When I started this, I thought it was a problem, but not a “big” problem.
After months of research, I am surprised and scared. Smartphones have changed the behavior (for much worse) of an entire generation called “iGen” born after 2000-—depression and suicides are skyrocketing; distracted driving via phones is a menace (despite seat belts, air bags, a reduction in drunk driving, fatality rates haven’t moved . . . due to cell phones/distracted driving). So far with two exceptions, every study I look at is a warning sign.
And just wait for the chapter on gaming and the Asian cultures and tech!
I think that for me, my turning point came with the realization that I had the constant feeling that with cell phones, people just aren’t there. They are somewhere else, anywhere else, and not in the moment. And there was one experience that drove that home very powerfully for me.
My wife and I were driving home from Boston a couple of years ago, and a particular event stuck with me. It was a wonderful early spring evening, and we were crossing over the Massachusetts Turnpike at the end of Newbury Street near the Tower Records building (now defunct)
As we passed the Tower Records building, there were perhaps 30 people standing there, probably waiting for a bus. Every single one of them stood with one palm up cradling a phone, their anonymous faces reflecting the faint light of their phone as they gazed down at it. Their heads were all inclined at the same angle. They could have been mannequins. All of them nearly completely motionless in a trance-like state of immobility.
Just gazing down.
What really struck me in a sad and negative way was...it was a beautiful night. You know that time of night when the sun has gone down, and the horizon has that orange, to pink to cobalt blue gradation, and the trees, not yet bearing leaves, are starkly silhouetted in black against that beautiful sky? That time of night. To the left, the giant Citgo sign near Fenway Park was lit up, doing its characteristic light show.
There was so much going on. So much beauty. So much life. So much happening. But these 30 people were completely and totally oblivious to it all. They saw nothing but that rectangular screen in their hand.
There was something very, very sad about that, and it has stuck with me.
When I heard you were taking up that as a topic for your next book, I was very interested in the concept. Good luck...I look forward to seeing it. (Of course, people will call you a Luddite for even suggesting there is a downside...but that is the price of being a commentator in that arena!)