Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?

[MyName13]

Lack of hope and human destruction is what destroys a generation, also governments that can't do anything.

[Ryujin2003]

1 hour ago, RedMasterOnion said:

The day has finally come where there are even more studies linking smartphones/social media to depression among teens. From what I can tell it seems to be that its really how we use the technology. Way to many people are using them to avoid having to spend time with others in RL and therefore are getting sucked into their phones hoping to feel better.

 

Has the smartphone destroyed a generation

 

Thoughts?

I read this on my smartphone, and had to use my smarthone to Google RL....

 

And no, I don't think the smart phone destroyed a generation. They destroyed themselves. The scientific discoveries and inventions leading up the the Atomic and Hydrogen bombs is great. Doesn't mean anyone had to be  using the technology appropriately.

[MageTank]

22 minutes ago, themctipers said:

i don't know anyone in my class that uses tumblr/reddit/twitter. they all use insta/facebook/snapcrap, and its mostly for messaging each other and memes

i really don't know anyone who has the 'THE WORLD IS ENDING' mentality, only political debates sometimes on reddit. im in canada, and there isn't a political divide at the moment (i think) so, shrug

 

people talking shit about each other will always be a thing, but at least in my class they keep it to private conversations 

it is devastating when other people find out, for me it's a i dont give a shit whatever though. can't speak about other people

That doesn't make what I say any less true for others though. I do know many people that do. It's also extremely clear if you go looking online, that many of the people that make those posts, are young themselves. 

 

I don't really understand any of it myself, as I was raised to take nothing on the internet seriously, but it seems that a lot of the younger kids these days missed out on that course. Either way, I don't really believe these studies which try to link things together all willy-nilly. They tried it with TV and violence, video games and violence, etc. They tend to try to find technological scapegoats for what the rest of us just consider bad parenting. It's your job as a parent to make sure your kids are physically and mentally equipped to deal with the real world. This includes the internet, which is a very real part of our world today. Teach your kids how to sift between what is real, and what is not, and instill in them the beliefs that the ill-will of others should not infringe upon their sense of self-worth. A lot of today's problems, stem from the complete disconnect of parents and their children. I see it first hand with my extended family, and I've spoken with others that basically grew up babysat by their TV. The problem being, when things go south, these same "parents" look for absolutely anything to blame, other than their lack of parenting. 

 

I should probably stop before I go into a rant about something unrelated to the topic, lol.

[kirashi]

1 hour ago, RedMasterOnion said:

The day has finally come where there are even more studies linking smartphones/social media to depression among teens. From what I can tell it seems to be that its really how we use the technology. Way to many people are using them to avoid having to spend time with others in RL and therefore are getting sucked into their phones hoping to feel better.

 

Has the smartphone destroyed a generation

 

Thoughts?

I believe that, like drugs, guns, etc., Smartphones are just tools that make our lives easier (and more difficult) in many different aspects of society. However, I do believe that, going forward, generations are going to rely more and more on having technology do things for them vs. knowing how to think for themselves. Prime example is comparing computers of the 90's to today's technology. I'll pick music sharing and discovery.

 

 

Back in the 90's we didn't have curated playlists, instantly streamable media, or online digital purchases. We shared CD's (or dare I even say cassette mix tapes) with each other, made playlists using Winamp and burned these to CD for our cars and boomboxes, and hunted high and low for tracks on Limewire and Skype's prior project, Kazaa. (It's what Skype's original creators first developed.) My point is that back in the 90's and early 2000's, people shared and discovered music using offline analogous means. Hell, FM radio was (still is?) king back then too. Don't get me wrong; I absolutely LOVE the convenience of online streaming and curated playlists, not to mention Spotify's superior social discover over Apple and Google Music, but nothing will even surpass sitting in a basement with a group of friends, drinking some beers with MTV on in the background, and oogling over whatever tunes people were listening to at the time.

 

Why the story about music sharing and discover when this forum thread is about smartphones "destroying" a generation? Because like the music situation, we're actively making the choice to dumb ourselves down using smartphones vs. thinking for ourselves. It's not that we can't do basic math in our head - we choose to open the calculator app instead. It's not that we can't find our way to a destination with a paper map - we choose to use GPS instead. Just as it's not that we can't sit in a basement with our friends discovering new music - we choose curated playlists from companies and celebrities instead.

 

 

I'm not trying to push anything on anyone. I just want  people to think about what they're doing when their face is glued to a smartphone out in public. I've got one last story to tell, now that you've hopefully enjoyed the above videos. I went to 2 different friends birthday parties at a local restaurant a few years ago. One was turning 30, the other was turning 20.

At the 20 year old's party, everyone was checking their phones every 5-10 minutes, or whenever they were bored. We all had a lot more in common due to our age group, so in theory we should have been able to hold more conversations about our life happenings.

At the 30 year old's party, I was the youngest person there and knew only about 3 or 4 of the 15 or so people there. They had phones too, but maybe checked them ONCE or TWICE during the entire birthday party. I had more meaningful conversations with these people I barely knew in the late 20's and early 30's than I had with friends around my age. Why? Sure, maybe they were more matured, but I suspect it was more that they could keep an interest and hold their attention to conversation much more easily than the younger group who grew up with smartphones.

 

[themctipers]

8 minutes ago, MageTank said:

That doesn't make what I say any less true for others though. I do know many people that do. It's also extremely clear if you go looking online, that many of the people that make those posts, are young themselves. 

 

I don't really understand any of it myself, as I was raised to take nothing on the internet seriously, but it seems that a lot of the younger kids these days missed out on that course. Either way, I don't really believe these studies which try to link things together all willy-nilly. They tried it with TV and violence, video games and violence, etc. They tend to try to find technological scapegoats for what the rest of us just consider bad parenting. It's your job as a parent to make sure your kids are physically and mentally equipped to deal with the real world. This includes the internet, which is a very real part of our world today. Teach your kids how to sift between what is real, and what is not, and instill in them the beliefs that the ill-will of others should not infringe upon their sense of self-worth. A lot of today's problems, stem from the complete disconnect of parents and their children. I see it first hand with my extended family, and I've spoken with others that basically grew up babysat by their TV. The problem being, when things go south, these same "parents" look for absolutely anything to blame, other than their lack of parenting. 

 

I should probably stop before I go into a rant about something unrelated to the topic, lol.

I don't know anyone that has a Twitter account and uses it to tweet/whatever, and same with tumblr. That's what I'm basing my observations on other people on, because I still have to interact with them. It's very clear that a lot of young kids are on Twitter fucking around, look at musical.ly. 

 

I wasnt really raised on anything because my parents were busy not at home somewhere for most of my childhood. So basically every social interaction I do is based off of what I've observed before and my reasoning. Someone insults me on the Internet? Don't care. Fuck them too. That's how it works for me. 

 

 

and you can probably tell that I'm trying to relate to something that I can't relate to as I have no experience with that too. typing this whole thing has been awkward for me  

[MageTank]

1 minute ago, themctipers said:

I don't know anyone that has a Twitter account and uses it to tweet/whatever, and same with tumblr. That's what I'm basing my observations on other people on, because I still have to interact with them. It's very clear that a lot of young kids are on Twitter fucking around, look at musical.ly. 

 

I wasnt really raised on anything because my parents were busy not at home somewhere for most of my childhood. So basically every social interaction I do is based off of what I've observed before and my reasoning. Someone insults me on the Internet? Don't care. Fuck them too. That's how it works for me. 

 

 

and you can probably tell that I'm trying to relate to something that I can't relate to as I have no experience with that too. typing this whole thing has been awkward for me  

Oh, I feel you. When I was a kid, social status was earned by holographic pokemon cards and Gameboy's, lol. I feel bad for today's youth, as it seems far more complicated for them than what it was for me. I suppose that's just the cycle of life though, as my parents thought the exact same thing for us. 

[Mira Yurizaki]

I think the problem is that smartphones, and probably the internet in general, give teenagers access to more things than they should and that it allows them to share more things than they should. There is no barrier anymore.

 

It used to be when I got home, anything that happened at school was no longer a concern. Anyone who picked on me couldn't budge into my online life (unless I gave them my IM handle... which I never really did). Now with social media, anyone who wants to have a beef with you can. And it's unlikely the kid is going to set every privacy checkbox to make sure they filter the things they want (because FOMO, or something).

 

So no, smartphones themselves haven't destroyed anything. It was just a tool that granted them more power than they could handle.

[Princess Luna]

Yes it did, I dropped Psychology because of it sorta...

 

I used to pay the course by doing a job-related thing for the university, we as students would go to local schools to assist teachers, work as teachers ourselves and do reports etc...

 

It was literally impossible to do any thing all these kids on public schools don't give a damn, finishing elementary without even knowing how to read or write more than a page, and these damned smartphones every single one of them had one and only cared to it, some wouldn't even have a decent shoes but an iphone 5, frankly.

 

Teachers can't "force" students to give in the phone if they aren't willing, it usually results in actual aggression from the student whilst the teacher can't defend himself otherwise police will take him in, it is ridiculous.

 

Now I know the device by itself isn't guilty but it was introduced to a hella lot of second/third world countries way before they were ready for it, leave alone the problems on the first world.

[TheUzu]

2 hours ago, BuckGup said:

This is the funniest thing I have ever heard. If you look into it at all you will realize THIS HAPPENS LITERALLY every generation. Before the world war every said the next generation was a failure, yet they won two world wars. After that they said the next would never do anything great, yet they did. THE CYCLE GOES ON AND ON and has been going since the Roman Empire. It's just old people who can't accept change. Deal with it. It is here to stay and can actually benefit people. I would say the internet has helped find similar minded people that they didn't know existed. Making them feel less of an outsider because no one in their school or town was like them. But then they realize there are hundreds of thousands like them all across America. Stop complaining

They are this time though.

 

There was a dating show on channel 4 that shows naked bodies and they decide based on that.

 

The Ben 10 and Teen Titans remake also leads me to believe that all hope is lost for the future.

[themctipers]

22 minutes ago, MageTank said:

Oh, I feel you. When I was a kid, social status was earned by holographic pokemon cards and Gameboy's, lol. I feel bad for today's youth, as it seems far more complicated for them than what it was for me. I suppose that's just the cycle of life though, as my parents thought the exact same thing for us. 

it's not complicated for me. i don't care what other people think of me, well I like to think that. don't have an actual twitter/ig/use facebook, etc

 

[TheUzu]

Facebook is crap you used to have to spend some serious time perfecting your Bebo or MySpace page back in the day making sure you had your favorite songs music video on your page.

 

So low effort now a days.

[Princess Luna]

7 minutes ago, themctipers said:

it's not complicated for me. i don't care what other people think of me, well I like to think that. don't have an actual twitter/ig/use facebook, etc

Yes, I gave up on those long time ago, I find filling socializing meta in places like here, deviantart and such; more rewarding.

[DXMember]

 

[themctipers]

1 minute ago, Princess Cadence said:

Yes, I gave up on those long time ago, I find filling socializing meta in places like here, deviantart and such; more rewarding.

same

 

mostly here

 

 

this place is the place where I get the most social interaction pls help

[Misanthrope]

Before smart phones it was videogames, before that it was television, before that it was rock and roll and before that Jazz music was going to pervert our generations and you keep going back and people keep blaming the ills of their societies on the newer technology or art form they do not understand.

 

Please stop listening to ridiculous correlation = causation arguments.

[Centurius]

No

[BuckGup]

22 minutes ago, S.Stephenson said:

They are this time though.

 

There was a dating show on channel 4 that shows naked bodies and they decide based on that.

 

The Ben 10 and Teen Titans remake also leads me to believe that all hope is lost for the future.

Two shows that are out of your intended age group have ruined society? Yup

[Zando_]

2 hours ago, BuckGup said:

This is the funniest thing I have ever heard. If you look into it at all you will realize THIS HAPPENS LITERALLY every generation. Before the world war every said the next generation was a failure, yet they won two world wars. After that they said the next would never do anything great, yet they did. 

Ugh, don't even talk about those young fools back when with those devilish horseless carriages....

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

Smartphones have made it so easy that people really rely on them.

 

Ask anyone if he/she knows his/her best friend's phone number.  Pretty sure that more than 95% will have to look it up on their phone.

 

Lack of attention span nowadays isn't caused by smartphones, that was already a thing before they came along.  Ever since the internet became mainstream, people go from one page to the next subject in a matter of minutes, so concentration really isn't neede .. ooh ... look, a squirrel!

True, the short status updates on FB and short length of tweets doesn't help to keep people focused either.  I used to be able to read an entire book in one or two takes, nowadays I'm pretty pleased with myself when I manage to read an entire chapter without putting it down halfway through to do something else for 5 minutes.

The good news is that this is reversible, not using any electronics for a couple of weeks will do wonders for your ability to focus.  Still, that's going to be harder for those who never knew a world without the internet and smartphones. 

[Noctus]

2 hours ago, MageTank said:

Oh, I feel you. When I was a kid, social status was earned by holographic pokemon cards and Gameboy's, lol. I feel bad for today's youth, as it seems far more complicated for them than what it was for me. I suppose that's just the cycle of life though, as my parents thought the exact same thing for us. 

Can't agree enough. Playing tag, jumping through backyards doing hide and seek, getting called in for dinner and being manky for playing in ALL places with my friends then going straight back out for more fun eventually being called in because it's late and a school night. Now in my housing area i barely see 1 or 2 kids playing outside never mind a whole team running about, screaming, having fun covered in dirt. And i literary grew up with the internet and the advent of early mobile phones. Sad times.

[Drak3]

5 hours ago, MageTank said:

I don't really understand any of it myself, as I was raised to take nothing on the internet seriously, but it seems that a lot of the younger kids these days missed out on that course.

A person, like you or I, are smart. But people are dumb. K sums it up well.

4 hours ago, themctipers said:

i don't care what other people think of me, well I like to think that.

Other than significant other(s), the boss, and close friends, it truly is irrelevant what people think of one another. I'm willing to bet that you care about what those people think, I've yet to meet a person that hasn't cared about those people and their opinions.

 

4 hours ago, MageTank said:

When I was a kid, social status was earned by holographic pokemon cards and Gameboy's,

It wasn't quite like that here. And to an extent, social status amongst Nampa youngsters is still dependent on Pokemon and Nintendo handhelds. Maybe if they have a recent iteration of an Xbox or Playstation, or a hella fun older console and a good selection of good games.

Though, in high school, I got significantly more unwanted attention simply because I had switched between laptops and tablets on a monthly to bimonthly basis, and I did get the school to allow laptops after carrying my own around the year prior to the rule change.

23 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

Without smartphones people would have resorted to other means of bullying and negativity, possibly physical which is even worse. 

Many people couldn't possibly go through other avenues of bullying. The internet enables people to do it while either hiding behind a proverbial mask, or don't see much/any risk of doing it online.

[Guest]

This has been an every generation thing... If we only had our feces we could become obsessed and "ruin our lives" with it. Its humans, not the objects.

[dexT]

If by destroy you mean trigger off the Richter scale and be a vessel to receive trolling then yes, phones are decimating a generation.

[Doobeedoo]

People need to play WoW though, it's still keeping me safe for 12y now. 

Either way, parenting definitely needs to be taken into consideration, also depends on individuals as far as young ones. If you get controlled by people or social media, you have problem to deal with. Some are prone to certain addictive and even manupilative conditions that ruins them. If something you tend to enjoy and do all the time is ruining you, it's not for you, simple. 

[LePawel]

18 hours ago, PartyWire said:

-nom-

If you take the internet away from the world for a month literally every service in the western hemisphere will stop working, so thanks, but no thanks.