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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

#151

Post by copperx »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #12
jff wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I keep my phone on silent and turn off all vibrations. There's no way to notify me of anything until I look at it, but that's a feature.

Are you not married, or do not have children or old parents? I would not forgive myself for missing an emergency call because I was hoping to be more productive.

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

#152

Post by mobilethrow »

outworlder wrote: post #136

All of those "ditch the smartphone" comments are so cute. I'm on devops. Can't ditch the smartphone.

While I think you are missing the point, I'm baited by the proposition that devops requires paying constant attention to smartphones.

I use "Tasker" on Android to check for my name in the on-call calendar and change notification settings accordingly. Otherwise it's dead silent when at work and very low volume when connected to a wifi.

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

#153

Post by _d8fd »

I predict someone will invent a smart utensil. It will be a smartphone-like device that has a curated app store which only includes utilitarian apps. It'll contain all of the apps people think "I'd love to ditch my smart phone, but I'd really miss ".

Apps I really want AND never waste time on:

- ride sharing (Lyft, Uber)

- calendar

- calculator

- mobile banking

- movie times & reviews

- booking a place to stay (CounchSurfing, Airbnb)

- public transit schedules

- camera (only pictures, not picture sharing)

- identity verification (RSA, Okta Verify)

- alarm clock

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

#154

Post by stormbeard »

_d8fd wrote: post #153

I predict someone will invent a smart utensil. It will be a smartphone-like device that has a curated app store which only includes utilitarian apps. It'll contain all of the apps people think "I'd love to ditch my smart phone, but I'd really miss ". Apps I really want AND never waste time on: - ride sharing (Lyft, Uber) - calendar - calculator - mobile banking - movie times & reviews - booking a place to stay (Counc…

The types of people that would want this can already do it with their smart phones. What's gained by crippling a device to only support certain classes of apps?

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

#155

Post by copperx »

alsetmusic wrote: post #97
KGIII wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I realize that I am not typical, but I seldom even have my phone turned on, and don't even take it with me very often. I was tethered to a phone for years. I am retired. I only take it if I am expecting to be idle. Then, I take it so I can browse while waiting. It feels kinda nice, frankly. I am not a technophobe. It's just nice to not be beholden to my phone.

This reminds me of my experience giving up my wristwatch. I would glance at it frequently, but then didn't know the time because the behavior was strictly reflex. Finally, someone asked me for the time right after I did this and I had to look again because I hadn't internalized it. That was the day I removed my watch forever. Your comment about being beholden to your phone reminds me a a great quote that I recalled o…

> "Wearing a watch is like being handcuffed to time."

I like the quote because that's how I feel when I look at any digital clock or watch. The millisecond accuracy of any NTP-aware device produces anxiety and is unnecessary.

An analog watch, especially if it's a wind-up mechanical watch, which is by its nature slightly inaccurate, is much more comforting. I feel like an observer of time, and not a slave of it.

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

#156

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

#157

Post by ekianjo »

noam87 wrote: post #137
d0100 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't that mean, then, that most all "doom and gloom" we get today is as irrelevant as those of old?

Were they irrelevant? -- I see plenty doom and gloom in my history books and, hell, twitter feed. It was just a few decades ago that 80 million people died in a single war.

yet the world did not end. Countless prophecies aboutvthe absolute apocalypse have gone and passed. So yeah it is by large irrelevant.

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

#158

Post by ekianjo »

chillwaves wrote: post #124
d0100 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't that mean, then, that most all "doom and gloom" we get today is as irrelevant as those of old?

They didn't have nukes or climate change back then. Human nature + escalating technology is the scary formula we are exploring today.

The plague killed way more people than nukes ever did, and there was no way to stop it until people understood what spread it. Of course technology has bright sides as well. Without medicine and many other discoveries we would not be where we are today.

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

#159

Post by patrick_haply »

bigbugbag wrote: post #69
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.

That's not how you learn japanese.

I imagine it's probably a decent way to practice it though, assuming you have enough working knowledge of the language to still get around your phone.

Edit: Well, except for the part where they admitted they just started to use their phone less.

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

#160

Post by throwanem »

kowdermeister wrote: post #129
throwanem wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is good advice - point-and-shoot cameras are really good these days! For $90 you can get one [1] that's the equal of any smartphone camera ever made, and the better of the vast majority - you might find a >16MP sensor on a smartphone, but you'll have a very hard time finding a smartphone with a 5x optical zoom capability. Spend a few hundred dollars more and you can get one [2] with an almost absurdly broad rang…

Polaroid also launched Snap: http://www.polaroid.com/products/Z2300-instant-camera I love the style and simplicity

Eh. Unless instant prints are a thing you really need, I'd tend to go with a discrete printer. You can get an inkjet capable of good quality on photo paper for pretty cheap these days, and there's got to be some tradeoffs in cramming an imaging system and a printer into a handheld form factor - for one thing, the sensor's only 10MP, and the prints are only three inches by two.
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