Smart phones make you more idiotic & worsen yr life but you're too addicted to the phones to notice

[uhnope]

Last edited Mon Oct 27, 2014, 05:57 PM - Edit history (1)

10 ways smartphones are destroying our lives
http://www.news.com.au/technology/gadgets/ways-smartphones-are-destroying-our-lives/story-fn6vihic-1226519813913

[hobbit709]

1. Watched a spandex butt do a "Look Ma, no hands" while texting the other day on a busy street.

[Warren Stupidity]

2. The podcast player on my phone has transformed my commute

from a mindless exercise in stress and frustration to an educational experience.

Can you abuse what technology offers? Of course. How you use these tools is up to you.

[NightWatcher]

3. Aw, bless your little heart. I like the smartphone that saved my life

I fell and was knocked out while climbing rocks along a whitewater river and someone used their smartphone to call in a rescue team to carry me out. I kinda like smartphones. I enjoy having access to all the information in the world in my pocket.

I do hate when asssholes whip them out at concerts and other live events and miss what is going on because they are trying to get the whole thing on video.

[unblock]

6. i don't guess the "you're missing it because you're taking a video at the same time"

am i the only one who can hear while recording?

and actually, the smartphone can zoom in so you can see something even better than just with plain eyes. of course, you could use low-tech binoculars for that, but then you're still carrying around a device and using it. is it really just the fact that it's high-tech that's the problem?


i agree that smartphones have their downsides, but they also have their upsides as well. your rescue is a great example. i was able to help out mrs. unblock with a towel and change of clothes during a wet 100-mile bike race by tracking her location with our smartphones.

[NightWatcher]

18. Instead of taking in their entire vision, they are focusing on a 4in screen and holding them up in

Yeah, this isn't annoying. Plus I have never seen anyone's concert footage that wasn't horrible. If you want to see video, go to youtube and search for your fav band, but dont spend the entire show focused on your phone instead of taking in the whole show.

[unblock]

21. a lot of these big concerts have jumbotrons anyway

so people are all looking at this much larger, though further away, screen, rather than directly at the band.

but the jumbotron might have a much better close-up of one of the performers than you can get from your nosebleed seats.

it's a trade-off.

[ret5hd]

27. It took a smartphone to make a phone call??? Who Knew?

[NightWatcher]

28. They were able to give GPS locations from their smartphone.

I don't know if the little 911 dispatch in the small town had the ability to triangulate positions based on cell signals.

[unblock]

41. for me tracking mrs. unblock during her race,

i could see her physical location on my phone map from her gps signal, then look on the race map and pick a good spot to meet up, adjusting as we got closer to each other. she never made a phone call, only texted me to say find me and bring a towel and such.

had she phoned me with her location, i would have had to guess where she would be by the time i got there, and waited while wondering if she had passed that point already. yes, it all could have been done without a smartphone but it made it much easier and efficient.

[brooklynite]

4. Here's a suggestion...if you don't want a smart-phone, don't buy one...

Just don't waste my time telling me what I should and shouldn't want.

[Skittles]

26. you're missing the point

it's the misuse and abuse, if you will, of phones, not just using them - kind of like the difference between gun owners and gun humpers......every time this topic comes up people claim IT SAVED MY LIFE and I CAN'T DO MY JOB / KEEP UP WITH MY FRIENDS without it!!!, neither of which explains why someone would have phone in their hand ALL THE TIME,

[randome]

32. Because the term 'phone' is wildly non-descriptive these days.

A smart...device...can do a lot more than make phone calls.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

[Skittles]

45. aw gee I did not know that!!

WTF???

[yeoman6987]

52. As I type my reply to you on my Apple IPhone,

I don't think it is a negative having it. I was on a cruise last week for 7 days and kinda missed it a bit.

[Skittles]

5. it is unbelieveable how ridiculolus these phone-addicted idiots behave

and they think it is normal........absolutely pathetic

[unblock]

7. couldn't agree more

-- sent from my iphone

[Skittles]

8. this guy asked me out

I laughed and told him I could never compete with his f***ing phone - f*** that

[unblock]

10. there's a time and a place, even in courtship

live and in person, best to put the phone down...

but texting while apart can work out quite well. or blow up in your face, ymmv!

[Skittles]

13. sorry

anyone spending too much time on their handheld is a buffoon to me - I think they are pathetic

[Warpy]

14. I've seen too many young couples dressed to the nines in restaurants

and obviously dating, both texting madly while ignoring each other. They didn't even put the stupid phones down when they picked up a fork.

Come the infrastructure collapse (and it will), these people are going to be in really sad shape.

[unblock]

15. like i said, when live and in person, best to put the phone down.

doesn't work well during courtship when you're together. it can work well when you're apart, though.

also it can work in a very limited way when together, if it's actually enhancing communication, such as to quickly google something, what was the name of that movie, or is there a café near here for after dinner?

but if you're watching other people in a restaurant, it's obvious who's using their phones for a quick thing like that vs. who's using the phone to avoid each other.

[scarystuffyo]

9. It got us back to the harbour when the GPS went out on the boat on a fog filled night

It didn't save our life but it avoided us having to stay out all night until morning

[BubbaFett]

29. Do you have a VHF radio?

[scarystuffyo]

40. The boat had it but it wasn't my boat, it's a friends boat and we were striper fishing at night.

When we were getting ready to leave .The fog rolled in so fast you would have had to be there to believe .

[Brigid]

11. You can have my Samsung Galaxy S III . . .

When you can pry it out of my cold dead hands.

[FLPanhandle]

12. I travel for work.

Smart phones have been a blessing.

No more getting lost and figuring out a map while pulled over in the middle of the night.

I keep up with my friends much more than I used to.

I can find where and what to eat easily.

Airline delays and rebookings done without wasting hours going to the airport for a cancelled flight or even waiting on hold for a phone representative.

No one forces you to use a smart phone and they certainly don't make you idiotic. They save me tons of time and not using one would be idiotic with my lifestyle.

[Blue_Tires]

16. No mention of "porn access anytime, anywhere?"

[Initech]

17. Does it defeat the purpose of this article if I'm posting the reply from my phone?

[Rex]

20. Are you oblivious to your surroundings when you text?

Depends imo.

[Initech]

22. Been using smart phones since the first generation iPhone, never had that problem.

[Rex]

23. Then I would say no imo...this is more about people that tune out the rest of the world.

The phone becomes their only focus, which can be very bad if they are driving or walking on a busy street.

[Skittles]

24. yes

[Rex]

19. Nearly had one of them run into me on the sidewalk yesterday.

I suspect by now he could be dead from walking out into traffic. People that are oblivious to their surroundings in urban areas are just asking to get run over imo.

[KatyMan]

25. Makes me think of this:

[Ykcutnek]

30. *Sponsored by the International Association of Luddites. nt

[madinmaryland]

31. So using my smartphone to read this thread is making me idiotic?

[randome]

33. Only in Maryland.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

[safeinOhio]

34. Crack Phones.

[madinmaryland]

35. It's a good thing I moved to Ohio last year!!!

Though my wife would disagree with that comment!!!

[Johonny]

42. If you use a smart phone then the terrorists win

People today do stupid stuff different than the stupid stuff we did in my day.

[madinmaryland]

43. Fucking KKKarl Rove hijacked your account!!

[Warren Stupidity]

49. yes, but in this specific case the device used is irrelevant

[Baitball Blogger]

36. I'm too stupid to figure out all the features, so hopefully I won't get that idiotic.

[AndreaCG]

37. So don't get a smart phone then

There are probably at least ten positive reasons for using them. Like the poster who said her life was saved by one.

BTW starting a thread by calling all people who use smart phones idiotic isn't the way to win us over.

[SomethingFishy]

38. Well that's a nice broad stupid statement...

Let's see,
I don't need maps, a compass or change for a pay phone. I don't need a phone book, or a library, I don't need a dictionary, or a list of what is near me. I don't need quarters for Pac Man, a camera, a sound recorder, or a flashlight. I don't need a guitar tuner, a radio, a fax machine, two cans and some string. I don't really need a computer or tablet...

Yeah this thing is fucking useless and making me stupid

Nothing makes you idiotic. If you are an idiot to start with, you will be an idiot with a phone.

[pnwmom]

39. I don't think using FaceTime to talk to my granddaughter makes me idiotic.

No piece of technology in itself makes you stupid; it all depends on how you use it.

[vanlassie]

46. Using FaceTime to talk to grandchildren is the

#1 TOP reason why iPhones Rock My Life.

[pnwmom]

47. Absolutely!

[Aerows]

44. Technology is neither good nor evil

It is how you use it that matters. "I have to leave dinner and travel somewhere else to reboot a server" vs. "I rebooted the server with my smartphone" and finished my meal.

They aren't going anywhere. Responsible people use technology responsibly, and to good ends. Irresponsible people, end up falling in a fountain because they were too busy texting.

[NYC Liberal]

48. I'll bet you there was an article somewhere during the '20s saying the same about radio

[Warren Stupidity]

50. In the 1500s books, now mass produced, made people idiots too.

They no longer knew how to b e illiterate serfs.

[CBGLuthier]

51. One way the internet is ruining our lives is encapsulating every point into a fucking list of ten or

seven or whatever number of points the author can come up with.

[donco]

53. They also don’t

help “yr” spelling.