Have Smartphones Destroyed Humanity?

[Andy Black]

We've been playing tons of board games with the kids!

But yeah, it's a constant battle against technology and peer pressure.

Driving to work this morning at 5:30am

A car stopped in front of me had 2 little kids in the backseat.

One was watching a movie on the screen hooked to the headrest in front of her, the other was playing a game on her phone.

Both were around 8 years old.

I have kids, I get it. It's easy sometimes to park em in front of the TV or whatever and have technology do the parenting for a minute.

But my gosh, at 5:30 in the morning? They can't look out the window? They can't talk to each other? They can't have dad in the front seat spouting off random words of wisdom and lame dad jokes?

Exactly. I do the school runs in the morning. It’s lame dad jokes and favourite sayings all the way. I get to be super genius font of all wisdom in front of my kids.

Plus we play games.

One of their favourites is Maths games. They choose whether it’s additions, subtraction, multiplication, or division. I pick a question (knowing their level). They love it. It’s not “Maths” to them, it’s a puzzle. “If you have 5 velociraptors and a sheep in a room then how many legs are there?” They know the answer is 10.

They also love the “What’s dangerous?” games. (What’s dangerous in the house? What’s dangerous in the sky? What’s dangerous in winter?). They come up with crazy answers. But they also know the stairs is the most dangerous place in the house.

They learn to take turns, and not shout out answers when it’s not their turn. I see them helping each other in the back of the car, whispering how to work it out, but not whispering the answer.

We get in the car and they’re pleading to play games.

Some of the best conversations are in cars.

I get to do this every morning. What a privilege.

Sheeit, it never occurred to me to put a tablet in each of their hands. I don’t know whether I’m more appalled or more saddened.

 

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[PureA]

Wow.

Seriously considering dropping my smartphone for a month as a test. Always been into limiting smartphone use (e.g. when left alone in public resisting the urge to get your phone out) but maybe it's time to drop it for good.

Being a 'millennial' all of my social stuff comes through my phone, so it's stopped me because of FOMO. I dropped social networks a while ago but still get around 100/150 whatsapp/imessage a day (99.999999% nonsense).

Im extremely guilty of excessive Youtube use and being mindlessly shoved around by their algorithms. I do this for hours, EVERY DAY. I know it in the back of my mind the whole time too, feeling guilty the whole time. When I'm 'done' I feel even worse, even though I normally rationalise the session as a 'break'. Before I know it, it's been 2-3 hours... and I've just finished up watching big poker hands and how-to skateboard videos (I don't skate, but at least I do play poker *sigh*).

Be interesting to see what a difference dropping all this would make in quality of life...

 

[Walter Hay]

At one time I was a volunteer driving a long-distance school bus for a private school. The kids' ages ranged from 5 to 11.

When I began, those who weren't on their tablets etc., were rowdy.

One morning I began telling them a story that I made up as I drove. The transformation I saw in those kids was amazing. They settled down and all listened intently.

That afternoon when I picked them up at the school they begged for more. Even the older ones were enthralled with the adventures of the flea with the exploding knee. For the rest of my time driving that bus the routine was the same. The flea's exploits became a never ending story, and I had the best behaved passengers one could ever want.

I guess that if I had been brought up in an era like today's I would not have had the imagination to make up a story like that. Storytelling is a lost art.

Walter

 

[amp0193]

We get in the car and they’re pleading to play games.

I gotta up my car game skills. You're doing a great job!

Last weekend we made it 5 hours to grandpa's house with no tears or whining from either kid. 4 year old and 18-month old.

Toys, endless snacks, books, naps. We did do one game: "Guess what animal I'm thinking of" and ask yes or no questions to figure it out.

I love car drives, because my wife gets motion sickness if trying to read anything, so she can't distract herself either. Our best conversations are in the car.

it never occurred to me to put a tablet in each of their hands. I don’t know whether I’m more appalled or more saddened.

The trap is... you do it once. Then the kids whine and complain every time thereafter to get it again. If the answer is always no... they won't.

So, the kids never ask to use my phone. But they always ask the grandparents, because they always say yes!

 

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[amp0193]

Being a 'millennial' all of my social stuff comes through my phone, so it's stopped me because of FOMO.

I was the last holdout of my friends to get texting enabled. I really didn't want it.

But after I missed the 3rd ultimate frisbee game in college, with friends saying "didn't you get my text", I had to cave and add an sms plan.

You don't want to isolate yourself from those that you care about... but figure out what's important and what's not, and cut out the bullshit.

 

[Andy Black]

Last weekend we made it 5 hours to grandpa's house with no tears or whining from either kid. 4 year old and 18-month old.

Toys, endless snacks, books, naps. We did do one game: "Guess what animal I'm thinking of" and ask yes or no questions to figure it out.

Ah yes. We play the yes/no animal or dinosaur game too. We even have to play it at breakfast sometimes they love it so much. There’s a game you can buy where you wear headbands and put a card of an animal in it so everyone can see it but you. It’s great fun.

The “What’s dangerous?” game is my sneaky way of getting them to think about stuff. “What’s dangerous up ahead?” has them trying to see that van pull up to the junction etc.

They like riddles too. Except I’ve run out. I’ll Google for more kids riddles. Hmm... might be worth a separate thread.

Kids really keep you on your toes.

 

[garyfritz]

Theylove it. It’s not “Maths” to them, it’s a puzzle. “If you have 5 velociraptors and a sheep in a room then how many legs are there?” They know the answer is 10.

**prostrates before the Master**

That is f'in BRILLIANT. I used to play math games with my kids too, but I wasn't creative enough to make them twisted and hilarious like that. As a result they quickly tired of it. Mad Dad Props to you, Andy!

 

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[CherryRedBoi]

Whether it's a good or bad thing--it's here to stay.

I don't see a reality where the whole world puts down their smartphones and internet.

I see it comparable to the industrial revolution--which was initially horrific for the health and well-being of the common man--but eventually led to incredible societal and technological advancement, which then ultimately led to MUCH better health and well-being for the common man.

With that said: I'll be damned if I don't fantasise frequently about living in a different time period.

2018 can be so...tiring

 

[amp0193]

I see it comparable to the industrial revolution--which was initially horrific for the health and well-being of the common man--but eventually led to incredible societal and technological advancement, which then ultimately led to MUCH better health and well-being for the common man.

This is a really interesting way to frame it.

Probably some truth there.


People were using phones and driving and killing people. Now cities are passing laws banning phone use.

Every public event used to have cell phone ringers going off, and it was super annoying. Now everyone's figured out how to leave their phone on silent all the time.


I think we still have a ways to go to realize the effects of a generation raised on phones and tablets. Changes that will result from those effects will take a long time to be realized.

 

[Laughingman21]

I dropped social networks a while ago but still get around 100/150 whatsapp/imessage a day (99.999999% nonsense).

Im extremely guilty of excessive Youtube use and being mindlessly shoved around by their algorithms. I do this for hours, EVERY DAY. I know it in the back of my mind the whole time too, feeling guilty the whole time. When I'm 'done' I feel even worse, even though I normally rationalise the session as a 'break'. Before I know it, it's been 2-3 hours... and I've just finished up watching big poker hands and how-to skateboard videos (I don't skate, but at least I do play poker *sigh*).

Be interesting to see what a difference dropping all this would make in quality of life...

For the WhatsApp, just mute all the conversations from people that send through rubbish, then catch-up on your own time (if you want to)

For YouTube, delete the App. To avoid the temptation to watch it through a web browser, switch on your phone/tablets parental controls and make YouTube a blocked site.

 

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[JG17]

In direct response to the thread title question (I'm at work so haven't been able read through the thread yet), my answer is yes, and no. It depends.

I think there are two types of people, content creators and content consumers. I’ll come back to this later in the post.

Story time.

Today I was on the train and as usual, scrolling through Instagram. I was thinking to myself ‘this is gonna kill my battery’ so I needed to stop. I put my phone in my pocket and looked out the window, and as my mind drifted away from the thought of my phone dying prematurely, I instinctively took out my phone and opened Instagram. As it was loading I realised what I was doing and I was actually pretty shocked at how quickly I reverted to type.

It is clear as day, I am addicted.

But I’m not ashamed to admit it. I'm 22 and have been brought up always owning the latest tech, playing the latest video games, being the first on the latest trendy social media. It is part of my identity, part of the world my generation has grown up in.

Controversially, I'm glad. I'm glad I am up to date with social media and never been a technophobe. I'm glad I have been raised in a household that has always had computers and internet. I'm glad I have been born into this generation and not another.

Why? Opportunity.

Every generation has their own big opportunity, and in my opinion social media is this generation's, and most people are completely oblivious. Among other things, the generation before this had the dotcom bubble and affordable housing, before that was the baby boom and early stage computers/mobiles, before that post-war clean up and the huge amount of jobs/businesses this created. Every generation has something that we can look back on and think 'that was an opportunity for a lot of people to make a lot of money'.

Back to the two types of people I mentioned earlier, content consumers are everywhere. Everywhere you go you can guarantee to see hoards of people staring at their smartphones consuming pointless information that is turning their brain to mush. The best example of this is my earlier example, as part of MJ's labelled living dead on the train to work mindlessly scrolling through Instagram to kill time until I get to my Slowlane destination. And I'm not alone, next time you're on a busy bus or train just look around. You barely see newspapers these days let alone books (maybe you'll see the odd Kindle here and there, because how dare we swap an LCD screen for paper). Newspapers are so unpopular these days The Evening Standard literally had to make themselves a freebie and even then they still struggle to give them away.

And this is all being fed by the content creators, people whose eyes are open to the opportunity that 'information at your fingertips' brings. People who are making sickening sums of money to exploit consumers' hunger to feed on pointless information and stupid memes. Food for thought.

Become a content creator, enter a billion-people wide market of consumption at people's fingertips and a new world of opportunity awaits. Continue as a content consumer feeding on Instagram posts and Facebook status updates and your mind might literally turn to mush.

 

[GoGetter24]

She has to teach her 4 year olds how to play with toys. They literally don't know how.

No doubt this will all end with "the government has to regulate it".

I.e., we shouldn't just simply stop being child-abusing, garbageparents; someone else should fix the problem.

 

[Walter Hay]

I have finally bought a smartphone. All I want is a device that enables me to send and receive calls and texts - not a toy that is a time-wasting "entertainment" device that will continually send me advertisements that I don't want.

I have dumbed it down by deleting apps and disabling data. It now works for me, and I won't be working for Google, FB, IG, etc., to provide them with marketing info. AND... I am not going to be a slave to trivia.

Walter

 

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[ApparentHorizon]

5G Radiation Dangers - 11 Reasons To Be Concerned | ElectricSense

Here's another lovely thing to consider - beyond our own phones and routers emitting 5G, utility companies are switching to smart meters. This means that every single house will have a 5G transmitting meter on the side of it, talking back to the company for your usage and billing.

This is the replacement for the meter man that comes out once a month to manually read your usage.

New Studies Link Cell Phone Radiation with Cancer

New study showing cancerous effects of cellphones on a particular type of cell which wraps around nerves (Schwann cell). Tested on 3000 rats.

It's not an "alarming" rate, but statistically significant. With the lesson being, if you use your phone, get a wired headset.

Also, new WiFi routers come with 5G enabled by default.

 

[garyfritz]

Also, new WiFi routers come with 5G enabled by default.

Yes, but it's not what you might be thinking.

5G in cellphone world is the 5th Gen of cellphone standards.
5G in your router is a 5GHz signal, a second "band" in addition to the 2.4GHz of older standards.

There are scare stories about the health risks of 5G cellular, but I don't know if there is any real risk. 5GHz in your router supports higher speeds, but it has more trouble transmitting through walls.

 

[Olimac21]

I have finally bought a smartphone. All I want is a device that enables me to send and receive calls and texts - not a toy that is a time-wasting "entertainment" device that will continually send me advertisements that I don't want.

I have dumbed it down by deleting apps and disabling data. It now works for me, and I won't be working for Google, FB, IG, etc., to provide them with marketing info. AND... I am not going to be a slave to trivia.

Walter

This is the smart way to go, since using the phone by the actual strenghts and protecting yourself from distractions. A major reason I won´t change my phone to a dumber one is because I constantly use apps such as Uber and Google Maps for transportation and a dumb phone does not have that (yet haha)

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

How overparenting in America has created a generation of snowflakes

Inside article: Smartphone partly to blame.

 

[Bhanu]

Interesting thread .
At what age you guys think Cell Phone should be introduced to a kid ? (Assuming your kid is 1 year old)
Not giving cell phone to the kid will make him socially awkward with his friends,giving it to early will risk him being addicted to it . Really in a fix ha ha.

 

[amp0193]

At what age you guys think Cell Phone should be introduced to a kid ?

High school.

You're driving, you get a phone.

No reason to have one earlier.

 

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[Solais]

It's a question I've pondered: at what point does negligence become malice?

For instance, if person A cooks food with peanuts in it for person B, and it makes person B sick, we say its just naivety: he didn't know.
But if A is told "some of the people who'll eat this have peanut allergies", and A does it anyway because they don't care, and B gets sick, we call it negligence.
But if A is told "person B has a peanut allergy", and they go ahead and cook food with peanuts and give it to B, we call that malice.

The interesting case is between the last two cases. What if person A is told nothing, but notices a pattern that person B gets sick whenever they're given peanuts -- and then continues to give peanuts at the same rate. What if they deliberately ignore the pattern, tell themselves "coincidence" week in week out, in order to absolve themselves of what they're doing? Unless they're simply too stupid to actually see that pattern, I'd call that malice.

Most of what these parents are doing would be considered just negligence -- i.e. they don't care, they're not willing to put the effort in to avoid their kids being stunted. But at a certain stage, when they see their kids being stunted weirdos and then continue their rearing exactly the same, that's anti-child malice.

Problem is, you can't just arrest them. You'd have a parental crisis on your hands in a matter of weeks if you rounded up all the "outsource daycare to Facebook/Instagram/Snapchat" violators.

 

[amp0193]

Problem is, you can't just arrest them. You'd have a parental crisis on your hands in a matter of weeks if you rounded up all the "outsource daycare to Facebook/Instagram/Snapchat" violators.

What's funny is, we have the exact opposite happening.

Parents are getting CPS called on them for letting their kids play outside, walk the dog, sit in the car, ride the bus, or go to the playground.

The ones getting in trouble, are the ones doing it right.

It's madness.

 

[Roli]

Unfortunately..... It would have to be drip fed via social media because most of them could not concentrate long enough to completely read the article.

 

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[Solais]

What's funny is, we have the exact opposite happening.

Parents are getting CPS called on them for letting their kids play outside, walk the dog, sit in the car, ride the bus, or go to the playground.

The ones getting in trouble, are the ones doing it right.

It's madness.

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

 

[MJ DeMarco]

At what age you guys think Cell Phone should be introduced to a kid ?

High school.

You're driving, you get a phone.

This was my thought as well. But even then, I would limit its access, just like the car.

We wouldn't allow our kids to have unlimited access to sugar (cookies, cakes, candy) which has addictive properties (they would eat that stuff non-stop) but we have no problem giving them unlimited access to something else equally addictive ... and yes, they're gobbling it up with no hesitation.

 

[Mutant]

I would say kids should have a phone when they're old enough to be by themselves outside. Not like playing the garden, but say taking themselves on the trip to school (could involve public transport or walking & be before they can drive), meeting friends in town or some other place where there's no supervision, etc. Basically anywhere they could have an emergency & no guarantee of a responsible adult to turn to. This was about aged 11 for me. Or even potentially even younger if you need a system (& don't have an alternative) to communicate that you may be picking them up late, or someone else will pick them up, etc. (very circumstance specific.) HOWEVER this doesn't need to be a smart phone. Just calls & texts cover these eventualities.


Oh yeah, & f.lux now offers Grayscale... What's new with f.lux after citing Center for Humane Technology - seems relevant!

In fact, the Center for Humane Technology have a good page of suggestions that's worth it's own link:

Take Control

 

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[The Abundant Man]

Interesting thread .
At what age you guys think Cell Phone should be introduced to a kid ? (Assuming your kid is 1 year old)
Not giving cell phone to the kid will make him socially awkward with his friends,giving it to early will risk him being addicted to it . Really in a fix ha ha.

21

If people are allowed drink alcohol(except everywhere else in the world it's 18) and smoke weed at 21 then they should have a cell phone at 21.

But then if people are allowed to join the military at 16(with parents permission) then should it be 16-18?

Jk.

Around 14-15 years old

 

[BlabbaSingo]

I have found the Screen Time app that is now part of iOS to be extremely helpful. I have us set up as a family and can limit my kids to minutes a day. I have found a few unintended consequences. 1. Since the devices are completely unable to be used from 10pm-7am, the kids rush around to get stuff done while they're in their window (since all chores and homework have to be done before I relinquish control). 2. I have my social media time set to 15 minutes a day and it usually gets eaten up by iMessage (even though I allow iMessage through the block). 3. My overall desire to get onto my phone and my kids' desire to get onto their phone has lessened immensely. 4. You can still get to what you need to, but it will remind you again after 15 minutes and force you to make another choice.

This feels like a good first attempt by a manufacturer towards responsible consumption.

 

[TheCj]

At what age you guys think Cell Phone should be introduced to a kid ?

When they can pay for it themselves both the cost of a phone and service plan...
Doesn't mean they will never touch a cell phone..
All humans are awkward in there own way...
For myself and "my generation" growing up without cable tv and video game systems was considered weird.. Hell i can even remember having one tv in the house as being a "how do you survive without a tv in your room"..
It's amazing I survived and can function...

 

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[YoungPadawan]

This video hits the nail on the head...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N8XTUUGYhc

Wow, this was excellent. Thank you for sharing that.

 

[GoGetter24]

Problem is, you can't just arrest them. You'd have a parental crisis on your hands in a matter of weeks if you rounded up all the "outsource daycare to Facebook/Instagram/Snapchat" violators.

Forceful measures wouldn't make any sense: it's in the realm of parents being sent to "re-education camps" like they were in Russia and Vietnam.

Parents are the ultimate source of decentralization: having kids is the creation of blank slates done by anyone anywhere. And they have the greatest biological stake in the kid's success after the kid themselves. The state has no such stake -- it's only concerned with its own power.

The question is how to apply moral pressure to them. Most parents aren't deliberately being bad, they're just taking any and every opportunity to weasel out of their responsibilities. A TV advert of smiling school kids, send them there: "we've done our job". Everyone else's kids are using smartphones: "I want them to fit in". Everyone else says college is a path to success, yeah that's easy enough to believe, my kids should do that and they'll succeed.

I.e. parents are not deliberately shit, but they'll default to that out of laziness. The solution would be shining spotlights on them. "Janie encouraged her son to go to college, now he's in 100k debt and working at wallmart. Are you a child abuser like Janie?" propaganda kind of stuff, so they feel bad and tighten up their act.