Drats! Yet another study points to smartphones as serial human relationship killers

[Poke]

Yeah I would agree on this people spend way too much time on the things. This past Thanksgiving trying to have conversations with family but they are to clued to their phones and don't even look up to make eye contact. People have forgotten how to socialize now days and it's not going to get better anytime soon.

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Drat...-as-serial-human-relationship-killers_id37334

 

[Stargazer]

People should not be bringing phones to the dinner table, especially a family gathering on the holidays. Kinda defeats the purpose of a holiday gathering if you use your time to socialize with those not even at your dinner table.

 

[LER]

Although I admit there are times I'm guilty as well. Especially when conversation gets boring.

 

[KE4EST]

I try to not use mine at times like those. Only if it is real important.

 

[bhelms]

I'm surprised that anyone is surprised by this study! Major "d'uuuhhh!". Smart phones are only part of the "problem". Anything that "connects" us to entities outside of our immediate human-facing environment and exchanges should be added to the list and that could include simple things like mp3 players with earbuds, etc. For that matter, anyone who leaves their current gathering to answer a POTS call is included!

Note I put "problem" in quotes above. We are seeing a cultural shift driven by the technologies of the time. It's not the first time that has happened, but it is gathering momentum. Most of us decry the change including yours truly, but are we able to stop it? Should we even try? Or should we find ways to grow within it ???

My small family has adopted a "check your digital devices at the door" policy for family gatherings...such as they are. (We need to expand that to shut off everything else as well except perhaps some "easy" background music...)

 

[Anole]

But you folks are SO much more interesting than those I'm having lunch with!
...

Oops, the guy across the table is texting me; that stole my focus.

 

[bhelms]

Here's an interesting article along these same lines, from a different angle: How smartphones are turning "us" (I exclude myself since I don't own one!) all into attention whores. Where folks would once whip out their phone to call for help, now they're instead using them to take photos / videos for immediate upload in the pursuit of ever increasing self importance. (The comments are particularly interesting and add more depth to the point the article is trying to make.)

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/12/06/new-york-post-subway-photo-ethics/1749681/

"As more people whip out their smartphones and other devices to record bloody, vulgar or violent events, is it citizen journalism or incivility?...

...Melanie Wells, managing director at New York City public relations firm DiGennaro Communications,...wonders if the camera lens makes people increasingly indifferent to a person's situation.

"With smartphones, we're all witnesses, but does being behind the camera make us more removed?" she asks.

She has a theory about why people snap and post unexpected photos: "The need to feed the social media beast," she says.

Users try "to fill our Facebook pages and other outlets with material that shows we're interesting, out and about and on the scene," she says.

McFee and Joseph Churman, a leader at the New York Society for Ethical Culture, agree that social media come into play.

Such sites have "encouraged a type of narcissism in American lives, as well as globally, where everyone has to parade their own dubious accomplishments in front of the world," Churman says..."