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

#351

Post by pharrington » Mon, Jan 08, 2018, 11:30 PM UTC

cableshaft wrote: post #330

pharrington wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it's easy to write a TI-BASIC program on a TI graphic calculator. It's barely less easy to open your web browser, type in "jsfiddle" or "shadertoy," and get coding environments that have considerably better and more instant feedback than what's available on your TI. And that's before opening up your app store and searching for "compiler" or "IDE."

Yeah you can download an IDE and then not run the code, or run the code by connecting to a server, which you might not even have internet access at the time. And even then you're probably not able to make asset rich games on them, or create graphics, save them, and call them in your program (game). Design websites, yeah I guess. Create shell scripts, yeah no problem. But games are another story. Not impossible, I'm s…

To make sure I wasn't hallucinating, using an old Droid Ultra, I downloaded an app named "Mobile C (C/C++ Compiler)", turned on airplane mode, launched the app, compiled and ran hello world, than compiled and ran some demo programs that app is bundled with (many of which are simple multimedia demos). That's not opinion.

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

#352

Post by DavideNL » Mon, Jan 08, 2018, 11:30 PM UTC

prawn wrote: post #231

jakobegger wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I‘m pretty sure Apple won‘t do that, because they want you to buy your kids their own iPhone. Why doesn‘t the iPad have this sort of multi-user mode? An iPad is the perfect device for sharing. But no, if you don‘t want your kids to read your emails, you need to buy them their own iPad.

This would be a phone for the kid that was locked into basic mode during school hours and then maybe unlocked on weekends or for a game session. Once upon a time, kids went to school without phones, so it is possible...

There's some of that in iOS: "Settings -> Restrictions", which will be locked by a passcode.

It has a lot of options, but probably not enough (like restricting specific apps.) You can however set to allow only apps rated "4+ years, 6+, etc.

Time limitation is possible too, via "Settings -> Accessibility -> Guided Access".

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

#353

Post by Chaebixi » Mon, Jan 08, 2018, 11:32 PM UTC

IpV8 wrote: post #42

agumonkey wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. This is my go to rant for the last few years. Not the fact the people do play silly games, but the whole surrounding myth "computing era is paradise of heavens, highway of information to make your life better, only need an better octocore for you…

I mean, the massive progress in science, medical, renewable energy, etc. are pretty good problems to be solving. The silly games and facebooks are only a problem for those who choose to participate in them.

> The silly games and facebooks are only a problem for those who choose to participate in them.

This is a bad argument. Usually it's not an informed choice, often made by someone who's immature.

Also, some of the...

> massive progress in science, medical, renewable energy, etc.

...was used to make stuff like...

>>> Playing fucking candy crush.

...as addicting as possible.

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

#354

Post by newman8r » Mon, Jan 08, 2018, 11:34 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…

My prediction: not owning a smartphone will one day be seen as a status symbol (like the opposite of the 80s/90s where owning one was a status symbol)

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

#355

Post by djsumdog » Mon, Jan 08, 2018, 11:34 PM UTC

excalibur wrote: post #220

Diederich wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our teenage son carries a flip phone. Always has, always will, until he can pay for something else.

I tried to buy my son the most basic phone available. $5-$10, no camera. I wanted it to do phone calls, texts, and that's it. Turns out it still had a rudimentary browser. And because the phone was only capable of 3G, his basic line had unlimited data. He spent a ridiculous number of hours watching YouTube on that tiny 1.5" screen.

Maybe Motorola needs to bring back their old Razor phones?

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

#356

Post by fogzen » Mon, Jan 08, 2018, 11:41 PM UTC

What growing body of evidence? The article references no studies. This article does not meet HN's discussion guidelines and should be removed.

> "What does "deeply interesting" mean? It means stuff that teaches you about the world."

This article teaches us nothing.

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

#357

Post by djsumdog » Mon, Jan 08, 2018, 11:44 PM UTC

barbs wrote: post #339

MichaelDickens wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Smartphone use takes about the same cognitive toll as losing a full night's sleep" What does this even mean? Does it mean your cognitive performance after using a smartphone daily is reduced to the level it would be at if you hadn't slept at all the previous night? Does it mean cumulative smartphone use is as harmful as cumulatively skipping a full night's sleep? (Which is clearly false, but to me sounds like the mo…

That quote frustrated me too. "Smartphone use" is such a vague term here. They seem to reference this again later in the article, but it doesn't seem to clear things up much. "All that distraction adds up to a loss of raw brain power. Workers at a British company who multitasked on electronic media – a decent proxy for frequent smartphone use – were found in a 2014 study to lose about the same quantity of IQ as peopl…

That's some serious spin. What the fuck is "multitasked on electronic media"? Where they employed at a firm where they switched from data entry to looking up stuff? I worked at a firm where people did that and yea it would look like their brain power reduced, because it was a terrible shit job (debt collection). They'd have to go from data entry, to calls to skip tracking lookups.

Depending on the type of work, that's not at all "a decent proxy." That's the kind of bullshit you read in meta-analysis papers. (Tip: if the introduction says its a meta-analysis, chuck that paper in the bin .. and set the bin on fire. Most meta-analysis papers are just lazy. You cannot control in vastly different experiments).

I agree a lot of this is FUD. Media has always been used to manipulate people. Emotional manipulation grew massively during the Edward Bernays era (the father of smoking advertisements and creating political and/or emotional draw to products). It may have changed form from Print to Radio to TV to phones, but it's still just more of the same manipulation.

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

#358

Post by arca_vorago » Mon, Jan 08, 2018, 11:46 PM UTC

agumonkey wrote: post #18

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…

> 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. This is my go to rant for the last few years. Not the fact the people do play silly games, but the whole surrounding myth "computing era is paradise of heavens, highway of information to make your life better, only need an better octocore for you…

It cracks me up because that's what I used to say about solitaire. You mean you built a $4,000 computer and are now playing solitaire on it?

The real problem is see is more about the ecosystem though. The user controlled their pc (to a certain extent), but the user has so little control over mobile devices that they get fed what advertisers and companies want them to see.

It really feels like corporations and governments are sucking everything good about the internet out (anarchistic freedom of though, discovery of free information, etc).

What I see is a future where computer scientists and hackers are extremely powerful because they understand and (can) control their own systems, but the majority of the people are beholden to some combination of orwellian ecosystems seeking to control and profit off them.

Once again, this is why I think RMS was and is right and we need to start pushing more copyleft now.

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

#359

Post by arca_vorago » Mon, Jan 08, 2018, 11:50 PM UTC

philwelch wrote: post #223

agumonkey wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I stopped believing in progress personally. Progress doesn't help you in many important part of life. We're spending too much time on science, and often to fix economic / political errors of the past.

Or does it just seem that way because science and technology have already solved so many problems? "People get distracted by smartphones" is a problem. But so is, "India doesn't produce enough food to feed its people", and that problem had a technological solution. Climate change will require technological solutions. Energy sustainability will require technological solutions. More diseases have been eradicated throug…

I think the main issue these days is a lack of root cause analysis, so solutions tend to be superficial. Of course I'm not referencing things like the polio vaccine, but for the past few years my mantra has been "strike at the root", but after I've waded through the branches to get to a root I look up and see hardly anyone else is there, it gets lonely.

Politics is the perfect example of this in my opinion.

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

#360

Post by djsumdog » Mon, Jan 08, 2018, 11:51 PM UTC

Rudism wrote: post #181

This is what stuck out to me in the article: > Lactation consultants in Canada and the United States have begun noticing the prevalence of women texting and scrolling through their phones while they breastfeed, breaking valuable eye contact with their baby. Normally I'm in the skeptic camp on this issue. That screens are just the new generation's version of comic books or rock and roll rotting the minds of our youth,…

A caring parent still interacts with their kid. I'm sure there were plenty of women years ago who would have a stack of magazines or books to read while breastfeeding.

I see friends with kids now and they are so interactive with them. They color with them, play games with them, and are totally drawn by all the simple little things their kids do. Parents also use their phones to make an insane amount of kids photos/videos .. which is what we did in the 90s, but it was just one parent who was obsessed with that overpriced camcorder. Now everyone can do it.

I call BS on this. Even if mother's aren't looking at their kids while breastfeeding, it doesn't mean they are not totally taken in by their children in their lives. You're going to have bad mothers of course that watch TV all day and don't do anything or even worse mothers who smoke crack all day and yell at their kids, but I think good parents, at least the ones I've seen around me, are still pretty selfless in giving tremendous amounts of time and attention to their children.

Sometimes that even means looking through apps recommendations and finding the best educational apps and tools for them. It's not different than any other era. The medium has just changed.