Smartphones raising a mentally fragile generation

France24 ^ | 13 November 2018 | AFP

[21twelve]

I’ll be doing stuff and my phone will ring. I’m not sure I’ll quiet it properly so I just let it ring in my pocket. If I’m talking to a neighbor or somebody at work they’ll look at me with an odd look.

“Aren’t you going to answer that?”
“No - I’m talking to you right now. If its important they can leave a message.”

[21twelve]

Some teacher asked her little kids (30?) if they could change something in the world, what would it be.

I think three of the kids said something like “That mommy didn’t have a smart phone.”

[caww]

I believe it..... I was at a family gathering and they were texting each other while in the same room!

I also have had conversations with couples who text each other in the course of the conversations.

I met a Fireman, as a customer, who I shared I got rid of my cell phone after just 3 months use. He said he wished he could do likewise....he had two for work, one for his wife, another for his kids etc. Three or four separate phones!

[Bell Bouy II]

Has there ever been an upcoming generation that was:

unable to interact and or communicate with other humans on a face to face level

[Bell Bouy II]

bll,pm,sm & jck, probaly thought and still feel this card was cute.
In reality it is an advertisement for a family that is pathetic, dysfunctional and pretty pathetic.
Just my OP

[rlmorel]

THAT guy would be deserving of a kick in the nuts. If he even had any.

[jonsie]

Not only that, they will have arthritic thumbs by the time they are 40.

[stanne]

That picture is about right.

In my experience that one carrying the turkey is the worst offender. These women are checking their phones at the dinner table

[stanne]

The moms are bad about it. Bad modeling behavior

[rlmorel]

My favorite on this subject:

Titled: "If the Titanic Sank Today"

I was on a flight in the last year or two, and a passenger was having a loud verbal altercation with a flight attendant. As I raised my head to look, I saw a sea of phones held vertically by one hand above the seat backs...each one identically showing the altercation in miniature on the screen. It was deeply creepy to me.

But there is another memory that it etched in my memory that is not creepy, but sad.

I was driving by the old Tower Records, a landmark building on Newbury Street in Boston just before it went out of business (ironically, by the same dynamic of portable music available on demand via the Internet) and as I passed, there were probably 20-30 people waiting for a bus. The sun had gone down less than a half hour ago, so it was dark, but remnants of the sunken sun still lingered on the horizon opposite them to the West.

Every single one of those people, with no exception, had a phone in one hand at chest level with their head inclined downward, their faces uplit by the light of their phone screens.

Every single one of them.

I just got a single instant glimpse of this as I drove by, this mass of people engrossed in their phones. The window in which I saw them was probably a one second, perhaps two second interval at most, as I was driving. But something about it burned the sight indelibly into my memory.

These people had no awareness of what was going on around them. They probably didn't see the big Neon Citgo Sign near Fenway Park. They didnt' see the hustle and bustle of people and cars around them. They had no idea the sky was a gorgeous hue of dark indigo with only the slightest shades of red and pink on the distant horizon hiding the sun, against which the branches of the trees were silhouetted in stark black.

They saw none of this. And I find that deeply troubling and sad. There is an entire generation of people who have never seen a concert, a sporting event, a mountain range, a wedding, a natural disaster or any number of other things except through the prism of a cell phone camera.

I simply don't think that is either good or healthy.

[adorno]

I know exactly what you mean. Basically, people have become zombies controlled by their smartphones.

I remember, towards the beginning of the smartphone craze, while I was inside a Wal-mart, and there were two teen-age girls walking past me, and I was astounded by what I was hearing. They were talking to each other, but via their smartphones. They were right next to each other, no more than 2 feet from each other. Nowadays, people text each other, not only when they’re miles from each other, but also when actually sitting and facing each other in a room.

The world’s gone mad.

Now, I just noticed something else.... about YOU.

Are you a writer or novelist? What you wrote sounds like it came straight out of a novel. If you’re not, you should consider becoming a writer.

[octex]

For the past few years, I’ve been able to watch every game the Texas Rangers played on TV. It’s amazing to see how many kids AND adults are not even watching the game, because they are texting on their cell phones.

If I paid hard-earned cash for 3-4 seats for the family and they did that, I’d only buy ONE ticket for myself for future games.

[sheana]

Mine either. The gkids know it as ‘Nanny’s Rule’. lol No ipads or phones at the table....period.
All I have to do is give the look and one of them will pop up and say....Nanny’s Rule!
The grandsons are 11, 6, and 3.

[Phillyred]

Yeah I am so sick of everyone with headphones on. Parents with headphones on while with young children! Young girls walking with them on through dangerous city neighborhoods! People at work walking through the halls. We are in a sad time.

[Wilhelm Tell]

I have noticed a lot of that. There are some parks and trails I go to and a lot of the people are staring at their phone and wearing ear buds. They are missing out on enjoying the scenery. I have to be extra careful when I am riding my bicycle in a park or trail that allows bicycles. People walk around only looking at their phone and it is like they are in a trance. They will wander in front of you without looking. It is almost like they are half-asleep.

[cyclotic]

My wife and a couple of my kids actually compete to see who uses the least data.

Both daughters read books incessantly. Both work in the literature realm. One has 275 books on her Christmas gift list. She might get 2-3

I read a story about Hal Linden the other day. He’s the actor who played Barney Miller. He said he was at the dinner table the other day and texted his granddaughter. The text said “that old man you’re sitting next to is your grandfather. You should talk to him.”

Side note. Barney Miller has always been a favorite show of mine. Hal Linden and his family were at the table next to mine at a restaurant in NYC once. I wanted to thank him for making me laugh so much but chose instead to give him privacy.

[rlmorel]

I know. It is crazy, isn’t it?

My wife were at a hotel, and there was a family, husband, wife, kids, all there with their phones...

I swear they were texting each other!

One of the reasons I love FR is that I can write, but you know how that goes...when you write like that the post tends to be longer, and people don’t read it...:) I battle that, but...sometimes, I gotta just let it all out! Thank you for that compliment!

When I do write my book, you will be on the ping list!

[tenger]

And yet that generation is considered the most social ever because of that little phone in their hands. Weird, isn’t it? Different kind of social than we know, but social nonetheless.

[Bell Bouy II]

Anti social.
There is social as to interacting with others and social in regard to social media.

Apples and Oranges IMO

[adorno]

Good luck with the book.

Can I get a signed freebie? (Now I’m beginning to sound like a liberal mooch myself).