A Small But Growing Group Of Silicon Valley Heretics Are Disconnecting Themselves From the Internet (theguardian.com)

The Guardian reports: Decades after he stayed up all night coding a prototype of what was then called an "awesome" button, Rosenstein belongs to a small but growing band of Silicon Valley heretics who complain about the rise of the so-called "attention economy": an internet shaped around the demands of an advertising economy. These refuseniks are rarely founders or chief executives, who have little incentive to deviate from the mantra that their companies are making the world a better place. Instead, they tend to have worked a rung or two down the corporate ladder: designers, engineers and product managers who, like Rosenstein, several years ago put in place the building blocks of a digital world from which they are now trying to disentangle themselves. "It is very common," Rosenstein says, "for humans to develop things with the best of intentions and for them to have unintended, negative consequences." Rosenstein, who also helped create Gchat during a stint at Google, and now leads a San Francisco-based company that improves office productivity, appears most concerned about the psychological effects on people who, research shows, touch, swipe or tap their phone 2,617 times a day. There is growing concern that as well as addicting users, technology is contributing toward so-called "continuous partial attention", severely limiting people's ability to focus, and possibly lowering IQ. One recent study showed that the mere presence of smartphones damages cognitive capacity -- even when the device is turned off. "Everyone is distracted," Rosenstein says. "All of the time."

Comments

Frankenstein's monster

[thegreatbob]

Sometimes you have to take responsibility for your actions, regardless of the original intent, even if your efforts are futile.

But...

[computational super]

technology is contributing toward so-called "continuous partial attention", severely limiting people's ability to focus

Of course, the noisy, crowded, attention-impossible "collaborative" open office trend is just fine.

Re:But...

[Anonymous Coward]

I see what you're trying to say but people are capable of holding a conversation in a noisy environment (bars, restaurants, etc) however with a smartphone they choose not to, which is where the irritation stems from. I've watched my 67 year old father become this kind of annoying person over the last 6 years, every notification merits a glance - no matter the conversation. So many people do this it has become a reflex action. I catch myself doing it. Its becoming harder and harder to resist the urge for "notification gratification".

It's hard to turn notifications off and put the phone away, but people gotta start making the effort.

Re:But...

[jenningsthecat]

It's hard to turn notifications off and put the phone away, but people gotta start making the effort.

Advantages of being old, contrarian, and largely self-employed - I never turned notifications on in the first place. Unless it's a (fairly rare) phone call or an (even rarer) text message, I don't receive notifications. I collect and check email when I want to - none of that 'push' shit to put my attention under someone else's control. I don't do social media; but even if I did, I wouldn't receive notifications very often, because both data and WiFi are turned off until I explicitly require them to look something up or to check mail. I can see that it may be difficult to 'unplug' - but it sure as hell was easy to not plug in in the first place.

This often gets framed as a technological issue, but it's really a sociological and psychological one. People need to re-learn that their true self-worth isn't contingent on being available and attentive to everyone and his dog on a 24/7 basis. They also need to learn that somebody else's unavailability is simply that - it isn't rejection.

web vs social networks?

[tomxor]

Isn't this more a problem with social networks? I know browsing the web more generally can be addictive for some, but I feel like there is a distinction.

I don't do the normal social network, no facebook, no twitter etc, I went down that road for a very short time and found the overall effect fairly negative and attention graby many years before it became news. I don't find my life very distracted as a non-social networker, I don't have a smart phone, and the closest I get to distracted is emails or pull requests on GitHub (which are periodic, not continuous).

Does anyone have examples of "highly distracted" experiences outside of social networking on the web?

Re:time to increase brain power

[Penguinisto]

I find it easier to just turn off everything on the weekends, go get stuff done (be it fun, necessary, whatever), and just enjoy being alive. The phone stays in my pocket unless I need to make a call (or get one - and notifications are turned off for anything that doesn't involve me putting the thing against my ear and responding with "hello?")

You should try it sometime. It's pretty fun. So far this year, I've managed to get a garden going, build a greenhouse, partially build a new home office (waiting on the shell to arrive soon), watch the salmon run up the river near my home, read a ton of cool books, meet cool people at various events, go do stuff, go see stuff...

The point here is not to brag - the point is that there is a balance that's needed. There's idle time to fart around with your phone, and there's idle time where you need to rebuild your sense of soul and presence in this world.

"Everyone is distracted all of the time."

[UnknownSoldier]

I'm calling BULLSHIT on this claim.

Gee, if only there was a "Do-Not-Disturb" on my phone -- oh wait, there is!

Moreover, just because more and more people can't focus on something longer then 10 seconds doesn't imply _everyone_ is this neurotic.

Hmm, if only there was a word for this ... I guess no one remembers the term: Self-Discipline

> swipe or tap their phone 2,617 times a day.
Holy shit are these people insecure and slaves to their addictions. Let me guess, this is because of "Social Media."

Guess what, you have a CHOICE. Start living your own life instead of following someone's virtual life.

You can still have an "online" presence and live a balanced life.
i.e.
Check your email / facebook / etc. 3 times a day -- morning, noon, and evening.

Anything more then 3-7 times a day and you probably should seek professional help.