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I recently downsized to the iPhone SE because I eventually did not enjoy owning the larger iPhone 6 (just the regular; the plus is crazy to me). I don't have any social media or gaming apps anymore (I can only even think of 2 games I've ever had on my phone, anyway).
My apps fall into these categories:
Financial (bank, credit cards, PayPal)
Transportation (maps, Lyft, bus schedule, Delta)
News (plus websites about Magic: The Gathering I enjoy reading)
Weather (Dark Sky is reason enough alone to have a smartphone, it's magic)
Music (including controlling the wireless speaker in my dining room)
Retail (Amazon, Ebay, & Dominos - being able to buy dog food the moment I think of it is pretty great)
And of course the amazing camera/video camera alone is worth it for me. I'm not huge on taking photos, but it's just invaluable for those few times a week you want to capture something.
I check my email occasionally via phone, maybe once or twice a day. Friends know it could be 48 hours before I reply to a text sometimes.
As your humble forum administrator / web developer obviously I am highly plugged into the Internet and its happenings on a daily basis. I usually check Facebook and Twitter on any given day. I just leave it on my laptop now. I stopped pretending I needed those sorts of diversions to follow me in my pocket. Leaving it at my desk lets me associate doing too much of that with being at my desk too much, and keeps me from reading stupid Internet drivel in bed.
If you embrace being bored for a bit, it's really interesting the things you start doing when there's no dopamine drip in your pocket.
I have 2 games on my phone-Angry Birds and Pokemon Go. I actually play pokemon every day, but since it's not a game where you sit around and zone out, I allow myself It gets us out exploring new areas every time we are out of town, so I appreciate that. And it's fun doing with the kids, running around trying to catch fake animals I rarely play Angry Birds but it's there for times when I'm waiting forever for a kid to finish an activity or whatever. But most of the time I just go walk around with Pokemon during that time. I've walked over 100k just because of that game since last summer. I walk regularly but most of that is walking I would not have done otherwise.
The other day I was listening to a radio program which suggested that many younger people communicate better using devices than actually listening to each other. If this true than using devices for communications seems a social negative.
Indeed. I'm 30, and while I remember a time where smartphones were not prevalent, I "grew up" on the Internet. This is where I spent my formative adolescent years and made most of my true friends. To this day, I feel far more expressive and fluid in writing than I do speaking. It has been both a positive and negative factor in my life.
Positive: I can type at over 150WPM and bang out five paragraphs without pausing for breath. This serves me well in the technical world.
Negative: I'm awkward (or intimidating) in person and have trouble making friends in real life.
I think Generation Z has it worse than Millennials in some way -- but importantly! -- not all. Generation Z seemingly favors small social networks (intimate friend groups) facilitated by ephemeral mediums like Snapchat as opposed to the wide-spanning social networks with permanent history like Facebook. Facebook hasn't seen wide adoption amongst the Zs. They're on there, but engagement is low.
I think they've learned from their elders' mistakes, to some extent. The social networks they create with technology more closely resemble social network structures in real life. They also favor in-person communication for important conversations, which is a crucial difference between them and Millennials.
I'm going from memory here from some papers circulated on Hacker News and other tech sector outlets.
@Refugee I am 41 and grew up without the internet but got it in early college (early to mid 90s). But I have kids who are 20 and 14 (and 8 but he doesn't really use the internet except for occasional minecraft youtube videos that we watch with him). But I see a whole lot of disengagement from the "real" world and an effort only to engage digitally and I think that is a major cause for concern. My 14 year old and his friends are the type who hang out together, and sit on a couch snapping and texting each other. They have no qualms about using awful language and otherwise behaving entirely different from their real nature and the way they engage with their world in person. It causes a chasm in their values that causes a lot of internal conflict. Every kid that age goes through time figuring out who they are and what their values mean compared to how they were raised. But the nature of snapchat for things to disappear leaves them believing there are no permanent consequences for their words and actions, which of course is incorrect. My son is currently grounded from all technology (his computer, ipad, phone and ipod) and you'd think we cut his eyes out of his head. This is his second punishment for a similar action (inappropriate use of his phone) and if it happens a 3rd time, his phone will be shut off.
Like anything, it impacts different people differently. My 20 year old also spends way more time than I can comprehend online. But he is not a terribly social person online. He doesn't have friends that he doesn't know in person. He mostly uses it to read and read and read, lol. He prefers time spent in person and will drop the phone for something to do in a heartbeat. He interacts in person quite well with his professors and roommates. But we did not allow him to have a phone until he was 16 so he was established in how to communicate without it. I made an exception with the younger kid because of his extremely active social nature (for my peace of mind in knowing I can reach him) and I'm not sure that was the right choice anymore because there are vast concerns with his ability to properly interact in person and understand responsibility for his words. He got his phone last summer when he turned 14. L
Anyhow, just saying with what I see in my kids, yes, they have smaller groups of friends online than many adults have on FB, for example. But they seem unable to accept accountability because of the nature of what they are participating in and they are unable to prioritize those friends or to forsee consequences to how they interact. They do not know how to make eye contact with authority figures, their writing skills are horrendous (my 8 year old writes better than my 14 year old, and I'm not even exaggerating). Their ability to pick up a real book and read it for more than a few minutes is greatly impacted by the ADD nature of being online. Their focus in school suffers greatly.
That's why balance and moderation is important with everything. Good things can be taught/installed through using technology but can also hinder growth - there goes the middle path again. If we could use technology to progress without making it control our lives then we could be more well rounded and have the benefits of both. Verbal and written communication skills will always be important. Unfortunately, it appears written communication is more prevalent now a day which wouldn't be as bad if it were through a better medium than text, twitter, FB, snapchat or whatever they are using now. I really used to enjoy writing letters back in the day. It taught me written communication skills while the rest of my life taught me verbal communications skills.
@karasti as a teacher of teenagers in a large school I see all those things you have mentioned. Its very worrying. Personally since I gave up the smartphone my attention span has improved noticeably
Indeed, and I fully believe in that. But trying to teach teenagers how to do that when they are so very pedal-to-the-metal with everything they do is very difficult. Yes, I can enforce it on my own for their health, and I do. I just wish I knew how to instill in them why it's important because my son only considers it an unreasonable punishment and is missing that it is meant to teach him balance. I sometimes think that as he gets older then it will catch on, but looking at what I see with college age and young adults and now even people my age, that isn't true. I can't control him, and that isn't my goal but this is one area where guidance and setting an example is having zero impact.
My oldest had the same limitations. He had to shut off the computer and phone and turn them in at night. He wasn't allowed to have it at the dinner table. Or bring it with when we visited family. But once he got to an age that that level of insistence was getting ridiculous as he approached adult hood, he didn't set any of those limits for himself. Now he is away from home and is online until 2,3 sometimes 4am. He uses 16gb a month of data on his phone despite having wifi at his apartment. His phone and computer use is extensive and almost every waking minute when there isn't something else to do. Despite all the discussions and limit setting we did to try to set examples of how to properly use those tools. He's not on social media and rarely uses it but he spends a lot of time reading current events and legal statutes and that kind of stuff, and watching shows. I'm sure many college students are up really late. I'm sure I was. But he texts me about politics at 2am, LOL.
The idea of hand writing anything is pure torture. They don't do any of that in college, and in fact other than math, stop hand writing anything by the time they are in middle school here. My son is in 9th grade and I don't think he has had written an essay or anything else since maybe even 6th grade. thankfully they get teacher, peer and coach interaction in person, but in college, even that changes. And not for the better. My kids cannot read or write in cursive. My oldest struggled to sign his name on his drivers license application. They can't read birthday cards they receive. They completely don't understand the personal nature of receiving a hand written letter. If they get one, they are boggled at why, lol.
It's crazy to me that so many can't appreciate just sitting and being. Just breathing and listening and taking it in. The second there isn't something to do, out comes the phone. Even in the bathroom! The lack of connection to everything else is frightening to me because to me that connection is what will steer us into making good choices for our bodies, minds and planet. The complete lack of it results in people like Trump making the choices they are making because they know nothing other than prosperity and progress no matter the cost. Sorry to ramble. I guess it's been on my mind a lot.
@karasti you are certainly not rambling. You are making an extremely important point and I see it in the teenagers in the school where I teach. Not being dramatic, but smartphones are relatively new and I believe there is a big fall out on the way from the negative impact of overusing smartphones. I already see some of that fallout on a daily basis. We are short circuiting our memory, our concentration and more besides. My 2 sons are young, aged 5 and 3. I take them out into nature at every available opportunity. Beaches, woods, hills. Im lucky where i live. I hope things are different with technology as they get older. Its harder to keep it at bay the older they get....
@Hozan we live in a very rural, wilderness area so I am grateful they get constant exposure to nature. They do appreciate it and enjoy camping, hiking, skiing etc. But the amount of time they spend doing that versus on various devices doesn't even come close to comparing.
I routinely go a month or so without social media a few times a year. I'd give up the internet entirely but unfortunately at this stage it is required to conduct any sort of school business or even communicate with my son's doctor. But I shut down my accounts and do nothing but email. I am tempted to impose it in shorter periods for the whole family so that that distinction is present. It takes a couple of days to work out of the discomfort from being out of routine of checking your phone every 5 seconds. But once you know it's easy to see, in my experience anyhow. Our school here is very soft on phone use once they get to high school. It's unfortunate. The kids charge their phones in classes and everything.
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JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
Smartphones should probably come with a age restriction like alcohol, not for the under 18s.
@Kerome the problem with that is there are good reasons for younger people having them. They are now used to track and aid in control of medical issues, for example. Living in a rural area and having teens who drive roads where they might not see another person for a half hour or more etc. The problem isn't the phones but education on proper use of them and parents having the kahunas to follow through. But like I said in many cases the parents are worse than the kids. Having a 20 year old, believe me, there is nothing magically more mature about someone 20 over 18. In fact, I'd say between high school and latter college (say 18 and 22) many kids actually regress in some ways. Their maturity sinks when they are at the bottom of the "food chain" again and they are away from home and routine and the structure of the rules of their parents.
Comments
Being excited about a game in this thread is probably not what the thread is about... Perhaps we should discuss this elsewhere...
Yeah, it's kinda reversing the intention of it all....
I recently downsized to the iPhone SE because I eventually did not enjoy owning the larger iPhone 6 (just the regular; the plus is crazy to me). I don't have any social media or gaming apps anymore (I can only even think of 2 games I've ever had on my phone, anyway).
My apps fall into these categories:
And of course the amazing camera/video camera alone is worth it for me. I'm not huge on taking photos, but it's just invaluable for those few times a week you want to capture something.
I check my email occasionally via phone, maybe once or twice a day. Friends know it could be 48 hours before I reply to a text sometimes.
As your humble forum administrator / web developer obviously I am highly plugged into the Internet and its happenings on a daily basis. I usually check Facebook and Twitter on any given day. I just leave it on my laptop now.
I stopped pretending I needed those sorts of diversions to follow me in my pocket. Leaving it at my desk lets me associate doing too much of that with being at my desk too much, and keeps me from reading stupid Internet drivel in bed.
If you embrace being bored for a bit, it's really interesting the things you start doing when there's no dopamine drip in your pocket.
LOL I don't even know what Boom Beach is!
I have 2 games on my phone-Angry Birds and Pokemon Go. I actually play pokemon every day, but since it's not a game where you sit around and zone out, I allow myself
It gets us out exploring new areas every time we are out of town, so I appreciate that. And it's fun doing with the kids, running around trying to catch fake animals 
I rarely play Angry Birds but it's there for times when I'm waiting forever for a kid to finish an activity or whatever. But most of the time I just go walk around with Pokemon during that time. I've walked over 100k just because of that game since last summer. I walk regularly but most of that is walking I would not have done otherwise.
@grackle
Indeed. I'm 30, and while I remember a time where smartphones were not prevalent, I "grew up" on the Internet. This is where I spent my formative adolescent years and made most of my true friends. To this day, I feel far more expressive and fluid in writing than I do speaking. It has been both a positive and negative factor in my life.
Positive: I can type at over 150WPM and bang out five paragraphs without pausing for breath. This serves me well in the technical world.
Negative: I'm awkward (or intimidating) in person and have trouble making friends in real life.
I think Generation Z has it worse than Millennials in some way -- but importantly! -- not all. Generation Z seemingly favors small social networks (intimate friend groups) facilitated by ephemeral mediums like Snapchat as opposed to the wide-spanning social networks with permanent history like Facebook. Facebook hasn't seen wide adoption amongst the Zs. They're on there, but engagement is low.
I think they've learned from their elders' mistakes, to some extent. The social networks they create with technology more closely resemble social network structures in real life. They also favor in-person communication for important conversations, which is a crucial difference between them and Millennials.
I'm going from memory here from some papers circulated on Hacker News and other tech sector outlets.
@Refugee I am 41 and grew up without the internet but got it in early college (early to mid 90s). But I have kids who are 20 and 14 (and 8 but he doesn't really use the internet except for occasional minecraft youtube videos that we watch with him). But I see a whole lot of disengagement from the "real" world and an effort only to engage digitally and I think that is a major cause for concern. My 14 year old and his friends are the type who hang out together, and sit on a couch snapping and texting each other. They have no qualms about using awful language and otherwise behaving entirely different from their real nature and the way they engage with their world in person. It causes a chasm in their values that causes a lot of internal conflict. Every kid that age goes through time figuring out who they are and what their values mean compared to how they were raised. But the nature of snapchat for things to disappear leaves them believing there are no permanent consequences for their words and actions, which of course is incorrect. My son is currently grounded from all technology (his computer, ipad, phone and ipod) and you'd think we cut his eyes out of his head. This is his second punishment for a similar action (inappropriate use of his phone) and if it happens a 3rd time, his phone will be shut off.
Like anything, it impacts different people differently. My 20 year old also spends way more time than I can comprehend online. But he is not a terribly social person online. He doesn't have friends that he doesn't know in person. He mostly uses it to read and read and read, lol. He prefers time spent in person and will drop the phone for something to do in a heartbeat. He interacts in person quite well with his professors and roommates. But we did not allow him to have a phone until he was 16 so he was established in how to communicate without it. I made an exception with the younger kid because of his extremely active social nature (for my peace of mind in knowing I can reach him) and I'm not sure that was the right choice anymore because there are vast concerns with his ability to properly interact in person and understand responsibility for his words. He got his phone last summer when he turned 14. L
Anyhow, just saying with what I see in my kids, yes, they have smaller groups of friends online than many adults have on FB, for example. But they seem unable to accept accountability because of the nature of what they are participating in and they are unable to prioritize those friends or to forsee consequences to how they interact. They do not know how to make eye contact with authority figures, their writing skills are horrendous (my 8 year old writes better than my 14 year old, and I'm not even exaggerating). Their ability to pick up a real book and read it for more than a few minutes is greatly impacted by the ADD nature of being online. Their focus in school suffers greatly.
That's why balance and moderation is important with everything. Good things can be taught/installed through using technology but can also hinder growth - there goes the middle path again. If we could use technology to progress without making it control our lives then we could be more well rounded and have the benefits of both. Verbal and written communication skills will always be important. Unfortunately, it appears written communication is more prevalent now a day which wouldn't be as bad if it were through a better medium than text, twitter, FB, snapchat or whatever they are using now. I really used to enjoy writing letters back in the day. It taught me written communication skills while the rest of my life taught me verbal communications skills.
@karasti as a teacher of teenagers in a large school I see all those things you have mentioned. Its very worrying. Personally since I gave up the smartphone my attention span has improved noticeably
Indeed, and I fully believe in that. But trying to teach teenagers how to do that when they are so very pedal-to-the-metal with everything they do is very difficult. Yes, I can enforce it on my own for their health, and I do. I just wish I knew how to instill in them why it's important because my son only considers it an unreasonable punishment and is missing that it is meant to teach him balance. I sometimes think that as he gets older then it will catch on, but looking at what I see with college age and young adults and now even people my age, that isn't true. I can't control him, and that isn't my goal but this is one area where guidance and setting an example is having zero impact.
My oldest had the same limitations. He had to shut off the computer and phone and turn them in at night. He wasn't allowed to have it at the dinner table. Or bring it with when we visited family. But once he got to an age that that level of insistence was getting ridiculous as he approached adult hood, he didn't set any of those limits for himself. Now he is away from home and is online until 2,3 sometimes 4am. He uses 16gb a month of data on his phone despite having wifi at his apartment. His phone and computer use is extensive and almost every waking minute when there isn't something else to do. Despite all the discussions and limit setting we did to try to set examples of how to properly use those tools. He's not on social media and rarely uses it but he spends a lot of time reading current events and legal statutes and that kind of stuff, and watching shows. I'm sure many college students are up really late. I'm sure I was. But he texts me about politics at 2am, LOL.
The idea of hand writing anything is pure torture. They don't do any of that in college, and in fact other than math, stop hand writing anything by the time they are in middle school here. My son is in 9th grade and I don't think he has had written an essay or anything else since maybe even 6th grade. thankfully they get teacher, peer and coach interaction in person, but in college, even that changes. And not for the better. My kids cannot read or write in cursive. My oldest struggled to sign his name on his drivers license application. They can't read birthday cards they receive. They completely don't understand the personal nature of receiving a hand written letter. If they get one, they are boggled at why, lol.
It's crazy to me that so many can't appreciate just sitting and being. Just breathing and listening and taking it in. The second there isn't something to do, out comes the phone. Even in the bathroom! The lack of connection to everything else is frightening to me because to me that connection is what will steer us into making good choices for our bodies, minds and planet. The complete lack of it results in people like Trump making the choices they are making because they know nothing other than prosperity and progress no matter the cost. Sorry to ramble. I guess it's been on my mind a lot.
@karasti you are certainly not rambling. You are making an extremely important point and I see it in the teenagers in the school where I teach. Not being dramatic, but smartphones are relatively new and I believe there is a big fall out on the way from the negative impact of overusing smartphones. I already see some of that fallout on a daily basis. We are short circuiting our memory, our concentration and more besides. My 2 sons are young, aged 5 and 3. I take them out into nature at every available opportunity. Beaches, woods, hills. Im lucky where i live. I hope things are different with technology as they get older. Its harder to keep it at bay the older they get....
@Hozan we live in a very rural, wilderness area so I am grateful they get constant exposure to nature. They do appreciate it and enjoy camping, hiking, skiing etc. But the amount of time they spend doing that versus on various devices doesn't even come close to comparing.
I routinely go a month or so without social media a few times a year. I'd give up the internet entirely but unfortunately at this stage it is required to conduct any sort of school business or even communicate with my son's doctor. But I shut down my accounts and do nothing but email. I am tempted to impose it in shorter periods for the whole family so that that distinction is present. It takes a couple of days to work out of the discomfort from being out of routine of checking your phone every 5 seconds. But once you know it's easy to see, in my experience anyhow. Our school here is very soft on phone use once they get to high school. It's unfortunate. The kids charge their phones in classes and everything.
Smartphones should probably come with a age restriction like alcohol, not for the under 18s.
They should also be banned in public places, I'm fed up with gormless smartphone smombies barging into me.
@Kerome the problem with that is there are good reasons for younger people having them. They are now used to track and aid in control of medical issues, for example. Living in a rural area and having teens who drive roads where they might not see another person for a half hour or more etc. The problem isn't the phones but education on proper use of them and parents having the kahunas to follow through. But like I said in many cases the parents are worse than the kids. Having a 20 year old, believe me, there is nothing magically more mature about someone 20 over 18. In fact, I'd say between high school and latter college (say 18 and 22) many kids actually regress in some ways. Their maturity sinks when they are at the bottom of the "food chain" again and they are away from home and routine and the structure of the rules of their parents.