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[entremet]

In that NYC 1993 HD video many posters lamented how pervasive smartphones have become due to the absence of them in that video.

There was a nostalgia for simpler times.

There's actually a professor from MIT, Sherry Turtle, who has been studying this always on, always connected culture.

Here she talks about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWGG8f0y43A

The video is short--4:36.

I do like her tone. It is not one of a chiding or shaming, but she's just explaining what we may be missing. She's also no Luddite, she has a smartphone, and used to write for Wired in its heyday.

But like many new technologies, taking a critical look at its effects is prudent. The gas powered automobile sounded like an amazing invention when first introduced, but today is we see how inefficient it truly is for urban communities, where the majority of the human population will be living by mid century.

She's also written and articles and books. I'll link one here for those without video access.

http://www.mindful.org/smartphones-hurt-our-face-to-face-relationships-sherry-turkle/#

Smartphones offer us promises that seem good at the time—you’ll never have to be alone, you can put your attention wherever your want it to be, you’ll never have to be bored. It all sounds fulfilling, but they’re incompatible with being in a sustained relationship or community, says Sherry Turkle. But it’s not the phones, it’s the way we’re using them: by not allowing ourselves to be bored.

Turkle is an M.I.T. professor and author of Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age. Today, she spoke with Anna Maria Tremonti on The Current, hosted by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Tremonti asked what happens when never have to be bored.

From Turkle:

Boredom is your imagination calling to you. It’s important to go inside, it’s important to cultivate your inner life. When you experience boredom, your brain isn’t bored at all. The brain is laying down those parts of the brain associated with a stable autobiographical memory. So it isn’t good for us to flee from any moment of boredom by going to a phone, yet that’s what’s happening.​

Solitude is the key to a successful relationship

Turkle argues we need solitude (i.e. not to be constantly distracted) in order to come to other people and form relationships. Otherwise, you end up looking to other people for your sense of who you are and you’re not able to get a sense of who they really are—you end up not feeling heard, and you’re not able to savour the other person.

 

[Zaptruder]

All technology is a (proverbial) double edged sword.

All technology is a tool.

Use it wisely and it can help. Use it poorly and you'll fail to understand what you've lost.

 

[CarpeDeezNutz]

Can't watch right now but yeah def checking it out later. I've been curbing my smartphone use ever since I installed the Moment app that showed me my alarming usage stats.

 

[SolidusDave]

In principle I agree but

Solitude is the key to a successful relationship

just sounds like a rephrasing of "You need to love yourself first before you can truly love others".

 

[spineduke]

She also has a great TED talk for those of you who would like something more indepth:

Connected but alone?

Can't watch right now but yeah def checking it out later. I've been curbing my smartphone use ever since I installed the Moment app that showed me my alarming usage stats.

can you link? I'd love to push this on the people around me.

 

[John Kowalski]

In principle I agree but

just sounds like a rephrasing of "You need to love yourself first before you can truly love others".

I wouldn't say it's about love, but just having a stronger sense of self, which is solidified by permitting more introspection where one would instead prefer continuous sensory input.

 

[teruterubozu]

Reading novels was once considered the pastime of the "idle mind." Hell, I remember when TV at the dinner table was considered the end of humanity. We'll get used to it.

 

[spineduke]

Reading novels was once considered the pastime of the "idle mind." Hell, I remember when TV at the dinner table was considered the end of humanity. We'll get used to it.

I don't think its comparable. Having an always connected device in your pocket is nothing like the TV in your living room. There's already studies questioning the social development of the younger generations as they delegate more and more of their relations to online, and less in person. The social development associated with understanding and parsing subtle human interactions isn't happening as much.

 

[teruterubozu]

I don't think its comparable. Having an always connected device in your pocket is nothing like the TV in your living room. There's already studies questioning the social development of the younger generations as they delegate more and more of their relations to online, and less in person. The social development associated with understanding and parsing subtle human interactions isn't happening as much.

Then that's how we'll roll. We can't take it away at this point.

 

[Nikodemos]

Looking back at the 80's and 90's (more specifically the 90's when online tech was starting to be introduced to a wider mainstream audience) I feel like it was more limited back then, more controlled.

^^^^^

Born in '83 (on the wrong side of the Curtain, even) and I completely resonate with that feeling.

What annoys me even more than the constant infodump barrage which pushes people into superficiality is, however, the way some react to one's desire to switch off. Some people (family members, in particular) become seriously frustrated when I don't stay continuously in contact with them, even though both them and I remember a time when contact was far more sporadic. I don't understand why, just having the option of being continuously in contact, we are somehow obliged to use it.

 

[CarpeDeezNutz]

She also has a great TED talk for those of you who would like something more indepth:

Connected but alone?




can you link? I'd love to push this on the people around me.

Sure, I got it on my iPhone 6S https://inthemoment.io


The stats they keep track of are eye opening.

 

[entremet]

I did like her tips of not talking the phone with you on walks or dinner dates with friends and loved ones.

Never thought about that. It's not like I'll die if I don't have my smartphone on my person 24/7.

 

[Yaboosh]

Creativity was rife, people were friendly, they worked harder, they laughed more, they spent more time getting to know others, quite frankly the world was a better place.

Yeahhh, citation required here.

Your post reminds me of the people who brag about not having a tv and how much better off they are than those who do.

 

[Nikodemos]

Yeahhh, citation required here.

Your post reminds me of the people who brag about not having a tv and how much better off they are than those who do.

This depends on the country in question, but 90-something % of TV programmes here are utter shit, and the 10 remaining % you can get by adding a netchannel option to your Internet subscription.

 

[entremet]

Sure, I got it on my iPhone 6S https://inthemoment.io


The stats they keep track of are eye opening.

That's cool.

I need to get this. Thanks for the link.

 

[ElectricBlanketFire]

Someday, everyone being on their smart phone will seem like a simpler time.

 

[spineduke]

Then that's how we'll roll. We can't take it away at this point.

Not really - it's about exercising your personal boundaries. This isn't a question of adapting to technology or getting too old for this shit. Smartphones may go away and be replaced with something else, but it'll still be the same questions being raised. There's always been a balance between your life - health - work routine and technology is just poised to become a bigger part of fine tuning that balance. This conversation is inevitable, and you'll see it more and more often the deeper the rabbit hole we go.

 

[Sunster]

well my relationship is long distance and wouldn't exist without technology so thanks phones.

 

[Shadybiz]

I can't stand phone culture, myself (born in 1980, for reference). I have one, of course, but I use it pretty sparingly. If we're out to eat somewhere, you'll never see me bring it out, and it's very rare that I'd bring it out at a social event. Meanwhile when my sister visits our parents', she's on the goddamn thing constantly, and I think that's kinda rude.

 

[NoblesseOblige]

Still don't know what you people do with your smartphones. I have no desire to be connected to the Internet when I'm outside work or my home.

 

[gerg]

In principle I agree but

just sounds like a rephrasing of "You need to love yourself first before you can truly love others".

I'm not sure that there's anything wrong with that principle, however it is rephrased!

In any case, I think Turkle's concern is that technology diminishes our capacity to be alone. Certainly, no one flourishes being alone all the time, and loneliness is not necessarily avoided by being sociable (or created by being alone), but if we're capable of always being in contact with dozens of people how differently we will experience being on our own, and how differently will we also experience socialising in and of itself?

I found Turkle's book "Alone Together" a really insightful and resonant read on this topic.

 

[jstripes]

I love technology, always have, but there was something about being a kid in the '80s: You got to be a kid.

We played outside all the time, rode our bikes and wandered the neighbourhood until sundown, explored, built actual physical things for fun and did arts and crafts without being forced to. Cartoons were only on at certain times, and video game were unbelievably expensive, so you had to make the best of the rest of the time.

Even computers back then were weird, challenging, mysterious machines that no one knew exactly what to do with.


Now kids have a constant drip-feed of entertainment through streaming videos and mobile/video games of all types. You don't need to go outside, even to meet up with your friends, who are all online.

 

[Shy Fingers]

My friend group in college started a no phone rule during meals. I have since carried that over into my relationship.

I can't recommend it enough. It's simple, and only like an hour at the most, so you're not going to die. The social interactions are just stronger when not constantly being interrupted.