Community Chat

[Tinkrbl44]

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@ROMARY wrote:

'Trouble is'........folks around here (all ages from young to seniors) walking their dogs, children, babies in strollers, etc., etc. looking down, concentrating on their phones.  Never looking up, no matter what or who is in their way.  

Just what I've been observing........

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@ROMARY 

It's an invitation to a mugging.   I've also seen people staring at phones cross the street, totally unaware of whether there are any cars coming at them.   Rather stupid, IMO.   Yes, STUPID.

[jubilant]

This article explains my  thoughts on Smart Phones much better than I can. This is quite concerning to me.  I'm also witnessing it in adults more and more.   

The struggle with teens and technology

My work around mindful technology use started because I keep finding myself in conversations with students, parents, and teachers about the ways they are struggling with technology.

• A fourth grader describes how he gets into a rage when he plays video games.
• In a room full of middle schoolers, every single student raises a hand when I ask if they’ve ever been stressed out by social media.
• High school students sheepishly admit that they are up past midnight scrolling away, mindlessly, on their phones.
• Parents and teachers (myself included) frequently relate that they are troubled by their own compulsive checking of their phones, in addition to their concerns about the young people in their care.

American teenagers average about nine hours a day of entertainment media use, excluding time spent at school or for homework.

Given the incredible pull and deep impact technology has on us as adult users, it is no surprise that many young people are struggling to create a healthy relationship with their screens. According to a Common Sense Media report, teens spend an average of nine hours a day on digital technology, excluding work for school. Because screens are ubiquitous, it is rarely an option to cut them out completely, so we must learn to engage with them in a healthy way. If not, we jeopardize our well-being.

[Enufstuff]

@jubilant   These are exactly some of the scenarios to which I was referring, when in an earlier post, I spoke of the dumbing down of America.

   People have become obsessed with their phones. Many young people are losing communication skills, both in speaking and in writing.

[jubilant]

@Enufstuff   I remember conversing with adult visitors, aunts and uncles, etc. as a young girl. I feel I learned a lot even just hanging around them...listening and not talking. 

Lately, I have had several people tell me, how their kids come home from school, shut themselves in their bedrooms with their phones.  Let's face it, at certain ages kids would rather be with their friends if not in person, then on the phone. But is that good? It kind of seems to me like kids are raising kids these days and are tuning their parents out. I see it happening way too often.

A few years ago at Christmas dinner at our home, almost everyone brought their phones to the table. My husband said, "Would everyone put their phones away".

They did and we had wonderful conversation.

[three4me]

Keep the smart phone but please don't let the dogs stay outside all the time!!

[sunshine45]

one of THE BEST things about having a smartphone......

staying close with friends and family members who live all over the world!

if this were 30 - 40 years ago, we would have much more limited communication and it would cost MUCH more!

[monicakm]

@Tinkrbl44 

My screen is 6.8in.  I do everything on it (except read grocery ads??).  Is that the same thing as the weekly sale circular?  You know, I don't think Walmart even puts one of those out anymore. I haven't gotten one in years and years maybe decades.

[monicakm]

Made a mistake about my phone size, it's 6.8 in not 6.1.  Very comfortable to read and watch videos.  Doesn't take the place of my screened Googles or desktop screen but it is portable and that, for me, is important.  My grocery list is on it, a to-do list, as well as notes about things I need to remember.

No digital minimalist here.

[gardenman]

I'm not sure teens are that much different than we used to be, just different technology in play. There was a late-night radio DJ I loved back in my teens and I'd lie there with my transistor radio by my ear listening to her during her whole shift which would end around two in the morning. Our local PBS station would air "Monty Pythons Flying Circus" after eleven on some nights, and I'd be up well past my bedtime watching it. "Saturday Night Live," back when it was still funny, was often a must-see late-night TV program. If I was engrossed in a book I might stay up most of the night with the book under the covers reading by flashlight. Now kids use their phones or tablets for that type of stuff, but pretty much everyone I went to school with did similar things. 

The technology has changed, but I'm not sure kid's behavior has changed all that much. I know parents who swore their kids (typically daughters) were never off the phone back then when phones were tethered to a wall. A big highlight for many teenage girls was getting their own phone line installed and their own phone, often a Princess model. Clever marketing by the phone companies back then with phone naming. Find a girl who was from my era who didn't want her own phone from about thirteen years of age onward. Most eventually nagged their parents into one by the time they were sixteen. Well, not even nagged as much as the parents would like to occasionally use the phone themselves, so they bought a line for their daughter.

The technology has changed, but has the behavior of kids really changed all that much? 

[Jersey Born]

@Tinkrbl44 - I did not get to see what site you mentioned as it was removed before I could read your post, but I think it is wonderful news that some Americans are rejecting Smart Phones.  

My personal observations over the years lead me to the conclusion that having a Smart Phone is a terrible distraction for people. I was the last parent in my school to let their kids have cell phones, due to the risk of radiation exposure, and the exposure to all kinds of bullying on social media. Thankfuly, both my kids stayed off of social media throughout high school, so if anyone were bullying them anonymously on SnapChat or some other app, my kids were blissfully unaware of it. If anyone wanted to bully my kids, they had to do it the old fashioned way -- in person. When I would need to pick up my kids at school after certain special events, I would see an armada of SUVs with parents inside all in a line waiting for their students to leave the school premises and find their parent's vehicle outside. Me-- I just parked in the lot and went inside the building to collect my kids. Then, the parents sitting in their SUVs would ask me if a certain activity had ended inside the building, when they saw me leaving with my kids. I think having a Smart Phone can make a person way too dependent upon it for information that is best collected in other ways-- like direct observation with one's own eyes, like conversations with other people of varying ages, like reading books on specific topics, and reading great literature. Getting information from a cellphone is too controlled, and what is sent to people is directed by outsiders wanting to influence your opinions and control which products you purchase. These outside entities do not have your best interests at heart. 

I have a dumb phone (a flip phone) and a landline phone. I typically do not text anyone as I like to speak to people on the phone and hear their voice. I think texting is rather anti-social, as texts can be misinterpreted easily when the tone of a person's voice is taken out of the mix.

I have read that CA wants to remove landlines, and I hope that the people contact their representatives to express how that will negatively impact their lives and ability to contact EMS and police services as cellphones are unaffordable to many of their constituents.

Sorry for the rant.