Posted on 09/13/2020 11:38:34 AM PDT by daniel1212
In the U.S., at least three of every four people now own a smartphone. And one estimate suggests that Americans touch their mobile devices more than 2,600 times a day on average. But what do all those pings and buzzes, scrolls and swipes actually add up to?..
Initial data from a $300-million study by the National Institutes of Health, for example, now provides evidence that a child's brain may indeed develop differently with heavy use of digital devices. Those of us whose brains matured before the first iPhone came to market in 2007 may also be vulnerable to mental changes. The more tethered we are to our phones, studies show, the harder it is to think deeply, attentively and conceptually — not to mention remember basic information...
Our smartphones seem to wield their influence even when we're not using them. The mere presence of a smartphone seemed to reduce the quality of conversations in one study. Another study found a link between having a smartphone within sight, even if turned off, with lower scores on tests of short-term memory and problem solving...
Research suggests that smartphones can inhibit people from offering help to strangers on the street, reduce how much we smile at unfamiliar faces in a waiting room...
"People don't talk about or realize that we actually get quite a lot from casual social interactions," said Kostadin Kushlev, a social psychologist..
Perhaps not surprisingly, researchers have also begun to link weakened social skills, including the inability to read emotions or initiate casual conversations, to smartphone use.
Twenge noticed a troubling correlation between when smartphones became popular and when rates of mental health problems among teens and young adults began skyrocketing.
No regrets, better life.
Can't give up internet though. The world's knowledge at my fingertips, and all.
It’s hard for me to imagine someone looking back from the year 2050 and thinking to themselves that smart phones were this really great thing for society and culture.
Freegards
Baby pacifiers 2020. Useful at times, but when they become a device to control/track/locate Americans who are warning of techno-tyranny...well, WATCHOUT.
Siri...locate PGalt. Eliminate PGalt. Send in the drones. There ought to be drones....
Gotta know who you mean by we, first.
I was in an engineering continuing training class with several young, new engineers. We we working point source and radiation decay problems.
They were amazed that that I could work these problems in my head without a calculator.
“. A scientist reverse engineers the calculators and figures out how to do math in his head.”
Calculators don’t do math like we were taught. Besides, most math always needed pencil and paper.
Smartphones are Soma.
I have never done that.
Seriously. My wife berated me for it several times, but I am not about to waste my time or gas to go back for a phone that I rarely ever need.
She is angry because she can’t get me on the phone everywhere.
But in reality, 90% of the time she can get me in my office or at home. It is only in transit between that I am unavailable for the majority of that 10%
I personally would rather not talk on the phone in the car.
You’re way ahead of me in that regard coaster...although TV it’s been 8 years and I never smoked a cigarette in my life (well...a funny one in my college days a couple of times). Good job, 123, 123, 123, 123...(speaking of “religion”)...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWghTVdDGDM
Some beautiful architecture. Just sayin’ TOTALITARIANISM...religious/techno/medical/government sucks azz.
Cell phone gazing posture, seated or standing, is obnoxious. It has to stop.
“They were amazed that that I could work these problems in my head without a calculator.”
Log calcs in your head?
Ever get Smokehouse almonds?
I have a smartphone, but sometimes I wish I had kept my far less expensive flip phone. The only time I really use my smartphone is when I’m driving—checking for congested freeways or seeking an address.
I thought texting would be easier on a smartphone than on a flip phone, but I still find it to be agonizingly slow. I’d much rather use a keyboard to send an e-mail message over a regular computer than to hunt-and-peck on the tiny smartphone computer to compose my message.
A few times. But only if I'm heading into the big city 50 miles away.
About 12 years ago, my wife was complaining to her group of Bible study women, that she never heard from grandkids, grown kids and relatives across the nation/world.
Every woman in that 12 woman group advised her to get a smart phone and start texting her relatives/friends and bury her old flip phone. That every young person texted and usually got back to your texts in a short time.
Several of that group recommended Tracfone for economy and good phone prices. Her old flip phone and mine were Tracfones.
So it was a simple thing to do. Buy a new Tracfone/smartphone for each of us. She spent a few days entering cell #’s or home #’s. I had less than a dozen #’s to enter.
She cautiously got into the texting waters.
She texted our family people first and her church friends and a few longtime friends.
Everyone she texted, texted her back quickly.
One interesting one was an adult son, who is like an electronic hermit. He texted her back in minutes. Turns out that he prefers texting as the first and often only step in business and personal communication.
A few weeks later using texting, she set up a Holiday dinner with who was bringing what in less than a half hour. That process usually took several days. She was sold on texting at that time. She uses email with a few relatives/friends and me.
After about a month a smartphone addict relative convinced my wife to go to facebook. Most of her friends/relatives advised her not to use FB. In less than a week, she dropped out of FB.
She might spend an hour each morning to read and reply to her messages/emails. Then, she checks her text/emails during the lunch hour and after dinner.
Nobody’s smiling at anyone now, since mask wearing is mandatory.
Saw a couple damned morons with masks on taking a hike outdoors today with no one even near them. It’s truly baffling.
Same here in the White Mountain National Forest. Cyclists in pristine mountain air w/ masks on. Idiots.
I appreciate my smart phone as a safety device when I drive the back roads of TN a few times a week. It’s an insurance kind of thing. I can contact someone in an emergency, and I do a “share location” with DH while I’m on the road so if he has to locate me, he can.
For occasional GPS, it’s good. Other than that, phone and texting is about all I use it for. Shopping, banking, email ... NFW!”
I know there are a bazillion more uses and apps but I don’t care about them.
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