The Tech Industry Has Contributed To an 'Attention Crisis', Google Researchers Say (washingtonpost.com)

This is a well know fact... by The+Original+CDR · 2018-09-06 03:31 · Score: 4, Funny

That marketeers have four seconds to catch somone's attention before they move on to — Squirrel!

Re: This is a well know fact... by jd · 2018-09-06 03:52 · Score: 1

Tufty died in a road accident as a result of distraction.

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It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Re: This is a well know fact... by Anonymous Coward · 2018-09-06 04:41 · Score: -1

Hey. How do my balls taste? It's a well know fact that my sweaty, salty, wrinkly balls are delicious. Your mom know it. Your dad know it. And, your slutty sister, Somone know it. Put my balls back in your fucking mouth hole you fugucking fagaggot.
Re:This is a well know fact... by Anonymous Coward · 2018-09-06 05:14 · Score: 0

Get my family freindly Goat C shirt! ~ CaptainCork
Re: This is a well know fact... by Anonymous Coward · 2018-09-06 07:21 · Score: 0

Irony: Google suggests other companies restrict their advertising capability.
Eyeballs = Advertising $$$, you want all the eyeballs all the time. Advertising is rarely what anyone is looking for so it's pure distraction all the way...

Wot? by xxxJonBoyxxx · 2018-09-06 03:33 · Score: 0

You lost me.

Re: Wot? by Anonymous Coward · 2018-09-06 04:44 · Score: -1

*SMACK* I just smacked your face with my penis. You're welcome.

TL;DR by houghi · 2018-09-06 03:34 · Score: 1, Funny

See subj.

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Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.

Re:TL;DR by q_e_t · 2018-09-06 04:55 · Score: 1

Damn, you beat me to it. It's all I came here to do - post that. So I am off now to look at a shiny thing.

nothing really new just piled higher by Anonymous Coward · 2018-09-06 03:35 · Score: 0

as example;
https://archive.org/details/1957TheNightAmericaTrembledH.G.WellsWarOfTheWorlds .. the commercials tell the 'story'? lots of smoking, guns,,,

Surprising that mental illness is on the rise? by bogaboga · 2018-09-06 03:37 · Score: 1, Interesting

"... It's important to consider alternative metrics to indicate success, relating to user satisfaction and quality of time spent."

When at work, I observe some of my colleagues. I have one conclusion:

One will easily conclude that these folks are mentally ill just by the way they interact with their devices...mostly FB.

Re:Surprising that mental illness is on the rise? by Anonymous Coward · 2018-09-06 03:47 · Score: 0

For some there is no hope. But for others its pretty much a very strong addiction.
Re:Surprising that mental illness is on the rise? by alvinrod · 2018-09-06 03:59 · Score: 4, Insightful

I don't know if it's the devices themselves or if we raised a generation that we didn't want to let play outside for fear that they would get into trouble or that something bad would happen to them. Is it any wonder that they turned to electronic devices in order to keep themselves entertained and that they never learned to enjoy other activities outside of those devices?

I think that we've replaced a lot of our environments and communities with digital equivalents and they're a very shallow substitute at best. Maybe that will change as the technology improves, but I think it's pretty important for us to remember that we're an animal that spent a lot of its evolutionary history without exposure to this kind of technology and that just like other animals we need some natural light, exercise, and a lot of other things that we might tend to put off as a bit primitive or regard as uncivilized.

When looked at in that way, it doesn't seem strange at all for technology to exert a large amount of selective pressure on the population. Of course a lot of people are miserable or appear to be ill. They're just unfit for this new world we find ourselves in, but there's no need for them to remain that way. Humans are wonderful at adapting the environment to suit them, so there's nothing that says you can't go barbecue or shoot hoops down at the park instead of posting on social media.
Re: Surprising that mental illness is on the rise? by houghi · 2018-09-06 05:38 · Score: 1

Since evar, the current generation was worse than the previous one.

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Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Re: Surprising that mental illness is on the rise? by Anonymous Coward · 2018-09-06 05:51 · Score: 0

Well it has been going down hill since the beginning so it's a valid observation.
Re:Surprising that mental illness is on the rise? by thePsychologist · 2018-09-06 09:37 · Score: 1

I don't know if it's the devices themselves or if we raised a generation that we didn't want to let play outside for fear that they would get into trouble or that something bad would happen to them.
No, it's the devices. The human mind is geared to respond to social cues and providing an immense flood of them to anyone is an easy path to addiction. I have seen people that were addicted to smartphones, who at the same time grew up into adulthood before the internet even existed.

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"What lies behind us, and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." Ralph Waldo Emerson

Weak minded by Anonymous Coward · 2018-09-06 03:39 · Score: 1

The weak minded will always attach themselves to things, be it their phones or anything else.
They are simply to easy to manipulate and thus get addicted to mostly anything.
To fix this we must raise the critical thinking skills of the entire world. Not that tptb will ever willingly do that though :(

Re:Weak minded by Anonymous Coward · 2018-09-06 03:48 · Score: 0

western type society breeds narcissism/greed etc. look at all the NIMBYs and fuck-you-i-have-mines. this produces the sheep/Joe Q. Public these companies rely on to prop their amoral businesses. hell, 'merika perpetuates this. the business of 'merika IS business. unfortunately there isn't a better alternative to base a society on that doesn't require more education and interactivity in civic discourse. as a species we're doomed. sad.
Re: Weak minded by Anonymous Coward · 2018-09-06 03:50 · Score: 0

Yeah....everyone is weak minded but me.
Re:Weak minded by Anonymous Coward · 2018-09-06 03:56 · Score: 0

So only greed and narcissism exists in Western Society?
Re:Weak minded by Anonymous Coward · 2018-09-06 04:01 · Score: 0

I have the attention span of a tuna melt sandwich.
Oh wait, I _am_ a tuna melt sandwich!
BEHOLD, I am a tuna melt sandwich! Tuna salad, melted cheese, piled high on toasted bread, yum yum yum yum yum!
Re:Weak minded by Anonymous Coward · 2018-09-06 04:06 · Score: 0

It takes a tough man to cook a tender Tuna Salad.
Re:Weak minded by Anonymous Coward · 2018-09-06 04:13 · Score: 0

Yeah critical thinking skills will solve addiction. Thats a brand new idea, i'm sure it'll work and i'm sure you know what you're talking about.
Re:Weak minded by Anonymous Coward · 2018-09-06 04:31 · Score: 0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvXeeLpntdI
Re:Weak minded by ShanghaiBill · 2018-09-06 05:18 · Score: 1

The weak minded will always attach themselves to things, be it their phones or anything else.
Another sign of a weak mind is someone who need to validate his self worth by pointing out that everyone else has a weak mind.
https://xkcd.com/610/
Re:Weak minded by ShanghaiBill · 2018-09-06 05:38 · Score: 1

So only greed and narcissism exists in Western Society?
Yes. That is why the 3rd world is so much more prosperous, and why so many Europeans and Americans are trying to illegally immigrate to Nigeria and El Salvador.
Re:Weak minded by jpaine619 · 2018-09-06 08:22 · Score: 1

I hear ya brother... None of those high-level guys in the Kremlin was living the good life.. It was peasant food and Trabants all around.

Dims by Anonymous Coward · 2018-09-06 03:44 · Score: -1

Democrats, with the lowest IQ in the country and always reducing, glued to their Fake News.

Oh so they admit they are responsible? by Anonymous Coward · 2018-09-06 03:44 · Score: 0

Class action in 3,2..

The same thing was said about Newspapers by scourfish · 2018-09-06 03:51 · Score: 1

And television. Naysayers think that everyone but themselves is responsible.

Human attention is not meant for long-term focus by Anonymous Coward · 2018-09-06 03:52 · Score: 1

We evolved as hunter-gatherers, and it would be rather fatal for us to stay fixated on one thing at a time.

People are stupid. by Anonymous Coward · 2018-09-06 04:04 · Score: -1

I used a smart phone for a while, then it died. I was suckered in to buying an expensive piece of hardware that had an expected two year life span. That was ME being stupid.

So I went back to using a dumbphone. It will last much longer than two years, it costs a tenth as much as a smart phone, and it does not pull me in to some sort of Attention Crisis.

Even when I did use a smartphone, I didn't obsess over it.

The whole thing seems so petty to me. Jesus Christ, you can survive an hour without Facebook!

I just don't get people.

Re:People are stupid. by cayenne8 · 2018-09-06 05:37 · Score: 1

I used a smart phone for a while, then it died. I was suckered in to buying an expensive piece of hardware that had an expected two year life span.
What phones did you buy that only last 2 years?
I had my iPhone 3GS till I got my iPhone 6s+....that was a long time and it worked great.
I don't plan to ditch my 6s+ for quite awhile, nothing so compelling that I feel the need to upgrade...and I'll get a free battery replacement here in a month or so....

The whole thing seems so petty to me. Jesus Christ, you can survive an hour without Facebook!
Ok, I'll go with you on this one...and I guess its because I'm a bit older, but I've never had a social media account. No FB, no twitter, etc. I never joined due to privacy issues, and frankly, if you work any jobs with security requirements, I think it helps NOT to have connections to people you may not really know.
But aside from the fact that I have a large swath of friends, long term ones....I'm constantly in touch with them via text, email, voice...and *GASP* getting together with them in real meat space!!!
I use my phone for listening to music in the car, actual texts/calls....and really that's about it.
Im kinda baffled at people purported to have their noses stuck in a phone 24/7....I guess that explains a sad date I observed not long back, a young couple, and rather than talk, interact and get to know each other, they had their noses stuck in their phones.
I thought that was a bit sad.
Are there that many people out there that are so hooked on their phones that it occupies that much of their daily lives?

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Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Re:People are stupid. by swillden · 2018-09-06 07:04 · Score: 1

So I went back to using a dumbphone. It will last much longer than two years, it costs a tenth as much as a smart phone, and it does not pull me in to some sort of Attention Crisis.
It's great that that works for you, but for many people, me included, not having a smartphone means having to carry a whole bunch of other devices as well. A PDA for calendaring and contact management, a GPS receiver for navigation, a camera, an ebook reader, an MP3 player, a portable game console, a fitness tracker, etc. I used to actually carry all of the above (not all the time; I had to pick and choose what to take when and often didn't have the device I wanted), and besides the proliferation of things to carry, most of them didn't do their job as well as my smartphone does. Calendaring and contact management is much better when the data is synced to the cloud. GPS navigation is much better with live traffic and regular (free!) map updates. And so on.
People don't buy smartphones because they think they are better phones. People buy smartphones because they do a whole bunch of things that dumbphones don't.

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Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
Re:People are stupid. by jpaine619 · 2018-09-06 07:54 · Score: 1

Are there that many people out there that are so hooked on their phones that it occupies that much of their daily lives?
Are you kidding me? It's ridiculous.
Took my kid to his gymnastics class (YMCA), and while sitting in the waiting/observation room, with huge glass windows, out of perhaps 40+ parents there was only one other parent actually paying attention to their child. I went over and sat down next to her and had a very nice conversation. Every other parent in the room had their face buried in a goddamn smartphone and was totally ignoring their child.
I'm a bit of a paradoxical Luddite. I own an ISP, but refuse to purchase a smart phone. I have a table for when I must use the internet for some important purpose.. But other than that, I carry a normal flip phone (that I had to special order, because the idiots at the wireless store looked at me like I was insane when I said I didn't want a smart phone).
I don't blame the smart phones themselves. I do acknowledge that they can be super important and beneficial for some people. But for most folks they are a distraction and, I think, impart a seriously negative impact on their lives.
I have family members (who shall remain nameless) who can't drive down the fucking road without checking their phones.
Re:People are stupid. by jpaine619 · 2018-09-06 07:58 · Score: 1

It's great that that works for you, but for many people, me included, not having a smartphone means having to carry a whole bunch of other devices as well. A PDA for calendaring and contact management, a GPS receiver for navigation, a camera, an ebook reader, an MP3 player, a portable game console, a fitness tracker, etc.
Oh bullshit... I have a tablet that has every single function you just named. ONE DEVICE. But, I don't carry it in my pocket. It's not a constant distraction. Normally it's sitting on the passenger seat and, if I need it, I can retrieve it quickly. I carry a flip phone for phone calls.
I'm not saying that works for you.. I'm simply saying that every function you just described can be accommodated without a smart phone and without multiple devices.
Re:People are stupid. by swillden · 2018-09-06 08:11 · Score: 1

It's great that that works for you, but for many people, me included, not having a smartphone means having to carry a whole bunch of other devices as well. A PDA for calendaring and contact management, a GPS receiver for navigation, a camera, an ebook reader, an MP3 player, a portable game console, a fitness tracker, etc.
Oh bullshit... I have a tablet that has every single function you just named. ONE DEVICE. But, I don't carry it in my pocket. It's not a constant distraction. Normally it's sitting on the passenger seat and, if I need it, I can retrieve it quickly. I carry a flip phone for phone calls.
I'm not saying that works for you.. I'm simply saying that every function you just described can be accommodated without a smart phone and without multiple devices.
So you carry a phone and a tablet. How is that not "multiple devices"?

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Re:People are stupid. by jpaine619 · 2018-09-06 08:45 · Score: 1

Okay. I wasn't clear.. I'll give you that..
You listed a half dozen devices as if they all needed to be separate devices.. I was saying that the LIST could be accommodated by one device. So... okay.. 2 devices.. But not 8.
Re:People are stupid. by swillden · 2018-09-06 09:41 · Score: 1

Sure. But if you take one more step you get to one device. One small enough to fit in a pocket. And all of your non-phone functionality has a data connection even when Wifi is unavailable -- unlike your tablet, unless the tablet has a cellular modem and you pay for service for it.
Of course, I'm not trying to tell you that your solution is bad. If it works for you, great. But the AC above was trying to say that people are stupid for wanting a smartphone when a dumbphone is all you need. My point was that a dumbphone is not all many of us need. Which you agree with, because you augment your dumbphone with another device that fills all of those other niches.
Whether you let your smartphone take over your life, making you check your Facebook feed every two minutes, is a separate issue.

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Kaczynsky was right by Anonymous Coward · 2018-09-06 04:10 · Score: 0

Technology makes us slaves to the system.

Re:Kaczynsky was right by q_e_t · 2018-09-06 05:00 · Score: 1

Drum machines make you a slave to the rhythm.
Re:Kaczynsky was right by jpaine619 · 2018-09-06 08:27 · Score: 1

Technology was the very first arrowhead. Do you mean modern technology?
Re: Kaczynsky was right by Anonymous Coward · 2018-09-06 10:23 · Score: 0

Yes

Spam Just Shifted by Voyager529 · 2018-09-06 04:17 · Score: 1

I think a major part of the issue is that the amount of notifications people get daily are very high. App developers generate notifications based on what's best for the developer, rather than the end user. No mobile game has ever needed notifications (I *might* make an exception for asynchronous turn-based games), but all of them push you to let their game send notifications. The F2P games do the whole "new daily special" sort of thing where logging in needs to be habitual in order to get in-game bonuses. CNN pushes notifications basically every time Donald Trump tweets...also, Twitter has incessant notifications. Instagram and Snapchat remind users of expiring stories, a purely artificial need for them. And through all of this noise, there are the texts and e-mails and Whatsapp messages for which a notification is legitimately warranted.

The notifications drawer is the new inbox, and like e-mail before it, it's in need of a spam filter.

The trouble with the creation of a spam filter is a matter of who writes the rules for it. If end users are responsible for their spam filters, then app devs will simply constantly nag or bump their incentives to be whitelisted, and nothing changes. If Apple and Google do it, they are then going to find themselves on very shaky ground if the Fox News app gets to display three notifications but MSNBC only gets two. If a third party like Barracuda or Scrollout makes a utility for notification filtering, not only do they end up with the same problem (albeit with a bit more leeway than Apple or Google would since it wouldn't be default/integrated behavior), Apple/Google would have to make some sort of a special API for them that wouldn't be available to regular devs in order to avoid those devs using the same APIs to make an end run around the filters, which now starts causing other issues about what sort of lower-level APIs should be available and who gets to be a notification filter, and so forth.

So yes, let's solve this problem. However, assigning responsibility to somebody is the first step.

Re:Spam Just Shifted by pgmrdlm · 2018-09-06 04:49 · Score: 1

I just turned my notifications off. The only notification I get on my cell phone is my text notification. That is because when I get automated texts from work about servers or services, I need to hear them. Otherwise, everything else is turned off. I don't get work emails on my phone, so I don't give a shit. I read facebook when I have time, so I don't need notifications. News alerts? World sucks, I don't need a notification letting me know it is only sucking more.

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Anonymous comments are as pathetic as the anonymous "sources" that contaminate gutless journalism from the New York Time

Comment removed by account_deleted · 2018-09-06 04:19 · Score: -1

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Fake news is from FAKE JEWS (fakebook/jewgle) by Anonymous Coward · 2018-09-06 04:24 · Score: -1

Khazar Talmudic Jews believe this of all they call goyim/gentiles (any non-jew): Jews = biggest racists of all (for which they "jew guilt" you for no less! They're hypocrites known as thieves all thru history or were Argentines in the 1940 under Peron, Spanish inquistion, France (1306), Egypt (despoiled/robbed by jews), Arabs (pre & post 1948), England (1330 Edward longshanks), Romans under titus, Russia pogroms and Germany who got rid of them from their nations nazi german's too? No. Driven into DESERTS ages ago! Don't wonder why after all those exilings above.

Should anyone doubt any of this see Jacob Javits' crony Rosenthal spill the beans on it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4zMVZ8HnFI/ where he called all Christianity fools for helping Israel and the biggest scam of all time per their beliefs below from their Talmud.

This is the province of the synagogue of Satan (Pharisees whom Jesus Christ himself kicked to the curb out of the temple & they killed him for it. Jeremiah did the same to them also + the Essenes could not stand them either breaking away from the pharisee corruption):

Mark Zuckerberg stole the Winklevoss twins' code for Fakebook (figures as he is a thieving low jew too).

Maria Abramovic satanist spirit cooker pal of Hillary Clinton the Voodoo queen is a jew https://www.google.com/search?...

Like Hillary Clinton's mentor Saul Alinsky author of rules for radicals book dedicated to Lucifer

"Most Jews do not like to admit it, but our god is Lucifer Â- so I wasnÂ't lying Â- and we are his chosen people. Lucifer is very much aliveÂ" Harold Rosenthal http://www.thetruthseeker.co.u...

Jewish rabbi openly admits to satan worship use white children's blood they kill for passover bread, infiltrating and subverting the catholic church, creating the Jesuit order https://www.youtube.com/watch?... and https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Barbara Spectre, a jew, tells everyone it's jews orchestrating the muslim migrant problem in Europe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFE0qAiofMQ/ . No migrant raping of women in Poland. Tons in Sweden. Do the math. Use common-sense. This is to get muslims and other goyim/gentiles to wipe one another out as incompatible cultures that will clash and always have.

Rabbi A. Finkelstein ADMITS their greatest enemies are ARABS and WHITES (blacks too) whom they wish to kill one another in a 'theater of war' which they find AMUSING https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Finkelstein also admits JEWS DID 9/11 (perpetrated by the Mossad & Bebe Netanyahu of ISRAEL) https://www.youtube.com/watch?... profiting by it (and that 3,000 jews employed there did not show up for work that day knowing about it beforehand).

Finkelstein also admits JEWS are going to destroy the U.S. Dollar and dumping it for other world currencies and gold to destroy the United States.

George Soros who funds groups to create division in the USA?? A jew. One who sold his own jew people into death for the nazis.

Zucker now FIRED @ CNN is another frying publicly for lying about "russians" and John Bonifield a producer @ CNN said it is bs. Van Jones did also.

Bernie Madoff (who made off with everyone's money, especially construction union pensions) shows the thieving nature of the JUDEN!

Eric Schmidt had to step down @ JEWgle (a jew).

Adam Schiff (gosh s

Re:Fake news is from FAKE JEWS (fakebook/jewgle) by jpaine619 · 2018-09-06 08:28 · Score: 1

You have some pretty serious issues, dude...
Re:Fake news is from FAKE JEWS (fakebook/jewgle) by Anonymous Coward · 2018-09-06 13:42 · Score: 0

That is not a "dude", per se, It's a bot. It posts this exact same copy paste article in every thread on here, usually twice. Been doing it ever since t-dog got elected.

I want a robot to rub my...feet...too. by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · 2018-09-06 04:29 · Score: 1

I have literally found myself in this situation: TV on, Netflix streaming, Big Brother livestream running, game (Warcraft) idling running, and surfing on a web site.

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(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.

Take This Concern With A Grain Of Salt by Anonymous Coward · 2018-09-06 04:29 · Score: 0

An advertising company worrying about the "Attention Crisis". The whole point of advertising is to distract you...

Help me avoid floods, rather than managing them. by shess · 2018-09-06 04:32 · Score: 4, Insightful

When I worked at Google, a lot of people took it as a badge of pride how much email and chat and crap like that that they "managed". A lot of feature proposals for things like gmail are geared towards somehow helping you manage the flood. Basically, the first assumption is that email is good and more is better, and that assumption is probably right at first, but certainly wrong once you can't keep up. Just like it's good for you to directly interact with tens of people in a day, but directly interacting with thousands of people in a day destroys you.

You know what I'd really like to see? I'd like to see a way for my computing systems to realize that a mailing list I'm on is useless, that I never engage with it, or that I engage with it in only negative ways - and then suggest that I unsubscribe from it, or skip it past my inbox to a folder for later. I'd like to be able to tell gmail to hold new content for an hour, so that I can triage what I have without having to deal with new items popping in and distracting me. [You can kinda-sorta fake that by processing using labels.] I'd like to be able to tag a few apps as being useful for a particular project, then as the computer notices I'm using something else, it can ask "Is this helping or hindering your project?", and then I could ask to put that app in a timeout if needed.

Basically, it would be nice if instead of providing tools to magnify my ability to focus on more things, the computer could provide tools to excise irrelevant things from my focus, allowing me to more effectively use what I have.

Fake news is from FAKE JEWS (fakebook/jewgle) by Anonymous Coward · 2018-09-06 04:39 · Score: -1