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Study finds memory decline surge in young people

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Re: Study finds memory decline surge in young people

#141

Post by unaindz »

antisthenes wrote: post #119
tharne wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm starting to think ADHD is isn't a disorder at all. It's like obesity, if something afflicts 2% of the population, it's an individual disorder or issue. If it afflicts 20%+ of the population, it's either a systems/societal issue, or even more likely, a common personality trait that just happens to be very undesirable at this particular moment in time.

ADHD is in part an adaptation to being bombarded with information in the Internet era. I'm sure it's a legitimate disorder in the most severe cases as well, but like most psych quackery, there are way too many doctors and patients (80%+) too eager to self-diagnose and put people on a prescription and call it a day. Doctors get money from pharma and people get to use their "disorder" as a convenient excuse for everyth…

How is it an adaptation? My understanding is that the internet era disrupts ADHD people the most.

Re: Study finds memory decline surge in young people

#142

Post by lrvick »

dpark wrote: post #124
31337Logic wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pro Tip: Other parents sometimes need to be told NO, especially when it comes to matters of tech. I believe their heart is in the right place but most of them don't know the first thing about the dangers of social media, gps tracking, cellphone addiction, frequent video calls, etc. If enough pressure is applied, then it will be the norm for your local community of kids to spend time in real life together vs. 100% onl…

> 100% online in a digital scaremongered world The irony of posting scaremongering about video calls being dangerous on a digital forum while claiming to be offline to avoid scaremongering. > If enough pressure is applied You cannot force the rest if your community to align with your personal viewpoints. There is no amount of “pressure” that is going to bend society to your will.

Smoking is dropping like a brick as a result of science, education, and social pressure. Just takes a while.

Re: Study finds memory decline surge in young people

#143

Post by add-sub-mul-div »

boxerab wrote: post #101

spike protein is known to travel across the blood brain barrier https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35052867/ But of course something introduced between 2013 and 2023 that gets your cells to manufacture spike protein, with no way of regulating the spike dose, couldn't possibly be connected with memory decline.

You people are suffering from something worse than long covid.

Re: Study finds memory decline surge in young people

#144

Post by lrvick »

apexalpha wrote: post #70
lrvick wrote: post #64

Since giving up my cell phone entirely over 5 years ago, my productivity, memory, and overall happiness are at the highest levels they have ever been, in my late 30s. I no longer apologize to anyone for this lifestyle choice anymore since the benefits are something everyone deserves, but almost all opt out of today for made up reasons. I take photos with a pocket mirrorless, and take notes with a notebook. I tell tim…

So you not have extended family or friends in your daily social setting? Like this sounds awesome but being offline for 23 hours in the day is unmanageable here, unless you live a very solitary life.

I live in silicon valley, have an active social life, travel frequently, have a family I spend time with every day, and am co-running two tech companies.

People did all of these things before smartphones and all those methods still work just fine today.

Re: Study finds memory decline surge in young people

#145

Post by rpdillon »

lrvick wrote: post #140
rpdillon wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The purpose of my comment was to point out that just because you've found a solution that works for you does not mean it is generalizable and should be turned into a rule for the entire population.

To be clear on my views. 1. I am entirely convinced minors should not have smartphones and every study supports this being a net negative. 2. I feel most adults are better off without them too, but it is an adult choice. For most I suggest deleting a frequently used app ever month until you stop seeing benefits.

The study we're discussing drew no such conclusion. There's a very disturbing pattern of studies coming out and being summarized by people with an agenda that choose to draw conclusions that are not supported by the study they're discussing. This is definitely true of social media studies, and I suspect it's true of mobile phone studies as well, although maybe you can provide a couple that you think are airtight and I can take a look.

Re: Study finds memory decline surge in young people

#146

Post by lrvick »

apexalpha wrote: post #83
testing22321 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also have no phone. I have tons of friends and a very active social life - in person. I bump into friends in town, at the ski hill, at the bar and grocery store. I ask people for the time, directions and how their day is going. I’ll never have a phone.

Okay but what if daycare needs you to pick up your kid? People expect to be able to reach you…

I am near a landline 90% of the time, am reachable by internet during working hours on weekdays, and go to my desk to check emails and chats multiple times a day on weekends. It turns out you do not need to be reachable or online every second of every day to do virtually anything in the modern world including raising kids.

Re: Study finds memory decline surge in young people

#147

Post by lrvick »

dpark wrote: post #116
lrvick wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you wanted to be vegan as a personal choice and everyone in your life wanted you to eat meat anyway, who cares? No one gets to decide your lifestyle but you. Make them adapt. You can get landlines (via a VOIP conversion box or otherwise), and beyond that what do you really need if you are honest?

This is just circular arguing. > it’s not manageable to be offline all the time here > it is if you’re all offline together > but everyone doesn’t want to be offline with me > just be offline by yourself; what’s the big deal? The big deal is all the stuff called out above. My kids school, child care, my work, pizza delivery, everyone has built up infrastructure that assumes virtually always online. If it works for yo…

I have an active social life, spent years as a sysadmin, co-run two tech companies, have a family, all without a phone.

This is not some crazy sci-fi lifestyle experiment I am running for the first time. I just live mostly like all industrialized humans did before 2009.

Re: Study finds memory decline surge in young people

#148

Post by lrvick »

jodrellblank wrote: post #110
lrvick wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you use tap to pay, you are sending information about your purchases and location to dozens of ad tech companies, and are still participating in the very surveillance capitalism that makes everyone stupider for money. I also pay with cash for privacy, and to use my privilege to constantly demand it as an option so the unbanked who cannot advocate for themselves can still participate in society.

> I also pay with cash for privacy Somewhat privacy. When you take cash out of an ATM, surely the serial numbers will be recorded as being dispensed to you. And when the shop pays those notes into the bank, they will be connected to the shop's account. "lrvick took this note out November 4th on Main Street, Pretend Grocery Store on West Street paid it in on November 7th". Maybe the note will be given in change and pa…

> Somewhat privacy. When you take cash out of an ATM, surely the serial numbers will be recorded as being dispensed to you.

For large bills that is true to some extent, but having worked closely with secret service in the past at multiple points, they have confirmed my suspicion that $20s and below are virtually impossible to track and they do not bother unless they are specifically giving you marked bills because you are already suspected of a crime.

Also avoiding tracking by a governments and tracking by surveillance capitalism are very different threat models.

Getting down to 0 tracking is of course impossible, but the less data we leak the less clear of a picture third parties get on how to predict and manipulate our behavior. Why help them?

Re: Study finds memory decline surge in young people

#149

Post by [deleted] »

jodrellblank wrote: post #110
lrvick wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you use tap to pay, you are sending information about your purchases and location to dozens of ad tech companies, and are still participating in the very surveillance capitalism that makes everyone stupider for money. I also pay with cash for privacy, and to use my privilege to constantly demand it as an option so the unbanked who cannot advocate for themselves can still participate in society.

> I also pay with cash for privacy Somewhat privacy. When you take cash out of an ATM, surely the serial numbers will be recorded as being dispensed to you. And when the shop pays those notes into the bank, they will be connected to the shop's account. "lrvick took this note out November 4th on Main Street, Pretend Grocery Store on West Street paid it in on November 7th". Maybe the note will be given in change and pa…

[deleted]

Re: Study finds memory decline surge in young people

#150

Post by lrvick »

rpdillon wrote: post #102
lrvick wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you use tap to pay, you are sending information about your purchases and location to dozens of ad tech companies, and are still participating in the very surveillance capitalism that makes everyone stupider for money. I also pay with cash for privacy, and to use my privilege to constantly demand it as an option so the unbanked who cannot advocate for themselves can still participate in society.

Absolutely agree. It just has nothing to do with self-reported memory and cognitive decline, which is the subject of the article.

I think it is totally related. The more information you give surveillance capitalists about what you buy at the drug store, or liqueur store, or movie theater, when you leave home, etc. the more power you give them to manipulate you and keep you addicted to their platforms.

As a former professional magician with a background in studying mentalism, I can assure you ALL of us can be manipulated and distracted by entities that have enough seemingly small and insignificant bits of information about our daily routines in their widely sold and cross-indexed databases.

The less data you give these entities, the more boring targeted content and ads become, and the more attention you will have left for things that matter.

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