I've stopped using smartphones 'cause started to feel yourself like "Walking dead" personage: public transport, stores, streets - many people like zombies watching inside their screens. This is really scaring. And of course the one of the biggest factors of loneliness epidemic around the world.
Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? (2017)
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Re: Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? (2017)
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
What a great summary. Tho I think the part about issues our society faces is a lot bigger than those few examples. Educated people have more than ever reasons to be depressed now: - pollution - economic stagnation - inflation - antibiotics failing - global warming - debt - automation and artifical intelligence - politics failing to tackle those issues (its a circus in some countries) - issues like Brexit - natural di…
I wouldn't overemphasis the troubles of the world. The main issues is that people don't get to enjoy progress to the extent necessary to create a sustainable prosperous society. Decommodifying housing, education and health care would solve 90% of the issue. Almost anything else can then be dealt with. Automation for example isn't a bad thing unless you also have accelerating inequality. Climate change isn't bad unles…
Curious what the housing solution your calling for there would be. How do you decomodditize (?) real estate?
Re: Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? (2017)
#63I've stopped using smartphones 'cause started to feel yourself like "Walking dead" personage: public transport, stores, streets - many people like zombies watching inside their screens. This is really scaring. And of course the one of the biggest factors of loneliness epidemic around the world.
And of course the one of the biggest factors of loneliness epidemic around the world.
Are people lonely because they're using their phones more, or do they use their phones more because they're lonely?
Re: Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? (2017)
#64Has TV destroyed a generation?
Heck, the internet, radio, movies, the telegraph have all "destroyed" generations. People change, generations are different. That's the way the world works.
The previous generation was fighting world war. This generation is fighting with itself. What is bad? I am not so sure. To see long term effects of this we will have to wait.
One thing is sure though after world war people changed and hopefully the self destruction mode of this generation might change themselves. Maybe for good or bad. Again we will have to wait.
Re: Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? (2017)
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
Heck, the internet, radio, movies, the telegraph have all "destroyed" generations. People change, generations are different. That's the way the world works.
The previous generation was fighting world war. This generation is fighting with itself. What is bad? I am not so sure. To see long term effects of this we will have to wait. One thing is sure though after world war people changed and hopefully the self destruction mode of this generation might change themselves. Maybe for good or bad. Again we will have to wait.
The generation of todays teenagers parents didn't fight a world war. Even their parents typically didn't.
Re: Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? (2017)
#66I've stopped using smartphones 'cause started to feel yourself like "Walking dead" personage: public transport, stores, streets - many people like zombies watching inside their screens. This is really scaring. And of course the one of the biggest factors of loneliness epidemic around the world.
And I keep repeating: with the proliferation of IMs, those "zombies watching inside their screens" are likely engaged in a much richer social life than the generations before them. Smartphones and the Internet removed the impact of space and diminished the impact of time on communication. What do you think these "zombies" are doing with their screens? In a big part, they're talking to other people!
Also, the obligatory photo: https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*U36hBj8i-C7JJJxS4....
Re: Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? (2017)
#67Smartphones and social media have begun to represent this weird post-modern phenomena of the destruction of social relationships. So few social experiences happen through a non-cybernetic medium now. The average number of interactions a person has online now must be higher than those offline. Platforms like Facebook or Twitter don't connect us with more people, they detach us from more people and connect us to their…
On the other hand.....surely there is some value to being able to communicate instantly with people from vastly different geographies and backgrounds? Like, I'm talking daily to two guys from about 4000km away, and I don't even know what they look like - we just help each other on a gamedev group. If I have an issue with my car I can go to a dedicated group for that model on FB and ask literally hundreds of owners a…
It'd be interesting to see usage statistics about that. During my commute, I'm often talking to friends (both from the same city and from other continents) - but I also spend some amount of time on HN and Reddit, the latter being a lot more "time-filler" and less social activity. And even the more personal social networks (like Facebook, excluding Messenger) fell strongly in the latter category last I used them.
Re: Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? (2017)
#68This article/researcher makes claims that: a) there is a mental health crisis among teenagers which is not parallel to other comparable generations, and b) that crisis is linked to mobile phones. I'm not convinced by either claim. In my experience of working with teenagers over the last couple of decades, there is a general trend that they are now better at communicating their emotional needs and emotional state. If…
Finland has mandatory military service for males so the Finnish army gets sample of approximately 25,000 people in year and they are tested in all sorts of ways. It's a good way to get an idea what is happening. It confirms what you suspect.
Clear and statistically significant trends among young males:
* Younger generations have significantly better communication skills and ability to express themselves.
* More mental problems are reported and they cause more releases, but they are not necessarily increasing. Doctors are better trained to specially seek mental problems and take them more seriously. Other studies support this theory.
* On average young men are 7 kg heavier than in the 90's. Aerobic fitness is in rapid decline. Muscle strength has declined but only a little.
* IQ peaked in 1997 and has been decline but decline seems to plateau. Negative Flynn effect has ben observed in other countries as well (Norway, Denmark,Australia, Britain, Sweden and the Netherlands).
Re: Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? (2017)
#69More than a mental health crisis or go outside more, the biggest harm that social+smartphone has ever done is end of creating things . The new generation is spending huge amount of time in consumption and very little in creation. This is going to be a boon for the producers (book writers, movie makers etc) who will be in short supply for much larger consumption crowd. This will eventually be reflected in massive weal…
My 12 year old is very creative in Kerbal Space Program. And what he's trying to do is hard - things never work first time, and you have to spent a lot of time trying to figure out why. Sure, it's not how I learned, building go-karts and tree houses and simple electrical stuff, but it's still learning how to create and debug. A bigger problem for me is that today's generation have no hope in figuring out how things l…
Boy, is it hard to return to first principles for anyone now. Just my little student room contains thousands of laws I'm not familiar with yet vaguely dependent upon.
Re: Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? (2017)
#70This article/researcher makes claims that: a) there is a mental health crisis among teenagers which is not parallel to other comparable generations, and b) that crisis is linked to mobile phones. I'm not convinced by either claim. In my experience of working with teenagers over the last couple of decades, there is a general trend that they are now better at communicating their emotional needs and emotional state. If…
What a great summary. Tho I think the part about issues our society faces is a lot bigger than those few examples. Educated people have more than ever reasons to be depressed now: - pollution - economic stagnation - inflation - antibiotics failing - global warming - debt - automation and artifical intelligence - politics failing to tackle those issues (its a circus in some countries) - issues like Brexit - natural di…
Most of those things aren't really worth getting depressed over however. Economic stagnation? Civilisation was economically stagnant for more than 2,000 years and it wasn't a reason to get depressed. Ditto many other things
Anyone who gets depressed because of Brexit is just looking for a reason to be depressed. It is the lowest-stakes political crisis I could imagine.
Maybe people are getting depressed about those issues; but the solution is read less news and need to get better at filtering out things they can't control. If you consider all the things that can go wrong there never has and never will be an era that isn't depressing.
The only things on the list that are problems are antibiotics, global warming and healthcare - all of which are risks of falling out of the golden age of the last century back towards something that could be considered the normal human condition through most of history. They are also all completely solvable problems.