5 ms·

I was just talking about this broad subject last night. It feels as if the interaction of people with the internet especially through phones is causing a ADHD

by tmaly 10y ago

I was just talking about this broad subject last night. It feels as if the interaction of people with the internet especially through phones is causing a ADHD of sorts. It is affecting peoples ability to interact with one another. I try daily to strike up a conversation with people I encounter. Years ago, you could have a really great conversation. These days it seems increasingly difficult to find anyone interest in having a discussion about anything.

Loughla 10y ago
Where do you live? This must be regional. In the midwest US, people are still SUUUUPER willing to have an in-depth conversation with me about absolutely anything at all.
- user8341116 10y ago
  I can confirm this as true. I need to get out of this place.
- tmaly 10y ago
  I am over in CT about an our from NYC.
- Xeoncross 10y ago
  It's "regional" because the adoption of all this was slower out here - just like it would be in other parts of the world people didn't grow up glued to their phones / tv's etc..
Swizec 10y ago
Ever since I turned off notifications on my phone, I've been noticing this more and more. The worst part is when my girlfriend (or anyone really) asks me a question, then starts staring at their phone before I even begin answering. I'd understand if I was boring and they didn't want to listen to me drone, but they don't even give me a chance to begin to be boring. Maybe I'm just fundamentally boring. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- mikestew 10y ago
  The worst part is when my girlfriend (or anyone really) asks me a question, then starts staring at their phone before I even begin answering. I'm starting to wonder if staring at your phone isn't just becoming the default. I'm currently consulting at a large multi-national company in the Seattle area. I almost took a picture as I was walking down the hallway and saw everyone one of the six people walking toward me while looking at their phones (no, the irony of pulling out my phone to take a picture of people using their phones is not lost on me). It's like I woke up in a fucking zombie movie. And it's not just that one incident, I dodge phone zombies in the hall on a daily basis. I watched one guy run into a support column while staring at his phone, hit it hard enough to kind of spin him around. He never even looked up. Maybe it's just where I'm at, maybe it's this area of the country, or maybe it's everywhere, I don't know. I'm just starting to feel like Wesley Crusher in that ST:TNG episode with the head-worn video game the whole ship got sucked into.
  - tmaly 10y ago
    You just reminded me of this ZH article on the Zombification of Millennials I read the other day http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-06-21/zombification-americas-millennials http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-06-21/zombification-ameri... I am hoping there will be a luddite type revolt against this trend of phones.
  - dougmwne 10y ago
    It's regional. I spent a few months in southern Spain last year. Here's a representative anecdote: Mixed group of fifteen people in their 30's out to a slow lunch on a Sunday. No one looks at their phone for an hour. Then I catch one woman peek at her phone under the table. After a few seconds her friend taps her arm and she puts the phone away for the remainder of the gathering. My theory: American culture is individualistic and not heavily tradition based. This allows new tech, habits, rituals, and patterns of living to catch on quickly. This is both a good and a bad thing.
    - swah 10y ago
      Data point: in Brazil I'm perceiving just the same as what you're describing in America.
HemanHeartYou 10y ago
I'd attribute it to continuous instant gratification
brightball 10y ago
Talk to older people. Works like a charm.
- elliotec 10y ago
  Not for long though.
pavedwalden 10y ago
Where I perceive a tendency to ADHD is in myself. I used to enjoy long in-depth journalism, now after a few paragraphs I get the urge to open another tab. I used to enjoy long plodding movies by Kubrick and Malick, now when I watch a 60 minute television drama I keep pausing it playing with my phone. It's like my mean-time-till-context-switch has gotten shorter out of habit.
- michaelchisari 10y ago
  I've found the same situation, and it's why it's led me back to printed books (or e-books without wifi). Everything gets turned off, and I read. Every time I do, I get that same urge to "open a tab", power up my phone, and start playing around. Eventually the urge does go away, but I have to create a certain artificial environment for myself to force it to.
- cylinder 10y ago
  Same. I can't even watch a movie at home without having my phone out for the slow parts.
- WA 10y ago
  Maybe you just became older. Movies, books, shows - to some extend its always the same stuff repeated over and over.
- Falkon1313 10y ago
  I feel similar - being used to the distraction of switching between multiple tabs while waiting for a page to load, while a video plays on the second monitor, scanning the feeds on my phone on breaks. I can't focus to read a book and a movie takes days to watch. But it's not the internet. I used the internet for years without any attention-span decrease or distraction features. When it was gopher, telnet, IRC, email, and BBSes etc. running on a DOS PC with no multitasking. (OK, I cheated, I had a TSR that let me switch between up to 3 programs, but RAM was limited and you were only using one at a time.) It's the combination of multitasking OSes, putting a lot more things on the screen(s), and ubiquitous pocket supercomputers. That's led us to a new standard way of living where we're always trying to do several things at once and expecting context switches every few seconds. That makes it hard to do anything deeply and fully, or focus on anything for a lengthy time; it feels unnatural.
CaptSpify 10y ago
Speaking purely for myself: It depends on the conversation, but I'm better at non-verbal conversation. I can research, source, write, edit, etc before I post. When I talk, my mouth moves faster than my brain. I agree it's affecting people's abilities to interact, and that it does have some downsides, but I'm not convinced it's a bad thing overall.
- nine_k 10y ago
  It's still verbal, but not oral. What I particularly dislike about oral communications is its real-time aspect. Sometimes it's indispensable, but most of the time I'd rather 're-formulate my phrase three times to make it convey the meaning best. It's easy with text, but haphazard with speech.
kordless 10y ago
The global consciousness is simultaneously boring and bored because it knows about everything given it is everyone. It's hard to strike up a conversation with someone who's bored and also you. When people are out of their phones they are in their natural setting as individuals with meaning and purpose. They forget they know everything, so things are interesting again.
- dasboth 10y ago
  "It's hard to strike up a conversation with someone who's bored and also you." I like that, it's a really interesting way of phrasing it (and it eerily makes us sound a bit like the Borg).

by tmaly 10y ago

Loughla 10y ago

Where do you live? This must be regional. In the midwest US, people are still SUUUUPER willing to have an in-depth conversation with me about absolutely anything at all.

user8341116 10y ago
I can confirm this as true. I need to get out of this place.
tmaly 10y ago
I am over in CT about an our from NYC.
Xeoncross 10y ago
It's "regional" because the adoption of all this was slower out here - just like it would be in other parts of the world people didn't grow up glued to their phones / tv's etc..

Swizec 10y ago

Ever since I turned off notifications on my phone, I've been noticing this more and more. The worst part is when my girlfriend (or anyone really) asks me a question, then starts staring at their phone before I even begin answering. I'd understand if I was boring and they didn't want to listen to me drone, but they don't even give me a chance to begin to be boring. Maybe I'm just fundamentally boring. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

mikestew 10y ago
The worst part is when my girlfriend (or anyone really) asks me a question, then starts staring at their phone before I even begin answering. I'm starting to wonder if staring at your phone isn't just becoming the default. I'm currently consulting at a large multi-national company in the Seattle area. I almost took a picture as I was walking down the hallway and saw everyone one of the six people walking toward me while looking at their phones (no, the irony of pulling out my phone to take a picture of people using their phones is not lost on me). It's like I woke up in a fucking zombie movie. And it's not just that one incident, I dodge phone zombies in the hall on a daily basis. I watched one guy run into a support column while staring at his phone, hit it hard enough to kind of spin him around. He never even looked up. Maybe it's just where I'm at, maybe it's this area of the country, or maybe it's everywhere, I don't know. I'm just starting to feel like Wesley Crusher in that ST:TNG episode with the head-worn video game the whole ship got sucked into.
- tmaly 10y ago
  You just reminded me of this ZH article on the Zombification of Millennials I read the other day http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-06-21/zombification-americas-millennials http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-06-21/zombification-ameri... I am hoping there will be a luddite type revolt against this trend of phones.
- dougmwne 10y ago
  It's regional. I spent a few months in southern Spain last year. Here's a representative anecdote: Mixed group of fifteen people in their 30's out to a slow lunch on a Sunday. No one looks at their phone for an hour. Then I catch one woman peek at her phone under the table. After a few seconds her friend taps her arm and she puts the phone away for the remainder of the gathering. My theory: American culture is individualistic and not heavily tradition based. This allows new tech, habits, rituals, and patterns of living to catch on quickly. This is both a good and a bad thing.
  - swah 10y ago
    Data point: in Brazil I'm perceiving just the same as what you're describing in America.

HemanHeartYou 10y ago

I'd attribute it to continuous instant gratification

brightball 10y ago

Talk to older people. Works like a charm.

elliotec 10y ago
Not for long though.

pavedwalden 10y ago

Where I perceive a tendency to ADHD is in myself. I used to enjoy long in-depth journalism, now after a few paragraphs I get the urge to open another tab. I used to enjoy long plodding movies by Kubrick and Malick, now when I watch a 60 minute television drama I keep pausing it playing with my phone. It's like my mean-time-till-context-switch has gotten shorter out of habit.

michaelchisari 10y ago
I've found the same situation, and it's why it's led me back to printed books (or e-books without wifi). Everything gets turned off, and I read. Every time I do, I get that same urge to "open a tab", power up my phone, and start playing around. Eventually the urge does go away, but I have to create a certain artificial environment for myself to force it to.
cylinder 10y ago
Same. I can't even watch a movie at home without having my phone out for the slow parts.
WA 10y ago
Maybe you just became older. Movies, books, shows - to some extend its always the same stuff repeated over and over.
Falkon1313 10y ago
I feel similar - being used to the distraction of switching between multiple tabs while waiting for a page to load, while a video plays on the second monitor, scanning the feeds on my phone on breaks. I can't focus to read a book and a movie takes days to watch. But it's not the internet. I used the internet for years without any attention-span decrease or distraction features. When it was gopher, telnet, IRC, email, and BBSes etc. running on a DOS PC with no multitasking. (OK, I cheated, I had a TSR that let me switch between up to 3 programs, but RAM was limited and you were only using one at a time.) It's the combination of multitasking OSes, putting a lot more things on the screen(s), and ubiquitous pocket supercomputers. That's led us to a new standard way of living where we're always trying to do several things at once and expecting context switches every few seconds. That makes it hard to do anything deeply and fully, or focus on anything for a lengthy time; it feels unnatural.

CaptSpify 10y ago

Speaking purely for myself: It depends on the conversation, but I'm better at non-verbal conversation. I can research, source, write, edit, etc before I post. When I talk, my mouth moves faster than my brain. I agree it's affecting people's abilities to interact, and that it does have some downsides, but I'm not convinced it's a bad thing overall.

nine_k 10y ago
It's still verbal, but not oral. What I particularly dislike about oral communications is its real-time aspect. Sometimes it's indispensable, but most of the time I'd rather 're-formulate my phrase three times to make it convey the meaning best. It's easy with text, but haphazard with speech.

kordless 10y ago

The global consciousness is simultaneously boring and bored because it knows about everything given it is everyone. It's hard to strike up a conversation with someone who's bored and also you. When people are out of their phones they are in their natural setting as individuals with meaning and purpose. They forget they know everything, so things are interesting again.

dasboth 10y ago
"It's hard to strike up a conversation with someone who's bored and also you." I like that, it's a really interesting way of phrasing it (and it eerily makes us sound a bit like the Borg).