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The article uses the word "phone" about 40 times. Based on my own usage patterns, I don't even have a phone. I have a portable computer. I happen to use it to
by phil248 8y ago
The article uses the word "phone" about 40 times.
Based on my own usage patterns, I don't even have a phone. I have a portable computer. I happen to use it to make phone calls a few times every week. I use my desktop to make video calls a few times a month, but I don't call that a phone.
We all know a smartphone is a computer, and I'm not trying to be pedantic about the words we use, but I think our insistence that these devices are "phones" is skewing the conversation. We keep complaining about our phones taking up too much of our time, or distracting us, or manipulating us. None of our phones are doing any of those things. But it turns out that having an internet-enabled computer in your pocket at all times can be very distracting. Are we really surprised?
- ericsoderstrom 8y agoI think the 'mobile phone' form factor is the import point here. When I use a desktop or laptop computer, it's at least somewhat more intentional. But pulling out your phone is something you can do anywhere. So the ways in which it changes how your attention works are probably different.
- apricot 8y agoYou object to calling them "phones" because they're not often used as phones, yet you want to call them "computers". What exactly do you compute with them? We should all be honest and call them "trackers" or "distractors".
- jotm 8y agoRarely use the phone, often use it to check emails, reply to customers, create shipping orders, manage bank accounts and credit cards, view Reddit and Slacker News. Yeah, you're right. I wish the Android hosts file would fucking block hotspot traffic, as well.
- Koshkin 8y agoWell, the correct name is, of course, "PDA".
- coldtea 8y agoIt would be that if it was used by people as an "assistant" -- and not to play games, tweet BS, send dick/vagina pics, and watch cat videos...
- always_good 8y agoWow, that's very stoned-college-freshman level sociotechnological commentary. You must think very highly of yourself for not being one of those stupid Sheeple who don't have anything productive to do with a phone than be tracked and play Farmville.
- apricot 8y agoI'm sorry my comment gave you such a bad impression of myself, and I can assure you that I am neither a stoned college freshman nor a vainglorious hipster. As an educator, I have seen the impact of cell phones on sustained concentration abilities, and it worries me.
- lupinglade 8y ago“communicator” makes a bit more sense.
- buvanshak 8y agoYou compute what pixels on the screen should assume what color so that you may be entertained....I ll show myself out now..
- zitterbewegung 8y agoWe aren't and the general media is absolutely not surprised. The reason why this article keeps on being rewritten by multiple people is the simple fact that it elicits the same response that you have just displayed. This is clickbait at its greatest level.
- jfrankamp 8y agoLanguage changes. Phone now means (primarily) thing-in-pocket, but importantly its _shorter_ than thing-in-pocket so phone it is. Don't think so? I misplaced my ____. Sally is playing games on her ____. Joe is watching netflix on his ____.
- aurailious 8y agoI think other languages call "phones" different things. In German I think it's a "handy". While like most German words its a bit awkward, it does seem closer to the truth.
- klez 8y agoI have trouble understanding how not calling it a phone changes what the article is speaking about. Can you please help me understand your point?
- maerF0x0 8y agoIt's a bit of a misleading hypothesis. DumberPhone is probably a better Phone. Few want a Phone anymore and but use the word "Phone" as a placeholder for what they want-- "4-6 inch tablet in my hand" is what many use phones for (if it werent for a few family members and archaic organizations I probably would do away with my phone number entirely) .
- bitwize 8y agoPeople hate computers. Computers are cranky, quasi-magical machines that can only be properly operated by mutant lizard people who have been genetically disinherited from the finer things in life, like meaningful social lives or mating opportunities. But a phone... a phone is a social lifeline. In the 80s, it was a mark of privilege to get a phone -- even a regular, POTS, wired touch-tone phone -- installed in your room as a kid. The truly posh got their own phone lines. It meant you could keep in touch with your friends (or bf/gf) whenever you wanted. Themed phones (football, New Kids on the Block, etc.) were commonplace. This even extended into the cellular era with things like custom faceplates for Nokia dumbphones. Technically you're correct. A smartphone is a computer. It has a CPU and RAM and can run programs and is indistinguishable from a computer in terms of its structure. But your technical distinction between "computer" and "phone" is as meaningful to most people as the technical distinction between "mammal" and "fish" would be to the ancient Hebrews, who called the whale that swallowed Jonah a "great fish". They classed everything in practical terms related to their own experience, under which a fish was anything that swam in the sea and had to be hunted or caught by people in boats. To most a "computer" runs Windows or occasionally macOS and is used by students, office drones, and lizard people to crunch numbers or prepare documents. A "phone" is a tool for people with social lives to engage in and manage those social lives. From a perspective of what it's used for, it has a lot more in common with an office phone or a teenager's NKOTB-themed bedroom phone than it does a computer.
- braindongle 8y agoI for one am fine with the idea that 'phone' means something different now. That's how important smart phones are. They changed the meaning of 'phone' in under a decade. I disagree that this skews the conversation about them. People know how often they use the "phone" app. Nobody thinks "phones taking over our lives" means people are using them for voice communication too much.