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

Post by robotresearcher » Sat, Sep 19, 2020, 2:24 AM UTC

porknubbins wrote: post #253

frereubu wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've met a lot of people over the years who have computing of some kind as their job and had hobbies which are a complete contrast - blacksmithing, gardening, cabinet making. Anecdotally I do see fewer and fewer of these kinds of mixes. In general it feels healthier to have a hobby that drags your attention back into the physical world, but having said that there's something so wonderful about exploring all the knowl…

I’m stuck in a big city where those real world hobbies you mentioned are prohibitively expensive. I remember it was about 5 years ago when I realized activities I did offline started to feel like like self indulgent frivolity and anything that mattered long term mostly happened or started in front of a computer (or phone/computer combo). This is an insane shift to me from even 10-15 years ago where the physical world…

Post by mkskm » Sat, Sep 19, 2020, 2:28 AM UTC

kashyapc wrote: post #200

Many here might know this, but worth mentioning again: A simple but underrated remedy to reduce the colourful appeal of a "smartphone" is to put it in black-and-white mode (i.e. gray scale). On Android you can do it this way: 'Developer options' --> 'Simulate color space' --> 'Monochromacy' I couple that with: + Turning off all notifications. + I don't use any of the run-of-the-mill social media for about 7 years. +…

Post by krackers » Sat, Sep 19, 2020, 2:55 AM UTC

Andrex wrote: post #257

slothtrop wrote: post #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…

I've had success whitelisting sites using the Chrome Block Site extension[1], and I'm considering just switching to whitelisted sites-only full-time. (Right now, I have it scheduled for the morning hours so I can get things done.) At that point the laptop becomes more of a single-purpose "get things done" machine rather than a general purpose device I can waste hours clicking around on. :) Consumption-wise, it's led…

Post by non-entity » Sat, Sep 19, 2020, 3:26 AM UTC

m0zg wrote: post #196

jessemcbride wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a great observation. We chase the noise all the time, but what would happen if we let ourselves be bored instead?

Another observation is, boredom (at least for me) is a necessary pre-requisite for thinking deeply about things. I've noticed this years ago when I was at Google. When a hard problem would arise (which was nearly every day), I'd go for a long walk outside, leaving my phone on my desk. By the end of the walk, I'd usually either have a solution, or a viable start of a solution. A lot of good work was done on those walk…

Post by sasaf5 » Sat, Sep 19, 2020, 4:01 AM UTC