3 ms·

You know, those graphs are really not that compelling. If you look closely, the overall trends started either before, or after, 2007. None of them appears to

You know, those graphs are really not that compelling. If you look closely, the overall trends started either before, or after, 2007. None of them appears to demonstrate a strong correlation with the launch of the iPhone itself. That's not to say the article, itself, doesn't have merit, but man, if you're gonna try and put together impactful visuals, that's not the way to go about it.

ashark 9y ago
Most of them lag the release by a similar amount, which you'd expect since the trend of giving kids smart phones didn't start the moment the iPhone came out (would have seemed insane at the time, in fact). [EDIT] thought the sleep one especially is weird. WTF happened in the 90s to make sleep get so much worse?!
- zzalpha 9y ago
  Most of them lag the release by a similar amount I interpret them slightly differently. IMO, most seem to show a preceding trend followed by trailing acceleration. One (I believe it was the Teen Sex graph) shows a steady trendline with no point-in-time correlation whatsoever. You could put a line almost anywhere on those graphs labelled "iPhone" and it'd be about as compelling. Take the line out and I absolutely agree that something that was going on for at least a decade prior to about 2010 seems to have sped up. But the iPhone line feels entirely artificial and, IMO, undermines the impact of those visuals.
- orbitur 9y ago
  > WTF happened in the 90s Personal experience as a child of the 90s: for the middle class family, a TV began to occupy the bedrooms of teens. They were still too expensive in the 80s to justify, and cable wasn't nearly as pervasive in the 80s.
frik 9y ago
Exactly. It's social media that especially started with MySpace and later Facebook (FB/FBChat/Instagram/WhatsApp). that is causing the issues. Not smartphones, they are just devices.

3 ms·

You know, those graphs are really not that compelling. If you look closely, the overall trends started either before, or after, 2007. None of them appears to

by zzalpha 9y ago

ashark 9y ago
Most of them lag the release by a similar amount, which you'd expect since the trend of giving kids smart phones didn't start the moment the iPhone came out (would have seemed insane at the time, in fact). [EDIT] thought the sleep one especially is weird. WTF happened in the 90s to make sleep get so much worse?!
- zzalpha 9y ago
  Most of them lag the release by a similar amount I interpret them slightly differently. IMO, most seem to show a preceding trend followed by trailing acceleration. One (I believe it was the Teen Sex graph) shows a steady trendline with no point-in-time correlation whatsoever. You could put a line almost anywhere on those graphs labelled "iPhone" and it'd be about as compelling. Take the line out and I absolutely agree that something that was going on for at least a decade prior to about 2010 seems to have sped up. But the iPhone line feels entirely artificial and, IMO, undermines the impact of those visuals.
- orbitur 9y ago
  > WTF happened in the 90s Personal experience as a child of the 90s: for the middle class family, a TV began to occupy the bedrooms of teens. They were still too expensive in the 80s to justify, and cable wasn't nearly as pervasive in the 80s.
frik 9y ago
Exactly. It's social media that especially started with MySpace and later Facebook (FB/FBChat/Instagram/WhatsApp). that is causing the issues. Not smartphones, they are just devices.