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posted by FatPhil on Tuesday January 09 2018, @12:44AM   Printer-friendly
from the short-attention-span dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday January 09 2018, @05:05AM (1 child)

    by bzipitidoo (4388) on Tuesday January 09 2018, @05:05AM (#619865) Journal

    1. sexting while underage
    2. texting while driving
    3. recording police
    4. inciting border guards to detain you until you reveal the password
    5. trespassing in search of Pokemon Go creatures

    I guess playing violent video games and pirating music is passe.

    Starting Score:    1  point
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    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   4  
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 09 2018, @06:26AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 09 2018, @06:26AM (#619883)

    3. recording police

    #1 terrorist activity. We can't allow police to be held accountable.