It's Not Just Rude, It's Ruining Your Brain

[madokie]

Is it rude to be constantly checking messages while you're socializing with someone else? That's a matter of opinion. But a professor friend emails to remind me that rudeness is actually the least of the problems with the perpetual multitasking of the smartphone generation:

This is the way kids these days think. My administration calls it "the millennial student" and apparently we are supposed to cater to their habits. Fully half of my 60 person general physics class this semester sits in the back of the room on either phone or laptop. They're not taking notes. The good ones are working on assignments for other classes (as if being present in mine causes the information to enter their pores). The bad are giggling at Facebook comments.

....But here's the thing: there is convincing evidence that this inveterate multitasking has a serious, measurable and long lasting negative effect on cognitive function. Look up Stanford psychologist Clifford Nass sometime. There's a lovely episode of Frontline from a year or so ago featuring him. He has shown that multitaskers are not only bad at multitasking, but they are also worse than nonmultitaskers on every individual one of the tasks.

That's the millennial student and it isn't something to be catered to. Put the damn iPhone down before you make yourself stupid.

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2011/04/its-not-just-rude-its-ruining-your-brain

[ZombieHorde]

1. People sometimes mock me for not having a smart phone.

I tell them that I am concerned that my relationship to it will be unhealthy. I am afraid that I will become addicted to it.

[madokie]

2. I'm too damn busy with other things to worry with a smart phone

I still use a flip phone and I'm fine with it. it takes pictures, I can text and I can talk on it, what more do I need in my pocket is what I think

[ZombieHorde]

4. Yeah, I use a similiar phone, but smart phones do some cool shit.

Such as posting on DU, playing video games, googling various random shit. I would be online all day if I had a smart phone. I can already be on my phone for hours because of texts.

[Major Hogwash]

3. Too late!!!! . . . I'm a veteran.

I saw an older guy the other day, who was about 70 years old, and he was wearing a baseball-style hat with some obscure writing on the front of it.
The hat was kind of old and ratty, and the writing looked pretty blurred, so I couldn't quite make out what it said.
So, I walked closer to him in order to read what it said on his hat.
It said, "Official Dysfunctional Vietnam Veteran" across the front of the hat!

I cracked up, and told him it was a great hat.
He laughed, and said that he had gotten a lot of comments on it.

[Xipe Totec]

5. It turns out multitaskers are terrible at every aspect of multitasking.

They're terrible at ignoring irrelevant information; they're terrible at keeping information in their head nicely and neatly organized; and they're terrible at.... OH! LOOK! SHINNY!

[silverweb]

6. Smart phones are incredibly useful.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]When my dad was in the hospital during the weeks before his passing, my brother was able to look up various things, including meds and medical terms, on his phone to supplement the information I was able to give him. I didn't have a smart phone yet and was thoroughly impressed.

My adult children use theirs as talking navigators when driving, so there's no need to be fooling with maps or anything distracting like that.

A friend and I were able to look up lyrics to an old song we couldn't remember, which made our visit a lot more fun. We also checked addresses and hours of places we wanted to visit on the spur of the moment.

I've used mine to read a book while waiting for transit and appointments, to call ahead when running late, to check transit schedules, etc. I used it to call 911 when I witnessed a burglary in progress.

It also gives internet access to people who don't have computers. One of my neighbors who is without a computer called it a "game changer" for him. How much more versatile and useful could one tool be?

When this contract is up, I'm getting a phablet to use at home and on the go. It'll replace my old smart phone and my old Nook. Why carry two devices when one will do it all?

Yes, I think multitasking can make some people stupid.
Yes, I agree that some people are very rude (and immature) in the way they let their devices block actual human interaction, attention, and learning.

No, I'm not going to even hint at placing the blame on an extremely useful technology.

[LiberalElite]

13. Seems to me the op isn't blaming the "extremely useful technology"

but the people who use it, who also tend to get defensive when the multitasking is criticized.

[deutsey]

7. Introducing: The NoPhone

http://avc.lu/1DXyjen




It may look like an iPhone, but the NoPhone doesn’t text, call, email, FaceTime, or do anything at all. Scratch that: It does do something. It points out the technological dependency and decaying social values that are destroying the world, one cell phone at a time. “Phone addiction is real. And it’s everywhere,” the NoPhone Kickstarter reads. “It’s ruining your dates. It’s distracting you at concerts. It’s disrupting you in movie theaters. It’s clogging up sidewalks.” So charged as mindless, inattentive smartphone addicts, we can now begin our recovery by clutching a piece of phone-shaped plastic and engaging with our “direct environment”—you know, sidewalks.

[drm604]

8. I have a smart phone,

but I use it for information when I need it, and entertainment in my spare time.

But most of the time it's in my pocket or on my desk.

Young people today have grown up multitasking and insist that they can do things like texting and driving safely at the same time. It's a dangerous illusion.

[ReRe]

9. Imagine...

... these kids are going to be running the world one of these days, including the military

[malaise]

10. I'm not sure they can be helped

When you're obsessed with an instrument to the point of crossing the road while texting, I suspect you are already brain dead. Darwin will sort this out.

[leftyladyfrommo]

11. Have you ever tried to work where you had to do several things at once?

My job was horrible that way. We had work to do that was all on a deadline. And we had to answe the phone constantly. And loan officers were constantly cominvg in to check on their files. We were constantly interrupted and it was impossible to focus and concentrate.


It made me crazy.

[LWolf]

23. Yes.

I'm a middle school teacher. My job entails managing 30+ adolescents all day long, making sure we are able to keep up with the rapid pace of our schedule, and customizing my reactions, responses, and help for each individual...all at the same time. While the phone rings, the intercom interrupts, other teachers walk in and need "just a minute," other students from other classes do the same, and so do parents.

My students expect me to be multi-tasking. So much so that I patiently, and repeatedly, have to ask them to wait their turn when they need something...because they assume that I can listen to and answer 6 different questions at once while finding extra copies of lost assignments for others, checking the grade book for someone else, and giving 2 different make up tests...all at the same time.

It can be stressful, to say the least.

And, of course, I'm foolish enough to leave my room open, and stay in the room, during my only duty-free time of the day...my 30 minute lunch. Just so more of them can get access to me for what they need. And my room ALWAYS has students arrive for lunch.

Parents sometimes don't understand why I say I prefer email to talking to them on the phone. It's because I can't have private conversations out loud; I'm never alone. Even when I run down the hall to the bathroom, there's going to be somebody on the other side of the door waiting for me to come out.

[leftyladyfrommo]

24. The other really good thing about e-mail

is that you a correct written record of the conversation. People's memories after the fact tend to be pretty faulty.

Getting interrupted all the time just absolutely drove me crazy.

[LWolf]

25. Yes.

Yesterday after school I needed some time to actually focus and get some work done, so I locked myself in. Half an hour after school, somebody was pounding on the door, because even though my contractual day was over, and I had already been at school for 9 hours, with another 90 minute of things to do before I could go home, I was supposed to be available.

I didn't answer the door.

[liberalhistorian]

28. I grew up with teachers and I've been

subbing for four years now (I have a B.A., but not a teaching degree. I'm almost fifty, so I think I'm pretty much too old to get one even though in my state, South Dakota, they are desperate for teachers and twenty percent of openings went unfilled this year). I just started subbing for the schools in the new reservation town where we recently moved and what a difference from the other schools in the former reservation town we moved from. In the other school, students' personal phones and tablets WERE NOT ALLOWED during the school day, period. No exceptions. If an emergency happened during the day, notifications were done the old-fashioned way, by calling the school office.

However, in the news schools, they ARE allowed and it's an absolute chaotic mess and nightmare, I don't know how the regular teachers deal with it. All the kids wanted to do was be on their phones, I spent most of the time taking away their phones or ipads instead of doing the academic work the teacher had left. It was like whack-a-mole, take away one and another one would pop up. And the office didn't even seem to give a shit, frankly. Disgusting and dismaying. No wonder this district isn't doing too well. I talked with some of the other teachers during the very brief lunch period and they all agreed it drove them crazy that the district allowed personal phones and ipads and they'd tried repeatedly to change that, to no avail.

[LWolf]

30. In my school,

cell phones are to be turned off and in lockers while on campus. If not, they are confiscated, dropped off in the office, and a parent must pick it up.

Tablets are allowed in some classrooms; the individual teacher's discretion. They aren't to be in use in halls or anywhere else, or the same confiscation rule applies.

Many schools are providing banks of tablets instead of actual computers, because they're cheaper.

In my classroom, my students use tablets for a variety of things. Research, vocabulary work, and, in some cases, doing their assignments as google docs. No printing, no toner, no copy machine maintenance, fewer piles of paper on my desk to deal with, and I can mark, give feedback and grades, without ever having to pass papers back and forth.

Anyone misusing a tablet, whether the school's or their own, for other purposes, loses the opportunity to have them in class. It's worked so far.

Of course, I don't leave anything they need a tablet for with a sub. If computer access is necessary for the sub plans, I schedule time in the hard-wired computer lab, where the sub can easily monitor them.

[Demeter]

12. Then the schools can take out their wifi and install a suppressor

that blanks out cell phone signals.

Technology needs to be used responsibly.

[Orrex]

16. They can remove their wifi, but cellphones might be more complicated.

Last edited Thu Oct 30, 2014, 10:54 AM - Edit history (1)

http://www.inquisitr.com/202048/cell-phone-jammer-breakin-the-law-fcc-confirms/

Someone will obviously argue that the university is free to do what it wants on its own property, which may or may not stand up in court. Regardless, the first time someone dies after trying to call 911 with their jammed cellphone, it'll result in a multi-million dollar lawsuit that will make the university rethink this luddite policy.

[liberal N proud]

14. You should watch this...

[dixiegrrrrl]

18. Most excellent!

I must say tho, I remember the days when the tv blaring in the background as people ate used to be a common thing,
my kids thought I was monster for insisting it be off during meals.

[MindPilot]

15. Just getting them ready for work where that is a job requirement.

My employer gives me a smart phone and I'm expected to be available by phone, text, email & IM pretty much around the clock. Attending two meetings at the same time, or on the phone with one person, IM-ing another, and dealing with whoever is standing at my desk; it gets really absurd. And since my work is spread across sites that are miles apart, you can add driving into the mix too.

Those students have it easy.

[RobinA]

17. I Have A Smart Phone

and I'm a Boomer. I use mine rarely in public or with friends. I don't think you can put this all on the doorstep of millenials, although they are pretty bad in this area. I have friends who are 60 whom I find spend too much time checking their phones when out doing things. It's hard to share an experience with someone who is playing Candy Crush all the while.

Oh, and I don't blame the phone. It's an inert piece of ...well, some highly developed compound. It only does what it is told.

[Phentex]

19. Exactly. It's not the phone itself, it's the obsessiveness of the user...

nobody would take their snail mail from home out to dinner with friends and then start ripping open the envelopes and reading their mail at the dinner table. Or skim a magazine during a wedding. Or break out a board game during a business meeting cause they just have to see if they can win.

[Laelth]

20. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[WinkyDink]

21. Now, were this professor in a high school, he might have to actually DO something about his

students' behaviors.

[loyalsister]

22. I have been expecting to see this

Having worked on some research on multitasking, I knew this was coming.
I do use a smart phone for the camera, and to track buses (double map!!). But, I know that regularly texting or fooling around with FB or twitter would make a mess out of me.

[treestar]

26. These kids today

I don't think it's rude to check a phone in a lull in conversation. Or in a conversation in which you aren't included. That shit happens to me all the time and that's rude. Now I have something to do rather than have to sit there and listen.

The people who complain about this are the ones who should look in the mirror. Maybe they dislike losing their ability/habit of dominating others and forcing them into boredom while they lecture?

[liberalhistorian]

27. I completely agree and have been screaming against

multi-tasking and the damage it does, and the myth that it makes people "more efficient and productive", for many years. To no avail, sadly. The problem is that far too many jobs and schools now REQUIRE multi-tasking, with little understanding of how damaging and unproductive it is. It's the same thing with the ridiculous, inane trend toward "team work" and "team projects" in education and employment, which leaves individualism and introverts, and their very real and necessary contributions to the workplace and schools, in the dust, as well as actually discriminated against.

Take a look at the employment ads online or in newspapers (yes, they still do exist in newspapers!) and note how many require not just the usual crap but also some variation of "must multi-task" or "must be able to constantly multi-task". It's ridiculous and it leaves people like me, who've never been able to do that, in the dust.

[JEB]

31. Whatever happened to the good old fashioned day dream?

I could drift in and out of the classroom without moving a muscle or any gadget.