Hacker News Reader

Comment by craftyguy | Hacker News Reader

I believe my parents said their parents told them same thing about TVs, and their parents parents told them radios, and so on.

View on HN

Again, same as above: do you watch TV or listen to radio in school unless the teacher introduces it as part of the learning process? It's not that everything about a smartphone is bad - just like not everything about TV is bad - it's the unfettered and ubiquitous distractions inherent in smartphones being used during school hours for uses aside from learning.

> Again, same as above: do you watch TV or listen to radio in school unless the teacher introduces it as part of the learning process?

I don't, because I'm not in school, but my SO - who is a grade school teacher - says that there are problems in the school with students watching off-topic videos (analogous to "TV") when they should be doing other work.

In any case, distractions will exist, and continue to exist, students will seek them out, and this will forever be a game of cat & mouse.

> listen to radio in school

Yes, and it’s fairly easy to hide an earplug by adopting a leaning posture.

Also we read comics and books, and played games on our calculators, exchanged paper messages etc., though you would classify that as active distractions I guess.

It’s true that smartphones are a different kind of devices, but I’m not sure it’s such a big deal if we account for the number of hours everyday they will be spending using them formthe rest of their life. Might as well have them part of the equation from the start.

Well, true, but television in itself back then had much less "immediate reward" potential whereas video games and mobile devices are hands-on, and the experience changes much more quickly at the users' expense. The only comparison I can think of to the tube in that way is around switching channels on the tube on demand lol. The content is markedly different as well, often designed to generate easy feedback loops. Yes, TV originally did cause massive changes to social life and can also have negative impact. but I do not think it's a good idea to be dismissive of a potentially larger impact simply because of some similarities in technological progression through generations.

Though. I do see your point and maybe in a few more generations it will seem like just another bump in the road. Can't say I am optimistic in any case.

They said it and it was probably true =). There's a good reason why people aren't allowed to bring their TVs and radios to class.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com