[imwjl]

Originally Posted by ewalling

I agree. The all-consuming nature of these devices is what makes them unprecedented; virtually all human experience is now transmuted through them.

Originally Posted by Horsehockey

And all those people reading newspapers on the old time subway were headed where? Answer: to the office. Where, for better or worse, they’re obligated to adjust to living with other human beings. The cell phone + WFH = not so much.

While I understand that correlation is not causation, common sense tells me this can’t be good for the future of a civilized society.

Originally Posted by Steve-arino

"The behavior of having ones nose buried in a cell phone is not that much different than having it buried in a news paper"

I think it is very different. A newspaper is a medium that used to change daily. Magazines what - once a month? You had some time to chew on things and digest. And - although I appreciate the old subway photos (makes me smile as I'm a NYC native) look at the age range. Narrow spectrum.

Today we have little kids addicted to their smart phones. App upon app. Everything they see and hear changes constantly. It's little pieces of this and that. Opinions and thoughts that they might not have been exposed to until they were teens are now on view 24x7 and from a much earlier age. Kids deserve to live a life of innocence, at least for a while.

The all-consuming nature of these devices is what makes them unprecedented; virtually all human experience is now transmuted through them. Yep.

It seems our (Homo sapiens) alternatives to the convergence of methods and technologies would be something like reversing the main elements of progress historian Yuval Noah Harari in essence covers in his book Sapiens. The main areas Stone Age through now are.

The Cognitive Revolution.
The Agricultural Revolution.
The unification of humankind.
The Scientific Revolution.

The screens and apps discussed are just more steps in the convergence. We converged hunter/gatherer into ag. Print converged storytelling (not so accurate or consistent) and pictures. Now my computer and phone are my magazines, my phone, my accountant, and for a lot of us our work toolbox.

I maintain utter nonsense on how the smartphone is somehow wrecking or harming kids. That's just bad parenting and not being responsible. How old are those problems?

If we did this reversal some think could solve all sorts of problems I'll ask: How fit and strong are you? How are those fire making, foraging, fishing and hunting skills? Are you among the modern obese?

It is utter nonsense to think screens or smartphones are harming us or kids' progress if you are not being honest about the job you do as parents. As late age parents the iPad was here for most of our kids' development. In that time I was very sleeves rolled up in different youth organizations to witness thousands of others grow with them. In pretty much all those cases kids not performing had or have pathetic parents.

Now in my work world the screen age kids are fantastic if not saviors for their skills but more important, general awareness and overall smarts at their age.

Go take stats 101 if you think the dullards among us are everyone or even most of us. If not we at least need to be more aware of the cognitive biases that are or at least for me easy to influence my perceptions and thoughts in poor ways.