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Study finds memory decline surge in young people

onepercentrule.substack.com

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Re: Study finds memory decline surge in young people

#161

Post by ryandrake »

dpark wrote: post #160
ryandrake wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think anyone said it's trivial, but they are saying it is 1. possible, and 2. overall a positive change. But merely that has upset people in this thread.

No one is actually upset by this. “oMG why are you so triggered?!” My point was that the person I replied to ignored the entire chain to reply as if they were actually answering the question, which they were not. I agree this is not actually impossible. Is it an overall positive change? That’s debatable.

I've also posted in the past about the joys and benefits of either leaving your phone uncharged in your drawer, or at least turning on DND mode 24/7 and turning off all calls and notifications, and for whatever reason, a lot of people here have this visceral reaction to the mere suggestion that it's possible and enjoyable to operate this way. People throw all the predictable excuses up as reasons why it's unmanageable: Kids, daycare, school, the office... all things they imagine are totally unworkable offline.

I think if you toss off the shackles and just try it for a week, you might find that things kind of take care of themselves, the world still turns and life finds a way. Nobody REALLY expects you to be online and reachable 24/7--we just have this weird phone FOMO that makes us think there is this expectation.

Re: Study finds memory decline surge in young people

#162

Post by apexalpha »

SoftTalker wrote: post #88
apexalpha wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

We managed these problems before everyone had a mobile phone.

Yes but back then people also didn't expect you to have one. Society wasn't built around it.

Re: Study finds memory decline surge in young people

#163

Post by Emma_Goldman »

crims0n wrote: post #75
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…

I love the sentiment, but some of us need to be reachable for work. I wonder if PagerDuty could be rigged up to work with actual pagers?

I use the app screenzen. It rations distracting apps and retrains you to use your phone as a functional device again. I now only use my phone for messaging, emails, maps and spotify, but can still access Chrome when I need. A perfect balance.

Re: Study finds memory decline surge in young people

#164

Post by apexalpha »

lrvick wrote: post #146
apexalpha wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Oh, this sounds like you work from home and can just substitute your landline and PC for 90% of contact, this wouldn't nearly work like this for most people.

Envy you a bit, though.

Re: Study finds memory decline surge in young people

#165

Post by jodrellblank »

lrvick wrote: post #148
jodrellblank wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 yo…

Why would it be virtually impossible for a bank to put an OCR camera on a bill counting machine?

I didn’t mean the state tracking you, I meant the bank doing it so they can sell the data behind the scenes for the usual marketing reasons.

Re: Study finds memory decline surge in young people

#166

Post by rpdillon »

lrvick wrote: post #150
rpdillon wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 entiti…

Sounds like you'd expect a study on this to show that use of tap to pay leads to mental health decline.

I think we've strayed too far from the original study.

Re: Study finds memory decline surge in young people

#167

Post by Thorrez »

lrvick wrote: post #84
kibwen wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last Monday in a fit of exasperation I turned my phone into airplane mode. And that's where I left it, for an entire week. I swear this was the most productive week of work I've ever had in my professional career. It's astonishing. On the weekend I wanted to call my mom and yet I dreaded taking it off airplane mode. I'm going to try doing this for the foreseeable future.

You can do wifi calling in airplane mode. Left ours in this mode by default for months at first and then realized we could just cancel the cell phone plan entirely to save money. Wifi is everywhere when you need it.

What about using your phone for navigation?

Re: Study finds memory decline surge in young people

#168

Post by autoexec »

Thorrez wrote: post #167
lrvick wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can do wifi calling in airplane mode. Left ours in this mode by default for months at first and then realized we could just cancel the cell phone plan entirely to save money. Wifi is everywhere when you need it.

What about using your phone for navigation?

You can buy standalone GPS systems or use the one built into your car. Maps also exist

Re: Study finds memory decline surge in young people

#169

Post by autoexec »

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…

> My kids school, child care, my work, pizza delivery, everyone has built up infrastructure that assumes virtually always online.

Is there actually a pizza place that refuses to bring a pizza to someone without a cell phone app being involved? Like they have no phone number you can call from a landline or a website where you could place an order? Odds are good that you could get by just fine letting your kids school/daycare know your email address/landline phone number. Some people's work is much less flexible, but everything else should be accommodating people without cell phones.

Re: Study finds memory decline surge in young people

#170

Post by autoexec »

dpark wrote: post #155
lrvick wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is still not an answer to the comment chain. The real answer is “if you want to live this way, you give up a bunch of conveniences and have to deal with it.” It’s less convenient with schools, with childcare, with work, and everything else that assumes always online. > No one gets to decide your lifestyle but you. Make them adapt. Make them adapt is some nonsense. You’ve made multiple comments that through sheer…

> “if you want to live this way, you give up a bunch of conveniences and have to deal with it.”

You would give up conveniences, but you'd be giving up inconveniences as well. It's a trade off that works extremely well for some people who are often surprised by how little effort it takes and how much happier and healthier they are. I doubt it's for everybody, but even then there are a lot of half-measures people can take to reduce the amount harm their cell phones are causing them and improve their lives.

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