Cell phones: Is a day of reckoning coming?

Were these same things said when books were first published, radio invented, television invented, the internet invented?

 

The short answer is: yes. Two books, "The Shallows" and "The Tyranny of Email" address a lot of that history.

The short declaration that can serve as an entryway into a much longer, deeper conversation is: That doesn't make the present concerns unfounded. Perhaps a good analogy would be weaponry. When the nuclear bomb was introduced, there was concern about annihilation. The lazy response would have been: We worried about that when knives were invented. We worried about that when bow-and-arrows were invented.

Fire.

Guns.

Grenades.

And here we are. Still here.

So the question is, are smart phones nuclear bombs? Or are they knives? Is there something fundamentally different about the way they alter us and alter our interactions with each other in a negative way than the written word or the printing press or the radio?

Plus, why do we accept so easily the premise that television did not have a deleterous effect? The amount of time families spend engaged with one another is well-documented. It has, without a doubt, decreased.

And why do we accept so easily the premise that the rise of the written word did not have a deleterous effect on ancient societies, and those that came after? Didn't we lose something when the oral tradition of storytelling faded away?

Now, certainly much was gained, in both instances. But I would not be so dismissive of the notion that some balancing is fair game, and that all communications advances are not created equal.

 

Yes.

And here's the full Krugman.

www.nytimes.com/2012/09/14/opinion/krugman-the-iphone-stimulus.html?hp

Gotta say, Nobel prize or not, it's "whomever."

 

And a quick google search will tell you air conditioning is destroying the American neighborhood.

 

Again: Not completely wrong. We balance comfort against community. Comfort won. That doesn't mean community did not lose.

 

Krugman is Ragu's own personal MankyJimy.

 

You know he's not even the best economist on his own team, right?

 

CNN column on work-life balance smart phone issues:

http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/14/opinion/oms-jackson-smartphones/index.html?iid=article_sidebar

 

i'm a little surprised at the number of attention whores there are on this thread.

"look me in the eye. look me in the eye, dammit!"

christ. what other people do with their lives impact you in no way. get over it.

 

According to Ray Bradbury, we are all supposed to be inside watching television at night by now. Perhaps the smartphone has SAVED interaction.