-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Do you think smartphones are a net positive or negative on society?
- Thread starter BennyBlanco
- Start date
poodaddy
Member
Fun fact: Every one of the last five times I've taken a drive, not more than five miles each time from the house, I have noticed someone texting and driving, swirving all over the goddamn place.
Fun fact #2: The last two times I was on the interstate, I saw the same thing and one of those times the dumb bitch almost swerved into my right front tire because she was staring down at her phone while driving 70 mph. I mean, a drunk driver would have literally been a vast improvement.
Negative.
Fun fact #2: The last two times I was on the interstate, I saw the same thing and one of those times the dumb bitch almost swerved into my right front tire because she was staring down at her phone while driving 70 mph. I mean, a drunk driver would have literally been a vast improvement.
Negative.
Last edited:
Mr Reasonable
Completely Unreasonable
Terrible. Smartphones, social media and now AI have been or will be responsible for irreversible change to human behaviour and society.
I think smartphones are detrimental to relationships in numerous ways, to attention spans, to relaxation by creating intrusion on downtime.
There are benefits, going to a new city and not having Google maps sounds crazy now. I think that'd be the one thing I'd miss.
I think smartphones are detrimental to relationships in numerous ways, to attention spans, to relaxation by creating intrusion on downtime.
There are benefits, going to a new city and not having Google maps sounds crazy now. I think that'd be the one thing I'd miss.
lostinblue
Banned
Started of positive, turning into more and more negative.
Like a black mirror episode.
Like a black mirror episode.
DeafTourette
Perpetually Offended
Ok, so everyone who thinks smartphones are a net negative... Are you going to give up YOUR smartphones?
And social media STARTED on desktop/laptop LONG before it was able to be on a phone. And it's STILL available on desktop/laptop/tablet. So citing social media as to why they're a detriment is weird ...
And social media STARTED on desktop/laptop LONG before it was able to be on a phone. And it's STILL available on desktop/laptop/tablet. So citing social media as to why they're a detriment is weird ...
Punished Miku
Gold Member
I'd be fine going back to flip phones as long as cars still had GPS. I could get lost in my house.
BlackTron
Member
We were fine with Garmin
Smiggs
Member
Completely unrelated, and hopefully I don't derail the topic... but you would think that point alone would get people to stop believing in supernatural things like ghosts. Basically the majority of the people in the world have a high end cameras on them at all times. And yet... nothing.
NeoIkaruGAF
Gold Member
It’s hard for me to agree on the “infinite knowledge in your pocket” part.
Truly, a lot of that knowledge is highly curated and unquestionably partial. A lot of it is also presented in a way that leads people to consume products as its ultimate goal.
Search engines have been engineered to present to you only a convenient fraction of what you could find. A lot of it is also copied as-is by many other sites because it’s the first (and often only) result you’re gonna find without digging very deep beyond page 1 of Google, or using a different search engine altogether. I could recount many occasions when I googled something not even that specific, only to find a few lines repeated verbatim in a few other sites, and with no source whatsoever. You may have a hard time finding something about an unusual word you’ve read in a book from the 20th century. Not exactly arcane stuff.
When it comes to very specific notions, well, academic books are still big, heavy and expensive for a reason. You’re still not gonna become a surgeon or a rocket scientist without an academic course, which is already a big hit to this “infinite knowledge in your pocket” narrative.
Finally, with the diffusion of smartphones the balance between written and visual communication has skewed heavily towards visual. And people will try to monetize every word in video. So what you could learn via a few minutes’s read a few years ago, now you can (hopefully) partially get by sitting through a much longer video that’s full of useless tripe and ads. For a gaming-related example, a GameFAQs text document can still be more useful and to the point than an hours-long Let’s Play.
A smartphone is excellent if you‘re stuck with crosswords or if you really, really need to know the name of a song or who painted a certain portrait for some reason. To go any deeper than that, it still requires some thoughtful research and sifting through a lot of shit.
Truly, a lot of that knowledge is highly curated and unquestionably partial. A lot of it is also presented in a way that leads people to consume products as its ultimate goal.
Search engines have been engineered to present to you only a convenient fraction of what you could find. A lot of it is also copied as-is by many other sites because it’s the first (and often only) result you’re gonna find without digging very deep beyond page 1 of Google, or using a different search engine altogether. I could recount many occasions when I googled something not even that specific, only to find a few lines repeated verbatim in a few other sites, and with no source whatsoever. You may have a hard time finding something about an unusual word you’ve read in a book from the 20th century. Not exactly arcane stuff.
When it comes to very specific notions, well, academic books are still big, heavy and expensive for a reason. You’re still not gonna become a surgeon or a rocket scientist without an academic course, which is already a big hit to this “infinite knowledge in your pocket” narrative.
Finally, with the diffusion of smartphones the balance between written and visual communication has skewed heavily towards visual. And people will try to monetize every word in video. So what you could learn via a few minutes’s read a few years ago, now you can (hopefully) partially get by sitting through a much longer video that’s full of useless tripe and ads. For a gaming-related example, a GameFAQs text document can still be more useful and to the point than an hours-long Let’s Play.
A smartphone is excellent if you‘re stuck with crosswords or if you really, really need to know the name of a song or who painted a certain portrait for some reason. To go any deeper than that, it still requires some thoughtful research and sifting through a lot of shit.
nightmare-slain
Member
negative and the real problem is social media. people are to hooked on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, etc.
smartphones themselves are great technology and made modern life more simple and convenient. i wouldn't want them to go away.
i see my smartphone as tool now as it helps me keep connected with people and get shit done. i do have social media accounts but don't post on them (X, Instagram, Threads, etc) and I use them mostly for following news. I use iMessage/WhatsApp for comunicating with people. If I feel like I'm spending too much time on social media then I take a break for a few months but I always need my smartphone. It's easy quick access to the internet and all my utilities have apps or can be accessed on my phone. My phone is also my camera, wallet, music player, movie watcher, car nav, banking, etc.
smartphones themselves are great technology and made modern life more simple and convenient. i wouldn't want them to go away.
i see my smartphone as tool now as it helps me keep connected with people and get shit done. i do have social media accounts but don't post on them (X, Instagram, Threads, etc) and I use them mostly for following news. I use iMessage/WhatsApp for comunicating with people. If I feel like I'm spending too much time on social media then I take a break for a few months but I always need my smartphone. It's easy quick access to the internet and all my utilities have apps or can be accessed on my phone. My phone is also my camera, wallet, music player, movie watcher, car nav, banking, etc.
Last edited:
Tams
Member
Even that is a double-edged sword and if taken purely from a social aspect, probably for the worse.
Many take a load of pictures, the vast majority we will probably never look at again (or only for a few seconds for the rest of our lives). That does mean something that will become a memorable moment is more likely to be caught on camera, but there's so much dreg.
And then there's people not living in the moment; rather through a screen. Anything happening has many people capturing it with a device. In some circumstances this impedes on others who aren't.
And I'm mildly one of those people. I have to really try to not be worse about it.
BlackTron
Member
Of
Of course, there are significant ramifications to having a camera in your pocket anytime, anywhere, without bothering to have any preparation to have a camera.
It's an extreme convenience. It also means people are always ready to capture evidence (you watch them) while being a ubiquitous tool of the spying/data collection state (they watch you).
In conjunction with always connected fast Internet, it means people can document their lives at a breakneck pace on a whim, with no experience or education or thought whether it's a good idea (itstimetostopposting.jpg).
It's a far deeper, more complex question than "Smartphones are great cause I have the convenience of X now". That's pretty much the basis of the modern era, trading convenience for rights and privacy. Be aware of it. That's why shit is free, and they love apps instead of the browser, the app gets more permissions to track you and see everything else on your phone, and you're the product. It's accepted as normal now.
Get a free worthless corn syrup water when you order through the app! Wow what a deal
Of course, there are significant ramifications to having a camera in your pocket anytime, anywhere, without bothering to have any preparation to have a camera.
It's an extreme convenience. It also means people are always ready to capture evidence (you watch them) while being a ubiquitous tool of the spying/data collection state (they watch you).
In conjunction with always connected fast Internet, it means people can document their lives at a breakneck pace on a whim, with no experience or education or thought whether it's a good idea (itstimetostopposting.jpg).
It's a far deeper, more complex question than "Smartphones are great cause I have the convenience of X now". That's pretty much the basis of the modern era, trading convenience for rights and privacy. Be aware of it. That's why shit is free, and they love apps instead of the browser, the app gets more permissions to track you and see everything else on your phone, and you're the product. It's accepted as normal now.
Get a free worthless corn syrup water when you order through the app! Wow what a deal
newtypepilot
Member
They definitely make people more social by making them stare at their phones all day.
stn
Member
This. I feel like half of the world's population doesn't know how to socialize anymore because of phones and social media.
NecrosaroIII
Ask me about my terrible takes on Star Trek characters
Pros / Cons for sure. I think it's incredible that we as people have the entire collective knowledge of our species in our hands. However, we've failed to cultivate it or capitalize it. There is too much noise there now. And having constant access to that knowledge is driving our planet insane.
IDKFA
I am Become Bilbo Baggins
The trouble is, not matter how convincing the video, people will still say it's fake. Yes, we live in a world with cameras on tap, but we also live in the world were it's very easy to fake a ghost video.
Mr Reasonable
Completely Unreasonable
The fact is that it'd be quite difficult for a lot of people to give up a smart phone now. For some people it's their only computer, and without one various things are inaccessible, banking could be practically impossible for example given the lack of banks, etc. Even if I tried to get rid of my phone and do all my banking on my laptop, I'd still need something to generate a 2 factor code for me. In many ways because of the ubiquity of the smartphone modern life businesses have constructed their customer services around phones, and here in the UK, social media is often the default contact method for various everyday businesses.
As for Social media being contained within desktop or laptops, that's not the whole picture.
Apps like Instagram wouldn't really work without being integrated with your phone's hardware - you could use a webcam connected to a computer, but if a laptop or desktop machine, rather than a phone, were required to post images, the barrier for participation would be significantly higher and post numbers would fall.
Obviously, social media addiction is a thing and the ever present phone fuels that.
In general, I don't have any studies to draw upon, but I don't see how Instagram can't be a driver for a more aesthetic obsessed society and all the filters, beauty settings and disposable fashion that are a big part of how plenty of people use social media ties into various negatives like poor mental health, unacchievable beauty standards and even environmental damage (fashion is one of the worst polluters, and social media is a driver of fast fashion).
So really, smartphones and social media are essentially impossible to divorce.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Overall, definitely a net benefit.
BUT, let's face it. Look at this which even got full grown adults acting like morons. If scientists ever trace human brains dipping IQ points 5 years ago, I am confident it's due to this.
BUT, let's face it. Look at this which even got full grown adults acting like morons. If scientists ever trace human brains dipping IQ points 5 years ago, I am confident it's due to this.
NeoIkaruGAF
Gold Member
We really do not, unless you also mean the books you can order on Amazon or find an illegally shared copy of with your smartphone.
There isn’t every recorded book ever, every papyrus, every movie, every paper, every picture, every speech, every song, every TV show or ad or everything anything on the internet. Just yesterday I was struggling to find the meaning of a word used in a book published in 2014. Today I struggled to find info about an Amiga video game. What we can access through our phones only seems so vast until you need something very specific. Says a lot.
Mr Reasonable
Completely Unreasonable
Turrican 2?
Crayon
Member
The phones and the social media go hand in hand but they are still two seperate things. I'd say the phones are net positive once we adjust to living with them. I still don't think that's happenned. When parents can say "that shit will rot your brain" and take it away without fear, we'll be good.
The social media has been an absolute disaster, though. We aren't prepared and too many people don't have it in them to sift distorted online reality from the real thing. It's like beleiving everything you see on tv but far worse.
The social media has been an absolute disaster, though. We aren't prepared and too many people don't have it in them to sift distorted online reality from the real thing. It's like beleiving everything you see on tv but far worse.
Grildon Tundy
Gold Member
If you want to reduce "good" or "bad" down to their most basic, I believe what is "good" is that which propagates your own existence, worldview and/or progeny, and what is "bad" or "evil" is that which challenges or harms those things.
So I think social media is "bad" because I don't agree with it, and I'm not wrong. Neither are the people who think it's a good thing. Moral relativism and all that.
JimmyRustler
Gold Member
Net positive of course. I’m just in a strange different city and still able to find everything that I want and my way.
I do hate though what the technology has do to humans socially.
I do hate though what the technology has do to humans socially.
Shenmuefan2000
Neo Member
Millennials talking about smart phones... Interesting
Laptop1991
Member
Both for me, you can take them with you wherever you go unlike a PC, but i much prefer my Computer, I'm not very good with smartphones and typing on them, im awful at it to be honest, and the younger generation hardly ever stop looking at them lol.
Added.
I went with mixed, but overall positive. For me, riding on the bus, subway, etc. It has made it far more entertaining. Waiting in line at the DMV, etc. I, personally, would not want to go back to without them. I'm also still friends with my group from HS. Most other generations never got that chance. Everyone moves off to parts unknown and there's no way to keep in touch. Lost a childhood friend last year in December. Would have never known about it without them. Because of them, I was able to talk with my father before he died while living in China. I could have talked to him without them but it would have been a lot harder. Involve long distance cards I would have needed to buy, etc. With them, we both had WeChat and pressed a button. I was able to hear his voice even after he died.
There are a plethora of issues with them, but I would take the positives any day and think they beat out the negatives.
There are a plethora of issues with them, but I would take the positives any day and think they beat out the negatives.
Infinite knowledge is only good if you can gain the truth from it. Sadly, the normies are the ones getting lost along the way. Infinite knowledge but you still become a flat earther, WTF
.
Trilobit
Member
It's very convenient to have a smartphone, but I sort of miss the time when you didn't need to check on stuff or be available all the time. You'd search for stuff on the computer when you got home and only use a cellphone for texting or making calls.
I think there's value for the brain to be bored and daydream when for example on the bus, we're not made for a non-stop stimulation overload.
There's no going back for society as a whole though, unless a massive solar storm hits us and we're thrown back multiple decades in technology. But you can as an individual choose digital detox and a more balanced approach to our digital world.
I think there's value for the brain to be bored and daydream when for example on the bus, we're not made for a non-stop stimulation overload.
There's no going back for society as a whole though, unless a massive solar storm hits us and we're thrown back multiple decades in technology. But you can as an individual choose digital detox and a more balanced approach to our digital world.
Paasei
Member
Technology that gives so much ease of access to about everything is extremely convenient. But that comes at a cost: over time it made a lot of people really stupid, unaware of the real world and only see only the truth that they want to see.
No matter on what side you are, the other will see you as an extremist.
The same happens to people that are now paying every bill through the phone. No clue how much money they actually have or it’s worth. There’s even commercials about that issue on Dutch TV at the moment.
There’s plenty more to mention, but I don’t want to make it all look so negative. If you’d just look at the tech itself, I do believe it’s incredible that these things are possible.
No matter on what side you are, the other will see you as an extremist.
The same happens to people that are now paying every bill through the phone. No clue how much money they actually have or it’s worth. There’s even commercials about that issue on Dutch TV at the moment.
There’s plenty more to mention, but I don’t want to make it all look so negative. If you’d just look at the tech itself, I do believe it’s incredible that these things are possible.
Tams
Member
I think kids show us our bare society very well.
- A significant number of the 'Silicon Valley' class don't let their children have smartphones.
- The best behaved, most polite, and often most intelligent children I've met aren't allowed smartphones.
- I recently saw a single bother try (somewhat successfully) to stop her son using a smartphone. When he was allowed to use it though, it was like crack.
Boozeroony
Member
According to research in the Netherlands, youth crime has dropped 50% since 2010. They suspect the use of smartphones decreased the time youth spent outside, doing naughty things.
Artoris
Gold Member
They are doing naughty thing on social media instead
Men_in_Boxes
Snake Oil Salesman
Bonds between humans are weaker today because we seek comfort + entertainment from our phones rather than our friends + family.
