Cell phones: Is a day of reckoning coming?

I always bring this up, but the NY Times had a great series "Your Brain on Computers."

Essentially, we're all becoming dopamine addicts.

It scares the shit out of me, but there doesn't appear to be anything that can be done.

 

It is kind of symmetrical and perfect that the smartphone generation doesn't fully understand how rude and solipsistic they are.

And that Generation H doesn't fully understand that we're the ones who taught them to be so.

 

Cell phones can turn people into endorphin addicts.

 

If I am anticipating a message or a phone call, I'll occasionally look at my phone while talking with someone else. But that's about it; I sure the hell ain't gonna check a sports score or Facebook (if I were on Facebook). But when I'm on public transit or waiting in a doctor's office, I like the options a smartphone provides. Most everything in the world has a middle ground.

 

You know that when the bare-breasted, machete-wielding virgins refuse to put down their smart phones while parading for the king...that the whole day of reckoning is indeed approaching.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/04/swaziland-virgins-parade_n_1853322.html?utm_hp_ref=world

 

Sounds like a great photo op for National Geographic.

 

All kidding aside, you never know. An increased dopamine load and resultant systemic dependance could trigger an important positive evolutionary step that we cannot foresee.

 

I guess. But why waste rage on things you cannot control?

If you're 30,000 feet in the air flying somewhere and your daughter gets hurt, you'll find out when you land.

And nothing will be any different than had you found out an hour before while you were in the air. Nothing.

Except you would have spent an hour more worrying.

So why rage at the fact that you didn't get to worry an hour longer?

24/7? No thanks.

I'm connected. You send me an e-mail, I'll see it --- sometime today. You leave me a voice message, I'll hear it --- sometime today.

If the fact that I don't check for these messages every 15 minutes makes me disconnected, so be it.

"Do Not Disturb" signs exist for a reason,

 

Heh, my 85-year-old father probably uses his cell phone more than I do.

 

If I were to guess, I'd assume I'm young enough to be BTE's son, and yet I wholeheartedly endorse his previous post. My ex-girlfriend would complain when she got a call while asleep that woke her up. She said it needed to be on in case something happened and I made the same argument as BTE, that 99.99999% of the time, she'd be fine getting that call or text when she woke up.

I love going on vacation to places where I don't get good service and don't have my computer. After a few days, I start itching to get back on a computer, but for 3-4 days, I love it.

 

Depends on your view of positive. I think it has the potential to make us less empathetic and to prioritize "new" information over "more meaningful," which could shorten lifespan.

I also think some of the traits of diseases like autism could be selected for in this new evolutionary step, further compounding a terrifying epidemic.