 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Posted: |
Nov 20, 2023 - 1:18 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Howard L
(Member)
|
cannot resist posting the following that's in today's (print) NY Times--
To the Editor:
Re “A Florida District Bans Phones. Students Agonize but Perk Up” (front page, Nov. 1):
During my 15 years as an English teacher — basking in teenagers’ moods, wit and sometimes even joy — I learned that their phones, even if “put away” in a book bag in class, continued to colonize their minds.
Silently, they fretted over whether a parent had seen their frantic message and was on the way with forgotten homework, whether a BFF had left a consoling text, whether questions for the last-period exam had been sent by a fellow cheater, what grades had been updated and (especially if you were a girl) what names you’d been called.
Cellphones pull as hard as magnets, and seem to vibrate with expectancy when you merely look at them or have one in your book bag.
Over my teaching years, as cellphones became smartphones (with so many more enticing features), I still put to work the most compelling lesson plans I could dream up — even as, increasingly, the inner distractions glazed my kids’ eyes, which were also drooping with screen-induced sleep deprivation. (And who wants to try to engage a group like that? No wonder we have a teacher shortage.)
Used to be, when my teenagers packed their satchels to troop toward the door — after, say, an hour of Shakespeare — some of the kids might still be thinking about him, or complaining about him, or asking me about him, or chattering about “Hamlet” among themselves or mouthing “To be or not to be!”
Nowadays, they’re all on their phones.
Marc Vincenti
Palo Alto, Calif.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lord, saw a beautiful blonde girl driving before my vehicle broken down again, and she was in the left lane, not far enough away from the car in front of her, and holding the wheels with her legs while she was texting with both hands and barely looking up.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I wasn't able to personally verify that...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lord, saw a beautiful blonde girl driving before my vehicle broken down again, and she was in the left lane, not far enough away from the car in front of her, and holding the wheels with her legs while she was texting with both hands and barely looking up.
Sounds like someone who any man here would be willing to date. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Nov 22, 2023 - 10:29 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
msmith
(Member)
|
It’s not you. Phones are designed to be addicting.
By Christophe Haubursin
Smartphones are really hard to put down. The buzzing of push notifications, the nagging red bubbles on apps, and endless feeds create the perfect storm of distractions. They keep us constantly engaged with the device. And that’s kind of the point.
Our apps and devices have been carefully designed to hook our attention for as long as possible. But are those designs making our lives better?
Former Google design ethicist Tristan Harris who recently co-founded the Center for Humane Technology raises that question. He has become one of the most outspoken critics of how devices are intentionally made to hook users at the cost of their time and comfort. Some of his alternative designs illustrate what a different app ecosystem could look like — where health and time are prioritized over constant engagement.
But there’s some debate among medical and mental health professionals about whether problematic cell phone use is truly an addiction or the result of an impulse control issue.
Many medical experts are reluctant to assign the word “addiction” to anything other than habitual substance misuse.
However, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (the handbook used in the medical community to diagnose mental disorders) does recognize one behavioral addiction: compulsive gambling.
It’s worth noting that there are some important similarities between cell phone overuse and behavioral addictions like compulsive gambling. The similarities include:
loss of control over the behavior
persistence, or having real difficulty limiting the behavior
tolerance, the need to engage in the behavior more often to get the same feeling
severe negative consequences stemming from the behavior
withdrawal, or feelings of irritability and anxiety when the behavior isn’t practiced
relapse, or picking up the habit again after periods of avoidance
What researchers do agree on is the fact that adolescents are more likely to demonstrate addiction-like symptoms with their cell phone use than other age groups.
StudiesTrusted Source show that cell phone use peaks during the teen years and gradually declines thereafter.
Excessive cell phone use among teens is so common that 33 percent of 13-year-olds never turn off their phone, day or night. And the younger a teen acquires a phone, the more likely they are to develop problematic use patterns.
For girls, dependent use patterns may develop because phones become important tools of social interaction, whereas boys demonstrate a greater tendency to use phones in risky situations.
Symptoms of phone addiction
So, how can you tell if you have an overuse problem with your phone?
Some of the telltale signs include the following:
You reach for your phone the moment you’re alone or bored.
You wake up multiple times at night to check your phone.
You feel anxious, upset, or short-tempered when you can’t get to your phone.
Your phone use has caused you to have an accident or injury.
You’re spending more and more time using your phone.
Phone use interferes with your job performance, schoolwork, or relationships.
People in your life are concerned about your phone use patterns.
When you try to limit your use, you relapse quickly.
To me, what is sad are people who are addicted but don't care that they are addicted.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
One of the many problems smart phone use has cause, in my opinion, is that it gives an easy gateway for already anti-social and those struggling to connect/fit in with other human beings, escapism which dashes cooping and learning to adapt and join society. And then, of course, they find more like themselves online. I wonder what the long-term affect of that will be.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
