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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

#81

Post by holografix »

wdewind wrote: post #47
nwatson wrote: post #3

Bards 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…

> But ... few people complain about how books corrupt our memory. Socrates absolutely did. > for this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners’ souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth,…

The insights and characterisations of human behaviour found in ancient records sometime shock me with their accuracy and depth. Human nature has not changed and it was well, if not better understood, Millenia ago.

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity

#82

Post by jorgenev »

nwatson wrote: post #3

Bards 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…

> Bards pre-literate-times in Greece purportedly could recite Homer's Odyssey themselves after one hearing

Is this a true fact, or just a story people keep repeating because it sounds interesting?

If it were true... how would we know? Presumably you would cite sources from Ancient Greece where people reported that they knew bards who could memorize a whole story with one listen, but like, there are sources from Ancient Greece claiming to know of a woman who was so ugly that looking at her could turn a man to stone.

We can kind of sanity check the claim by looking at modern peoples. Anthropologists have extensive experience with pre-literate peoples, and they do have fine memories --but not magical ones [1].

1. http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/allinthemind/in...

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity

#83

Post by rjeli »

sk1pper wrote: post #76
Apocryphon wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the near future we're going to see even more "information diets", "digital cleanses", meditative go-to-nature sort of breaks integrated into lifestyle routines.

If that would include not being ridiculed for having a flip phone, I would love it.

who cares? do what you want.

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity

#84

Post by booleandilemma »

bigbugbag wrote: post #60
djsumdog wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you won't know the number. You'd need to go to as library first, log into whatever service you keep your contacts on (I run my own radicalie carddav, but most people use Google or Apple's services) and find their number. I use to have most of my friend's phone numbers memorized by the shape they made on the keypad. Today we stay in contact with a lot more people, or at least I do, and it helps to no need to memor…

> it helps to no need to memorize numbers. actually it does not. if you had to memorize numbers you would have better memory and would have little to no issue remembering them.

What other numbers would you like the parent to memorize, besides those of his friends? Numbers to local restaurants, car services? Why should he have to?

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity

#85

Post by notadoc »

lathiat wrote: post #77
notadoc wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's kind of funny. Similarly, I stopped listening to any music on my iPhone once I got an iPhone 7. Unexpected side effect of having no headphone jack, but I always forget the dongle somewhere. So, no more music from the iPhone. I listen to old am/fm talk radio again instead.

Buy AirPods. Honestly.

I considered it but I'm not a big fan of headphones, I usually listen to music at home or in a car.

One of the most annoying situations was when I had a great podcast I wanted to share with someone on a long drive, pulled out the iPhone 7 to plug into their car stereo and.... new-ish car.... but AUX only.... no dongle..... never mind!

I believe Apple removed the headphone jack 5 or 10 years too early. Bluetooth is not that great, and it's also not that widespread. AUX is not a floppy or CD drive, it is everywhere and works great and allows for high quality audio, no troubleshooting, no compression, no hassle. The alternatives (dongle? Bluetooth?) is comparatively nowhere and does not work great.

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity

#87

Post by titanix2 »

buf wrote: post #44

I want to learn Japanese. 3 months ago I changed my phone's language to Japanese. Everything is Japanese - maps, services, apps that read from the default phone language. Oddly enough, instead of learning Japanese, I just use my phone less.

My most productive year, which included majoring in Japanese, was when I was living in an apartment without access to internet (no smartphone either by this time). Since then I wasn't able to focus so intensely on learning vocabulary or kanji.

The last few days I really feel the effect of having to check my phone every hours or so. This article motivate me to turn it off for the week. Thanks!

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity

#88

Post by vlasev »

tristanho wrote: post #39

An effortless hack which I've gotten a lot of utility out of: put your phone behind your laptop. Out of sight, out of mind (and you can't feel it in your pocket either!)

A related hack if you don't want to put your phone behind your laptop - put the phone screen-side down. This way the changing states of the screen (when you get a notification) won't distract you.

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity

#89

Post by theboywho »

nwatson wrote: post #3

Bards 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 probably did not read the article, as it does not talk about smartphones being a substitute tool for some tasks we used to do using our brains. The study is about the attention efforts required by our need to always check our phones for new information, you can view it like our attention being prisonnier of our phones with no extra resources left for other activities.

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity

#90

Post by sxates »

nwatson wrote: post #3

Bards 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…

Without any sort of recording or script, how would one verify that the retelling was accurate to the original?
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