Are Smart Phones Creating Dumb People?

Tabby Ann

Tabby Ann

Member
Location
Southern Indiana
There is much news about the devastating effects of some Internet websites on children, but equally disappointing is the effect of the Internet on some adults who feel Internet technology supersedes and is more important than interaction with real live humans in their immediate vicinity. These people think nothing of scrolling their smart phones and talking on them while they are visiting others or out to lunch or dinner with others. These people are not invited back to my home and I do not make further lunch or dinner plans with them. The key to a good life is good balance and one should balance all the knowledge the Internet has to offer with the opportunity to interact with real live people in one’s immediate vicinity, and do it with old fashioned good manners that preclude talking on the phone during meals or visits with others.
 

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I think the internet and smartphones are a wonderful invention because they allow us to access just about anything with the touch of a button. That said, I do agree that it is not polite to have your face in your phone during any type of social event. It's just rude. It shows disrespect for the person that may be trying to have a conversation with you. I also agree that balance is important in life and don't blame you at all for not inviting "phone junkies" back into your home.

Now, if we have kids in our house we never expect them to look up from their phones. Adults... that's another thing entirely.
 

Tabby Ann said:
There is much news about the devastating effects of some Internet websites on children, but equally disappointing is the effect of the Internet on some adults who feel Internet technology supersedes and is more important than interaction with real live humans in their immediate vicinity. These people think nothing of scrolling their smart phones and talking on them while they are visiting others or out to lunch or dinner with others. These people are not invited back to my home and I do not make further lunch or dinner plans with them. The key to a good life is good balance and one should balance all the knowledge the Internet with the opportunity to interact with real live people in one’s immediate vicinity, and do it with old fashioned good manners that preclude talking on the phone during meals or visits with others.
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I agree with what you said! There's a place and a time for smartphones, but not while interacting with people.
 
Tabby Ann said:
There is much news about the devastating effects of some Internet websites on children, but equally disappointing is the effect of the Internet on some adults who feel Internet technology supersedes and is more important than interaction with real live humans in their immediate vicinity. These people think nothing of scrolling their smart phones and talking on them while they are visiting others or out to lunch or dinner with others. These people are not invited back to my home and I do not make further lunch or dinner plans with them. The key to a good life is good balance and one should balance all the knowledge the Internet has to offer with the opportunity to interact with real live people in one’s immediate vicinity, and do it with old fashioned good manners that preclude talking on the phone during meals or visits with others.
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You see, Tabby Ann, that smartphones have become the drug of choice for many people. It does not have to be like that. Smartphones are good tools if you know how to use them. If visiting folks, shut the bloody phone off unless you are 100% that a dire emergency is waiting to happen. Then you need to talk to the good people you are visiting and explain the situation to them. Smartphones become a drug when people are looking at them all the time. They are giving a signal that a mechanical/technical thing is a lot more important than a human thing. No wonder people are getting more and more lonely as the years go by. It is extremely rude to visit someone and then talk on the phone while they are trying to talk to you. These kind of people deserve no friends. They can hug and kiss and sleep with their phones because they are showing that the phones own them. It should be the other way around.

Far as do smartphones make folks dumb? I don't think so. I am pretty sure that they were pretty dumb before they ever bought or were given the darn thing.
 
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Human beings are social Earth creatures with much recent brain structure evolved for interpersonal communication and actions, both verbal and non-verbal. Recent science has shown humans begin life with a vast neocortex structure of 300 million pattern recognizers needing to be filled and meaningfully wired. Not regularly experiencing those interpersonal interactions in ways humans evolved leaves a poorly filled brain without adequately wired dendritic connections.
 
Fo 13 years, I just had a flip phone. I used to laugh at people and their smart phones. And especially, the people, who talked to their phones, "Hey Siri". Buy one dark, and stormy night, a smart phone was placed in my pocket, and I became one of THEM. So, yeah, I'm "Hey Siri" all over the place, now. I love my phone. The technology is so cool. And like DonM says "If all cell phone service were to suddenly go down, for any extended period of time, half our population ( me, included) would go into panic mode..
 
David777 said:
Human beings are social Earth creatures with much recent brain structure evolved for interpersonal communication and actions, both verbal and non-verbal. Recent science has shown humans begin life with a vast neocortex structure of 300 million pattern recognizers needing to be filled and meaningfully wired. Not regularly experiencing those interpersonal interactions in ways humans evolved leaves a poorly filled brain without adequately wired dendritic connections.
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I disagree, in part. Human brains evolved for interpersonal communication and actions very early on. Even apes live within a social construct (of their own creation) and communicate with each other all the time.
 
I think cell phones, held in close proximity to the brain, for any length of time, could prove to be dangerous. The brain consists of millions of Neurons, which transmit "instructions" to all the other parts of our bodies....via electrical impulses. Holding a cell phone to that area allows the signals to/from the cell phone to potentially impact the capabilities of these neurons.

The way some people are starting to act, I wonder if this isn't already happening.
 
Jules said:
If my phone rings while I’m visiting someone or at a store, I just decline the call. There’s no need to read messages either.
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Good for you Jules. You are showing control. The phone is there for your use yet it does not control you. You are probably in the minority in the urban world. Unless you are a medical doctor, a fireman or a police officer, very few messages are of the type that they need an immediate response. Those "messages from loved ones" can just wait a few minutes, can't they?
 
Devi said:
Agreed. Nothing says "you don't matter to me" like incessantly talking on a phone while amidst a group of people.
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Correct Devi: I find it especially annoying when I go grocery shopping when the young lady in front of me (yes, it's almost always young ladies) is yapping loudly on the phone while her groceries are being run through. Then, if she is in Superstore where you bag your own groceries, she still is yapping like a dog with it's tail in the door while she is bagging her groceries with one hand because she is holding the "almighty" talking machine in her other hand. Not good manners; by a long shot.
 
Devi said:
Agreed. Nothing says "you don't matter to me" like incessantly talking on a phone while amidst a group of people.
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Packerjohn said:
Correct Devi: I find it especially annoying when I go grocery shopping when the young lady in front of me (yes, it's almost always young ladies) is yapping loudly on the phone while her groceries are being run through. Then, if she is in Superstore where you bag your own groceries, she still is yapping like a dog with it's tail in the door while she is bagging her groceries with one hand because she is holding the "almighty" talking machine in her other hand. Not good manners; by a long shot.
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I'll add to what I said above. I do wonder if persons always being on a phone while in the midst of people is a way to announce their importance.
 
I was just telling my BFF that due to the smart phone feature of just clicking someones name to dial, the only phone numbers I remember "by heart" is my son's, my sister's and my (late) DIL's. If I lost my phone, had an emergency and could commandeer someone else's phone to use, I'd be out of luck if I couldn't call either of those people. Also, I'm sure most people will use the calculator on their phone rather than add numbers in their head.
 
Tabby Ann said:
Are Smart Phones Creating Dumb People?
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Not "dumb" but maybe dependent, which is understandable since a smart phone can provide so many different uses in just one handheld package. I like all the features a smartphone offers except....telephone calls. Talking on a smartphone is awkward, and I have hearing issues which are compounded by the cellular phones inferior voice quality. Every other feature rocks, navigation with voice prompts, the ability to lookup goods & services while on the road, texting, calculator, all the information that Mankind has generated since stone tablets...available right at your fingertips.
 
When I started college we were still using slide rules. When the first calculators appeared there was a lot of resistance, one big concern was that students would become dumber, just relying on electronics to do the calculations. I finally got rid of my slide rule a few years ago, anyone here still use one?

I suspect all technological advances have been greeted with skepticism. It takes a generation or two for the full effects to be seen. I am of the pre-smart phone generation. Dumb and unsophisticated, and will probably die that way. Doesn't mean the smart phones are bad, who knows on that one. But so long as we don't run out of silica or electricity good or bad they are here to stay, until the next big advance comes along anyway. Typed and posted from my 20th century computer keyboard...
 
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