Posted on 05/26/2013 3:16:47 PM PDT by upchuck
It [Memorial Day] would seem an ideal time to take a break, but our ability to unplug and relax is under assault. A three-day weekend? We can barely get through three waking hours without working, new research shows. The average smartphone user checks his or her device 150 times per day, or about once every six minutes. Meanwhile, government data from 2011 says 35 percent of us work on weekends, and those who do average five hours of labor, often without compensation—or even a thank you. The other 65 percent were probably too busy to answer surveyors' questions...
"It's like an arms race … everything is an emergency," said Tanya Schevitz, spokeswoman for Reboot, an organization trying help people unplug more often. "We have created an expectation in society that people will respond immediately to everything with no delay. It's unhealthy, and it's unproductive, and we can't keep going on like this."
There's a long list of horribles associated with our new, always-on-digital lives: You are dumber. You are more stressed. You are losing sleep, and more depressed...
"Many of us have an exaggerated sense of our own importance," she said, speaking on the eve Memorial Day weekend. "I can tell you that come Tuesday morning, the Earth will still be revolving, whether you have checked your email or not..."
"I think that a three-day weekend provides a unique opportunity for people to unplug and decompress because there is a tradition of people going away. So the expectation by the boss that you will be reachable at a moment's notice is likely to be less," she said. "I do think there's hope. When people are given achievable steps, they start seeing that there's a difference."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
Drives me nuts. IMO it's the "Look at me!" syndrome.
Count me in with the Freepers on this thread who have a cheap phone for emergencies. I only take the thing with me when I'm away from home, in case of an emergency or a breakdown. Otherwise it's turned off. I've never been a phone yapper, even when I was a teenager, and I do not want to be accessible all the time. Nor do I need to take the internet with me wherever I go.
Must be nice to have a ‘job’ were all you do is talk and answer emails.
Well you won’t hear me complaining about it.
Excellent observation. Really pisses me off. Sheer meanness seems to becoming more prevalent in society. A shame. I see this even here in South Carolina, one of the supposedly genteel states. But I notice it mostly among young kids. Glad I'm old :)
Ignorance can be cured:
There's Memory Alpha,
or you could go to a library / used-bookstore and see if they have sci-fi books,
or there's Amazon & ebay (you're going to want the Original Series).
At the cafe where I often sip not a latte but Earl Grey tea, there is little if any of human interaction between the patrons. Most of the patrons are students, with Macs, some older guys with PCs, and the only talk you’ll hear is among the old guys. The young server behind the counter, a Mexican, when he’s not brewing coffee or making samwitches, is playing with his smartphone.
The problem with smartphones, and sometimes I walk down the street betting myself that I won’t see a young woman without a cellphone before I reach my destination, and I usually win, the problem with cellphones is that people apparently always want to be somewhere else. A few years ago I was sitting at a bar and there were two guys in the corner who came in together. One of them was on the cellphone the whole time, ignoring his companion. And he kept talking about what he would do when he’d get to where his phone conversation partner was. And I thought that he’d be there talking on his cellphone again about what he’d do when he got to wherever that conversation partner was.
People are restless and want to be somewhere else, where nirvana awaits them.
I have one of the latest smarty-pants phones.
I use it to FReep.
I follow Heritage Foundation, FreedomWorks, Bretbart News, Twitchy, TheBlaze, UK Daily Mail, Fox News, etc-etc on the “twit” site.
I have a ping list for breaking email to folks that retrans my stuff to their lists.
More than one way to use “New Media!”
And work?
Yea, I got their phone number ID’ed so I can ignore their calls. It is almost always some slug that didn’t show and they want me to fill in.
.
Some company could make very good money by producing a GOOD dumbphone. Lousy user interfaces in a fat package is absurd.
I won’t have anything to do with fiction never have and never will!
Same thing here. Works fine.
Got that right.
Same here, only have it for emergency use.
Agreed.
On the other hand, the newly elected PA House 95th district rep is complaining that he'll need to surrender his government-owned Blackberry when he ceases to be a City employee:
www.ydr.com/politics/ci_23323521/q-amp-whats-kevin-schreibers-mind-he-prepares
I use my cell for calls & text. 250 minutes talking a month & about 400-500 text a month. Before that I carried a number read out only Pager and had to try and find a pay phone. It gives me a lot more freedom to leave the house for needed errands and some time out and peace of mind when doing so I would not otherwise have. I have no need to check email with it or browse though. For me the cell phone is a blessing.
All I do is make and receive calls; I’ve disabled everything else. Battery charge lasts 6-7 days.
Still true though.
I don’t even know what a Blackberry is or does. Heh...
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