Your smartphone is making you stupid, antisocial and unhealthy
A decade ago, smart devices promised to change the way we think and interact, and they have – but not by making us smarter. Eric Andrew-Gee explores the growing body of scientific evidence that digital distraction is damaging our minds.
[...] The evidence for this goes beyond the carping of Luddites. It's there, cold and hard, in a growing body of research by psychiatrists, neuroscientists, marketers and public health experts. What these people say – and what their research shows – is that smartphones are causing real damage to our minds and relationships, measurable in seconds shaved off the average attention span, reduced brain power, declines in work-life balance and hours less of family time.
They have impaired our ability to remember. They make it more difficult to daydream and think creatively. They make us more vulnerable to anxiety. They make parents ignore their children. And they are addictive, if not in the contested clinical sense then for all intents and purposes.
[...] Smartphones are "literally using the power of billion-dollar computers to figure out what to feed you," Mr. Harris said. That's why you can't look away.
Source: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/your-smartphone-is-making-you-stupid/article37511900/
I am left wondering. Is it the devices? Certain apps? Or ourselves?
Ed's (FP) Note: I seem to remember BBC's More or Less radio program (available online still, I'm sure) addressing the "attention span" claim, and debunking it, mostly by virtue of it being a bit too intangible to measure. However, even if it is only confirmation bias, there's a good chance we've noticed some of the traits mentioned in the article in others, perhaps in ourselves too.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday January 09 2018, @01:26AM (6 children)
Sigh... another AC who likes stupid, antisocial and unhealthy girls for dating/friending. (grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 09 2018, @01:30AM (4 children)
It's a fair swap, about 1/month she wants to ride a bicycle and I loan her one of mine (which I maintain for her).
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday January 09 2018, @01:57AM
Translation: that AC is ethical and will not take advantage of his GF stupidity or antisocial and unhealthy behaviour. (large grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 09 2018, @02:05AM (2 children)
Please don't reply to trolls. SN has too many. They need to starve to death.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 09 2018, @02:40AM
Let's feed the trolls. Feed the trolls to each other. Suck my cock and I'll suck yours. Let's get a little 69 going on. Better yet you bring a friend and I bring a friend and we get some 138 action in here.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday January 09 2018, @01:36PM
Why bother to troll SN? Trolling Breitbart or HuffPo, sure. You'd get all kinds of reaction there. But here?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday January 09 2018, @12:32PM
Hey, you kids: get out of my basement.
--Mom and Dad.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---