Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?

[bigheadfred]

Everyone is talking.

No one is listening.

[Wingnut]

Everyone is talking.

No one is listening.

Everybody's talking at me I don't hear a word they're saying.

[Free Vulcan]

It's kind of a mixed bag here in the Midwest. You see some of the younglings constantly on them, some not at all or very little. Probably depends on their personality.

It is a tool. It can be a great tool, it can also be an oppressive master. Smart phones give the younger generation great instant access to all sorts of info good and bad. It can reinforce or bypass the leftist driven pop culture. It can be used to bully, or give a nice f/u to the bully. It can be used for terrorism, it can be used to save a life.

With the addition of social media, it can take some people back to cliquey immature high school, others use it to advance their career or economic situation. Some can't wipe their butt w/o the group's approval, others it makes them even more individualistic and independent.

Which is all to say - human nature hasn't changed, and smart phones conform to that like any other tool.

[Bunny Watson]

It's kind of a mixed bag here in the Midwest. You see some of the younglings constantly on them, some not at all or very little. Probably depends on their personality.

It is a tool. It can be a great tool, it can also be an oppressive master. Smart phones give the younger generation great instant access to all sorts of info good and bad. It can reinforce or bypass the leftist driven pop culture. It can be used to bully, or give a nice f/u to the bully. It can be used for terrorism, it can be used to save a life.

With the addition of social media, it can take some people back to cliquey immature high school, others use it to advance their career or economic situation. Some can't wipe their butt w/o the group's approval, others it makes them even more individualistic and independent.

Which is all to say - human nature hasn't changed, and smart phones conform to that like any other tool.

Exactly. It's a tool. And it's the parents' responsibility to determine the proper use of that tool for any child, with increasing levels of independence as the child gets older. Just like tv time or phone time back when we were kids.

[Idiot]

The smart phone is a WONDERFUL tool.  It means I can conduct business pretty much anywhere there is cell service.  I can read a contract....contact clients...heck I even signed a contract on a house using docusign.  It's an amazing device.

[SZonian]

I don't know about destroying a generation, but the wife and I are constantly amused at the numbers of people addicted to their smart phones. I have a cell phone, and I the last time I used it was three or four months ago.
Go to a concert or some other event, and here are  people of all ages peering at and playing around with their cell phones.
How did people manage to survive before cell and smart phones? It's a mystery. 

I don't call them "electronic pacifiers" for nothing...I've seen folks at work, in the field, in general, so engrossed in the tiny screen that they're completely oblivious to all that is going on around them.  At work, I SCORN them and scowl quite menacingly at the idiots.  Everywhere else, I just laugh at their idiocy...

[goatprairie]

I don't call them "electronic pacifiers" for nothing...I've seen folks at work, in the field, in general, so engrossed in the tiny screen that they're completely oblivious to all that is going on around them.  At work, I SCORN them and scowl quite menacingly at the idiots.  Everywhere else, I just laugh at their idiocy...

A typical occurrence of this modern phenomenon occurs whenever the wife and I go out to eat.  Recently as we were at a restaurant and already seated at our table, we observed nearby three people who looked like a mother and her two teenage daughters getting seated. I quietly murmured to my wife  "see how long it takes before they get out their cell phones."
As they  were finally seated, all three immediately whipped out their cell or iphones and  started fiddling around with them.  We had to bite our tongues to stop from laughing.
It's not just a teen thing...it's many adults.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

The smart phone is a WONDERFUL tool.  It means I can conduct business pretty much anywhere there is cell service.  I can read a contract....contact clients...heck I even signed a contract on a house using docusign.  It's an amazing device.

These guys are old farts.

[DCPatriot]

The smart phone is a WONDERFUL tool.  It means I can conduct business pretty much anywhere there is cell service.  I can read a contract....contact clients...heck I even signed a contract on a house using docusign.  It's an amazing device.

You young whipper snappers have it easy.

Why, back in my early real estate days, we had to drive across town to get a freaking initial to a change in a contract.

...when computers were the size of Subzero refrigerators.   

[Wingnut]

You young whipper snappers have it easy.

Why, back in my early real estate days, we had to drive across town to get a freaking initial to a change in a contract.

...when computers were the size of Subzero refrigerators.   

Just think how much more productive you could have been back then between posting pictures of cats and telling someone was wrong on a internet forum.

[DCPatriot]

Just think how much more productive you could have been back then between posting pictures of cats and telling someone was wrong on a internet forum.

LOL!

Recently, I thought of my own parents, who grew up as children/teenagers WITHOUT television.  Without Cinema Color.   With telephones on party lines, shared by your neighbors.

What a ride!   

[Wingnut]

LOL!

Recently, I thought of my own parents, who grew up as children/teenagers WITHOUT television.  Without Cinema Color.   With telephones on party lines, shared by your neighbors.

What a ride!   

  Oh can you imagine the pain of not being able to pull out your smart phone at the dinner table and actually have to conversate with your fams!  Oh the horror.  Borders on child abuse.

[Restored]

My daughter uses her phone like a transistor radio. She was always listening to some goofy people talk about stuff. Really annoying.

[Wingnut]

My daughter uses her phone like a transistor radio. She was always listening to some goofy people talk about stuff. Really annoying.

[DCPatriot]

LOL!  Had that exact model radio as my 1st transistor.

Imagine my horror to find out years later that the Buffalo Bisons' International League night road games were provided to hosts by ticker-tape, and they acted out the scene as if they were at the stadium.   

[Wingnut]

LOL!  Had that exact model radio as my 1st transistor.

Imagine my horror to find out years later that the Buffalo Bisons' International League night road games were provided to hosts by ticker-tape, and they acted out the scene as if they were at the stadium.   

With sound effects and all?  I heard they used to do that.   

[Silver Pines]

The smart phone is a WONDERFUL tool.  It means I can conduct business pretty much anywhere there is cell service.  I can read a contract....contact clients...heck I even signed a contract on a house using docusign.  It's an amazing device.

@mrpotatohead

And they're fun, too.

I just downloaded "Bitch" by Meredith Brooks to use for my alarm.