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THIS IS THE week that was, in photos…
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I stopped reading books while commuting and surely can see lots of new things I never noticed before like new graffiti on the walls and new abandoned waste bags.
@cortisola: What a wonderful world!
How is noticing you’re apprehensive about work tomorrow a positive thing, especially if you’ve just left work? Am all for less technology on commutes but the argument put forward here is hardly a compelling one.
@Toon Army: it’s noticing how you feel about things – sometimes we distract ourselves from negative emotions. I didn’t put any value judgements on the emotions you feel in the article. I emphasised noticing, and seeing what results from that. You may feel apprehensive and then let the feeling pass. Or you may delve deeper into why you feel that apprehension.
Nothing like taking headphones off and instead take in the wonders of a child screaming for a whole 70 minutes without stopping. Does using an MP3 count, use that more on the bus than a phone?!
@Paul Cunningham: I think using a podcast or headphones is fine to be honest. It’s more the not incessantly checking/browsing on your phone that we’re targeting here. It’s something I find difficult to resist myself!
Handy couple of minutes distraction reading that article.
Supermarket checkout queue’s are fertile ground for smartphone zombies.
Younger people checking phones 60 times a day for 3-4 minutes, yes I concur. I have a 15 year old and he and his friends spend far more time than 3 – 4 minutes each time they pick up their phones. They want to spend time together then they sit like zombies looking at their phones, messaging each other! As a parent we can’t enjoy family outings, movies together for the constant dinging of a phone and the attention it receives. When a foot is put down the resentment and minute counting till it’s safe to start paying the phone attention again is so frustrating. All of the parents we talk to report the same behaviours/ frustration. Where will it lead to?
Honestly there is a lack of evidence base for the advice here, which is disappointing coming from a psychologist.
Why the focus on smartphones? Are they worse than reading a book? Where do newspapers fall on this spectrum? What if someone is reading a newspaper on ebook device or a smartphone?
Maybe that person on the smartphone is whatsapping a friend or family member who lives across the world and getting emotional support for a recent negative event?
How do you know someone who is using a smartphone, or reading a book, or looking out the window is more or less tolerating of their emotions than people in the other groups? Where’s the studies that show this?
This just reads like the usual “this new technology wasn’t around when I was younger, so it must be bad”. Like how Plato has Socrates say how terrible this new fangled thing of reading and writing is because it will mean people’s memories will get worse if they can write them down.
@Lamhfada: Hey Lamhfada, the focus is on smartphones as that’s what our series is looking at. It’s not saying that smartphones are ‘bad’ etc, it’s looking at how using a smartphone can affect us.
It’s not saying that other people (reading, etc) might be more tolerating of their emotions, but asking us to think about how smartphones can distract us.
While Mark was speaking from his own experience as a psychologist, I’m sure he can reference studies related to this point if you wish.
I’m sorry you think that it reads like “this new technology wasn’t around when I was younger, so it must be bad” – I make it clear throughout the series that phones can be incredibly helpful and positive, but that doesn’t mean we can have habits around their use that we want to break.
I’m reading this on the bus home now :( I failed anyway.
have your say