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Getting a smartphone a few years ago was a great change of my life. I can now catch up on boring emails, tech support, and GitHub issues while being in a place

Getting a smartphone a few years ago was a great change of my life. I can now catch up on boring emails, tech support, and GitHub issues while being in a place otherwise doing nothing. Typing on my phone is only about 1.5x the effort as typing on a keyboard. So when I'm in front of a real PC, I can get straight to the useful work like programming without an hour of catch-up per day. This results on me taking walks and going to social events more often even when I have heavy workloads. I'm a quite impatient person, so if a friend wants to meet for lunch and is 20 minutes late for whatever reason, I'm no longer annoyed/bored because I now just read articles or play dumb phone games for 20 minutes. That situation would drive me crazy before I had a smartphone, but now I'm always more relaxed wherever I am because I have a super convenient personal assistant and time-burner. There are humans out there that make irrational decisions, but I think for most people, if they willingly do something, it's because they have evaluated that it gives them net benefit. Assuming that most people have no control of themselves is definitely wrong.

majkinetor 7y ago
Exactly. Regarding people, you need to spend time with them and its not true that 100% of that time is useful. While you previously did absolutely nothing, now you can do infinitely many things of various complexity and usefulness WHILE STILL BEING HALF-PRESENT. You have more choices. I am also VERY IMPATIENT, and with phone stuff that were driving me crazy are now not a problem at all. The article is completely meaningless - the two things are not comparable. Many people like to do mostly meaningless stuff - watch reality shows, read the newspapers, read pulp fiction, watch sport events every day with a lot of emotions. Phone is another medium, nothing else. People will find ways to do such things on any kind of medium. One thing is more concerning - time doing nothing (boredom) is reduced a lot with a phone because its so effective in accessing stuff from everywhere. During such times human brain can practice imagination and problem solving (there is nothing detracting ATM). Simply turning off notifications and real time sync is enough - I usually check for a mail 3 times a day manually and sync the phone even less then that (not only on phone but on Desktop too). I think that method works pretty good.
KozmoNau7 7y ago
We're forgetting how to "do nothing", and honestly I think that's a bad thing. I relish the opportunities I get to just sit down and do absolutely nothing, daydream and let my thoughts wander. As a form of meditation or reflection, it lets me gather my thoughts and relax.

majkinetor 7y ago

Exactly. Regarding people, you need to spend time with them and its not true that 100% of that time is useful. While you previously did absolutely nothing, now you can do infinitely many things of various complexity and usefulness WHILE STILL BEING HALF-PRESENT. You have more choices. I am also VERY IMPATIENT, and with phone stuff that were driving me crazy are now not a problem at all. The article is completely meaningless - the two things are not comparable. Many people like to do mostly meaningless stuff - watch reality shows, read the newspapers, read pulp fiction, watch sport events every day with a lot of emotions. Phone is another medium, nothing else. People will find ways to do such things on any kind of medium. One thing is more concerning - time doing nothing (boredom) is reduced a lot with a phone because its so effective in accessing stuff from everywhere. During such times human brain can practice imagination and problem solving (there is nothing detracting ATM). Simply turning off notifications and real time sync is enough - I usually check for a mail 3 times a day manually and sync the phone even less then that (not only on phone but on Desktop too). I think that method works pretty good.

KozmoNau7 7y ago

We're forgetting how to "do nothing", and honestly I think that's a bad thing. I relish the opportunities I get to just sit down and do absolutely nothing, daydream and let my thoughts wander. As a form of meditation or reflection, it lets me gather my thoughts and relax.