The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity
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The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity
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Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity
#2Mine broke last week. I haven't replaced it and almost don't intend to because I do feel more alert now. Though the feeling is subsiding, so perhaps it's a temporary thing.
I wonder in the study, is the control group smartphone users temporarily deprived of the phones, or non-smartphone users. Could make a big difference.
Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity
#3Bards pre-literate-times in Greece purportedly could recite Homer's Odyssey themselves after one hearing. Writing destroyed that all.
(Maybe I don't have a citation right off, but I've read that on the web or heard it in some college class years ago ... in any case, ability to retain heard information has likely declined since then). But ... few people complain about how books corrupt our memory.
So we're the first generation shifting cognitive burden of some kinds of memory (all those phone numbers) elsewhere. I welcome it. My wife hates it, but she likes the books. In a couple of generations it all will be irrelevant.
Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity
#4it is rather that wikipedia and google, parts of my weltbild (brain), get totally damaged in the wake of the adpocalypse
Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity
#5We just need better integration with our exocortex.
Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity
#6Because in order to have a smartphone, you have to keep track of it on your person. To do this, while it is in your presence, you have to keep track of it. This takes up brain power, leaving less of it for you to have, while a smartphone is in your presence. The fucking fuck.
Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity
#7Bards pre-literate-times in Greece purportedly could recite Homer's Odyssey themselves after one hearing. Writing destroyed that all. (Maybe I don't have a citation right off, but I've read that on the web or heard it in some college class years ago ... in any case, ability to retain heard information has likely declined since then). But ... few people complain about how books corrupt our memory. So we're the first g…
You seem to be defending against a claim the study does not make. They're not saying "smartphones make us stupid because Google's in your pocket!" Rather, the study is saying that by having your phone on the desk or even in your pocket, you will exhibit decreased mental capacity because your brain is using some cognitive resources to monitor for notifications etc.
This may be over-simplified but appears to be backed up by the general discussion on pages 10-11.
Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity
#8I know that I'm guilty of this - just voluntarily putting my phone in the other room causes withdrawal-like anxiety, followed by a greater sense of awareness.
Maybe future generations will see our management of information devices as backwards and unhealthy once we learn more about the human brain, the same way we treat smoking, child-rearing, and daily routines of yesterday as horrifyingly detrimental.
Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity
#9Bards pre-literate-times in Greece purportedly could recite Homer's Odyssey themselves after one hearing. Writing destroyed that all. (Maybe I don't have a citation right off, but I've read that on the web or heard it in some college class years ago ... in any case, ability to retain heard information has likely declined since then). But ... few people complain about how books corrupt our memory. So we're the first g…
Books serve the same function as memory, but they did it better. Smart phones don't serve (much less improve on) the function of "attention", so I'm confused by your analogy.
Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity
#10Bards pre-literate-times in Greece purportedly could recite Homer's Odyssey themselves after one hearing. Writing destroyed that all. (Maybe I don't have a citation right off, but I've read that on the web or heard it in some college class years ago ... in any case, ability to retain heard information has likely declined since then). But ... few people complain about how books corrupt our memory. So we're the first g…
Books serve the same function as memory, but they did it better. Smart phones don't serve (much less improve on) the function of "attention", so I'm confused by your analogy.
Its still about memory. Attention span is a measure of memory. Writing stands for the absence of something (a voice or community). Smartphones compensate for so many kinds of absence at once.