent
had completed an advanced math class in high school pre
calculus or stats and received an average of A minus
in their math courses.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Okay, so this is a ability to hang on to
information problem?
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Then mmmm, maybe maybe are you assuming those A minuses
were legitimate?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
If so, oh ho ho ho, I'm gonna out ho.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Ho Santa Claus Anyway, So Alasta asks, is this an
indictment A of the University of California's admissions D public
K through twelve schools, c US News and World Reports,
college rankings, or D all of the above.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
If you chose D, you're correct, Yeah, just thinking you
see San Diego could say, what are we supposed to do?
We took in a whole bunch of straight A students
from high school.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
If we took in only Asians, you guys would yell
at us anyway, So let's start with a The University
of California uc BORDER regents in twenty twenty scrapped standardized
tests as an admission requirement under the guise of promoting equity.
Twenty twenty, which will go down in infamy as perhaps
the crappiest year in American history, no doubt, between the
(04:19):
utterly ridiculous race riots and the Marxist Black Lives Matter
and pushing the postmodern critical theory stuff and the unforgivable,
unconstitutional COVID shutdowns anyway, so they're trying to promote equity.
The likely real reason blacks and Hispanics score lower on
average on the SAT, and requiring applicants to submit standardized
test course could make it easier for critics to prove
(04:42):
the universities providing racial preferences, which were prohibited in cal
Unicornia in nineteen ninety six by a voter referendum referendum,
and the math Proficiency analysis suggests that's what they're doing.
On the sly they're trying desperately to figure out how
to get equity going anyway, So in an effort to
boost of and overall enrollment and thus rake in more
government student aid, you see San Diego increasingly admitted huge
(05:06):
numbers of unqualified applicants from low income high schools because
they get more government money. But the report says, in
order to holistically admit a diverse and representative class, we
need to admit students who may be at a higher
risk of not succeeding.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
And they do.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
They drop out in droves anyway, and so they put
more of an emphasis on GPA. But those don't reliably
reflect student preparation because grades are inflated and they're just
they're a bad measure. So let's get on to B
because the colleges are utterly corrupt. B elementary school education
or you know, not advanced education. The report says students
(05:44):
quote have been underserved by their prior schooling, no kidding.
Only twenty two percent of twelfth graders scored proficient in
math on the National Assessment of Education Progress last year,
the lowest on record. Once do you see San Diego
remedial math teacher observed that some teachers would teach life
skills and school math class just using calculators, the internet
and prescribed formulas. Classes don't teach mathematical thinking. Blah blah blah. Meanwhile,
(06:09):
some of the profession's best teachers, highly capable women who'd
entered the profession when their sex had fewer career options,
have been retiring. Many of the replacements are lacking teacher credential.
Programs typically require only a C plus average and undergrad
with a pervasive grade inflation in colleges, Many young teachers
made themselves have only fifth grade math skills.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
You know I have because I got a one kid
in high school and a kid in junior high. I
have a lot of questions about what we teach kids
what I was taught. Is it necessary for everyone? Is
this stuff that's going to benefit me in life? I
have a lot of questions that. The problem, though, is
a lot of the stuff they've done away with has
(06:51):
been replaced by stuff that's even way further down the
road of not necessary our education to help prepare you
for life.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
You know, all kinds of wokeism and hating your country,
and I know it's horrible. So one more fact that
the college board has dumbed down the SAT in an
effort to encourage more students to take it.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
It's now two hours instead of three.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Students get more time to complete each question gone or
long reading passages that might strain TikTok attention spans. Analogies
were eliminated in twenty oh five after academics claim they
were culturally biased in all sorts.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Of different stuff. Wow.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
And then I wanted to get to this from Ben Sass,
who is writing about the same situation. And he goes
through the facts that college students were struggling with questions
such as seven plus two equals six plus blank, or
Sarah had nine pennies and nine dimes?
Speaker 2 (07:50):
How many coins did she have? In all? Wow? Good lord.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
He starts off by crediting the University California, San Diego
work group for ten.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
In the truth. Yeah, good point, good point.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
He said, sure, that's a low bar, but it's one
that many other universities have lacked courage to clear.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Or high schools all kinds of schools aren't honest at
all about the real education level of their students.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
And then he says, and I love Ben Sas, This
mass failure is the result of three intersecting crises. The
first and furthest downstream crisis is that a highly selective
college could admit so many young adults who are so
tragically unprepared. And then he says, you've got to reverse
the trend of dumbing down admissions to get certain numbers.
(08:36):
They need to reverse course, ignore the screaming DEI dead enders,
and reinstate the s A t act or whatever requirements
to enable quality control blabblah. Second, for already admitted students,
further assessment should be required to ensure that those who
need remedial courses receive them. Okay, let's admit we have
a problem. Then he says the other two root crises
are scarier. The UCSD rev likely means the US has
(09:01):
millions of recent high school grads and twenty somethings who
were unprepared to navigate modern work in life and lack
the logical problem solving schools, which with algebra has traditionally
armed adolescence.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
But it gets worse.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
The students admitted a UCSD were on average receiving A
grades in high school math classes that supposedly built multiple
years beyond algebraic and arithmetic foundations. This was a fraud.
High schools have clearly been inflating grades beyond what many
students earned or observed. Let's keep in mind that anybody
who suggests any significant reform will be beaten to death
(09:38):
politically by the teachers' unions.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
I had this own experience in a public school with
my own kid, with a really really really nice teacher,
but just absolutely exaggerated one of my kid's abilities in
a certain class. And then when I became aware that
not even close to the kind of grade you're giving them,
it was just so disappointing to me. What are we
(10:00):
doing here? What are we doing here? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Yeah, And then you've got this really interesting think piece
in the Free Press. We gave students laptops and took
away their brains. Decades of data show a clear pattern.
The more schools digitize, the worst students perform.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
I'm kind of interested in that one, though. Why Why
is that? Is there something about typing into a computer?
I hate type into a computer more than writing personally.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Yeah, it's well, yeah, there are some answers, some explanations.
There's also a fair amount of disagreement, As you might
guess on this type of topic, but we can get
to that in a couple of minutes after a word
from our friends at web Route. I remember when we
gave my mom her first iPad and what a wonderful
thing that was for her. She had Parkinson's and wasn't
(10:49):
super mobile, but she had access to the world.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Again. It was great.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
But the folks at web route point out that when
mom or Grandma gets that the access all the time
to the Internet, they make the mistake like clicking on
one of those your packages delayed links.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
That's why webroot.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Total protection is so important to blocks risks before Mom
can even click.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Of course, you don't even have to make a mistake
for people to be able to hack into in the
modern world, and that's why having the VPN and the
password manager and all that stuff up to ten people
is really amazing. And then webroote out there searching the
dark web to see if your information has already been
snatched up so you can know, hey, I need to
change all my passwords.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Yeah, and I'd like bad Sana to beat these people
down with his Yule log. But cybercrime spike during the holidays.
Protecting yourself is easy, though, Webroot gives you all sorts
of great protections.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Don't wait.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Protect your devices, your privacy and identity this holiday season
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live a better digital life with webroot. What's that gruesome
Christmas movie? My kids are always wanting to watch Violent Night?
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Is that what it was? God, I'm dang it. That
thing is bloody.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Oh really you gave in? Oh that's funny. I just
I Well, but neither one of us is into bloody movies.
I don't started to watch it, and I said, well,
I'm not watching this. I'm not watching this.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Yeah, it's a good title. That is a pretty good title.
I think maybe that drove the whole project. A great title. Jim, Right,
let's make something lots. We need to build a movie
around that.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
All right, So some of our favorite researchers say, uh, yeah,
the digital thing has been terrible for kids in learning.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
We can touch on that and then move on to
other fair I love the fact that you've got a
breakdown of how we all spend our time.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Oh boy, well you know what, Yeah, I'm sorry, it's
not oh boy, it is Elvis Costello. One of my
favorite songs of his is entitled A Deep, dark, Truthful Mirror.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
That's a.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
That's a hell of a phrase. It's it's the moment
when you really see yourself.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Wow. Too much effing perspective. Yeah, yeah, but it's liberating
once you get past the vomiting. It's just liberating to
see the truth. Well, we'll see if we all feel
liberated or not together. I may not get past the vomiting. Yeah, exactly.
That's all coming up. Stay here. There will be a
(13:18):
notable first this year, the Globes will hand out an
award for best Podcast. They'll be broadcast on January eleventh. Yeah,
Golden Globes added the best Podcast to their categories, which
seems like a good idea. I mentioned the other day.
Apple Music's podcast of the Year was The Rest of History.
Rest is History, which I absolutely love, featuring Tom Holland,
(13:42):
who we're going to feature a little bit later talking
about the difference between Islam and Christianity.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Point of order, there are no other podcasts. This is
the only one. So yeah, I can't wait for that discussion.
I'm fascinated by it. Back to the topic of we
gave students aptops and took away their brains and a
great deal has been written by some fabulous researcher, some
of our favorite people, from Gene Twenge to Jonathan Hate,
(14:09):
Greg Lukianov, Abigail Schreier about all sorts of you know,
digital and other trends that are hurting kids. But this
this writer, Jared Horvath, he's talking about.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
There it is.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Today kids are spending more hours than ever in classrooms,
yet they're developing more slowly. The culprit lies in the
meteoric rise of educational technology, and he says to essentially,
you older people, you're picturing a few dusty desktops in
the library, or maybe a weekly typing lesson or whatever.
That image is now dangerously outdated, the idea that the
(14:48):
tech is peripheral to education or just a tool. Over
the past two decades, educational technology has exploded from a
niche supplement into a four hundred billion dollar juggernaut, woven
into nearly every quarter of schooling. More than half of
all students more than half now use a computer at
school for one to four hours each day, and a
(15:08):
full quarter spend more than four hours on screens during
the typical seven hour school day.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
I'm surprised it's that low. Actually, I'm surprised it's not
way more than half that are doing it. One more
sentence for you to chew on.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Researchers estimate that less than half of this time is
actually spent learning, with students drifting off task up to
thirty eight minutes of every hour when on.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Classroom devices on average.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
So that hour looking at a screen, only about twenty
two minutes of it is actually on task.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Okay, let me point out the obvious. Then I will
get some credit for a clever thought, even though it's
the obvious. Yes, this rise in technology or using computers
in school obviously coincided with these stairm at phones and
everything like that at the same time and our attention
span going away. So you know what caused what My
(16:06):
attention span is a hell of a lot shorter.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Too, right, Yeah, interrelated causes and multiple causes. Yeah, absolutely true, absolutely, yeah, No,
that's a good though, that's not that.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Give me a cookie. Golf clap. But listen, here you
go here, you're looking for a bad guy.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Oh, you got the teachers you need, certainly, But driving
this digital surge or global tech firms that have perfected
the art of harvesting data and maximizing screen time?
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Can I start with Google? And how horrifying it was
to me to find out because I had avoided Google
my whole life. I didn't have Gmail, I didn't have
anything to do with Google. I had the way they
take your information. Your kid goes to school, you have
to fully bury your soul to the world of Google
because everything is Google classroom at that point. And you
got to get on board with all of it. And
(16:55):
I thought, what how did Google manage to get into schools?
To the point that it's just de facto that's the
way we do things right right, well, perfect time to
say this. Many educational platforms openly track behavior, build long
term profiles, and use the same engagement driven designs that
keep adults endlessly scrolling on TikTok or Instagram. The business
(17:17):
model is to hook kids early and create customers for life.
Not to mention that you're constantly fighting the freaking computer,
just like you are at work with an update or
password doesn't work, or this or that, the sin of
stuff that doesn't sidetrack you. If you got a paper
in pen Boy.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
In this graph of standardized test scores falling with screen time,
it is an almost perfect correlation.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Course of course, Yeah, it's unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
I swear I want to win an enormous lottery prize
and I am, well, I'll buy a big yacht, a
really nice yacht. But then I want to start fundamental schools.
I know they exist out there, but I want to
grow that movement. I think it's incredibly important.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Man, if kids showed up with no attention span with
that work, I wonder we'd beat it into them metaphorically
speaking of course, Wow, it's that your slogan. Gently over time,
Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
Paramount has now launched a one hundred eight billion dollar
hostile bid of Warner Brothers. It comes just days after
Warner Brothers agreed to an eighty two billion dollar bid
from Netflix. President Trump signaling his concern about the potential
Netflix deal. His son in law, Jared Kushner's private equity
firm is now helping to finance Paramounts new hostile takeover bid.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Take our bid, or I'll punch you in the face.
That's a hostile takeover bid. Hostile bid. You'd like drop
paratroopers on the roof of the building and they repel
down the side. Shoot your way in. That's right, because
I heard one business person say on CNBC today, one
hundred and eight billion dollar offers not that hostile. But
what it means to the movie business or TV business
(18:57):
or whatever. I haven't wrapped my head around. People keep
saying it's gonna be a really, really big deal. Here's
David Ellison, the CEO of Paramount.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
It's bad for the consumer, it's bad for the creative community.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
This deal, if it is allowed to move forward, will
actually be the death of the theatrical movie business in Hollywood.
We're sitting here today trying to save it.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Why Why would that be the death of movies? I'm
very uncomfortable with. And Trump has been super into this. Yeah,
let me decide whether we like this merger or not.
Just let it play out. You know, there will be
creativity tomorrow, no matter what happens. There will be people
making films tomorrow, no matter what happens.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Yeah, we all we learned that from Netflix and everything,
And there's lots of really talented people out there. You
give them a little bit of money, they get their
friends to act in a camera, and they can put
together a freaking fantastic movie. Yeah, play this that next
clip on there, Michael, This is Kara Swisher on the
CNN the lead explaining that threat from Paramount that'll be
(20:01):
the death of the theatrical movie business. Uh.
Speaker 5 (20:04):
I think that theatrical movie experience has been dying, and it
has nothing to do with Netflix. It has to do
with twelve dollars popcorn, bad experiences, bad screens, not giving
customers what they want. I mean, I think it's easy
to blame a company like Netflix. And by the way,
what's fascinating here is in any other kind of situation,
the villain would be Netflix because of the way it's
changed the economics of Hollywood.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
But that has a lot to do with how.
Speaker 5 (20:27):
Hollywood has behaved over the past twenty years, ignoring all
these changes. Now consumers seem to like Netflix, right, or
else it wouldn't be doing so well. And the question is,
how do we change the economics of Hollywood to make
theatrical make money or make it be promising.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Yeah, I'm with her. I mean, we all know plenty
of people who are just obsessed with some certain show
on Netflix. I have no freaking interest whatsoever in the
latest GD Marvel movie that Hollywood pushes on this Yeah, yeah,
I'm not made sunny compelling.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
I don't go to theaters, mostly because of my fellow
human beings, not the price of the popcorn. But she
did make some really good points in there, and I
became aware a number of years ago that Hollywood has
has hollowed out the middle budget film. It's either super
high budget superhero extravaganzas or very small art films. And
(21:25):
so I've been kind of put off by the movie
business anyway.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
So I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
I just I'm not gonna stay up tonight worried that
it will change. It's fine.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
It's always interesting that he's using the language theatrical movie business,
so that particularly means seeing it in a movie theater.
There's all kinds of reasons why that's never gonna come back,
including my eighty inch television that is four K that's what?
Speaker 1 (21:50):
How was that a significant part of American life? Like
exactly a century right, I mean from the nineteen twenties
or so teams maybe through now and now something different.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
About it. I'll have to ask my dad. I don't
know if he probably saw three movies in his life
before he was twenty years old in a lot of America.
So it had like a fifty year run of being
a big deal, which is the way a lot of
stuff works. Whatever. Got a couple of breaking news things
for you will tell you about right after this. I
don't know how many interceptions you're expecting out of a
(22:26):
quarterback hurt for the Eagles last night. I don't know
what the number was. He ended up with four.
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Speaker 2 (23:27):
It's good to be right. Okay, here's two of your
breaking news stories for you, and then they're gonna break
because Joe is gonna tell us how we're spending our
time based on data. And I can't wait to hear
this hard data. First of all, a federal judge has
ordered the release of voluminous records in the Galaine Maxwell case.
(23:49):
Oh whatever, all right, we'll see if there's anything there.
Then anyway, they're gonna come out. Those are gonna come out.
I don't know if that is the EPPS lists using
my finger quotes that people are talking about, or these
are different records, but anyway, that's gonna come out. And
I'm really interested in this story. Some people are upset
(24:10):
about this. I'm not smart enough to really understand it.
But President Trump announced yesterday that he had told I
have informed President Gy of China that the United States
will allow Nvidia to ship its h two hundred products,
that's its very best AI chips to approved customers in
China and other countries. And at least one of my
(24:31):
favorite thinkers said, this is a really big deal. It's
essentially a reversal of the US export control policy on
advanced chips, possibly decisive in the AI race. China has
more power engineers in the entire edge layer, so by
giving this up the best chips, we increase the odds
that the world will be running on China's AI. Whether
(24:51):
that's true or not, I don't know, but it sounds
very scary.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
I haven't heard, excuse me, anybody dispute that well. And
Trump said, yeah, we'll let you sell to the Chinese
these incredibly advanced chips if you cut us in for
twenty five percent, right, whatever that means. So the government
is now a twenty five percent partner in that particular
private industry venture. That's one of several of that sort
(25:15):
of relationship that's been forced. I don't even know what
that is. I mean, if socialism is the people control
the means of production, we're certainly moving that direction.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
The idea of China having access to the very best
AI chips just on its face sounds horrible to me.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Well anymore grade that for a stake? What's going on here?
National security wise? If they cut us in for thirty
five percent, would we send like just a fleet of
F thirty.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Five's to China? Good? Good question? Where's it end?
Speaker 1 (25:47):
I do not get this Trump policy at all, completely mystified, troubling.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Okay, so how we're spending our time? Can't wait to
hear this, among other things on the waist, to hear
Gavin Newson's favorability rating in California way up since he
became the face of the resistance. We can talk about
that later. There will be.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Vomiting, Okay, anything that improves his standing makes me sick.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Anyway.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
So I'm looking at a graph. It's an animated graph.
It moves as the years.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Those are so cool.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
I love them as the years go by. The bar
graph changes. You're not going to see that, although we've
posted it at Armstrong in getty dot com. I retweeted it.
If you follow us on x formerly known as Twitter,
I will there are a lot of numbers here. I
will attempt to help make sense of them. It's better
to see it. But people spent their time from nineteen
(26:47):
thirty through twenty twenty four, and the punchline being, of course,
and we wonder why society's in decline. But in nineteen
thirty two, family and school were virtually tied at twenty
two percent, and chain then you had friends at nineteen percent,
with neighbors eleven point three percent, church, ten percent, bars, restaurants,
(27:09):
et cetera, eight percent, college. You know, down line. Obviously
online was zero percent. Very few people online in nineteen
thirty two. They just didn't enjoy it as much back then. Okay,
so let's just go ahead and jump like ten years. Oh,
let's see, let me silence there there we go. Okay,
So nineteen forty two, you still have family and friends
(27:35):
virtually tied. School has fallen back a tiny bit. Neighbors
is right there where he always was in a fourth place.
Church has declined a little bit.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Good.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Time with coworkers, by the way, has gone up slightly.
It's now around five percent.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
How much time on line in nineteen forty two still zero, Jack,
an excellent incisive question.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Let's go ahead and roll up. Oh, I see people
category switching places. There we are in nineteen fifty two.
Friends is now surpassed family by about three percent. School
is still big, bars, restaurants, and entertainment is now significantly
higher than it was.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Wowly from the thirties to the fifties. Hanging out with
the bar at the bars with the friends, family dropping
a little bit interesting, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Bar, but you know it's bars, restaurants, etc. But it's
definitely you're out more. Neighbors has fallen back a little bit.
Coworkers now has gone from four percent way up to
seven percent. It's almost doubled how much time we spend,
and church continues to decline a little bit. Let's jump
to nineteen sixty two, and we're getting.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Close to the hippies. Yeah, Dan, not quite there yet.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Friends is now clearly outstripped family by six or seven percent.
School has fallen slightly, Entertainment is now grown. Time with
coworkers is now almost at ten percent. It's now doubled
from the original Neighbors is in decline, and church continues
to fall.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Part of it is not well, it's all cultural, I guess,
but it's not like attitudes. I mean, your coworker was
your mule in nineteen oh two's.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Really not that great a conversationalists, right right, Okay, And
now I'm going to skip ahead a few decades as various.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
You're so stubborn, gym, I would say various.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
You know, forces in our lives are jockeying for a position.
Nineteen ninety two, we're definitely spending the most time with
our friends.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Coworkers and bars, restaurants, et cetera. Have both pasted family.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Church has continued to decline only slightly from the sixties
to the nineties, but much more time at work and
much more time out being entertained, which is interesting. But
the punchline is coming up, and some of you are
ahead of us. We're gonna pause right at two thousand
and two, okay, because there's about to be a gigantic change.
(30:07):
Online has gone from not to about six and a
half percent of our time online, even.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Though already by two thousand and two, probably at work mostly. Yeah,
I'm gonna backup just a little bit.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Yeah, online four percent in two thousand and then six
and three quarters percent in two thousand and two, which
is a significant change, But most of our time is
still with friends twenty seven percent, and coworkers and then
out getting entertained. Now, let's introduce the smartphone, folks. I'm
just going to go to twenty twelve, ten years from then.
(30:42):
Online is now number one. It's gone from six seven
percent to twenty six percent, surpassing friends. Coworkers is still
in third, bars and restaurants ten percent, and then you
get to family and school and church continues to decline slightly.
Online went from a non factor to how most people
(31:05):
spent most of their time in the span of a decade.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
That's twenty twelve.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Let's go ahead up to twenty twenty four, ladies and gentlemen,
I give you the modern world online sixty one percent
of their time. Wow, two thirds fourteen percent friends, which
had always been number one.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Since like the nineteen late nineteen thirty And I'm only
pretending to listen to my friends so I can get
back to my phone. Or you're sitting with your friends
and you're all staring at your phones together exactly.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
In fact, online is now four and a half times
the number that friends is. Coworkers has declined, Bars and
restaurants has declined steeply, and that includes bowling at least
and whatever else, probably sports games and that sort of
thing too. Family is a tiny fraction what it was.
School has declined significantly, Church has been cut in half
(32:04):
from fifteen years prior. College neighbors practically don't exist. It's
all online. Has anybody got any questions?
Speaker 2 (32:16):
That's it? Well, I have a statement that ain't going
to change.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
It's never changed back, As I always say, it can
change in your life if you decide to do it.
Societally not so much.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Yeah, I'm talking about society. It ain't going to change
for society, it ain't going back, which is amazing. I
mean it's the biggest it's the biggest revolution in what
human beings are probably that's ever happened.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Yeah, as a anthropologist, you've got to look at society.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Sure. As a human I.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Look at society as a collection of individuals, and I'm
i the idea of I'm going to change society is now,
it's no change yourself, change the people you care about.
That's the only thing you, as a human being, should
be worried about. Honestly, the immediately local.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
And as I always say, those of us who remember
the before times are aging right and will be gone
in a blink of an eye, and there won't be
anybody that remembers any of what life was like before online,
which was everything. It was everything, every day, you know,
(33:30):
prior to whatever nineteen ninety eight was not online, every
single thing, And then that gets obliterated, and there won't
but anybody left who remembers what life was.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
On the other hand, on the upside, is everybody's happy.
Oh wait no, actually everybody's miserable. Loneliness is epidemic. Therapists
are printing money, et cetera. You know, interestingly, they don't
have babies, no babies. Google search volume for the following things.
How to meet people has skyrocketed from what is this
(34:05):
millions of people from twenty five million to one hundred million.
From two thousand nine to two hundred and twenty four,
it's quadrupled.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
How to meet people, how to meet new people?
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Similar where to make friends has gone from that looks
like fifteen million to over one hundred million. The Google
search feel lonely has gone from forty five million or
so up to pe during COVID, not surprisingly at around
(34:34):
ninety million. So people are aware of how they feel,
which you think.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
I hope they'll live to be a ripe old age.
I really do, because I I'd like, like, if I
can hang around to them one hundred forty years from now,
I'd love to see where the world is, where things are.
I'm not optimistic, but you know, probably your average sixty
year old through history has been not optimy. Mystic thinks
that you know, things have changed and young people today
(35:03):
and blah blah blah. But this time we're right, this
time we're right.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
Yeah. The uh, the only thing that really shakes up
that thought in my head, that rabbit hole, is that
there will be gigantic, unforeseen, cataclysmic changes.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
That will derail the whole. Uh.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
You know, a b C D E all of a
sudden will be an s or you know, or or
in a completely different or accounting backward like it's a
sobriety test. I can't even do that, sober officer. Uh.
The as for me and mine, I'm I'm absorbing this.
I am going to send this to everybody I care.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
About the drop off in time with family and friends
towards staring at your phone. I mean, what, you know,
what is there to say about that?
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Family, schooling and friends went from sixty one percent of
the time two now I silenced you earlier. Went from
sixty one percent to family, school and friends down to
(36:18):
there is twenty percent.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
Yeah, so I think one of the problems also is
if you tell young people that, I think most of
them would say, yeah, that sounds really boring. Family friends
in school kill me. Now. It's not like they would
look at that and think, Wow, that seems like that
would have.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Been a great age to be alive. Right to be
entertained is not to be nourished. I would say to them,
you're not getting nourishment, and then I would realize they're
not listening.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
They're staring at TikTok. You need to argue with the
human brain. Dopamine hits seem to be pretty popular. We
like our dopamine.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
I've been arguing with my brain since the day I
was born that dopamine hit gets a lot of people
to do a lot of things all day today and
every day. And there are trillions of dollars being made
through it. Yeah no, but they've got your best interests
in mind.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Take their word for it, Sure they do. If you
miss a segment, gets the podcast Armstrong and Getty on
demand
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Armstrong and Getty
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong, Joe Getty.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Armstrong and Jetty and now he Armstrong and Getty listen
to this, guys.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
The Louver just announced that hundreds of Egyptian books were
damaged in a recent water leak.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Egyptians like, well, they would have been fine if you
just left him here in the desert.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I'm taking right now.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
The director of the Lover is like, I'm ready for
twenty twenty five to be oh ber Okay.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
That was another black eye for one of the world's
most famous museums. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
I was watching I think it was ABC News last
night and they mentioned that a bunch of the books
got wet. But the museum has said none of the
books were damaged.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
I know, I heard that's one of the thought. But
wet a lot and they were books from the nineteenth century,
So one hundred and fifty year old books got wet
and that's nothing.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Okay, whatever, nice pre very French thing to say. Huh oh,
hey just dawned on me. What you're so excited about
hearing about how Americans spend their time.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yes, yes, that's what I want to know. We will
get to that in a bit.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
I also want to get to the piece entitled we
gave students laptops and took away their brains. But before
we get there, wanted to touch on do you remember
the University of San Diego or University California at San
Diego put out a report that they have to have
(01:42):
remedial math for lots and lots of their enrolled students.
You're at a university, you're in theory, talented enough, elite
enough to get into a UC school, but need a
remedial math class.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Right right?
Speaker 1 (01:58):
And I came across commentary on this, and I've been
holding on to it and edited the rest of it.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
But let's see this.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
First one is the fabulous Alicia Finley, and she mentions
that kids learn how to add fractions and around numbers
in elementary school, but many students that you see San
Diego can't do it. Roughly one in eight freshmen lack
rudimentary high school math skills, and it gets worse. Students
who've been placed in the remedial high school math class
(02:27):
in twenty twenty three had roughly fifth grade level abilities.
Only about forty percent could correctly round the number blankety
blank to the nearest one hundred, which is a third
grade skill.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
And because so many incoming students were numerically illiterate, the
University editor amedial class for middle and elementary school math.
Elementary school math. Yeah, I remember the numbers, the number
of people. There were percentages of people that like couldn't
do first grade or second grade third grade math, right right.
And here's one more shocking thing that I hadn't remembered. Remarkably,
(03:01):
among students placed into that math course, ninety four percent
had completed an advanced math class in high school pre
calculus or stats and received an average of A minus
in their math courses.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Okay, so this is a ability to hang on to
information problem?
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Then mmmm, maybe maybe are you assuming those A minuses
were legitimate?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
If so, oh ho ho ho, I'm gonna out ho.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Ho Santa Claus Anyway, So Alasta asks, is this an
indictment A of the University of California's admissions D public
K through twelve schools, c US News and World Reports,
college rankings, or D all of the above.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
If you chose D, you're correct, Yeah, just thinking you
see San Diego could say, what are we supposed to do?
We took in a whole bunch of straight A students
from high school.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
If we took in only Asians, you guys would yell
at us anyway, So let's start with a The University
of California uc BORDER regents in twenty twenty scrapped standardized
tests as an admission requirement under the guise of promoting equity.
Twenty twenty, which will go down in infamy as perhaps
the crappiest year in American history, no doubt, between the
(04:19):
utterly ridiculous race riots and the Marxist Black Lives Matter
and pushing the postmodern critical theory stuff and the unforgivable,
unconstitutional COVID shutdowns anyway, so they're trying to promote equity.
The likely real reason blacks and Hispanics score lower on
average on the SAT, and requiring applicants to submit standardized
test course could make it easier for critics to prove
(04:42):
the universities providing racial preferences, which were prohibited in cal
Unicornia in nineteen ninety six by a voter referendum referendum,
and the math Proficiency analysis suggests that's what they're doing.
On the sly they're trying desperately to figure out how
to get equity going anyway, So in an effort to
boost of and overall enrollment and thus rake in more
government student aid, you see San Diego increasingly admitted huge
(05:06):
numbers of unqualified applicants from low income high schools because
they get more government money. But the report says, in
order to holistically admit a diverse and representative class, we
need to admit students who may be at a higher
risk of not succeeding.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
And they do.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
They drop out in droves anyway, and so they put
more of an emphasis on GPA. But those don't reliably
reflect student preparation because grades are inflated and they're just
they're a bad measure. So let's get on to B
because the colleges are utterly corrupt. B elementary school education
or you know, not advanced education. The report says students
(05:44):
quote have been underserved by their prior schooling, no kidding.
Only twenty two percent of twelfth graders scored proficient in
math on the National Assessment of Education Progress last year,
the lowest on record. Once do you see San Diego
remedial math teacher observed that some teachers would teach life
skills and school math class just using calculators, the internet
and prescribed formulas. Classes don't teach mathematical thinking. Blah blah blah. Meanwhile,
(06:09):
some of the profession's best teachers, highly capable women who'd
entered the profession when their sex had fewer career options,
have been retiring. Many of the replacements are lacking teacher credential.
Programs typically require only a C plus average and undergrad
with a pervasive grade inflation in colleges, Many young teachers
made themselves have only fifth grade math skills.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
You know I have because I got a one kid
in high school and a kid in junior high. I
have a lot of questions about what we teach kids
what I was taught. Is it necessary for everyone? Is
this stuff that's going to benefit me in life? I
have a lot of questions that. The problem, though, is
a lot of the stuff they've done away with has
(06:51):
been replaced by stuff that's even way further down the
road of not necessary our education to help prepare you
for life.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
You know, all kinds of wokeism and hating your country,
and I know it's horrible. So one more fact that
the college board has dumbed down the SAT in an
effort to encourage more students to take it.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
It's now two hours instead of three.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Students get more time to complete each question gone or
long reading passages that might strain TikTok attention spans. Analogies
were eliminated in twenty oh five after academics claim they
were culturally biased in all sorts.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Of different stuff. Wow.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
And then I wanted to get to this from Ben Sass,
who is writing about the same situation. And he goes
through the facts that college students were struggling with questions
such as seven plus two equals six plus blank, or
Sarah had nine pennies and nine dimes?
Speaker 2 (07:50):
How many coins did she have? In all? Wow? Good lord.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
He starts off by crediting the University California, San Diego
work group for ten.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
In the truth. Yeah, good point, good point.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
He said, sure, that's a low bar, but it's one
that many other universities have lacked courage to clear.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Or high schools all kinds of schools aren't honest at
all about the real education level of their students.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
And then he says, and I love Ben Sas, This
mass failure is the result of three intersecting crises. The
first and furthest downstream crisis is that a highly selective
college could admit so many young adults who are so
tragically unprepared. And then he says, you've got to reverse
the trend of dumbing down admissions to get certain numbers.
(08:36):
They need to reverse course, ignore the screaming DEI dead enders,
and reinstate the s A t act or whatever requirements
to enable quality control blabblah. Second, for already admitted students,
further assessment should be required to ensure that those who
need remedial courses receive them. Okay, let's admit we have
a problem. Then he says the other two root crises
are scarier. The UCSD rev likely means the US has
(09:01):
millions of recent high school grads and twenty somethings who
were unprepared to navigate modern work in life and lack
the logical problem solving schools, which with algebra has traditionally
armed adolescence.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
But it gets worse.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
The students admitted a UCSD were on average receiving A
grades in high school math classes that supposedly built multiple
years beyond algebraic and arithmetic foundations. This was a fraud.
High schools have clearly been inflating grades beyond what many
students earned or observed. Let's keep in mind that anybody
who suggests any significant reform will be beaten to death
(09:38):
politically by the teachers' unions.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
I had this own experience in a public school with
my own kid, with a really really really nice teacher,
but just absolutely exaggerated one of my kid's abilities in
a certain class. And then when I became aware that
not even close to the kind of grade you're giving them,
it was just so disappointing to me. What are we
(10:00):
doing here? What are we doing here? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Yeah, And then you've got this really interesting think piece
in the Free Press. We gave students laptops and took
away their brains. Decades of data show a clear pattern.
The more schools digitize, the worst students perform.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
I'm kind of interested in that one, though. Why Why
is that? Is there something about typing into a computer?
I hate type into a computer more than writing personally.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Yeah, it's well, yeah, there are some answers, some explanations.
There's also a fair amount of disagreement, As you might
guess on this type of topic, but we can get
to that in a couple of minutes after a word
from our friends at web Route. I remember when we
gave my mom her first iPad and what a wonderful
thing that was for her. She had Parkinson's and wasn't
(10:49):
super mobile, but she had access to the world.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Again. It was great.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
But the folks at web route point out that when
mom or Grandma gets that the access all the time
to the Internet, they make the mistake like clicking on
one of those your packages delayed links.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
That's why webroot.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Total protection is so important to blocks risks before Mom
can even click.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Of course, you don't even have to make a mistake
for people to be able to hack into in the
modern world, and that's why having the VPN and the
password manager and all that stuff up to ten people
is really amazing. And then webroote out there searching the
dark web to see if your information has already been
snatched up so you can know, hey, I need to
change all my passwords.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Yeah, and I'd like bad Sana to beat these people
down with his Yule log. But cybercrime spike during the holidays.
Protecting yourself is easy, though, Webroot gives you all sorts
of great protections.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
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Speaker 1 (11:35):
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Right now you can get sixty percent off for a
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dot com slash armstrong. This software won't last act. Now
live a better digital life with webroot. What's that gruesome
Christmas movie? My kids are always wanting to watch Violent Night?
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Is that what it was? God, I'm dang it. That
thing is bloody.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Oh really you gave in? Oh that's funny. I just
I Well, but neither one of us is into bloody movies.
I don't started to watch it, and I said, well,
I'm not watching this. I'm not watching this.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Yeah, it's a good title. That is a pretty good title.
I think maybe that drove the whole project. A great title. Jim, Right,
let's make something lots. We need to build a movie
around that.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
All right, So some of our favorite researchers say, uh, yeah,
the digital thing has been terrible for kids in learning.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
We can touch on that and then move on to
other fair I love the fact that you've got a
breakdown of how we all spend our time.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Oh boy, well you know what, Yeah, I'm sorry, it's
not oh boy, it is Elvis Costello. One of my
favorite songs of his is entitled A Deep, dark, Truthful Mirror.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
That's a.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
That's a hell of a phrase. It's it's the moment
when you really see yourself.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Wow. Too much effing perspective. Yeah, yeah, but it's liberating
once you get past the vomiting. It's just liberating to
see the truth. Well, we'll see if we all feel
liberated or not together. I may not get past the vomiting. Yeah, exactly.
That's all coming up. Stay here. There will be a
(13:18):
notable first this year, the Globes will hand out an
award for best Podcast. They'll be broadcast on January eleventh. Yeah,
Golden Globes added the best Podcast to their categories, which
seems like a good idea. I mentioned the other day.
Apple Music's podcast of the Year was The Rest of History.
Rest is History, which I absolutely love, featuring Tom Holland,
(13:42):
who we're going to feature a little bit later talking
about the difference between Islam and Christianity.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Point of order, there are no other podcasts. This is
the only one. So yeah, I can't wait for that discussion.
I'm fascinated by it. Back to the topic of we
gave students aptops and took away their brains and a
great deal has been written by some fabulous researcher, some
of our favorite people, from Gene Twenge to Jonathan Hate,
(14:09):
Greg Lukianov, Abigail Schreier about all sorts of you know,
digital and other trends that are hurting kids. But this
this writer, Jared Horvath, he's talking about.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
There it is.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Today kids are spending more hours than ever in classrooms,
yet they're developing more slowly. The culprit lies in the
meteoric rise of educational technology, and he says to essentially,
you older people, you're picturing a few dusty desktops in
the library, or maybe a weekly typing lesson or whatever.
That image is now dangerously outdated, the idea that the
(14:48):
tech is peripheral to education or just a tool. Over
the past two decades, educational technology has exploded from a
niche supplement into a four hundred billion dollar juggernaut, woven
into nearly every quarter of schooling. More than half of
all students more than half now use a computer at
school for one to four hours each day, and a
(15:08):
full quarter spend more than four hours on screens during
the typical seven hour school day.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
I'm surprised it's that low. Actually, I'm surprised it's not
way more than half that are doing it. One more
sentence for you to chew on.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Researchers estimate that less than half of this time is
actually spent learning, with students drifting off task up to
thirty eight minutes of every hour when on.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Classroom devices on average.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
So that hour looking at a screen, only about twenty
two minutes of it is actually on task.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Okay, let me point out the obvious. Then I will
get some credit for a clever thought, even though it's
the obvious. Yes, this rise in technology or using computers
in school obviously coincided with these stairm at phones and
everything like that at the same time and our attention
span going away. So you know what caused what My
(16:06):
attention span is a hell of a lot shorter.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Too, right, Yeah, interrelated causes and multiple causes. Yeah, absolutely true, absolutely, yeah, No,
that's a good though, that's not that.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Give me a cookie. Golf clap. But listen, here you
go here, you're looking for a bad guy.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Oh, you got the teachers you need, certainly, But driving
this digital surge or global tech firms that have perfected
the art of harvesting data and maximizing screen time?
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Can I start with Google? And how horrifying it was
to me to find out because I had avoided Google
my whole life. I didn't have Gmail, I didn't have
anything to do with Google. I had the way they
take your information. Your kid goes to school, you have
to fully bury your soul to the world of Google
because everything is Google classroom at that point. And you
got to get on board with all of it. And
(16:55):
I thought, what how did Google manage to get into schools?
To the point that it's just de facto that's the
way we do things right right, well, perfect time to
say this. Many educational platforms openly track behavior, build long
term profiles, and use the same engagement driven designs that
keep adults endlessly scrolling on TikTok or Instagram. The business
(17:17):
model is to hook kids early and create customers for life.
Not to mention that you're constantly fighting the freaking computer,
just like you are at work with an update or
password doesn't work, or this or that, the sin of
stuff that doesn't sidetrack you. If you got a paper
in pen Boy.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
In this graph of standardized test scores falling with screen time,
it is an almost perfect correlation.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Course of course, Yeah, it's unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
I swear I want to win an enormous lottery prize
and I am, well, I'll buy a big yacht, a
really nice yacht. But then I want to start fundamental schools.
I know they exist out there, but I want to
grow that movement. I think it's incredibly important.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Man, if kids showed up with no attention span with
that work, I wonder we'd beat it into them metaphorically
speaking of course, Wow, it's that your slogan. Gently over time,
Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
Paramount has now launched a one hundred eight billion dollar
hostile bid of Warner Brothers. It comes just days after
Warner Brothers agreed to an eighty two billion dollar bid
from Netflix. President Trump signaling his concern about the potential
Netflix deal. His son in law, Jared Kushner's private equity
firm is now helping to finance Paramounts new hostile takeover bid.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Take our bid, or I'll punch you in the face.
That's a hostile takeover bid. Hostile bid. You'd like drop
paratroopers on the roof of the building and they repel
down the side. Shoot your way in. That's right, because
I heard one business person say on CNBC today, one
hundred and eight billion dollar offers not that hostile. But
what it means to the movie business or TV business
(18:57):
or whatever. I haven't wrapped my head around. People keep
saying it's gonna be a really, really big deal. Here's
David Ellison, the CEO of Paramount.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
It's bad for the consumer, it's bad for the creative community.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
This deal, if it is allowed to move forward, will
actually be the death of the theatrical movie business in Hollywood.
We're sitting here today trying to save it.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Why Why would that be the death of movies? I'm
very uncomfortable with. And Trump has been super into this. Yeah,
let me decide whether we like this merger or not.
Just let it play out. You know, there will be
creativity tomorrow, no matter what happens. There will be people
making films tomorrow, no matter what happens.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Yeah, we all we learned that from Netflix and everything,
And there's lots of really talented people out there. You
give them a little bit of money, they get their
friends to act in a camera, and they can put
together a freaking fantastic movie. Yeah, play this that next
clip on there, Michael, This is Kara Swisher on the
CNN the lead explaining that threat from Paramount that'll be
(20:01):
the death of the theatrical movie business. Uh.
Speaker 5 (20:04):
I think that theatrical movie experience has been dying, and it
has nothing to do with Netflix. It has to do
with twelve dollars popcorn, bad experiences, bad screens, not giving
customers what they want. I mean, I think it's easy
to blame a company like Netflix. And by the way,
what's fascinating here is in any other kind of situation,
the villain would be Netflix because of the way it's
changed the economics of Hollywood.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
But that has a lot to do with how.
Speaker 5 (20:27):
Hollywood has behaved over the past twenty years, ignoring all
these changes. Now consumers seem to like Netflix, right, or
else it wouldn't be doing so well. And the question is,
how do we change the economics of Hollywood to make
theatrical make money or make it be promising.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Yeah, I'm with her. I mean, we all know plenty
of people who are just obsessed with some certain show
on Netflix. I have no freaking interest whatsoever in the
latest GD Marvel movie that Hollywood pushes on this Yeah, yeah,
I'm not made sunny compelling.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
I don't go to theaters, mostly because of my fellow
human beings, not the price of the popcorn. But she
did make some really good points in there, and I
became aware a number of years ago that Hollywood has
has hollowed out the middle budget film. It's either super
high budget superhero extravaganzas or very small art films. And
(21:25):
so I've been kind of put off by the movie
business anyway.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
So I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
I just I'm not gonna stay up tonight worried that
it will change. It's fine.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
It's always interesting that he's using the language theatrical movie business,
so that particularly means seeing it in a movie theater.
There's all kinds of reasons why that's never gonna come back,
including my eighty inch television that is four K that's what?
Speaker 1 (21:50):
How was that a significant part of American life? Like
exactly a century right, I mean from the nineteen twenties
or so teams maybe through now and now something different.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
About it. I'll have to ask my dad. I don't
know if he probably saw three movies in his life
before he was twenty years old in a lot of America.
So it had like a fifty year run of being
a big deal, which is the way a lot of
stuff works. Whatever. Got a couple of breaking news things
for you will tell you about right after this. I
don't know how many interceptions you're expecting out of a
(22:26):
quarterback hurt for the Eagles last night. I don't know
what the number was. He ended up with four.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Good Lord Jalen Hurts his team that said his name anyway.
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Speaker 2 (23:27):
It's good to be right. Okay, here's two of your
breaking news stories for you, and then they're gonna break
because Joe is gonna tell us how we're spending our
time based on data. And I can't wait to hear
this hard data. First of all, a federal judge has
ordered the release of voluminous records in the Galaine Maxwell case.
(23:49):
Oh whatever, all right, we'll see if there's anything there.
Then anyway, they're gonna come out. Those are gonna come out.
I don't know if that is the EPPS lists using
my finger quotes that people are talking about, or these
are different records, but anyway, that's gonna come out. And
I'm really interested in this story. Some people are upset
(24:10):
about this. I'm not smart enough to really understand it.
But President Trump announced yesterday that he had told I
have informed President Gy of China that the United States
will allow Nvidia to ship its h two hundred products,
that's its very best AI chips to approved customers in
China and other countries. And at least one of my
(24:31):
favorite thinkers said, this is a really big deal. It's
essentially a reversal of the US export control policy on
advanced chips, possibly decisive in the AI race. China has
more power engineers in the entire edge layer, so by
giving this up the best chips, we increase the odds
that the world will be running on China's AI. Whether
(24:51):
that's true or not, I don't know, but it sounds
very scary.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
I haven't heard, excuse me, anybody dispute that well. And
Trump said, yeah, we'll let you sell to the Chinese
these incredibly advanced chips if you cut us in for
twenty five percent, right, whatever that means. So the government
is now a twenty five percent partner in that particular
private industry venture. That's one of several of that sort
(25:15):
of relationship that's been forced. I don't even know what
that is. I mean, if socialism is the people control
the means of production, we're certainly moving that direction.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
The idea of China having access to the very best
AI chips just on its face sounds horrible to me.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Well anymore grade that for a stake? What's going on here?
National security wise? If they cut us in for thirty
five percent, would we send like just a fleet of
F thirty.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Five's to China? Good? Good question? Where's it end?
Speaker 1 (25:47):
I do not get this Trump policy at all, completely mystified, troubling.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Okay, so how we're spending our time? Can't wait to
hear this, among other things on the waist, to hear
Gavin Newson's favorability rating in California way up since he
became the face of the resistance. We can talk about
that later. There will be.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Vomiting, Okay, anything that improves his standing makes me sick.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Anyway.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
So I'm looking at a graph. It's an animated graph.
It moves as the years.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Those are so cool.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
I love them as the years go by. The bar
graph changes. You're not going to see that, although we've
posted it at Armstrong in getty dot com. I retweeted it.
If you follow us on x formerly known as Twitter,
I will there are a lot of numbers here. I
will attempt to help make sense of them. It's better
to see it. But people spent their time from nineteen
(26:47):
thirty through twenty twenty four, and the punchline being, of course,
and we wonder why society's in decline. But in nineteen
thirty two, family and school were virtually tied at twenty
two percent, and chain then you had friends at nineteen percent,
with neighbors eleven point three percent, church, ten percent, bars, restaurants,
(27:09):
et cetera, eight percent, college. You know, down line. Obviously
online was zero percent. Very few people online in nineteen
thirty two. They just didn't enjoy it as much back then. Okay,
so let's just go ahead and jump like ten years. Oh,
let's see, let me silence there there we go. Okay,
So nineteen forty two, you still have family and friends
(27:35):
virtually tied. School has fallen back a tiny bit. Neighbors
is right there where he always was in a fourth place.
Church has declined a little bit.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Good.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Time with coworkers, by the way, has gone up slightly.
It's now around five percent.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
How much time on line in nineteen forty two still zero, Jack,
an excellent incisive question.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Let's go ahead and roll up. Oh, I see people
category switching places. There we are in nineteen fifty two.
Friends is now surpassed family by about three percent. School
is still big, bars, restaurants, and entertainment is now significantly
higher than it was.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Wowly from the thirties to the fifties. Hanging out with
the bar at the bars with the friends, family dropping
a little bit interesting, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Bar, but you know it's bars, restaurants, etc. But it's
definitely you're out more. Neighbors has fallen back a little bit.
Coworkers now has gone from four percent way up to
seven percent. It's almost doubled how much time we spend,
and church continues to decline a little bit. Let's jump
to nineteen sixty two, and we're getting.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Close to the hippies. Yeah, Dan, not quite there yet.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Friends is now clearly outstripped family by six or seven percent.
School has fallen slightly, Entertainment is now grown. Time with
coworkers is now almost at ten percent. It's now doubled
from the original Neighbors is in decline, and church continues
to fall.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Part of it is not well, it's all cultural, I guess,
but it's not like attitudes. I mean, your coworker was
your mule in nineteen oh two's.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Really not that great a conversationalists, right right, Okay, And
now I'm going to skip ahead a few decades as various.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
You're so stubborn, gym, I would say various.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
You know, forces in our lives are jockeying for a position.
Nineteen ninety two, we're definitely spending the most time with
our friends.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Coworkers and bars, restaurants, et cetera. Have both pasted family.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Church has continued to decline only slightly from the sixties
to the nineties, but much more time at work and
much more time out being entertained, which is interesting. But
the punchline is coming up, and some of you are
ahead of us. We're gonna pause right at two thousand
and two, okay, because there's about to be a gigantic change.
(30:07):
Online has gone from not to about six and a
half percent of our time online, even.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Though already by two thousand and two, probably at work mostly. Yeah,
I'm gonna backup just a little bit.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Yeah, online four percent in two thousand and then six
and three quarters percent in two thousand and two, which
is a significant change, But most of our time is
still with friends twenty seven percent, and coworkers and then
out getting entertained. Now, let's introduce the smartphone, folks. I'm
just going to go to twenty twelve, ten years from then.
(30:42):
Online is now number one. It's gone from six seven
percent to twenty six percent, surpassing friends. Coworkers is still
in third, bars and restaurants ten percent, and then you
get to family and school and church continues to decline slightly.
Online went from a non factor to how most people
(31:05):
spent most of their time in the span of a decade.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
That's twenty twelve.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Let's go ahead up to twenty twenty four, ladies and gentlemen,
I give you the modern world online sixty one percent
of their time. Wow, two thirds fourteen percent friends, which
had always been number one.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Since like the nineteen late nineteen thirty And I'm only
pretending to listen to my friends so I can get
back to my phone. Or you're sitting with your friends
and you're all staring at your phones together exactly.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
In fact, online is now four and a half times
the number that friends is. Coworkers has declined, Bars and
restaurants has declined steeply, and that includes bowling at least
and whatever else, probably sports games and that sort of
thing too. Family is a tiny fraction what it was.
School has declined significantly, Church has been cut in half
(32:04):
from fifteen years prior. College neighbors practically don't exist. It's
all online. Has anybody got any questions?
Speaker 2 (32:16):
That's it? Well, I have a statement that ain't going
to change.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
It's never changed back, As I always say, it can
change in your life if you decide to do it.
Societally not so much.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Yeah, I'm talking about society. It ain't going to change
for society, it ain't going back, which is amazing. I
mean it's the biggest it's the biggest revolution in what
human beings are probably that's ever happened.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Yeah, as a anthropologist, you've got to look at society.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Sure. As a human I.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Look at society as a collection of individuals, and I'm
i the idea of I'm going to change society is now,
it's no change yourself, change the people you care about.
That's the only thing you, as a human being, should
be worried about. Honestly, the immediately local.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
And as I always say, those of us who remember
the before times are aging right and will be gone
in a blink of an eye, and there won't be
anybody that remembers any of what life was like before online,
which was everything. It was everything, every day, you know,
(33:30):
prior to whatever nineteen ninety eight was not online, every
single thing, And then that gets obliterated, and there won't
but anybody left who remembers what life was.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
On the other hand, on the upside, is everybody's happy.
Oh wait no, actually everybody's miserable. Loneliness is epidemic. Therapists
are printing money, et cetera. You know, interestingly, they don't
have babies, no babies. Google search volume for the following things.
How to meet people has skyrocketed from what is this
(34:05):
millions of people from twenty five million to one hundred million.
From two thousand nine to two hundred and twenty four,
it's quadrupled.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
How to meet people, how to meet new people?
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Similar where to make friends has gone from that looks
like fifteen million to over one hundred million. The Google
search feel lonely has gone from forty five million or
so up to pe during COVID, not surprisingly at around
(34:34):
ninety million. So people are aware of how they feel,
which you think.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
I hope they'll live to be a ripe old age.
I really do, because I I'd like, like, if I
can hang around to them one hundred forty years from now,
I'd love to see where the world is, where things are.
I'm not optimistic, but you know, probably your average sixty
year old through history has been not optimy. Mystic thinks
that you know, things have changed and young people today
(35:03):
and blah blah blah. But this time we're right, this
time we're right.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
Yeah. The uh, the only thing that really shakes up
that thought in my head, that rabbit hole, is that
there will be gigantic, unforeseen, cataclysmic changes.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
That will derail the whole. Uh.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
You know, a b C D E all of a
sudden will be an s or you know, or or
in a completely different or accounting backward like it's a
sobriety test. I can't even do that, sober officer. Uh.
The as for me and mine, I'm I'm absorbing this.
I am going to send this to everybody I care.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
About the drop off in time with family and friends
towards staring at your phone. I mean, what, you know,
what is there to say about that?
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Family, schooling and friends went from sixty one percent of
the time two now I silenced you earlier. Went from
sixty one percent to family, school and friends down to
(36:18):
there is twenty percent.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
Yeah, so I think one of the problems also is
if you tell young people that, I think most of
them would say, yeah, that sounds really boring. Family friends
in school kill me. Now. It's not like they would
look at that and think, Wow, that seems like that
would have.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Been a great age to be alive. Right to be
entertained is not to be nourished. I would say to them,
you're not getting nourishment, and then I would realize they're
not listening.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
They're staring at TikTok. You need to argue with the
human brain. Dopamine hits seem to be pretty popular. We
like our dopamine.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
I've been arguing with my brain since the day I
was born that dopamine hit gets a lot of people
to do a lot of things all day today and
every day. And there are trillions of dollars being made
through it. Yeah no, but they've got your best interests
in mind.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Take their word for it, Sure they do. If you
miss a segment, gets the podcast Armstrong and Getty on
demand
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Armstrong and Getty
Hosts And Creators
Joe Getty
Jack Armstrong
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