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Smartphones: Thinking Is Becoming a Luxury Good
New York times ^ | With July 2025 | Mary Harrington

Posted on 07/30/2025 3:46:19 AM PDT by Cronos

When I was a kid in the 1980s, my parents sent me to a Waldorf school in England. At the time, the school discouraged parents from allowing their kids to watch too much TV, instead telling them to emphasize reading, hands-on learning and outdoor play.

I chafed at the stricture then. But perhaps they were on to something: Today I don’t watch much TV and I still read a lot. Since my school days, however, a far more insidious and enticing form of tech has taken hold: the internet, especially via smartphones. These days I know I have to put my phone in a drawer or in another room if I need to concentrate for more than a few minutes.

Since so-called intelligence tests were invented around a century ago, until recently, international I.Q. scores climbed steadily in a phenomenon known as the Flynn effect. But there is evidence that our ability to apply that brain power is decreasing. According to a recent report, adult literacy scores leveled off and began to decline across a majority of O.E.C.D. countries in the past decade, with some of the sharpest declines visible among the poorest. Kids also show declining literacy.

Writing in the Financial Times, John Burn-Murdoch links this to the rise of a post-literate culture in which we consume most of our media through smartphones, eschewing dense text in favor of images and short-form video

Other research has associated smartphone use with A.D.H.D. symptoms in adolescents, and a quarter of surveyed American adults now suspect they may have the condition. School and college teachers assign fewer full books to their students, in part because they are unable to complete them. Nearly half of Americans read zero books in 2023.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: braindevelopment; cursive; doe; dopamine; education; england; flynneffect; intelligence; iq; literacy; maryharrington; newyork; newyorkcity; newyorkslimes; newyorktimes; publiceducation; reading; waldorfschool; whiteprivilege
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1 posted on 07/30/2025 3:46:19 AM PDT by Cronos
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To: Cronos

Some of it would be brain training. If all your answers are a click away, you’re going to lose your ability to think.
That’s why I’m really against computers of any kind being used in the school system. I’d rather read a neatly handwritten paper than a printed one from a word processor.


2 posted on 07/30/2025 3:53:40 AM PDT by Jonty30 (My mom is half French. Her mother and father are French, but she lost her legs in a car accident.)
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To: Cronos

BTTT


3 posted on 07/30/2025 3:54:16 AM PDT by nopardons
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To: Jonty30

Absolutely right!


4 posted on 07/30/2025 3:58:07 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: Jonty30
I agree.

But lazy teachers claim that computers are part of the real world now, so kids need to learn how to use computers.

Which is stupid. Kids aren't learning computer engineering in school. They're "learning" how to entertain themselves by clicking social media.

5 posted on 07/30/2025 4:14:23 AM PDT by Angelino97
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To: Cronos

Between smart phones and AI no one will have to do much thinking. Their brains will petrify and atrophy. Or if they are young, their brains will not grow with dense neurons. Their brains will be like a glob of lard.


6 posted on 07/30/2025 4:19:54 AM PDT by dennisw (There is no limit to human stupidity)
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To: Angelino97

Teachers have no say in what is taught. The curriculum is mandated by the district. Teachers know that the use of phones and computers is destroying learning, because they see it every day in the kids they teach. But nobody asks their opinion.


7 posted on 07/30/2025 4:20:00 AM PDT by proxy_user
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To: Angelino97

It’s not so much laziness as it is too many teachers who are unqualified to teach their courses are being allowed to teach.


8 posted on 07/30/2025 4:24:28 AM PDT by Jonty30 (My mom is half French. Her mother and father are French, but she lost her legs in a car accident.)
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To: proxy_user
For decades, I've heard teachers unions complain that more money must be spent on computers for children.

Not spending enough on computers is a common excuse for low test scores.

Other common excuses include not spending enough on ... (fill in the blank).

9 posted on 07/30/2025 4:25:44 AM PDT by Angelino97
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To: Angelino97

Teachers demanding students have laptops or PCs is somewhat ironic. I remember when the first hand-held calculators were introduced in the 70s. Teachers - even up to the college level - forbid students to have these little devices in the classroom.


10 posted on 07/30/2025 4:39:31 AM PDT by 7thson (I've got a seat at the big conference table! I'm gonna paint my logo on it!)
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To: Cronos

In about 20 years, maybe sooner, the only thinking people will be Amish (the real ones).


11 posted on 07/30/2025 4:41:37 AM PDT by wetgundog
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To: wetgundog

Yep, 5hose freaks never comply. Get with the program Amish people...sheesh! STOP THINKING and be like the rest of us!


12 posted on 07/30/2025 4:45:10 AM PDT by Bob434 (Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana)
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To: Cronos

13 posted on 07/30/2025 4:56:36 AM PDT by T.B. Yoits
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To: 9YearLurker; Jonty30
If all your answers are a click away, you’re going to lose your ability to think.

Just imagine how bad it is going to get with AI doing all of the thinking for the next generation.

The movie "Idiocracy" was prophecy, including the Crocks.

14 posted on 07/30/2025 5:02:51 AM PDT by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.)
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To: Cronos

Everywhere one goes, there are people, especially the young, clinging to their phones as if they are life support systems. They act as if they cannot separate from their phones for even a minute. It’s really annoying and pathetic to watch.


15 posted on 07/30/2025 5:21:52 AM PDT by Dan in Wichita
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To: Dan in Wichita

Smartphones for stupid people.


16 posted on 07/30/2025 5:26:22 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Cronos

I was homeschooled, grew up without a tv, and didn’t get a smart phone until I was 18 (or want one). I don’t use X, instagram, pinterest, etc. Love books, can’t stay away from libraries. The phone is mostly for keeping tabs on my properties and my boomer parents.


17 posted on 07/30/2025 5:34:53 AM PDT by Buttons12 ( )
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To: Cronos

Smartphones. The worst invention by man ever.


18 posted on 07/30/2025 6:01:11 AM PDT by animal172 (I can't, but I know who can.)
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To: Angelino97
teachers claim that computers are part of the real world now, so kids need to learn how to use computers

Computer literacy is a form of literacy, and I've nothing against literacy. At the same time, my fellow millennials could profit from the study of critical thinking, in which they are more deficient than their elders (many of whom are also befuddled). Furthermore, some people are never going to excel at reading, writing, or math, but the world needs electricians, plumbers, shoemakers, mechanics, and farmers -- all of whom need the ability to think.

Computers are a teaching aid, as long as you have a proper teacher. Mine gave me a desk with a brand new Windows 98 when I was nose level with the space bar, and it helped me immeasurably. Still does. My favorite hangout on the laptop is youtube, where I probably see 20 educational videos for every 1 movie. It's also good for classical music and a bit of current events.

The problem is dependency on the phones for social life, not to mention other basic things my peers can't do well -- read a book, read a clock, deploy proper English, write cursive, drive safely, make change of a dollar, or look where they're going. Pretty sure nobody on Tik Tok is going to teach these things. We're lucky if public school teachers will, either.

19 posted on 07/30/2025 6:05:08 AM PDT by Buttons12 ( )
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To: Cronos

I agree wholeheartedly with the comments in this post. Smartphones have taken the place of book-learning. And sadly, students of today don’t have any use for the old fashioned DICTIONARY! Why look a word up when you can just ask your phone!


20 posted on 07/30/2025 6:09:28 AM PDT by Old Grumpy
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