10 ms·
Commenters are criticizing the man for knowing that cell phones exist and for being surprised by it. I bought smartphones before the iPhone. I stood in line f
by runjake 2y ago
Commenters are criticizing the man for knowing that cell phones exist and for being surprised by it.
I bought smartphones before the iPhone.
I stood in line for four hours to buy the first iPhone (never again).
I still use an iPhone.
Yet, I am regularly surprised by how often everyone is looking at their phones.
(Context: I live in a rural area outside a metro area and don’t go there often, except for work.)
When their kid is at a crowded city park, the parent is glued to their phone.
When their kid is performing, the parent is glued to their phone, their thumb scrolling.
During any break from activity, they whip out their phones.
I used to be skeptical about the claim that devices contribute to societal brain rot through dopamine hits. However, the more I pay attention, the more I notice it. Even though I'm quite disciplined, I still catch myself instinctively pulling out my phone.
I can easily see this man having that sincere thought. You know smartphones exist, but you have no idea how much they are used.
I truly believe we are at a stage where one could argue that smartphones qualify as cybernetics.
1. Insofar as no apps on phone, minimal social media usage at all, and willful focus on a return to my 70s/80s roots where I embrace active boredom doing nothing.
- onionisafruit 2y ago… oops didn’t mean to comment and can’t delete this
- kvakerok 2y ago[dead]
- nabla9 2y agoEven when people are not looking at the phone, they need to know it's nearby. Some young people feel anxiety without their phones to the level they don't go out even for a few minutes without a phone. They still lose their phone inside their homes, but they feel comfortable because they know it's nearby. But if you are asking someone to come to help carry something, takes max 2 minutes, and they refuse until they find their phone. It is same for taking out the trash, and visiting the nearby shop (5 min max).
- koakuma-chan 2y agoI can't pay for anything without my phone.
- chabes 2y agoYikes. Sounds reckless. You don’t keep emergency cash?
- koakuma-chan 2y agoIn case my bank goes down? No.
- shwaj 2y agoOr perhaps if your phone goes down.
- koakuma-chan 2y agoIt wouldn't make sense to keep emergency cash in case my phone goes down because my money wouldn't go down with the phone.
- kennysoona 2y agoHuh? If your phone goes down you can't pay for stuff, if you have cash you still can.
- koakuma-chan 2y agoOh you mean like if the battery runs out? I just make sure it never does. I thought they meant like if I lose my phone, but in that case I could just go home and grab my card and pay with my card.
- 2y ago
- conception 2y agoI did a week without my phone and it was astonishing how uncomfortable I was with… doing nothing. The act of just waiting for anything made me instinctively reach for the phone and when it wasn’t there… it was uncomfortable to not get that hit. Even after a week, it hadn’t gone away. Addicted is right. #sentfrommyiphone
- Ey7NFZ3P0nzAe 2y agoThis describes craving, which is only one of the addiction criteria
- dakiol 2y agoWas that feeling happening constantly at any time or only during the time you didn’t have anything else to do? I do plenty of physical exercise during the day, and I don’t like to take with me the phone (because it’s big). When I go out for a walk I don’t take my phone with me (I walk around 40 min/day). When I read I don’t have my phone near me. Now, when I have done all the things I wanted to do during the day and it’s time to sit on the sofa, yep, I take my phone and I would get bored without it I think.
- conception 2y agoMainly when unoccupied, yeah. Brain didn't like not having something engaging with it.
- rightbyte 2y agoYe. I mean it is bad for us as individuals and collective to constantly have an internet connected computer available. I don't know what we should do about it though. Like any cure would be to authoritarian for my taste. Hope for culture change? Like how fronting the TV as the center of your family life at home is not hip anymore.
- MichaelZuo 2y agoWhy should there be something plausible to “do about it”? That doesn’t seem like the default for most things in the universe.
- silisili 2y agoSerious Q, what are most people doing with their phones so much? Social media? Work? Watching rando YT vids? My wife's vice seems to FB, but unsure if that's what everyone else is doing.
- netsharc 2y agoProbably any of the above except work? It's indeed a tool for any kind of distraction you want/whichever road you take (i.e. whichever app you open) you'll find said distraction. HN counts too. (Ironically I'm typing this as I sit on the toilet.).
- therealdrag0 2y agoI check work slack a lot tbh.
- silisili 2y agoI agree on HN, though I think it's markedly different as it moves slow enough that you can just check it once or twice a day and get most everything you want. Whereas a lot of other social media is an unlimited feed of everything, ephemerally, and can make you feel like that if you blink, you'll have missed something. I do check HN from my phone, typically in the mornings and night when I have downtime and don't want to watch TV or read a book. But I can't say I've ever been at a park, bar, or airport lounge and just itching to see what was going on HN this second.
- runjake 2y agoNot scientific, but when I snoop, I most often see the thumb scrolling and various incarnations of the video shorts apps like TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram, and Snapchat.
- pupppet 2y agoDoomscrolling and making myself miserable.
- soupfordummies 2y agoYeah it truly is astonishing how constant and ubiquitous. Occasionally I'll be out somewhere and I'll have that moment of clarity and just notice it and see it for what it is. That's usually only when my phone is dead or not on me though :\