The growing body of evidence that digital distraction is damaging our minds • Hacker News Board

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

#341

Post by tonyarkles » Mon, Jan 08, 2018, 11:18 PM UTC

TheCoreh wrote: post #314

DamnInteresting wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a way to enable parental controls with an alternate phone unlock PIN? If so, then my comment is silly and I am silly. If not, then it stands. That's where the control belongs, so one can freely share a working PIN with one's kids, with no need to turn on a setting buried in menus (not to mention always remembering to do so).

Why would you _share_ a phone with your kids? Isn't the whole point of giving your kids a phone being able to call them or have them call you when an emergency arises?

Not that I particularly agree with this, but I've seen it enough to recognize it as a use case.

You're at a restaurant with your kid, and they're bored because you're having adult conversations with your friends. You give them your phone and they play whatever game for a while, while you have no need for your phone because you're in a conversation.

Or, alternatively, you're sitting around the house and they want to play a game on it.

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

#342

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jan 08, 2018, 11:19 PM UTC

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #141

cableshaft wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a TI Calculator in my pocket and I learned first learned how to program on it during classes from 7th grade on. I made all sorts of text-based games: rpgs, text-based tetris, action games, fighting games (which was basically just pick an attack and a different formula with random numbers would happen that said how much hp you hurt the opponent), etc. But 'smartphones' nowadays makes it difficult for you to crea…

Nowadays you can get much cheaper all-purpose computers though; if kids are tinkerers like you were, they will find a way, either on their smartphones or on a raspberry pi or whatever. And if they don't - accept it, they're not you, and they'll probably end up better off than you did.

[deleted]

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

#343

Post by notadoc » Mon, Jan 08, 2018, 11:20 PM UTC

I am convinced there would be a decent market for a dumb phone with an iPhone quality camera, and the only 'smart' functionality it should have is getting pictures off the camera easily.

I know several families who have transitioned to all dumbphones, and the only thing they report missing after a while is a having a decent camera on hand.

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

#344

Post by Chaebixi » Mon, Jan 08, 2018, 11:21 PM UTC

cavanasm wrote: post #219

donkeyd wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> your TI calculator was a tinkerer niche that was similar to the openness and simplicity of early home computers It wasn't in the Netherlands. A graphical calculator was required for math and many kids learned at least some programming by creating their own little programs to cheat in tests. Also, you could get code for games and then program them. The newer ones with USB cables made adding games much easier though.

In my public high school in the US, it was required for all my math classes past basic algebra, but I only knew one person who ever tried to code anything on it themselves (although people transferred games pulled online frequently; this was early 00s, transfer was this weird USB to something that looked like an headphone jack to connect to computer), and there were either test calculators, or an instructor would cle…

> to something that looked like an headphone jack to connect to computer

The word you're looking for is "serial port."

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

#345

Post by Chaebixi » Mon, Jan 08, 2018, 11:24 PM UTC

bjourne wrote: post #232

candu wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s a tendency to accept without question, in these sorts of conversations, that “trivial entertainment” is bad, or at least qualifiably inferior to either “good entertainment” (less Skinner-box-ish games, going outside, socializing, etc.) or “self-improvement” (reading, thinking, practicing, etc.) IMHO, most of us in fact choose all of the above; what we should be aiming for is the proper balance, not to replace…

Of course it is about moderation, but how can you moderate yourself when there is an infinite supply available? If my fridge contained an infinite supply of chocolate and ice cream I'd get so fat so fast...

> Of course it is about moderation, but how can you moderate yourself when there is an infinite supply available?

Correction: an infinite supply using psychology tricks A/B tested to keep you going as long as possible.

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

#346

Post by DamnInteresting » Mon, Jan 08, 2018, 11:26 PM UTC

u801e wrote: post #333

DamnInteresting wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am terrified about giving smartphones to my kids. Hey smartphone makers, if you're listening: Let me set an alternate PIN that unlocks the phone in a limited access mode, or "kid mode." Only pre-approved apps are available. Only pre-approved contacts can be called/texted. In-game purchases require the more secure PIN. Maybe when the phone is in this mode I can track its location easily, and make it emit a noise.…

> Let me set an alternate PIN that unlocks the phone in a limited access mode, or "kid mode." Only pre-approved apps are available. Come to think of it, there should also be a border mode when one is traveling.

I've advocated for that, as well as an ATM PIN to use if one is being forced to withdraw funds. It could alert police, mark the security camera footage to be saved, and show a very low account balance.

Try as one might, the world doesn't seem to want to be better.

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

#347

Post by naiyt » Mon, Jan 08, 2018, 11:27 PM UTC

uhhhhhhh wrote: post #326

Why are we pretending this is unique or new to smartphones. Television has worked this way for a long time, all media and advertising has worked on the same principals. Instead of pretending this is "new and scary", we should be focusing on understanding the impacts and limits, and how much is too much, rather than this grey and white false narrative that smartphones are somehow solely responsible for the increasingl…

They addressed this argument in the article, and why smartphones are inherently different than TV (or any number of other distractions that people have worried about in the past).

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

#348

Post by Chaebixi » Mon, Jan 08, 2018, 11:27 PM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #241

donkeyd wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My half-sister (13) got a new iPhone 7 for her birthday (which I find ridiculous, because expensive). I really feel like it's messing up her as a person. As soon as she holds it she's oblivious to the outside world. I took it away from her on new-years eve and stuck it in a closet. She said she wanted to get it back at 12 am, I told her 12:15. At 12, she went outside with us, to watch the fireworks. She stayed outsid…

> Pretty much every time her phone is placed out of sight, she turns into a fun, engaging person. But when it's in sight, she needs to have it, to mindlessly scroll, double tap in instagram, or whatever the latest app fad is. Are you absolutely sure they're "mindlessly scrolling", and not just being fun and engaging to their friends on the other end of the social network? I hate this assumption - one sees a person gl…

> Are you absolutely sure they're "mindlessly scrolling", and not just being fun and engaging to their friends on the other end of the social network?

Hasn't there been a drastic rise in teenage depression linked to smartphone and social network use?

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

#349

Post by brownbat » Mon, Jan 08, 2018, 11:28 PM UTC

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…

We are wired for accomplishments and refining our skills. Games definitely hack that process like a virus.

This isn't completely new though, it's why chess is regarded so skeptically in the Hadith.

Maybe we are in a newly rapid iteration cycle in humanity's quest for better distraction... But we've always had distraction nipping at the heels of meaningful accomplishment.

I'm just not sure how to measure the delta... How much better is distraction today than fifty years ago? How much steeper is that curve than the one measuring our ability to tackle meaningful societal problems? (Does the second curve even have a positive slope, and do they draw from the same pool of human effort?)

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

#350

Post by istorical » Mon, Jan 08, 2018, 11:29 PM UTC

tetha wrote: post #202

istorical wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the reason that the current status quo of content consumption is worse than previous generations is that in the past, even if you watched TV for six hours a day, there was a much higher chance that when you were waiting in line, when you were going to the bathroom, when you were sitting in a car or on a subway, when you were walking to work, there was a greater chance that you were bored and just...letting yo…

This is interesting. The situations you describe as boring, I find interesting and curious. For example, while walking to work, I usually pass one of our homeless guys down the road and give him a nod. It's worrying if he isn't there. Then there is the like 200 years old guy in his plant shop, who usually has some interesting stuff going on. Then there is a cooking school with courses in tasty stuff. Then there is th…

I constructed my argument poorly - I should have said not that those situations are boring - but that the addictiveness of devices and instant infinite content is so great that those of us who are addicted do literally nothing else but consume digital content in situations where we'd normally be observing the world around us or thinking.

So I wouldn't say that the world is boring, but for many of us it's more boring than the shiny thing on our phones.