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The growing body of evidence that digital distraction is damaging our minds

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Re: The growing body of evidence that digital distraction is damaging our minds

#21

Post by rosser »

Danihan wrote: post #10
_m8fo wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious to why you think not having a smartphone constitutes a punishment.

Because you could have the answer to nearly any question at your fingertips, and yet it's arbitrarily taken away? How is it not a punishment?

By analogy: I used to have incredible direction sense. On one of my cross-country drives, a couple decades ago, I made it to my friend's place, having only vaguely consulted at an atlas a couple of times. I lived in New York; she lived in San Diego. (Edit: And I'm specifically including having navigated the local highways and surface streets in that anecdote, not just which Interstates I used.)

Now, I get lost in my own city without using my phone's mapping app.

When we outsource our cognitive capabilities to the exocortex, we lose those capabilities. When we give our children a tool that obviates their need ever to develop those capabilities, we rob them of something essential.

Re: The growing body of evidence that digital distraction is damaging our minds

#22

Post by aaron-lebo »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #15
aaron-lebo wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get your gist, but if someone spends 99% of their time playing Candy Crush and 1% using Wiki, it's not a net win for them vs spending 50% of their time doing nothing and the other 50% reading a book instead.

But before phones, did those folks read books and do nothing? Or is it more likely that they watched football and soap operas on TV?

It's been awhile, but as I recall, people weren't watching football and soap operas everywhere, they couldn't. The modern equivalent is having those to go.

That's not even taking into account addictions and misinformation.

Re: The growing body of evidence that digital distraction is damaging our minds

#23

Post by rosser »

Danihan wrote: post #17
_m8fo wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think kids should have access to anything they desire while in school if they're capable of bringing it into the school?

Do you think instead of teaching English we should be banning books, because some students read trashy novellas in class and distract themselves?

Straw-man.

Re: The growing body of evidence that digital distraction is damaging our minds

#24

Post by Danihan »

jclardy wrote: post #16
Danihan wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure why all students should be punished just because because some cannot use a new tool well. Socialism at its worst, in my opinion. The irresponsible drag down those with more potential.

But would these supposed kids with "more potential" realize that potential given access to a smartphone during the time when they are being educated? I fail to see the use of a communications/entertainment device in a classroom unless it is part of the instruction. EDIT: Genuinely curious of your opinion, I grew up right before smartphones exploded when I was in college, so for me I see them more as a distraction fro…

> I fail to see the use of a communications/entertainment device in a classroom

Then you aren't very creative. They could be searching for more context on the lesson, as an easy example.

You wouldn't want to read more about the War of 1812 online if you were in the middle of a fairly tedious and plodding lecture about it?

Re: The growing body of evidence that digital distraction is damaging our minds

#25

Post by toomuchtodo »

bproven wrote: post #11
arkitaip wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easy to forget that thousands of scientists, researchers and experts are working hard on manipulating every aspect of your psyche so you keep using using their sites, apps and services.

I also find it interesting (or sad) that all this human intelligence and capital is being used for such ridiculous purposes instead of solving society's real problems and making the world a better place. But then again, its not like this is something new in human history...

Fixing society's ills is not profitable. There is no VC money in it, there is no going public. The fixes required are long, unpaid slogs with little reward at the end other than you made someone's life better.

"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in."

Re: The growing body of evidence that digital distraction is damaging our minds

#26

Post by addicted »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #15
aaron-lebo wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get your gist, but if someone spends 99% of their time playing Candy Crush and 1% using Wiki, it's not a net win for them vs spending 50% of their time doing nothing and the other 50% reading a book instead.

But before phones, did those folks read books and do nothing? Or is it more likely that they watched football and soap operas on TV?

Football and Soap Operas are simply not comparable to the kind of addiction the smartphone people are able to build into their products.

Facebook has an army of phds whose only goal is to make sure Facebook’s users spend another few percent of their time on Facebook. And Facebook with its social interaction, and in depth knowledge of each user, can actively drive its users to spend more time on it in ways no other medium has been able to so far.

And it’s not just Facebook. It’s oretty much every tech company, barring maybe Apple.

Re: The growing body of evidence that digital distraction is damaging our minds

#27

Post by cortesoft »

nakedrobot2 wrote: post #4

I am terrified about giving smartphones to my kids. France's new rule (no smartphones in schools - no exceptions) is genius, and I applaud them for that. What is a supercomputer in your pocket, with access to a significant portion of the sum total of human knowledge, good for, for most people? Playing fucking candy crush. We wish that we, humans, were better, but we are not. So what can we do about it? I have no idea…

> Playing fucking candy crush.

Well, that and replying to HN posts about digital distractions...

Re: The growing body of evidence that digital distraction is damaging our minds

#28

Post by munchbunny »

I'm sure that there is truth to our minds having problems dealing with the constant barrage of digital pings, but I also hate when the Microsoft/Canada study gets cited.

There are serious methodological problems with that study that lead to the convenient conclusion that humans on average have a shorter attention span than a goldfish. It's a sexy conclusion, but if you think about it for a moment there are so many implied assumptions in that claim. Chief among them is the issue that attention span tends to be heavily task dependent, so what does the average actually mean?

Here's a link to a BBC article that specifically discusses the attention span statistic: http://www.bbc.com/news/health-38896790

Re: The growing body of evidence that digital distraction is damaging our minds

#29

Post by GoToRO »

Smartphones, like any other technology, is neither bad or good. It just is. It's a tool. You can use it to do good things or you can use it to do bad things. I would tax these corporations and use the money to raise awareness and that's about all we can do.

Re: The growing body of evidence that digital distraction is damaging our minds

#30

Post by always_good »

_m8fo wrote: post #7
Danihan wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure why all students should be punished just because because some cannot use a new tool well. Socialism at its worst, in my opinion. The irresponsible drag down those with more potential.

I'm curious to why you think not having a smartphone constitutes a punishment.

When I was in school, all I wanted to do was read the Sitepoint forums and learn more about HTML / CSS / PHP.

I had one teacher that took me up on my offer to let me use the one class computer when my work was done and that's exactly what I did with it. Then other kids opted into my sweet deal and ended up ruining it by causing too much disturbance around it.

Back then, I always resented the fact that it was more acceptable for me to sleep during class than to read material on the computer. So I ended up sneaking on my home computer after my parents slept and getting 4 hours of sleep each night so that I would then sleep during school.

I would've KILLED to have a smartphone in my pocket.

Now, I'm not sure what the best policy is going to be, here. But I can certainly relate to the injustice of feeling punished for something that doesn't apply to me.

I can certainly understand that a smartphone in the hands of a student will only make distraction more likely. But to take it away completely seems to overestimate the value of being attentive 100% of the time in school.

For example, imagine if you can take out your smartphone when you're done with your work AND you are averaging above a 85% in the class. Maybe something like that would offer best of both worlds.

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