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My awakening moment about how smartphones fragment our attention span

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Re: My awakening moment about how smartphones fragment our attention span

#101

Post by winternett »

xerox13ster wrote: post #4

I did a digital detox in July of 2020, I had become overwhelmed with Discord and Reddit moderation and trying to Keep Up. I burned out hard. I turned off all electronics for a month and uninstalled the apps and restricted my phone use to calls and responding to 3 close friend's texts at a set time each day--I didn't keep it on me at all. No video games, no TV, no watch or music streaming. I had my library of local mu…

Now that app makers have realized we're muting our phones and disabling app notifications, they're doing them within the apps... It creates dependency and anxiety. The best way I've found to deal with the constant prodding is to simply leave my phone at home or in the car nearby whenever I want to enjoy a day or moment. It's a device I paid for, it shouldn't cause me stress.

Google and Apple can easily set up reasonable standards for app makers, but they chose not to, because they themselves are tied to the constant financial greed of the ecosystem. There is now no way to buy a highly useful device that isn't laden with advertising capabilities, and robust enough for you to disable tracking... The only way to limit all of that is to simply leave the devices and step away from them for sanity.

Talking to real people creates more dopamine for me than the Internet does now, it's a gift... We shouldn't ever take our ability to talk in real life with people for granted, because the Internet is turning fast into a distorted reality bent on spamming us for profit and scams now more than ever, and no one there cares about the damage they do until it shows up in their own households (far too late to fix the problems they caused).

Re: My awakening moment about how smartphones fragment our attention span

#102

Post by karmakaze »

hettygreen wrote: post #81

TL;DR. Can someone summarize this for me?

I did find it ironic that this is a long form essay that would be of most value to those with limited attention spans.

I agree with the content, though I've never had a problem with mobile devices as they're for zombie content scrolling rather than creating that takes a normal OS and program distribution. i.e. I can forget my phone somewhere all day no problem--not sure I'd easily make it through a day without my primary (or secondary) personal laptop.

Re: My awakening moment about how smartphones fragment our attention span

#103

Post by hirundo »

I fight this with the pomodoro app on my smartphone. Starting a "tomato" gives my subsconscious the permission it needs to ignore distractions for a small window. I can't say that this completely offsets the distraction, but it does mitigate it.

Re: My awakening moment about how smartphones fragment our attention span

#104

Post by helloworld11 »

One thing I do that makes my cell phone work well for exactly the opposite isto install en ebook reader app in it and use it to read more books than I previously did, on the go, whenever I have spare time. Some people can't handle this with their eyes, granted, but in my case it's never been a problem so far.

Also, I don't have any chat apps in my phone except whatsapp. Definitely no facebook app and even instagram, though present, is completely silenced. I also silence all notifications in general except phone calls.

All together, these things have helped keep the phone handy without it turning my brain to mush.

Re: My awakening moment about how smartphones fragment our attention span

#105

Post by Gigachad »

dudul wrote: post #100
codemonkey-zeta wrote: post #59

> When I pulled up at a stoplight waiting for the light to change, I would instinctively reached for my phone (mounted on my dash) to check my email (personal + work), check ESPN, look up something on Amazon, etc. While pumping gas in the car, I’d whip out my phone while waiting. Stuck in line somewhere? Time for my phone. Waiting in an elevator? The phone. Riding the train? The phone. Going to the bathroom? Make sur…

I remember the elevator thing hitting me pretty hard back around 2010/2011 when I had a job on the 9th floor of an office building. I realized that almost every single person stepping into the elevator would immediately pull out their phone and start playing with it. Even for a 3 floor ride that would take literally 5 seconds. They genuinely couldn't bare to not be entertained for 5 seconds. I assume things are even…

I pull out my phone even though I know there is no signal and that nothing will load. It’s more to avoid interaction with anyone else than entertainment.

Re: My awakening moment about how smartphones fragment our attention span

#106

Post by rapind »

winternett wrote: post #101
xerox13ster wrote: post #4

I did a digital detox in July of 2020, I had become overwhelmed with Discord and Reddit moderation and trying to Keep Up. I burned out hard. I turned off all electronics for a month and uninstalled the apps and restricted my phone use to calls and responding to 3 close friend's texts at a set time each day--I didn't keep it on me at all. No video games, no TV, no watch or music streaming. I had my library of local mu…

Now that app makers have realized we're muting our phones and disabling app notifications, they're doing them within the apps... It creates dependency and anxiety. The best way I've found to deal with the constant prodding is to simply leave my phone at home or in the car nearby whenever I want to enjoy a day or moment. It's a device I paid for, it shouldn't cause me stress. Google and Apple can easily set up reasona…

I recently find that anything on my phone or computer that tries to grab my attention, whether it's in an app or on a website, produces immediate annoyance from me. Even some genuinely helpful (but unnecessary) notifications. Popups, badges, dings, etc.

I hear about how "people" get a dopamine hit from the dings or whatever, and meanwhile I'm basically the opposite.

Re: My awakening moment about how smartphones fragment our attention span

#108

Post by downut »

vorpalhex wrote: post #32
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #7

Since I haven't been commuting or going many places, my phone mostly sits idle for days, unused. I watch my wife and daughter constantly in front of theirs and I don't understand. I hate using those little screens with terrible input and fundamentally boring distracting apps. The problem is though, I'm addicted to my computer. I'm not actually sure it's that much better.

Schedule a time where everyone agrees to not use screens. Dinner is a good starting point but ultimately, whatever works. Practice conversing and talking. Socialising is a muscle, and smartphones (and other devices) are a crutch that lets us avoid using that muscle.

We try hard to eat at the table together for all dinners and weekend breakfasts. Screens are strictly prohibited, even for guests. Some guests... hahaha, think this is quite the sacrifice. So what? My daughter has brought the convention to her group house.

When we eat out we try to do the same but because of the damn menus, translation app, etc. the screens still come out. We still are usually doing much better than the other tables in the restaurants. Helps to turn the devil device face down.

We think it is just so sad to see people out on a date, or even a clearly married older pair, each staring at their (own) screens.

Re: My awakening moment about how smartphones fragment our attention span

#109

Post by Beltalowda »

schw1804 wrote: post #80
wwilim wrote: post #62

Judging by the article I'm not doing terrible at all for someone under 30, despite the fact that I use my phone for continuous glucose monitoring, which means I can't live without it in a nearly literal sense. I can't remember what it was like 3-5 years ago though, it was probably worse, but after reading a few articles about the attention economy I started paying much more attention to what I was doing. The most ter…

I just wish organizations would quit pushing two-factor authentication on people who don't want it. If I have a 30-character passphrase (inspired by "correct horse battery staple") that I'll never need to write down, then do I really need additional protection for my accounts? (…yeah, probably I do and I'm just being naive; maybe someone will look over my shoulder in a coffee shop.) I miss the good old days when ther…

At least the 2FA solutions are pretty much all open; it would be much worse: "please install our proprietary app available only for these two proprietary systems".

Re: My awakening moment about how smartphones fragment our attention span

#110

Post by the_only_human »

k__ wrote: post #42
djvdq wrote: post #41

Oh, it's what I started to think about today. That I use my phone way too much and I have to fight it. Unfortunately, fight it again, because a few months ago I tried, it worked for a few weeks and then was back again even bigger :( I want to read some book and play some computer games. Neither is working for me because of some "problems"(?). In case of books I was aware that the phone is the problem. But in case of…

I'm trying to recalibrate my dopamine receptors for a few weeks to no avail. Maybe, it's not the right month. Too hot to do anything remotely complex.

it took your mind 2 million years to develop those receptors. good luck
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