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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

#371

Post by ekianjo »

holografix wrote: post #181
ekianjo wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It's not a given that it did not end... think to yourself what would happen if Nazi Germany had developed a nuclear bomb ahead of the Americans? If even the US government couldn't resist obliterating 2 cities in Japan with Nukes can you imagine what the Nazis would have done? There would have been zero consideration for the loss of human life, possibly large areas of continental Europe and the US would have been bomb…

> It's not a given that it did not end... think to yourself what would happen if Nazi Germany had developed a nuclear bomb ahead of the Americans?

Nukes at the time were still weak weapons. You could inflict a lot more damage (and a lot more damage happened on Tokyo and many other Japanese cities) by regular firebombing. You did not need nuclear bombs to inflict catastrophic loss of life.

Now when it came to thermonuclear weapons, the magnitude is entirely different, but that only occurred many years later. It would never have occurred at the time of WW2.

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

#372

Post by thesagan »

shostack wrote: post #361
thesagan wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mindfulness, and studying the little details of your immediate surroundings. Meditation on-the-spot. When I realized how dependent I became on the phone for my well-being I decided to go through a painful-ish withdrawal to get back my own sense of self. Definitely wasn't comfortable, which prompted me to continue the practice!

How long did that take you? Was was your low point?

First couple months I was the most impatient and impulsive. However, my whole life is an effort in staving off boredom and red traffic lights, so I try and practice mindful meditation every day to stay patient and "still" in my mind when there's no reason to be thinking furiously.

Low point was feeling impatient to check for updates when a loved one was dying and I was visiting at the hospital. Where in the world was my head? I was there to spend quality time with someone while they were still in the here-and-now! And I was anxious to check notifications from some random social website that'd be there tomorrow? WTF.

That's when I knew I had an Internet addiction, and that the phone enabled it.

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

#373

Post by LostWanderer »

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…

I wonder if there is a link between life originating from the sea and the ability of using our hearing as the main sensory organ to detect other objects.

And maybe we over relied on some senses and made an education system which relied on certain sense organs more than other senses. But talking about Smartphones,we may be coming to a full circle with Voice assisted AI is gaining ground.

-----------------

I would suggest you to read The book 'A brave new world' By Aldous Huxley which predicted how the information overloaded numbness works in a beautiful way

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

#374

Post by copperx »

eeZah7Ux wrote: post #283
copperx wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "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.

A reliable clock produces anxiety over an unreliable one? Citation needed!

n=1, FWIW.

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

#375

Post by vortegne »

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

I own this thing. From my experience it's pretty terrible. Inconsistent colors, horrible focus, open all the time if you throw it in your bag. Would not recommend.

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

#377

Post by stretchwithme »

dragonwriter wrote: post #367
stretchwithme wrote: post #19

So true. And in-car GPS keeps your sense of direction from developing. I've seen people stymied as to how they could possibly make a phone call without their phones. Payphone. Borrow someone else's. Not that hard. I used to think this would only ever happen to geeks like me. Boy, was I wrong.

> I've seen people stymied as to how they could possibly make a phone call without their phones. Payphone. Ubiquitous cell phones have caused most of these to be removed. > Borrow someone else's. Phones becoming more loaded with sensitive personal material than wallets have made people reluctant to loan them to anyone not a close friend.

true.

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

#378

Post by Chris2048 »

infogulch wrote: post #228
Iv wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was in high school when I first read this opinion (I did not remember it was Socrates though). Also, I learned that Gaul, pre-roman France (where I lived), had a society where the priests/judges, the druids, were forbidden to write down their knowledge. It fascinated me. The idea that books, that were more or less revered depositories of knowledge, could have been seen as anti-intellectual at one time. It pushed me…

This really speaks to me. I have trouble remembering things, even important things that I know I will want to remember in the future. I forget or it gets fuzzy. Sometimes I can remember better once my memory is jogged, but I can't recall it on demand. That means that things that I should be able to associate pretty easily are never put together unless it's made painfully obvious and explicit. It's a been a point of f…

You could try meditation/CBT etc.

But at the same time, basics like exercise, good sleep(+), low stress, healthy eating (fewer stimulants) etc can all affect memory - It's hard to diagnose any particular cause of poor memory with all these variables.

(+) As an aside, I've sometimes found too much sleep can cause me to be less alert!? Maybe it's related to "mind-busyness"? Like how the "Balmer-peak" seems to operate on reducing overthinking via the confidence/fuzz-increasing effect of alcohol.

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

#379

Post by JoshMnem »

ninly wrote: post #350
JoshMnem wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Bards pre-literate-times in Greece purportedly could recite Homer's Odyssey themselves after one hearing. Writing destroyed that all. They had amazing memories, but they couldn't memorize large works like that after just one hearing. There are techniques that allow one to remember information like that, but it still requires effort. Here are two great books on that subject: - The Art of Memory by Frances Yates (cov…

Haven't read the other one, but the Yates is great. Another indispensable book for historical context about the Classical transition from oral to literate culture (and its implications for memory, education, and Greek thought) is: - Preface to Plato, by Eric Havelock

Thanks, I'll check that one out. The Memory Code is one of the best books I've read. Highly recommended.

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

#380

Post by jxramos »

TranquilMarmot wrote: post #365
contingencies wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually carry a cheap USB wacom tablet around with my laptop for such purposes... I swear by it, it gives you almost the full freedom of paper without the restrictions of manual media (undo, scaling, duplication, restyling, etc.)

Have you ever tried a boogie board? https://www.myboogieboard.com/ Writing on it is very natural/paper feeling, there's no erasing or anything. With the more expensive models, it can sync the notes to a computer/cloud service.

wow, it's pretty affordable. How do you write multiple pages on it?
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