Slashdot Mirror
NYT Reporter 'Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain' (msn.com)
"It's an unnerving sensation, being alone with your thoughts in the year 2019," writes New York Times technology columnist Kevin Roose, in an article shared by DogDude. "I don't love referring to what we have as an 'addiction.' That seems too sterile and clinical to describe what's happening to our brains in the smartphone era."
We might someday evolve the correct biological hardware to live in harmony with portable supercomputers that satisfy our every need and connect us to infinite amounts of stimulation. But for most of us, it hasn't happened yet... [S]ometime last year, I crossed the invisible line into problem territory. My symptoms were all the typical ones: I found myself incapable of reading books, watching full-length movies or having long uninterrupted conversations. Social media made me angry and anxious, and even the digital spaces I once found soothing (group texts, podcasts, YouTube k-holes) weren't helping...
Mostly, I became aware of how profoundly uncomfortable I am with stillness. For years, I've used my phone every time I've had a spare moment in an elevator or a boring meeting. I listen to podcasts and write emails on the subway. I watch YouTube videos while folding laundry. I even use an app to pretend to meditate. If I was going to repair my brain, I needed to practice doing nothing.
Another science journalist helped him through "phone rehab," and "now, the physical world excites me, too -- the one that has room for boredom, idle hands and space for thinking." After a final 48 hour digital detox, "I also felt twinges of anger -- at myself, for missing out on this feeling of restorative boredom for so many years; at the engineers in Silicon Valley who spend their days profitably exploiting our cognitive weaknesses; at the entire phone-industrial complex that has convinced us that a six-inch glass-and-steel rectangle is the ideal conduit for worldly experiences...
"Steve Jobs wasn't exaggerating when he described the iPhone as a kind of magical object, and it's truly wild that in the span of a few years, we've managed to turn these amazing talismanic tools into stress-inducing albatrosses. It's as if scientists had invented a pill that gave us the ability to fly, only to find out that it also gave us dementia."
Mostly, I became aware of how profoundly uncomfortable I am with stillness. For years, I've used my phone every time I've had a spare moment in an elevator or a boring meeting. I listen to podcasts and write emails on the subway. I watch YouTube videos while folding laundry. I even use an app to pretend to meditate. If I was going to repair my brain, I needed to practice doing nothing.
Another science journalist helped him through "phone rehab," and "now, the physical world excites me, too -- the one that has room for boredom, idle hands and space for thinking." After a final 48 hour digital detox, "I also felt twinges of anger -- at myself, for missing out on this feeling of restorative boredom for so many years; at the engineers in Silicon Valley who spend their days profitably exploiting our cognitive weaknesses; at the entire phone-industrial complex that has convinced us that a six-inch glass-and-steel rectangle is the ideal conduit for worldly experiences...
"Steve Jobs wasn't exaggerating when he described the iPhone as a kind of magical object, and it's truly wild that in the span of a few years, we've managed to turn these amazing talismanic tools into stress-inducing albatrosses. It's as if scientists had invented a pill that gave us the ability to fly, only to find out that it also gave us dementia."
Yeah its weird, I grew up connected, early 90s AOL and was hooked immediately. I've been over social media for nearly a decade. I rarely log in, maybe 3 or 4 times a year. Youtube on the otherhand has DESTROYED TV for me. But im not really sure thats a bad thing. I watch tech, wood working and car stuff. I was able to change my clutch purely from Youtube, I feel like its an evolution of media. Going back to TV is like going back to dialup.
We might someday evolve the correct biological hardware to live in harmony with portable supercomputers that satisfy our every need and connect us to infinite amounts of stimulation. But for most of us, it hasn't happened yet...
For others of us, it happened a long time ago. I grew up computing, I met my first girlfriend in a BBS chat way way back in 1993 or so, and the internets are my happy place. Maybe that's the difference?
I've spent.... well, a considerable amount of time in front of a computer, on the Internet and on my smartphone. When I first got my smartphone I got more or less addicted to Angry Birds, like if there was ever a dull moment I was on my phone. I don't like being bored, but never being bored brought my tolerance down to nothing. Like if a movie or a conversation had a dull moment, I'd want to pick up my phone and fill it with something. It was almost like inflicting on yourself an attention deficit disorder, even though I've never had one in the past.
Truth is, the only reason society accepts that is that automation has pretty much eliminated all the extremely routine tasks. I remember making firewood with my dad, it was pretty much the same over and over - fell a tree, cut it into segments, break down those segments into sticks of firewood. Over and over and over again. It was productive, but it was never exciting. It used to be totally legitimate work, here's an axe so swing it to chop firewood. Chop. Chop. Chop. Chop. We had a gas driven chopper but it was still like do this 1000x. And it was somehow okay, today I'd die from boredom.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Yes, yes they are. Look at this interview with an NYT journalist and Joe Rogan. She is so full of herself and 100% convinced she is *right about everything*. She is used to being in an echo chamber and is badly affected by Rogan asking her questions about what she believes. She smears Tulsi Gabbard for being a Russian sycohpant, and then can't tell us what a sycophant is.
I love how she thinks Tulsi's stance on gay rights as an indoctrinated teenager, prior to her political career, is somehow pertinent, but Hillary's anti-gay and racist positions, in office, as a grown-ass politician, for most of her adult life, are somehow unfair to bring up.ï
The NYT journalist uses words without knowing what they mean, and she is in an influential position at the New York Times. This explains a lot.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Exactly. Do you carry your phone around when you're at home? Is it always by your side? If so, you are the problem...not the phone.
^^^^This this this.
That's always been kind of a secret litmus test for me- does a person carry their phone on them everywhere all the time, even at home? Is it always always always in reach?
If so, that tells me something about them, and it's almost never a positive thing.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
The "socially awkward nerd" stereotype is very much liked by the media because it's profitable, but real engineers are actually very good socially-wise. They're fun to hang around with, they have many interests and enjoy sports and social life. Real nerds are a nightmare: self-centered, obsessed, asocial and loud with a chip on their shoulder the size of mount Everest. Those lovable goofy geniuses you see on TV are just a fantasy.