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This simple solution to smartphone addiction is now used in over 600 U.S. schools
Graham Dugoni was at a music festival in San Francisco in 2012 when he witnessed something that disturbed him. A man was dancing, uninhibited, perhaps drunk, losing himself in the moment. Some strangers thought it was funny, so they filmed it and uploaded it to YouTube.
It’s the kind of thing that happens a thousand times a day. But it bothered Dugoni. Traditionally, as he saw it, people at such festivals would come together to commune, to share a collective feeling that those not present would never be able to participate in (see: Woodstock, 1969, or any Grateful Dead show from the 1960s to the 1990s). But now, everyone had a smartphone. You had to act cool. And that old group intimacy? It was gone.
It’s the kind of thing that happens a thousand times a day. But it bothered Dugoni. Traditionally, as he saw it, people at such festivals would come together to commune, to share a collective feeling that those not present would never be able to participate in (see: Woodstock, 1969, or any Grateful Dead show from the 1960s to the 1990s). But now, everyone had a smartphone. You had to act cool. And that old group intimacy? It was gone.
SNIP
In the end, Dugoni wants people to ask themselves: What is the point of all those instantaneous texts, shares and likes?
“If you think of this phone as the ultimate expression of technological efficiency where things are easier, cheaper, faster all the time, I think it comes down to what are the limits of a purely efficiency-driven mode of life? What people really enjoy has nothing to do with efficiency. You can play a melody faster, but that doesn’t make sense. What does it mean to be more efficient in our social interactions? Is that something we want? Does that make sense at all?”
“If you think of this phone as the ultimate expression of technological efficiency where things are easier, cheaper, faster all the time, I think it comes down to what are the limits of a purely efficiency-driven mode of life? What people really enjoy has nothing to do with efficiency. You can play a melody faster, but that doesn’t make sense. What does it mean to be more efficient in our social interactions? Is that something we want? Does that make sense at all?”
Good article by Tara Bahrampour from back in Feb in the Washington Post
The device discussed, by a company called Yondr, is a small, gray neoprene pouch. The phone is locked in and cannot be used until the end of the event. Comedian Dave Chappelle requires them at his shows and some courts and schools have begun using them.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2018/02/05/this-millennial-discovered-a-surprisingly-simple-solution-to-smartphone-addiction-schools-love-it/?utm_term=.8e9181351232
24 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
to the internet forever and ever! C'mon, it is only fair. Sharing is caring, right?
doesn't seem like the best way to approach it. If he doesn't like mocking, why not use that effort for a push for better human relations? It makes less money, of course, soooo.... 
Does your pro-phone at all times theory include locker rooms? You think someone should follow me and film me in the shower at the gym? You seriously have a problem with courts and schools putting phones away? If you can't last 1-1/2 hours without a phone, maybe skip the Chappelle show or a concert that doesn't allow them.
