Thread: Cell phones and internet -- hurting human relationships?

Originally Posted by Northman

I met Agap and Spikerman. Both are cool dudes although i think Spiker might still be pissed at me about the criticism of the officiating the other day. Lol

AGap is an outstanding human being.

Originally Posted by Al Wilson 4 Mayor

Life experience has a big impact on how we feel about this.

I spend the majority of my day communicating with people electronically. I find email, text, and phone calls to all be beneficial depending on the situation. I use them all extensively, and find them to make my job easier.

The downside is a lack of privacy. I am responsible for 30 home repair jobs at the moment. I have to demonstrate empathy for these people while trying to maintain boundaries with them.

The truth is my friends we do jobs for can be challenging. They are fairly uninhibited about texting me questions and concerns in the evenings and on the weekends, and I understand. They trust me because I’m their friend.

There are also other customers who are simply demanding and need me to give them boundaries. If it’s urgent I’ll return the call or text message, but if it’s simply a scheduling question and I feel I need to establish boundaries I’ll tell them I need to respond to them during normal business hours.

In a nutshell, my job does not allow for me to unplug at 5pm like some people might be able to. I have an average of at least 30 phone calls a day, in addition to as many or more text messages and emails. I need some privacy, which is one reason I am not going to allow a chip to be inserted in my body. It disappoints me Dave thinks I’m a backwards imbecile because I feel this way, but I am not likely to change how I feel about it.

I received an email and a text message this evening between 8:30-9pm. One was from our production manager, and the other was from a customer. I would feel extremely violated if that communication was being transmitted into my body on a Saturday evening.

Lol, you are putting way to much emphasis on a comment about technology that is decades away.

And even if we did have it, there would likely be a computer interface where you can alter the settings to allow you privacy or for when you get on a plane

Originally Posted by Valar Morghulis

Lol, you are putting way to much emphasis on a comment about technology that is decades away.

And even if we did have it, there would likely be a computer interface where you can alter the settings to allow you privacy or for when you get on a plane

Am I putting too much emphasis on it, or am I lamenting the demands of my job? I don’t know for sure..

Calm Down, Parents: A Rigorous New Oxford Study of 350,000 Teens Shows Screen Time Is About as Dangerous as Potatoes
https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman...udy-finds.html

According to the fascinating writeup by Lydia Denworth in Scientific American, the new, more careful analysis shows that, no matter which measure you look at, screens have close to no effect on kids' psychological health. Are phones making kids more depressed? No. More suicidal? More selfish? More isolated? The answer is no, no, and no again.

Denworth brings home the point of how little effect screen time appears to have on measures of psychological well-being with a pair of memorable comparisons: "Technology use tilts the needle less than half a percent away from feeling emotionally sound. For context, eating potatoes is associated with nearly the same degree of effect and wearing glasses has a more negative impact on adolescent mental health."

....

Which doesn't mean you should just hand your kid an iPad and put your feet up. This study shows that, at the broad population level, screens aren't really impacting kids' mental health. That doesn't mean that one individual teenager might not have a problem with obsessive screen use. You don't want your kid to be one of those problematic individuals.

Bottom line: Parents should pay attention to their particular child and set sensible limits based on their particular personality and habits, but there's no scientifically valid reason to lose sleep over screens. If you're not terrified of potatoes, you shouldn't be too worried about your kid's phone either.

That’s not funny Abe. A potato killed my grandfather.

I think the authors captured my greatest concern with their 'rigorous' conclusion:

For the sake of simplicity and comparison, simple linear regressions were used in this study, overlooking the fact that the relationship of interest is probably more complex, non-linear or hierarchical13. Many measures used were also of low quality, non-normal, heterogenous or outdated, limiting the generalizability of the study’s inferences. As self-report digital technology measures are known to be noisy30, this could also have led to the effects of technology on well-being being diminished due to low-quality measurement. Lastly, we used null hypothesis significance testing to interpret significance, which is problematic when using such exten-sive data. To improve partnerships between research councils and behavioural scientists, the implementation of better measurement, and pre-registering of analyses plans, will be crucial.

This is what I take from their effort. They took three surveys and scrubbed them using SCA, which I am going to assume is mathematically sound. But they admit that those underlying studies that they used are shit.

There are at least three reasons why the inferences drawn by behavioural scientists from large-scale datasets might produce divergent findings. First, these datasets are mostly collected in collaboration with multidisciplinary research councils and are characterized by a battery of items meant to be completed by postal survey, face-to-face or telephone interview6–8. Though research councils engage in public consultations15, the pre-tested or validated scales common in clinical, social or personality psy-chology are often abbreviated or altered to reduce participant burden16,17. Scientists wishing to make inferences about the effects of digital technology using these data need to make numerous decisions about how to analyse, combine and interpret the mea-sures. Taking advantage of these valuable datasets is therefore fraught with many subjective analytical decisions, which can lead to high numbers of researcher degrees of freedom18. With nearly all decisions taken after the data are known, these are not appar-ent to those reading the published paper highlighting only the final analytical pathway

So not to put cold water on what I think is a significant takeaway -- screen use has a negative impact on well-being, but it might be overblown, and it's not as significant as bullying, wearing glasses, asthma, and binge-drinking. But at best it's a solid bit of evidence to say 'pump your brakes, you anti-technology goobs.'

It's a hard thing to measure, but an effort like this is laudable. What we don't get to any answer about:

1. How much screen time (frequency, duration)?
2. What is the nature of the screen time (there is a difference between being bullied on social media and watching a continuing education video)?
3. How do we quantify well-being?
4. How do we define measures of well-being?
5. Is the strongest relationship between the social aspects of technology, or the technology itself?

https://www.healthline.com/health-ne...-eyes-101215#3

Originally Posted by Nomad

https://www.healthline.com/health-ne...-eyes-101215#3

I wish they actually answered the question they raised: what is the measured physiological impact of prolonged exposure to modern light sources (aka screens) as encountered in typical modern life?

A lot of guesswork and speculation is what I read, I was hoping for clear findings.

So, everybody that ever lived died of something.

Oh noooooeeeeessssss

Originally Posted by Timmy!

So, everybody that ever lived died of something.

Oh noooooeeeeessssss

The jury is still out on the latest batch. But the data so far backs you up.

At this point it's moot - both of these things are here to stay. Just invest in a support system for the populaces, keep researching how to help people, and move on.

******* ****.

Originally Posted by King87

At this point it's moot - both of these things are here to stay. Just invest in a support system for the populaces, keep researching how to help people, and move on.

******* ****.

Cell phones and internet are the worst thing to happen to society since soap operas.

Originally Posted by King87

At this point it's moot - both of these things are here to stay. Just invest in a support system for the populaces, keep researching how to help people, and move on.

******* ****.

While the issue of their place in society has been settled, the issue of any particular person's proper use of them has not been settled. For example, I'm struggling with how to prepare my 10 year old for lifelong happiness among devices and social media.

Originally Posted by Hawgdriver

While the issue of their place in society has been settled, the issue of any particular person's proper use of them has not been settled. For example, I'm struggling with how to prepare my 10 year old for lifelong happiness among devices and social media.

I don’t understand if my post is incongruent with this one, but I’m also tired and hungry.