There’s the predictable boogeyman reactions. All phone/tablet use is bad. But that’s not what this article is about.
The other reactions are from those of us looking at measurable changes in kids behaviour, that started with the introduction of the smart phone, and can easily be explained by fairly solid studies linking it to the kind of media kids consume on these devices.
Phones/tablets can be both good and bad, like any technology. But the level to which it can be bad for us humans (not just kids) is on a completely different level.
It’s funny that you mention TV, because there’s a solid argument to be made that TV has also ruined a generation, but it doesn’t really hit until they get older, and start to be glued to day time TV, which rapidly deteriorates them physically and mentally, and has caused some serious political issues from having a huge block of voters voting based on companies trying to scare them all day every day with made-up issues so they stay engaged.
Now it’s not just old folks that have 24/7 access to addictive media. It’s kids, and depending on your job situation, working age adults as well.
The form that TV and (talk show) radio has taken in the last few decades in USA was perhaps the first iteration of the true underlying issue we have with phones/tablets: companies becoming way too good at keeping people from engaged, addicted, anxious and angry, all to make more and more profit above all else.
Or to quote Socrates on the invention of writing:
>For this invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory. Their trust in writing, produced by external characters which are no part of themselves, will discourage the use of their own memory within them. You have invented an elixir not of memory, but of reminding; and you offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom, for they will read many things without instruction and will therefore seem to know many things, when they are for the most part ignorant and hard to get along with, since they are not wise, but only appear wise.
I would say all modes of thought. Again, "Difficulty thinking or concentrating" and "Trouble learning new things".
> A generation which grew up fetishising those things
A generation? One generation? Which generation specifically are you saying fetishized thinking, concentrating, and learning new things?
> Or to quote Socrates on the invention of writing
You have to go back 2500 years to find someone else to dunk on? And do I need to point out that our knowledge of Socrates is based entirely on writing, mostly the writing of Plato, which you quote from and which consists of semi-fictional dialogues, thought experiments, not pure historical transcription?
> Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes.
One "trick" I try as a writer of sometimes-misunderstood comms is to avoid making statements about a person I am responding to. Instead of "you," I may sub in "someone" and I try to stick to events if possible.
Instead of "the best you can do is pull up an even from 2k years ago" to "an example from 2k years ago, surely we can find more recent events." (As a trite example). Note I moved away from isolating the other person and who they are to more broad language that let's us focus on the idea at hand, not the person who raised it.
</insomnia_thoughts>
I would say that my response was actually pretty chill. It could have been much less chill. ;-)
Idk why everyone's freaking out.
I believe there to be a difference between slide rule/calculator - calculator/smart phone that cannot be generalized.
New technology changes the context for raising young people. Phones probably won't turn the globe into deliquents, but we do need to consider how to teach children long term focus, educate them to spot misinformation, and give them a whole bunch of skills they wouldn't have needed 15 years ago.
New technology probably won't stop the next generation from thriving, but the current generation of parents, teachers and voters completely ignoring new issues facing kids, and hoping they fix themselves, just might.
The kids are already much better at spotting misinformation than the older generations are, as I'm sure anyone with boomer relatives on Facebook will have noticed.