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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

#371

Post by Wissmania »

mmirate wrote: post #142
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…

> there will always be people who choose trivial entertainment, and there will always be folks who chase knowledge and self improvement That's why the entire thing seems like a non-issue to me. If some people don't want to do anything useful with their lives, then who are we to prohibit them from continuing to do-nothing and thereby starving themselves? (Of course, we already, rightfully, prohibit people from harming…

I think this is just way too simplistic of a view of it. People won't just follow two exact patterns of behavior regardless of their environment. We all have, to varying extents, a proclivity to instant dopamine-based gratification.

The difference now is that the technology that now exists makes this sort of gratification both constantly available, and better than ever at scratching that dopamine itch.

The evidence the article presents also points towards something happening after the advent of smartphones, and not before.

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

#372

Post by peatmoss »

jf wrote: post #287
peatmoss wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AFAIK, you still need the iPhone, but it can remain plugged in at home.

Yeah. You need the iPhone. It's primarily used to configure the watch, I also suspect that the iPhone proxies some of the requests to the phone, though I'm not sure. I just leave mine plugged in at home.

Can I message you in a month to see how your experiment is going? If you've ever had a desire to blog, I'd love to see a Medium post or similar.

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

#373

Post by ehnto »

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…

That is a very generous view. Many people are just scrolling aimlessly through a feed and not engaging at all. The addictive nature of the feed keeps them scrolling even when they can realistically gain nothing of value by continuing. That is the core of the issue.

I know what a rich and enjoyable online experience is like as for the better part of my life I spent most of it online. Facebook and instagram and other feed based sites are nothing like that. Most people don't engage that much with their feeds outside of hitting a like button or two, which is hardly a wonder of human social interaction.

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

#374

Post by chainsaw10 »

audaxion wrote: post #145
techman9 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This to me smacks of fear and really some perverse form of protectionism. The whole idea of "schooling" is built upon the premise that there is some fundamental set of knowledge that it's important for students to master before they can function in the world. However, with the advent of computers, the internet, and their miniaturization in the form of smart phones, any piece of human knowledge is instantly retrievabl…

It's context. The purpose of memorization, etc. is so that when you look at more complex ideas and concepts, you're not wasting cognitive load on foundational concepts like basic arithmetic.

Very well said.

To directly answer GP's question:

I took a differential equations class last semester, where the easy part of quite a few problems was to solve a quadratic equation. And it was easy, because my algebra classes had correctly required me to practice that skill (and memorize the quadratic formula).

So, you say, I'm never going to take differential equations. And you very well might not. I have two responses to that:

1) That's true, you might not, but the guy sitting next to you will, and he doesn't even know it yet. If you were allowed to opt out of that subject, you both would, and he wouldn't even have a chance to make up for it later.

2) There are plenty of other subjects where the easy part is an algebra concept, and it's only easy because you practiced it years before.

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

#375

Post by uhhhhhhh »

naiyt wrote: post #347
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).

They addressed it by waving their hands and insisting its different, that doesn't equate to a valid argument. That also doesn't change that the methods and impacts are all the same, the only difference is scale, which is my point.

If you want to get into details, the article addresses it by saying "Unlike TVs and desktop computers, which are typically relegated to a den or home office".

That is disingenuous and naive at best, outright misleading and wrong at worse.

Laptops have been around a long time, TV's are making their way into more rooms in the house, waiting rooms, restaurants, even many businesses are putting tv's in lobbies and other places. Walk through any major city's shopping district and tell me there isn't a deluge of televisions in every direction/in every window, if you do you're either blind or being dishonest.

And every single technique used by smartphones to capture your attention applies to laptops, desktops, tablets, television, to pretend otherwise is to ignore the past.

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

#377

Post by david_shaw »

nkkollaw wrote: post #321
bonestamp2 wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you don‘t want your kids to read your emails, you need to buy them their own iPad. You're right. But I still think I would buy my kid their own iPad even if my iPhone/iPad had a kid mode. My kid has their own iPad and I still find times when it would be ideal to give them access to the basic features on my phone/ipad. Frankly, if iOS just added the ability to password protect any app then that would be good enou…

iOS lets you block access to a single app, so that even if they click the home button they can't go anywhere else.

I hadn't heard of that. How do you use this feature?

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

#378

Post by Nition »

nitemice wrote: post #286
bonestamp2 wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you don‘t want your kids to read your emails, you need to buy them their own iPad. You're right. But I still think I would buy my kid their own iPad even if my iPhone/iPad had a kid mode. My kid has their own iPad and I still find times when it would be ideal to give them access to the basic features on my phone/ipad. Frankly, if iOS just added the ability to password protect any app then that would be good enou…

Your last use-case is sort of covered by Android's screen pinning feature[0]. You have to enable it in settings, but it's useful, and seems to work well. [0] https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/6118421?hl=en This link is for Nexus, but I think it's included in all version of Android since 5.0 Lollipop.

iOS has this too, it's called Guided Access.

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

#379

Post by Nition »

david_shaw wrote: post #377
nkkollaw wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iOS lets you block access to a single app, so that even if they click the home button they can't go anywhere else.

I hadn't heard of that. How do you use this feature?

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202612

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

#380

Post by AFNobody »

cpsempek wrote: post #246
AFNobody wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Could this not be said about drugs and alcohol? And while it may indeed be beneficial to use drugs and alcohol in a balanced, well moderated way, the downside risk seems to great to me to be suggesting this to a society. Over half of fatalities in cars have nothing to do with DUI-type impairment. Would you ban those as well? But lets say you ban alcohol and re-create the problems of the Prohibition. Banning the way…

That's reasonable, certainly alcohol has real effects beyond the scope of the dangers of mindless games, or, marijuana even. I didn't intend to suggest games have the same types of effects as DUIs, a shortsighted comparison on my end. I am more interested in how a position of moderation is in theory attractive, and may even show benefits in controlled situations, but in practice use of substances or mobile games can…

> I am more interested in how a position of moderation is in theory attractive, and may even show benefits in controlled situations, but in practice use of substances or mobile games can lead to excessive use (i.e., abuse) and have a net negative on a user physically, mentally, emotionally, financially, etc.

Some people, unfortunately, have personalities that are vulnerable to be exploited (at the most cynical case). However, if we are being really honest, the same is true of things like sex addicts.

The reason we are reacting to this is the newness of it and the fact it is being marketed to kids. Really, the only restriction that might be reasonable, is restrictions on childhood consumption.

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