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

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

#291

Post by wyclif »

ascar wrote: post #281
sjtindell wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing that kills me with this setup is having such different dev environments - I spend all day using particular tools, shortcuts, etc. on my work laptop (OSX) then when I try to use my personal computer (can virtualize whatever OS I want, most realistic is Ubuntu for dev) to do projects the flow is totally different and it really slows me down or I worry it will take too much mental bandwidth to switch.

The flipped ctrl/alt keys is the worst part for me. I really wish there was a setting in MacOS to flip them around without causing weird issues. Unfortunately, while you can flip ctrl/alt system-wide some apps already use the Linux/windows shortcuts (like terminal ctrl+c/ctrl+d for stop and exit) and then these are flipped, which drives me even more insane. The best shot is overwriting menu commands one by one, which…

It sounds like that instead of WSL2, you'd be a candidate for a power Linux distro (not Ubuntu) alone where you have rolling updates.

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

#292

Post by gentleman11 »

socalnate1 wrote: post #26
joshe wrote: post #18

"Journal of the Association for Consumer Research" and vague implied effects on mental state both pretty good indicators that this will not replicate. About half of psychology papers don't replicate anyway, the field has been doing some house cleaning, which is awesome, but needs to do a lot more. Oh you can add that all the researchers are marketing professors at business schools (one now at Snap). Good job on the m…

I find this response overly dismissive. Did you read the paper or just the abstract? Dismissing the work of marketing professors out of hand isn't the right approach. What if this is one of the half of psychology papers that do replicate?

I read part of the paper. Note the graphs where the y axis is as short as possible to make the effect size look larger. The title is explicitly non-serious. They also represent that they can measure cognitive capacity and fluid intelligence reliably and meaningfully, instead of presenting the data more clearly in the form of... data, eg, raw text scores. It also lacks the sort of control group that has a non-smartphone distraction present, so there isn't conclusive evidence that its the smartphone itself. What if it was a chessboard or a sandwich?

They need to hold themselves to more serious standards, this makes science itself look bad

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

#293

Post by nicbou »

fein wrote: post #243
ehnto wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am right there with you. I kicked the phone addiction in various ways, but I really like to work on personal projects and they're all on the computer, much like my work, so I'm always on my computer. I have a few tricks. I have a work laptop and a gaming computer, and I do all my personal work on the gaming computer. That helps separate the two. I have a workspace which gets me out of the house and keeps me focused…

I just do whatever I need to for work, then hop down to the garage and build guns or work on my project car. Other days I work on the lawn and property. It seems to work unless I pick up side gigs programming, then I end up spending the whole day behind a laptop anyway, but at least it's all constructive work and not pissing away time on the internet.

I try, but I realised that as soon as I sit on the computer, there's a 70%+ chance that I get sucked in. Then it feeds me just enough dopamine to discourage starting a more rewarding activity. It can take hours to break out of it.

On the other hand, if I don't touch the computer before noon, there's a solid chance I'll end up in the garage building things.

Unfortunately, I'll still need my laptop at some point, either to do research for a project or check things off my todo list. Just like that, I get sucked in.

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

#294

Post by [deleted] »

qz2 wrote: post #228
sjtindell wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing that kills me with this setup is having such different dev environments - I spend all day using particular tools, shortcuts, etc. on my work laptop (OSX) then when I try to use my personal computer (can virtualize whatever OS I want, most realistic is Ubuntu for dev) to do projects the flow is totally different and it really slows me down or I worry it will take too much mental bandwidth to switch.

I had the same problem for a bit. I used windows at work and OSX at home. The context switching was hell. I gave in eventually and use windows at home now as well. And you know what? It turned out cheaper, better and faster even though 99% of what I do is on Linux, in a VM.

[deleted]

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

#295

Post by nicbou »

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…

I moved a little further out to have access to a garage. Even before that, I had my motorcycle, my bicycle, my ice skates, a well-equipped kitchen, board games etc.

You are right though. The good stuff happens behind a keyboard.

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

#296

Post by nottorp »

perlgod wrote: 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…

Just turn off all notifications :)

In time you'll stop checking constantly.

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

#297

Post by abhayhegde »

How do you guys cope up with the lack of social media presence? I understand the drama and inattention it brings, but what about the urge to connect with people or learn from others? Also, is it beneficial not to have an online portfolio when it comes to jobs or opportunities?

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

#298

Post by bcoughlan »

stevensawtelle wrote: post #15
perlgod wrote: 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…

Can you talk more to the practicalities of getting rid of a smartphone? Have you seriously found that the loss of the conveniences they bring haven't been that burdensome? I am really intrigued by the idea but find it almost inconceivable to work for me (which might speak to an addiction, so I feel compelled to understand this further)

I moved back to a Nokia feature-phone for a few years. I missed out on social events by not having WhatsApp. The real problem app for me was the browser. Now I have a smartphone now with some modifications: rooted, removed Play Store and Chrome. If I want to have a browser for a few days I download and sideload the Firefox APK. If I get into bad habits I just remove it again.

I also have a Kindle, and instead of reading on the computer I use the "Send to Kindle" extension so I can read them in depth later. It's just too hard to focus on the screen, especially because I'm usually browsing articles as a means of procrastination anyways.

People find it bizarre and hilarious when I explain my smartphone setup, but compared to a few years ago the reactions are much more understanding, because even non-tech people these days recognize that they have a problem. It has also done wonders for my attention span. I wonder if the reason public discourse has gone to shit is because people struggle to consume info longer than a tweet.

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

#300

Post by ascar »

wyclif wrote: post #291
ascar wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The flipped ctrl/alt keys is the worst part for me. I really wish there was a setting in MacOS to flip them around without causing weird issues. Unfortunately, while you can flip ctrl/alt system-wide some apps already use the Linux/windows shortcuts (like terminal ctrl+c/ctrl+d for stop and exit) and then these are flipped, which drives me even more insane. The best shot is overwriting menu commands one by one, which…

It sounds like that instead of WSL2, you'd be a candidate for a power Linux distro (not Ubuntu) alone where you have rolling updates.

While I don't mind a specialized setup for work, you often don't really have a choice there or it comes with a lot of corporate pain. Just using whatever your team is using is the way of least friction.

At home I'm using my computer also for gaming and Windows is again simply the way of least friction.

I've run a hardware switch for my hard drives for a few years to switch between Linux and Windows (effectively cutting off power from some of my drives). However, this means I have to fully shutdown the system to switch environments and I saw myself mostly rather spin up a Ubuntu VM in Windows for personal projects.

I hope WSL2 brings the best of both worlds with the least friction.

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