For years the Smartfella has been warning all of you within warning distance of the possible dangers of the Smartphone. Now even the people who became filthy rich because of the Smartphone are beginning to see that it may not be the smartest thing they have ever sent down the pike.
There is no doubt that the Smartphone itself is a wonderful and amazing technological advancement, however, the Social Consequences of the Smartphone have started to raise their ugly heads and there is nothing pretty about their ugly heads…
Ø Even Apple Executives are worried about their iPhone’s tendency to monopolize attention.
Ø Facebook’s biggies are concerned about social media’s tendency to consume more and more user time.
Ø The situation is getting so bad that the American Psychiatric Association has come up with a name for what’s happening to our children. It’s called Internet Gaming Disorder.
From the early days of Digital Everything, the Fella has preached (but no one was listening to me) that an understanding of math is necessary to know if what a Calculator tells you is the answer is the answer. If you are solving for 2+2 and your answer comes out to be 255, you need to know that is a wrong answer. (You hit some wrong keys while inputting you input.)
A recent Wall Street Journal article tells me that the Wall Street Journal was worried…For homework, point an iPhone Camera at an Algebra Problem and PhotoMath solves it.
How can children learn to solve problems in an age when Smartphones provide instant answers? Their once knowledge seeking minds are “thinking” to their selves, “No need to understand the answer. It has to be right because my device says it’s right. The answer is the answer.”
Some pretty tech-savvy and influential organizations are urging Apple to develop new software tools that would help parents control and limit phone use more easily and are recommending that Apple dedicate money and attention towards studying the impact of overuse on mental health. (Wow! Mental Health! This is getting serious.)
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Of course you all remember my blog posting about the witness in court being unable to answer questions because he no longer talked but could only communicate by Texting…Or do u? That was silly of me…Or was it?
Actually that was just the tip of a Not-So-Silly Iceberg...
Ø The family of 6 sitting in a restaurant and every one of them working on their iPhone.
Ø The many videos on the Internet of people walking and looking down at their phones and bumping into things and actually falling to the ground then getting up and walk off while looking down at their phones.
Ø Again on the Internet, the famous video of the lady at a mall walking into the water fountain.
Ø The mother and child in a restaurant where she is on her phone and the child is playing with the salt and pepper shakers. (It’s called Modern Day Bonding.)
Ø The case of the 16-year-old Eagle Scout who found it hard to break away from online videogames (even at 3am) who told his mother he thought he was addicted. He tried to wean himself off the games by pledging to give them up till after final exams. While weaning, his mother observed that he was having trouble sleeping and he could not sit still.
Ø Psychologists say social media creates anxiety among children when they are away from their phones—what they call “fear of missing out,” whether on social plans, conversations or damaging gossip teens worry could be about themselves.
Ø About half the teens in a survey of 620 families in 2016 said they felt addicted to their phones. Nearly 80% said they checked them more than hourly and felt the need to respond instantly to messages.
Ø About 16% of the nation’s high-school students were bullied online in 2015, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Children who are cyber bullied are three times more likely to contemplate suicide, according to a study in JAMA Pediatrics in 2014.
Ø The drivers at stop lights who do not get moving when the light changes until the car behind blows its horn. The driver of the car behind blows his horn because he is anxious to get to the phone store because he lost his Smartphone and he is on the way to get a new one.
Ø The Big Game is over. The 17 Gathered Game Watchers have just seen their team win the big game and all but 5 of them are jumping around with excitement. In the midst of all the excitement are 5 Smartphone users pecking at their devices as attentively as they would be pecking at them in the back of their chemistry class.
Ø The people who come down from the mountain top with 27 Selfies being asked, “Did you see that beautiful sunset?” and responding, “What sunset?”
Ø I also blogged about the fact that Dr. Jonas Salk would never have invented the Polio Vaccine if he were being constantly interrupted by text messages, emails, facebookers facebooking him, reminders, alarms and notifications about any of the these interruptions.
Ø The Tech Industry Executive was asked by his son, “What does God look like?” The Tech Daddy said, “No one knows?” The Tech Son replied without irony, “Why don’t we just go on God’s Facebook page and see?”
Don’t think that, now that the problem has reared its ugly head, everyone is going to step up and address this ugly problem. Some say it the parent’s responsibility to fix the ugly. Parents say it is Apple’s responsibility. Apple is defending its parental controls and other protections for children who use its iPhones, saying that it started offering some of them as early as 2008. In response parents are saying, “Oh yea! You are trying to shirk your responsibility. Well here is what I have to say about what you just said! … Oh, wait a minute. … I’ll get back to you. I just got a text message”.
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
Lagniappe: I’m a realist. I know that only 17.4% of you will read any further because 82.6% of you are tired of me for today but am pasting “I Was Gonna Find A Cure For All Forms Of Cancer” (a blog of mine from 2010) because I know that 17.4% will get a real chuckle…
I Was Going Find A Cure For All Forms Of Cancer
The smartest man who ever lived in the entire history of humankind on the face of the earth is about to publish an open email to every email address in the entire world. Since us knowledge seekers often seek the counsel of other knowledge seekers he first sent the email to me for proofreading and spell checking. He was so grateful to me for the misspelled word I found he gave me permission to publish his email, in its entirety, in Foolishness…Or Is It?
I bet you are excited! Here is the email…
“At a very young age I came to the realization that I was, without a doubt, the smartest man who ever lived in the entire history of humankind on the face of the earth. I then quickly determined that what I wanted to do with my life was find a cure for all forms of cancer. I took out my calculator and quickly ascertained that it would take 7.45 years of dedicated hard work and research to accomplish this lofty goal. (I may have been a few months off in my 7.45 years estimate above but it was very close to the actual number because you should remember I am the smartest man who ever lived in the entire history of humankind on the face of the earth.)
I was three weeks into my Herculean Cancer Cure Task and was making great progress when I discovered Social Networking (My Space, Twitter, Face Book, etc.). I was instantly captivated. I could not think of doing anything else with my life other than Social Networking.
During my Social Networking endeavors I am proud to say that I have accomplished many Great Social Feats. Space limitations (and an irresistible compulsion to get back to my morning Twittering regimen) prohibit me from bragging too much about my Social Accomplishments but here are a few…
Ø August 2, 1998 … I am sitting on my couch thinking about getting up to make myself a peanut and jelly sandwich.
Ø June 27, 2005 … I mailed the Social World the first in a series of pictures of myself eating a cinnamon and raisin bagel.
Ø January 8, 2007 … I laughed so hard that I had tears in my eyes after getting a picture of Alfonzo (an accountant from Bulgaria whom I have never met but am proud to say is one of my 21,376,412 Face Book Followers) sticking his tongue out at the camera while wearing a red clown nose ball on his left index finger.
I cannot tell you how Socially Fulfilling my life has been to this point. Each day is another pleasure to me. There are times I start to feel a twinge of regret for all those millions of people all over the Earth I could have saved from the debilitating effects, pain, suffering, financial ruin and death that cancer caused them but in life one must make choices and I chose Social Networking.
If any of you reading this email wants to send me your address, I will be more than glad to add you as a follower of mine on my Twitter Account. Nothing could make me happier than to have you as a fellow Twit.”
