Can't put down the phone? How smartphones are changing our brains — and lives
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Until a year and a half ago, Samuel Veissiere's smartphone was the last thing he saw before he fell asleep and the first thing that greeted him when he woke up. During the day, the device bombarded him with constant notifications — from four different email accounts as well as Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Reddit and Twitter.
"It was abominable," said Veissiere, co-director of the Culture, Mind and Brain Program at McGill University in Montreal.
It's also a daily storyline familiar to many of us. In the U.S., at least three of every four people now own a smartphone . And one estimate suggests that Americans touch their mobile devices more than 2,600 times a day on average. But what do all those pings and buzzes, scrolls and swipes actually add up to? Is it worrisome — or not so much? After all, Socrates once warned that writing would "introduce forgetfulness" and make people "difficult to get along with."
"I think we know enough now to be deeply concerned about how these very, very powerful and seductive devices are influencing pretty much every aspect of our life," said Nicholas Carr, a technology and culture author.
Veissiere and Carr are among researchers and public figures calling attention not just to the more widely discussed impacts of our phones — such as dinner disruptions and distracted drivers — but also to their subtler effects, which some fear could result in profound changes to our brains and to society.
Initial data from a $300-million study by the National Institutes of Health , for example, now provides evidence that a child's brain may indeed develop differently with heavy use of digital devices. Those of us whose brains matured before the first iPhone came to market in 2007 may also be vulnerable to mental changes. The more tethered we are to our phones, studies show, the harder it is to think deeply, attentively and conceptually — not to mention remember basic information . (Some of us may recall an era when our brains — not our devices — managed to remember our friends' phone numbers and birthdays.)
LAWS OF ATTRACTION AND DISTRACTION
Our smartphones seem to wield their influence even when we're not using them. The mere presence of a smartphone seemed to reduce the quality of conversations in one study. Another study found a link between having a smartphone within sight, even if turned off, with lower scores on tests of short-term memory and problem solving.
"The effect is biggest for people who rely on their phones the most," said Adrian Ward, an expert in technology and cognition at the University of Texas at Austin, and the author of that last study. "The more you give it control over different things — social connections , news, work, etc. — the more you are going to be attracted to this device."
Simply trying to resist that automatic attraction, he explained, takes up cognitive resources.
Even basic human decency may be sacrificed. Research suggests that smartphones can inhibit people from offering help to strangers on the street, reduce how much we smile at unfamiliar faces in a waiting room and even lessen our trust of strangers, neighbors and people of other religions or nationalities.
"People don't talk about or realize that we actually get quite a lot from casual social interactions," said Kostadin Kushlev, a social psychologist at the University of Virginia and an author of several smartphone studies. "Even when phones are at their most useful — such as when we're bored to death in the waiting room — there might be other things we're missing out on."
Perhaps not surprisingly, researchers have also begun to link weakened social skills, including the inability to read emotions or initiate casual conversations, to smartphone use.
"It takes time and practice to develop those skills," said Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University. She studies generational differences and is currently focused on the post-millennial generation , or people born in 1995 or later. The iGen, as she calls them, is the first generation to spend its entire adolescence with smartphones.
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It might be hard to believe, but I am not a big cell phone user. My hubby on the other hand, is on it all the time. Maybe I just spend too much time online?
So one of us might be having an issue.
I check my phone a few times a day and then plug it in before I go to bed, but I prefer to use a desktop.
No smartphone for me. My phone cost the equivalent of about US$45. I can get and make phone calls. I can receive and send text messages. It shows me the time and date. It has a number of other features that I don't use. I probably use the built-in flashlight as much as I make phone calls. It has a camera I don't use because I use my regular camera. If I make and receive more than 2 calls and/or text messages a week it's unusual. It has no internet or movies or music and I really don't care because NO WAY am I going to be wedded to my phone.
I use my phone for work, personal calls, texts, taking pictures ( because the quality is just as good as my 35mm cameras and I can upload to NT in less than 2 minutes.)
I cannot do that with the 35mm and by the time you download a 35mm picture and convert it to jpeg or whatever - the advantages are lost.
I have too many tactical led torches lying about to ever consider the iphone AS A 'flashlight'.
no movies, no music on the iphone.
I have an 8 track player, cassette player, a laser player, disc player and now record everything on the damnned computer
where I have to try to remember where I parked the effing file.............
no /s
Interesting to note that my price is comparable to yours.
Probably would be less without all of the nuisance taxes for 911, FCC and similar taxes....
Probably not bad for 2 iphones but ....
seems like a trail of 'worthless' penny charges that do add up.
Evening Buzz..Sounds like my phone....Bought the cheapest prepaid mobile phone I could find..$99 (US$70)....naturally they were trying to push the more expensive one's. Usual spiel...black spots, no signal blah blah..Said nope..I will not go into mass hysterics if I lose it...or if someone wants to steal it...they would probably give it back. Pay $1 a day for as many phone calls and texts I like..Days go by and I have not used either. Does for what I want and very happy with it....I hate technology and look at it as a necessary evil...and will never be a slave to it...
No service contract needed in China - pay cash for the phone, and put up a deposit for the minutes. About two years ago I deposited 200 Yuan (about US$33) for minutes and I've still got more than half of that left - that should indicate how much I use it.
Did you hear about the $100,000.00 challenge ?
Ditch your smartphone for a year, win $100,000
Never liked so-called "Smart Phones" from the beginning.
"Dumb" …..... IS …… the new norm since ! Unless someone has another definition of "IS" …… that "IS" !
Sarcastically saying …………………. "It's on the Internet, it MUST be true" !
Even though our kids are all over 30, we still have rules about cell phone use when we're together. Nothing is more important than family time. But, I remember when they were younger, they called us the "bad parents" because we had only one computer for all of us. It was in the family room, and the kids were allowed 30 minutes each on MySpace only if they'd finished their homework and chores. When each turned 16, they got a cell phone - "primitive" because they could only make/receive calls.
Here's an interesting article that supports the seeded article. Tom Kersting is a well-known psychologist who specializes in pre-teens and adolescents, especially in their usages of electronics and how it affects their (still) unformed brains:
PS ... I bought my first smart phone a month ago, and don't know how to use >3/4 of what it can do!
I've had my current phone for 3 years and I'm still learning. I had a Blackberry before that.
That's truly encouraging, because I've been very frustrated when I can't figure out what I do wrong. My other cell phones were so easy to use.
I never had one. I went from what I called my "stupid phones" (make/receive calls and texts) with a camera to this new Smart Phone thing. I leave it in the car when I go to doc/dentist offices because I can't remember how to either mute or turn the damn thing off!
I only know Android. Swipe down from the top and you will get a quick menu. Select vibrate/meeting or silent.
I am use to Apple. I can't work an Android. On Apple it is just a switch on the side to make it silent.
My Android has a button on the side to silence it, too.
Or there's a menu, if I want to use it. But the button is quicker.
I am sure they said the same things about television.
Why does some numbnut have 4 email accounts? Overkill.
I like my phone. I can take some pretty good pictures. I have a bunch of music on it that I can listen to anywhere. Can hook it up to speakers with a simple connect or bluetooth.
I use weather apps, have the local news app. Weather radar.
I have actually started to use the alarm on my phone and not a stationary one. It wakes me up. Even has a snooze button.
I don't use twitter or facebook but I do use Instagram. It is a great way to see pics of family and friends. I have some out of town and get to see graduation pics, etc.
I can't speak for all of the "they" of the 40s and early 50s, but my grandparents and parents told me that everyone they knew was thrilled when someone was able to buy a TV. They even had house parties and invited neighbors to watch shows with them (fewer than 5 channels in the 1950s). Also, people stood outside stores watching TVs in the windows.
Internet security is the primary reason to have more than 1 email account. I have a few email accounts and use each for one specific purpose, so I suppose I'm an overkill "numbnut" to you.
I think that I have/had 5 accounts. I only use 2 of them. One of them a throw away that I use when I need to register to access a site.
In case you missed it, people use to say that tv was killing social interaction in children. They were plopped in front of a tv instead of outside playing with other kids. Also said the same about video games.
Don't....say....anything.....keep....thoughts....to....myself....
Haha
I can actually understand up to maybe three. Home, work and a throwaway.
About the same here. Grad year '85. In HS I only remember one kid being really over weight. Even our football team, some were bigger and more muscular but none really fat, per say.
In middle school everyone had to run track. Even in elementary we had Field Day, where everyone participated in and won ribbons for winning different track and field events.
As far as tv, the only thing I really did was watch some Saturday morning cartoons. Then it was outside to see what everyone was up to. Riding bikes, trekking in the woods, etc.
In HS I did have to walk uphill to get there, though I did cheat on the way home. Brought a skateboard and coasted home.
We ran around and would be gone all day. No phones. Parents now would freak.
I blame much of america's obesity on the processed foods we all eat.
I worked for an old guy who loved he old movies. I kinda enjoyed them myself and was amazed at how thin americas were back then. Yes most americans were more active back then as well But I think its a combination of the two. crap for food and too much use of modern labor reducing conveniences.
Fast food is horrible too.
when did we start calling them mobile devices
i have enff vices
I have no f'n idea, but we did and to be honest it makes a tonne mor sense that phone.
tiny powerful computers that fit in most of our pockets undermining social interaction.
basically a big distraction that has proven to be a death sentence via the active action of driving,
possibly a larger in fraction
than most care to be aware
Pretty much all true for the weak minded/or weak of self control, much like the the millions of dip shits who abused pain killers and made things next to impossible for the folks in excruciating pain who actually need them.
It is always the least common denominator in human character to control the rest of humanity.
Can't really complain. Probably a characteristic that has been with us for millions of years.
Coping kind of comes to mind.
You know, I should qualify that.
Anyone who thinks they are above such weaknesses of some sort is is either a liar or stupid.
u left out in denial
Yep.
i feel used
.
like a laxative
;
hopefully not a suppository
butt
i've been unknown
to ride any asses
too hard