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The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity (2017)

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141–150 of 379 posts

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity (2017)

#141
I used to be addicted to my laptops. I used to over-work and when I was not working I was reading a lot of articles and spending time on news and some social networks. Even if I am selective with who I add as friends and follow, it is a lot of time that does not have good ROI. It was pretty much no stop activity since I woke up to when I was going to sleep.

I stopped completely using computers except for work. It has been pretty hard transition.

What happened is that I shifted to use a lot more my smartphone.

I tried to keep it in airplane mode or turn off the data for most of the time. I also tried to have different devices for different activities.

Switching to a dumb phone seems extreme but I am wondering if it is the final solution.

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity (2017)

#142
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have interpreted the parent exceedingly uncharitably. If one partner in a monogamous relationship suddenly announces that from that day forth there shall be no more sex, the other partner is certainly within their rights to be upset. Most people aren't signed up to the idea of never having sex again. Consent is never optional, but neither should it be unreasonably withheld in a monogamous relationship in which se…

>You have interpreted the parent exceedingly uncharitably. Perhaps I have. However, I don't see how much more "charitably" I can interpret what they wrote. Or do you think that I'm wrong in my assertion? >If one partner in a monogamous relationship suddenly announces that from that day forth there shall be no more sex, the other partner is certainly within their rights to be upset. I don't disagree with that statemen…

> I don't disagree with that statement at all. But I stand by my assertion that no one is obligated to sexually satisfy anyone else.

i would argue that no one is obligated to do anything at all thanks to free will. culturally, societally, or otherwise, well--that's a different story

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity (2017)

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I spent a good chunk of the last few years in physical therapy. Before sessions in the waiting room, and during the period of the session where they're applying heat/cooling or electricity I got a lot of reading done. I had a rule, broken recently and I need to restore it, of no electronics in my sitting room. Made it a very productive reading area as well. No laptop, tablet, kindle [0], or phone. At most I listened…

> Part of the problem was I started reading some programming books and wanted to code up things along with the text (like working through math exercises while reading a math book). I tagged along on my then-girlfriend's business trip to LA because I had never been to California. She had the car and work during the day so there wasn't much I could do until she got back in the evenings. I had brought along a book on pe…

Yep. Practically, I learned to program mostly by reading BASIC listings back around 1990-1992 and would have time on my parents' computer in the afternoon/evening to try and type things up. A lot of my code was hypothetical (never executed).

In college at GT circa 2000, this was how the first CS course was also taught (with a pseudocode language). I liked it, I learned the ins and outs of data structures and algorithms (though not a specific language), but most student hated it. I've periodically handwritten substantial (but not huge, think 1-5k lines) amounts of code to good effect. Usually, when typed in the errors were mostly transcription errors. Of course, I also elided large repetitive sections and developed a shorthand (like I'd use indentation rather than noting every curly brace, used min..max notation, etc.).

I originally learned Haskell with this approach (I came across the notebook I'd used while preparing for my move earlier this year) as well, but that language is particularly well-suited to being handwritten compared to many other languages (it's brief, but not imprecise, and promotes algebraic reasoning).

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity (2017)

#145
post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I put my phone in "do not disturb" mode for the entire day. Removing notifications altogether was a great improvement, without getting rid of the phone altogether. You go from responding to picking it up when you decide to.

As someone who has been doing the DND mode for over 8 years now to avoid expecting notifications, it instead has taught me to reach over to my phone every 30 seconds to check the screen for any new ones :( i've started to just chuck it somewhere if I'm trying to focus

I go through and explicitly disable notifications for almost every app. I don't really need to be interrupted to find out someone liked a photo, or that there's something in the news, or that it's raining, or that some new shit shipped from eBay. So even if I do check my phone, I pretty much only have (and then only silent) notifications for messengers. My wife and close friends know that if they need to get me immediately that they can send me a real SMS.

When I got a new phone about 6 months ago, I spent about a week horrified by the number of notifications that I was getting by default.

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity (2017)

#146
New hot take: I'm addicted to my laptop. The phone barely registers in terms of interest because I work on my laptop anyway, which is less cumbersome to navigate.

Notwithstanding the need to separate work from leisure life, much of leisure is just attached to this device. Even the less consumptive activities, like writing or playing music, benefit from it. And anything to do with innovation or research is absolutely tied to it. This has been amplified somewhat owing to the pandemic, keeping me from activities out-in-the-world, but even before it all happened I merely had the gym and the odd outing to the coffee shop on the regular, and weekly/bi-weekly outings with friends.

It's a mechanical issue. By which I mean, I enjoy research at leisure and relatively solitary activities, but at the same time I want to pull away from being in front of a screen; it hasn't to do with consumption versus creativity or challenge. I try to remedy this with scheduled walks, and enough social time. Historically I imagine a person like myself would just be stuck in front of books instead, which I do also, but so much info can be gleaned from the web particularly research papers.

EDIT: this concerns me more-so now as we'll be trying for a kid, and I'd like to lead by example.

What I'd like to see in the future is AR tech that rewards mobility and in-person interaction, creating collaborative spaces anywhere. That may seem like more of the same problem, but the marriage with technology will only deepen, so it's up to us to set the terms.

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity (2017)

#147
post #10

Getting rid of my smartphone was without a doubt the most positive thing I ever did for myself. I'm sure some people have the self-control to use it sparingly. But for me, not having to constantly fight the urge to check my always-connected magic pocket internet portal has freed up a huge amount of my mental willpower, which I can now redirect to other more important things. Now that everything is closed, I don't eve…

Gah, I need to do this so bad. Lately I've admitted to myself that I'm truly addicted to my phone. I go through phases of blocking safari, deleting all my non-essential apps, etc, but they always find a way to slowly creep back into my life ("5 minutes of reddit won't hurt while my kids are playing on their own...."). I'm realizing that I am just one of those people who can't handle even having it as an option. Thank…

Something I realized recently is that I'm not addicted to social media or any apps in particular, but I am addicted to my phone. I managed to give up pretty much all social media, save for an occasional peek at reddit and this site, but still take out my phone about as often as I did before. Mostly I just check the news for the umpteenth time in a day. My current plan is to keep using my phone, but switch to using it for more productive things. For example, I started using Anki for memorization and I use a bunch of music theory/sight-reading apps.

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity (2017)

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Managing the appetites requires self-denial. In the case of married couples, the spouse has a moral obligation to satisfy the other sexually within moral and reasonable limits (i.e., sexual abuse or objectification of the other is never admissible). Phone addiction is in this sense easier. It can also be managed through abstinence or even eliminated cold turkey if you wish because we have no intrinsic desire for phon…

>In the case of married couples, the spouse has a moral obligation to satisfy the other sexually within moral and reasonable limits (i.e., sexual abuse or objectification of the other is never admissible). I can't agree with those statements. No one, not your spouse, not your significant other and not anyone else is obliged to provide sexual satisfaction to you or anyone else. What's more, while consent is never opti…

Society will praise your virtuous stance for its anti-rape sentiments, but your views are equally or perhaps more arbitrary than his Judeo-Christian view. Note that saying a spouse has a "moral obligation" is different than saying the other spouse has the right to demand and force the fulfillment of the obligation.

I mean, it makes sense too. When my girl wants good D, I'm (morally) obliged to give it to her. That's part of the premise of a sexual relationship. I'm not going to deprive her of something that she relies on me for- after all, by virtue of our establishment of monogamous mutual exclusivity, she has to come to me for the fulfillment of that primal desire. She could go get the D from any guy she wants. I have good D, and she knows she can rely on me not to deprive her (and I mean truly deprive, not just playing hard-to-get-i-know-you-want-this deprive). The same goes for her. There is a metaphorical refusal to take no for an answer that comes with a healthy sexual monogamous relationship.

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity (2017)

#150
post #50

Do you believe this effect applies to you? If not, why. If you believe in this effect, and still keep a smartphone, why?

Just like many addictions, just because you know the negative side-effects doesn't mean you are willing to give up the activity. Plenty of people know how bad fast food or smoking can be, but the trade off of feeling good while doing it is too good to pass up.

A lot of times I find myself picking up the phone to message one person, but I end up on a 15 minute journey scrolling through whatever social media I am on and almost forget my initial intention. Disciple is obviously a big factor here.

I think this can be managed without totally getting rid of your smartphone. Like the saying goes: "out of sight, out of mind". Everyone's mileage will vary though, just my 2c

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