I do not know whether to rail against this guy or heap praises on him. He states at the beginning that he does not have a cell phone and calls himself "Dooshy McDouche" and I am still somewhat inclined to agree. However, read the entire article and there are a lot of valid points; I may only be balking against what he is saying because I am one of the addicted.
No matter whether you agree or not, it's a good, and thought provoking, read.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-farrelly/the-addiction_b_2470941.html
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+Damian Sanchez … 😛
He has a few valid points.
Man this is some thing to think about WOW
Well, he does have a point. But he focuses on the controlling aspects of having a smartphone too much. I don't have to answer, I don't have to reply to emails. I always have full control over what I do with it. I even ignore G+ from time to time. Maybe it would be good for many people to just turn it off once in a while. On the other hand, I love my phone. I do some many things with it that make my life easier. It is always about choice. We all have it.
Agreed +Dirk Reul. But… we are legion. Eh?
+Dirk Reul Thanks for the tag. Gonna read the article and post my take on it on my Mobile Internet Anonymous blog and on my page +Mobile Internet Anonymous .
+Scott Cramer counting all the voices in my head, yes.
My phone can text, call people oh and take pictures. That is all. It is not "smart" and I have never bought anything Apple. I spend more time on my laptop and I am not addicted to the phone or the internet.
I usually switch off most social media notifications. It saves battery and means I'm not jumping on my phone every time I see someone has replied to a post or whatever.
Oh, and I thought the picture showed an execution by lethal injection…
Wow, the last 2 paragraphs are dead on. My last job had me wrapped around their little finger with the out of hours emails and calls. I was like some kind of Pavlovian dog with the notifications and phone calls on that Blackberry I had.
+Daniel Börresen Lethal injection of constant updates and 24/7 available status. It's one of those "creeps up on you" addictions that we all defend and rationalize. I LOVE having my cell for access on the road and having a camera and video and something to do in down times. However, somewhere it turned from a "pull" device where I controlled the "when" to a "push" device and I have allowed myself to be a slave to being available to answer or reply or the itch to not be out of the loop.
I think author makes some excellent points. Must we have up-to-the-second news reports bet tweeted to us? No. Sitting out in the public, people no longer need to figure out how to avoid awkwardly staring at the other strangers in the restaurant. 🙂 The cell phone has saved us that, in some regard.
I don't think its the phones we are addicted to… It's the fact that we have something in our pockets that can, at a moments notice, give us any information we could likely ever need… It means never being bored and never being without an answer to something… We aren't used to that kind of pipeline and its going to take at least a generation to adapt…
Unfortunately because tech is moving so fast we aren't going to get that time…
And it's accelerating…
I see people every day who are drowning in the flood. Sometimes its that they never disconnect, sometimes its that they are terrified to start. Either way its part of the same thing…
Personally I've gotten myself in trouble numerous times because I'm trying to stay one step ahead, which in and of itself is a full time job. Pulling back can be really hard but its something we all need to do from time to time!
That being said, I wouldn't trade it for anything. The fact that I can push a button and be in a hangout with people across the Earth still amazes me. And it's the tip of the iceberg. Thanks to various services it no longer matters what computer I'm using because my data follows me through the cloud. Is it perfect? Hell no, but its damned cool when it works.
The same thing I check email on can be an arcade, cash register, network diagnostic tool, document scanner, fax machine, stopwatch, grocery list, news reader, radio, television, GPS navigator, camera, weatherman, shopping mall, ticket kiosk, travel agent, pocket translator, video camera, password database and book library…
That's an incredible number of things that I don't need to (or never could) carry…
It's not the devices fault though.
It's a bit like blaming the syringe for the heroin addiction…=)
Very true +Charlie Hoover. Although, as the next generation develops, are they able to turn the addiction on/off or are they 100% addicted from the beginning? The author's statement about kids staring at their electronic devices while the car drives past the Grand Canyon is poignant.
I would not do without my inter-connectivity either! However, I know I am not managing it the best way possible. The immediacy in which I can get information or stay connected makes waiting even a few minutes seem like an eternity, let alone hours!
From the kids I talk to they don't really see it the same way… They just see it as something that's always been there, like plumbing… Suggesting they should unplug is like asking us to pee in the woods…
Unfortunately there's no equivalent to potty training for the net (unless you count that iPad potty trainer I suppose lol)…
Is it good long term? Not a clue. Should we try to be cautious with introducing kids to it? You betcha… Will it slow down to let us catch out breaths? Not likely. =)
I have a flip phone, the pay-as-you-go kind, for emergencies and occasional "do we need milk" calls. I have never sent a text with it. I own no smartphone and have no desire to. Well, no, wait…I do have the desire and I too see it for the addiction it will be, so I am refusing to get one so as not to have to go down that path.
The nicest people I know engage in rude behaviour they'd be ashamed at when they're on the phone. That is, they'd be ashamed if they noticed, which they don't, because they're on the phone. And when the issue comes up they defend their "need" in the exact same ways as any addict. Very telling, that.
Sometimes I need to have no internet access. Sometimes we all need that. There've been times I wish I had that fancy app that shows you what the constellations are when you point the phone at the sky, but then there was the time that I randomly pointed Peo's Galileo telescope at a bright object and found Saturn. Peo and I still talk about how amazing that was with that simple, non-electronic piece of technology. Frankly, a phone or even another person spoon-feeding me that "answer" would've made it so much less cool.
Unplugging is good. More people need to do it more often. And anyone who says they can't is an addict.
This conversation reminded me of a song I just posted. It's a little bit of a stretch but some of you may feel the connection. The gist of it is how the superhero The Flash is moving so fast all the time that, in the end, he can no longer relate to the humans around him. http://goo.gl/XdWlg
I have a flip phone burner too….somewhere…I don't know where it is, actually. Huh. No smart phones. No GPS (eeerrrgggh, I hate them so). I don't even own a laptop. When I am mobile, I am MO-BILE! No one can catch/find me because I don't wanna be found.
Heh… when someone says "flip phone burner" my mind goes to Breaking Bad scenarios with illicit deals and keeping from being tracked. lol
Exactly! I mean…what? No.
This it's a really good conversation!
As a current cellphone addict, I can only add that, from my personal experience, my addiction came about from a lack of many basic need in my life, namely emotional and security.
So as to not get too personal in my testimonial, I'll just end my comment by saying that cellphone, (and by default smartphone,) addiction is real and as psychologically damaging as its name implies it to be.
+Damian Sanchez Anything where we can "disappear into" and having the cell phone be a portal to the 'net definitely makes it a prime candidate.
I don't surf the 'net on my phone, but text, and G+ on it can be very time consuming!
I don't have home internet service, so everything I would do on a pc I will do on my smartphone…and I mean everything! I've created resumes, updated PowerPoint presentations, downloaded music, (and not just on Google Play but through other websites and via Google open server searches,) had hangouts, tweeted, Facebook'd, etc.
It's no wonder why this phone will not hold a charge for longer than a couple of hours, (couple meaning two.) Lol.
I've become pretty stuck on g+, I must admit. Otherwise, I actually do leave my phone behind on occasions, or not mind much if it runs out of battery. But I like being able to phone from anywhere (I don't phone much or receive calls), I like sending/receiving the odd SMS, and I love GPS and photos on the mobile. But unsticking from it is difficult at times. I guess we'll learn how to do it… like it or not, it's the future.