“I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.” – Albert Einstein
Smartphone date
Even though I am typically an opponent of reductionism, I wonder if smartphones, generally speaking, cause more harm than good? I must confess that after a hard day of work and once our little girl, Violet, is asleep I easily default to playing Words with Friends or catching up on Twitter while “hanging out” with my wife. It’s times like these that I occasionally wonder “is my cell phone a benefit or a detriment to my life?”. In that case, I can tell you it most assuredly is not a benefit to the health of my mind and my marriage.
However, overall I feel that smartphones have a net positive impact on the globe. The two biggest benefits that I see are (1) increased access to information in the hands of more people, and (2) increased speed of communication between people and peoples (in emergencies, or in the context of political movements like in Egypt last year). The biggest drawbacks to smartphone use are (1) the impacts to personal interaction (as shown in those pictures) and (2) a shortening of my attention span in other areas of my life. Still, with everything in the balance, I believe the positives outweigh the negatives (narrowly). Though my wife my disagree.
Your Thoughts?
Slow Sand 