Most People Use Their Phones During Social Events, Despite Thinking It Harms Conversation 137
Mark Wilson points out that the Pew Research Center has released a new report on mobile etiquette in the age of smartphones. 90% of U.S. adults now have cellphones and carry them around frequently. Pew's survey looked into how this is changing social norms with regard to shifting attention away from physical-world interactions. Most people think it's fine to use a cellphone while walking the streets or waiting in line, but 62% think it's not OK at a restaurant, an 88% disapprove of using one at a family dinner. Disapproval of using a cellphone in a meeting, movie theater, or church is almost universal. 89% of people say they used their cellphone during their most recent social activity, whether it was texting, checking the web, or snapping a picture. Despite this, 82% say cellphone use generally hurts the conversation. 79% of adults say they occasionally encounter loud or annoying cellphone behavior from others in public, and more than half say they often overhear intimate details of other people's lives because of it.
So everyone is rude... (Score:3)
From the people standing in subway doors (do they think we are going to climb out the windows?) to the people talking on the phone, people are rude.
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Re:So everyone is rude... (Score:5, Insightful)
Or we don't approve but don't care enough to stop it. Or, and I think this is the case, are raging hypocrits about our cell phone rage versus our cell phone use.
As long as people are quiet an don't flash too many bright lights, I really couldn't care less what another table does during dinner. What is appropriate at my own table depends very heavily on what is going on. I can't imagine I'd drop a great conversation to check my work email. But I've never been that thoroughly entertained, and some people will go on about things I don't want to talk about (namely other people) and fuck yes, I will send all sorts of messages that I want to move on.
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There's a difference between "use" and "use".
When you ask people "is it rude for someone to use a cellphone during a meeting?", they'll think "taking calls, sending texts, generally prioritizing external interactions over those actually present in the room - yes, of course that's rude".
But if you ask them "did you use your cellphone in your last meeting?", that "use" could have included: taking a picture, using a calculator app, browsing a signle page to resolve a question under discussion. And most people
Re:So everyone is rude... (Score:4, Interesting)
I have relied on public transit every day for years (I don't own a car) and I am continually amazed at the lack of empathy and disregard for other people that some have.
Even still, I wouldn't say that most people are rude.... It just seems that way sometimes because the obnoxious ones are disproportionately so.
What really gets me annoyed with people is not mobile device use (it is oddly reverent to see a train full of people with their heads bowed looking at their phones) it is littering in public places... why do people think it is acceptable to throw cigarette butts on the ground or pee all over public toilets?
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why do people think it is acceptable to ... pee all over public toilets?
Because they're (see item 10) dainty and/or fastidious [washingtonpost.com].
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... it is littering in public places... why do people think it is acceptable to throw cigarette butts on the ground or pee all over public toilets?
My personal observation is that when it comes to littering a lot smokers are first in place and beer drinkers are a somewhat distant second.
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My personal observation is that when it comes to littering a lot smokers are first in place and beer drinkers are a somewhat distant second.
It's difficult to tell, because beer drinkers' litter has intrinsic value; even bottle caps, if you collect enough of them.
Most people use their phone when they shouldnt (Score:3)
says captain obvious
But thats because they have so many functions these days
I use my Galaxy Note 3 as a phone less than 1% of the time I am 'using' it
Society better get used to it (Score:3)
Within 20 years we will probably have contact lenses or even retinal implants that allow us to interact with technology at any time and without anyone noticing. Learning to deal with people looking at their cell phones during conversation is a good way to help transition society to a time when you can't assume 100% of someone's attention just because they are standing next to you.
Now the loud cell phone behavior is just being a jerk though.
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Within 20 years we will probably have contact lenses or even retinal implants that allow us to interact with technology at any time and without anyone noticing. Learning to deal with people looking at their cell phones during conversation is a good way to help transition society to a time when you can't assume 100% of someone's attention just because they are standing next to you.
Now the loud cell phone behavior is just being a jerk though.
Ah, so retinal implants will pretty much guarantee that I won't even be able to tell if someone is actually paying attention or listening, even if they are staring right back at me in an apparent attempt to look engaged in physical conversation with another human being.
Gee, sounds wonderful. I'm starting to miss the days of human distraction being fucking obvious already.
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Ah, so retinal implants will pretty much guarantee that I won't even be able to tell if someone is actually paying attention or listening, even if they are staring right back at me in an apparent attempt to look engaged in physical conversation with another human being.
If you are having a conversation with someone where all they have to do is nod and smile every once in a while to make you think they are listening, they are not the problem. Perhaps this technology will help stop people from wasting others' time with meaningless conversation. Small talk may cease to exist.
How I deal with it (Score:4, Insightful)
I immediately stop talking and if the person notices, they will usually apologize. If they don't notice after a few seconds then i turn and walk away.
Call me crazy but I don't have a cel phone. At home I have a computer and and work I have a computer so I don't really need one in between, or when I am out and about enjoying myself. I guess I am an extreme minority now, but I will never be one of these zombies you see everywhere. I like to be aware of what is going on around me. I believe that not connected time, simply staring at the scenery on the train for instance, helps one to think and process things. No one thinks anymore, they just look down at their phones and distract themselves.
I can appreciate that cel phones are a useful tool, but the way people treat them is so bad I can't stomach the thought of owning one.
Not to mention all the persistent tracking and other horrible privacy concerns. Not to mention the upfront multi hundred dollar cost and the $50+ monthly cost... I guarantee that the only phones I ever own and use will be feature phones that make and receive calls only. I don't need a little TV turning my mind to mush and tracking me all the while.
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Most people keep talking to you... (Score:4, Funny)
...even when you are busy doing very important stuff with your phone!
Rudeness? Tell me about it!!!!!
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even when you are busy doing very important stuff with your phone!
I know, man! If I stop now, I lose all my points! Just gimme a second, okay?
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I have a friend who uses his phone during dinner at nice restaurants. He's fifty but hangs out with the young 'uns a lot and has picked up their habits. His excuse, I kid you not, is that he claims it is rude to not answer a text immediately. I explain that it's rude to use the phone at the dinner table, especially at a nice restaurant. But he will not budge. I personally think he just made up this rule as an excuse, or something that he picked up, and that no one ever told him it was rude to wait an h
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"How wude."
I tip my bartenders extra (Score:4, Insightful)
When they ignore the jackass on the phone who was there before me and come over to take my order.
Bah (Score:2)
But but... I need to collect my smurfberries before the timer runs out in 5 minutes!
C'mon! Get your priorities straight!
BRB (Score:2)
BRB, I think someone is trying to talk to me.
Posted from my iAntisocial.
Interrupting social intercourse (Score:1)
In the words of Don Martin, One Fine Day At A Taco Hell
"...and I agree, Hillary 2016 baby and...yes, that's a picture of Taylor Swift...what are you doing, what are you...oh gross! Stop fapping!"
It's worse in China (Score:2)
Contrast that with China: My experience is that there it is totally normal in meetings to answer the cellphone when it rings, and if someone is tasked to contact someone else, they think nothing of dialing the other side right away. In the middle of the meeting. To appear eager seems to be more important than focussing on the meeting.
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Some of those calls aren't related to the meeting? Or are they just 'hooking up'? Not everyone can be there, you know. Just asking...
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The really funny thing is to watch the group effect of this Pavlovian response.
The "ding" goes off, and everybody in earshot is suddenly frisking themselves for their phone because, oh my fucking god, teh soshul netwerkz and teh emailz.
I figure you could fuck up most gatherings of people by having a device which could emulate the "ding" sound of several different mobile devices. Just walk through crowds causing all of these people to panic and think something life-affirming is going to happen and they'll h
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I'm glad I came late to mobile technology. I'll leave mine locked in a drawer (or at home) and deal with it later.
You sound old.
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Probably.
But thankfully, I managed to watch mobile stuff go from seldom used by anybody to used by almost everybody without being forced to be a slave to it because I never needed to.
Which means I got lucky and can simply say "I don't care" and walk away from technology for hours or days at a time.
All that time I spent craving tech when I was younger, and trying to explain to people why it was cool, has paved the way for me to not give a damn now -- because it's the same as it's always been, only shinier a
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Yeah, I often wonder why people put work e-mail on their personal phone....
When I am in the office, I have my e-mail up. When I am at home... it is my time.
I am with you, I am old enough to have seen the rise of the Internet and mobile computing and I am certainly not beholden to it.
It is certainly nice to be able to route a bus trip while standing on a strange street corner or download and listen to podcasts without having to involve other devices or take a phone call wherever you are or send/receive the o
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Why the sudden compliment?
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I'm glad I came late to mobile technology. I'll leave mine locked in a drawer (or at home) and deal with it later.
You sound old.
And you sound stupid. But he doesn't choose to be old.
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I was in a packed theater, no empty seats, for some major movie (The Hobbit I think). One guy is still talking on his phone after the picture has started (really started, not ads, not previews, not opening titles). Everyone is shushing the guy and he's not really getting the hint. Then he finally when people start throwing popcorn at him he says "sorry, I gotta go, I'm watching a movie".
I can't imagine what goes wrong in that sort of person's head.
Similarly recent story at a Broadway theater when someone
Glued to their damned faces ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Years ago I had a manager who could not put down his Blackberry.
He'd call a meeting for us to walk him through some stuff. Every few seconds he looked at his phone. Now and then an email would come in, and he'd be like "what, sorry, I missed that part".
One day I walked out of the room while he was reading his email.
He came running after telling me the meeting wasn't over.
I told him the meeting had never really started, and since it was him who called it for his benefit, he could either put down his phone and listen, or I'd send him an email. But that I wasn't going to sit there repeating myself because he couldn't put his damned phone down.
There is nothing more annoying than some idiot who is in the middle of a social interaction, whips out their phone, loses the plot, and then expects you to give them a recap. Sorry, but I'm standing right here ... I don't give a crap about your electronic device.
If you want to be a selfish bastard, do it on your own time. But don't waste my fucking time because you have the attention span of a child.
That people know it's rude and do it anyway ... that's the part that really annoys the crap out of me. Go away, and I'll send you an email if you prefer. But stop constantly checking the damned thing, because I'm just going to walk away.
Where do you work? I want to work there! (Score:5, Funny)
I don't give a crap about your electronic device.
If you want to be a selfish bastard, do it on your own time. But don't waste my fucking time because you have the attention span of a child.
Whoa! Your company has Fucking Time? We barely get Coffee Breaks here.
As for your boss's behavior, I put the blame on you. Don't EVER schedule a meeting during Fucking Time! I can't believe someone actually has to tell you this.
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Yeah, every bloody quarter where they say no profit sharing for us, while doling out record level executive bonuses ... for having so skillfully mismanaged the company there's no room for profit sharing.
No room for raises because we didn't meet our targets. But the ass who was responsible for the targets still gets his quarterly bonus.
Most people get fucked by their company fairly constantly. Just not in a good way.
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Sounds like quittin' time to me.
What's keeping you there?
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LOL ... don't confuse years of apathy with any specific complaints about any specific company.
You could make that same joke about pretty much any company without anything to back it up and the people would laugh.
The grass on both sides of the fence has dog poop scattered around. Executives always reward themselves handsomely, and often detached from performance.
Just look at how much a CEO of a Fortune 500 company makes for getting kicked out for being incompetent. It's pretty lucrative, apparently.
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I have a coworker who does this constantly.
I am sitting there talking to him and his phone will buzz, beep and blink.. kind of hard to ignore actually. I will continue to talk and he will make sort of agreeable grunting sounds while his eyes flick between me and the screen of his device... then he will ask me what I was saying, not having paid attention to either me nor his device...
Re:Glued to their damned faces ... (Score:5, Informative)
That people know it's rude and do it anyway ... that's the part that really annoys the crap out of me. Go away, and I'll send you an email if you prefer. But stop constantly checking the damned thing, because I'm just going to walk away.
I learned an important lesson about this many years ago, long before cell phones became ubiquitous.
I remember as an undergraduate meeting with a senior university official (a provost, actually), and the phone on her desk started ringing. We were seated at a table elsewhere in her office, but I paused, thinking she would probably need to answer it. But she just kept on talking to me, and the meeting went on normally.
I ended up becoming a research assistant for her, and when this occurred in another meeting, I paused in what I was saying and said, "Uh... do you need to get that?" Her response was very logical and clear:
It was a matter of respect, she told me. A scheduled personal meeting with someone should receive her full attention, since I had taken the time to be there with her. Whether I was a lowly undergraduate or the university president, a scheduled in-person meeting was more important than whatever random person might be calling on her phone. If the situation was truly urgent, there were other ways people would get messages to her.
I never forgot that, and to this day I try to live up to her example. If you're in a meeting and you know that you may need to be interrupted, the polite thing to do is to inform the person you're meeting with at the outset that you might need to take a call or check email or whatever because you have an urgent matter to attend to. (But most of the time, you probably don't really have anything that urgent.)
Doing otherwise is disrespectful. With the growth of ubiquitous smart phones, the temptations have grown stronger, I guess. But if someone is taking their time to meet in-person with you, the least you can do is respect that time by giving them your attention.
If I'm bored, I'll phone (Score:1)
I'm naturally on the wallflower side of the personality scale, which is not something I especially like about myself.
If I'm bored in a group conversation, and\or no one is engaging me, I'll slip into my phone while the others talk. I'm often not doing much to help the conversation along anyway, and feel embarrassed that I'm not the talkative type that I want to be, which seems to come natural to others. So I may use my phone to save face; it gives myself an excuse for not being in the middle of things, and
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attention (Score:2)
My problem is, my phone is more interesting than most conversations during social events. I'm socially awkward at best, with esoteric interests. I can only hold a conversation on LeBron or Beyonce for about two minutes before I am bored.
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I can only hold a conversation on LeBron or Beyonce for about two minutes before I am bored.
Just go out and visit with the chauffeur... The 'fresh air' will pep you right up. You'll want to talk to everybody.
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Sorry, the "chauffeur" is hung up on Kardashian clan or Bruce Jenner or something else boring.
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Exactly, by using your phone during a conversation you are telling the group that they are not interesting enough to hold your attention. That is very passive aggressive. The better option would be to either remove yourself or actively try to change the conversation. Another option is to display patients and just smile and nod until the conversation moves on. No one like to think they are boring.
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Depending on the event, if there are sufficient people, you will be astounded that you'll be able to find someone who is at least tangentially interested in something you're interested in.
And the trick is to either remove yourself and insert yourself in another group, find s
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I agree but... yeah, depends on the group and circumstances. I was just at an outdoor party a couple of days ago and everything was going ok until the group I was part of launched a horribly racist/xenophobic conversation. There was no way I'd get into that argument so I just distanced myself a bit and started dicking around with my phone. Meanwhile the other group was engaged in an obnoxious drunken conversation.
What I really have a problem though is when someone pulls out their phone while I'm mid-sentenc
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the group I was part of launched a horribly racist/xenophobic conversation. There was no way I'd get into that argument so I just distanced myself a bit and started dicking around with my phone
Coward.
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Racist Xenophobic conversations would be something I would engage in, not because I was either. It is more interesting to troll the stupid idiots spewing crap, than it is listening to conversations about LeBron or Kardashians.
I could have a shit ton of fun with that.
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My problem is, my phone is more interesting than most conversations during social events. I'm socially awkward at best, with esoteric interests. I can only hold a conversation on LeBron or Beyonce for about two minutes before I am bored.
What or who are LeBron or Beyonce?
I'm afraid popular culture is of little interest to me.
Snapping pictures? (Score:1)
You are stealing souls!
Your phone as a lifestyle: NO. (Score:4, Insightful)
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This lack of real communication between people is leading to more and more misunderstandings.
Au contraire. In an email, I can carefully choose the exact words to tell you what I think of you, your ideas, and describe in precise detail where you exist on the food chain. After reading that email, you will have no doubt as to what was said. In conversation, I could slip up and say the wrong thing in the presence of the wrong person, or forget what X said about Y even though I was there and so I must have been "listening".
Email is great. Conversation is for chumps.
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After reading that email, you will have no doubt as to what was said.
You must be new. People regularly decide that you must have meant meaning number six in the dictionary for a word when you obviously meant meaning one or two... or they don't even know what a word means. There's probably already a law which states that the more time you spend choosing precisely the right wording, the more likely it is that some jerkoff will skip their meds on the day they read it.
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Au contraire. In an email, I can carefully choose the exact words to tell you what I think of you, your ideas, and describe in precise detail where you exist on the food chain. After reading that email, you will have no doubt as to what was said.
I'm assuming you're being sarcastic here, but in case you're not...
"Choosing the exact words" is how most flame wars get started on the internet, usually over things that no party actually meant but which other people "read into" the text. I've seen this plenty of times in email conversations with colleagues, too. I have had colleagues who seem almost willfully to misread everything I wrote and assume the weirdest possible or most complicated scenario, rather than just answering a simple question about
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But now instead of standing around awkwardly and occasionally trying to look like I care about the conversation, I can read Slashdot.
I can even hold up one finger in the middle of a long boring story, point at my phone and leave and no-one will think it's impolite. Even if it hasn't rung, and the battery is dead. Now THAT's progress.
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Overwhelming Majority of Surveyed Say it's Wrong (Score:2)
when someone else does it.
When I do it, it's ok, because I have good reasons and it's really important.
In other news, surveys have uncovered that laws only apply to the other guy.
Black and White (Score:5, Insightful)
These situations are not so black and white.
Good - Looking up contentious fact being discussed.
Bad - Shopping online while conversation is going on.
Good - Taking one picture to memorialize a special dinner.
Bad - Taking a picture of every plate of food one eats.
Good - Texting late guest to see where they are?
Bad - Texting someone completely unrelated to the event.
Bad - Talking loudly on one's phone while other people are having a conversation.
The problem is not that the smartphone is being but why the smartphone is being used. If the use contributes to the event I don't see an issue.
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In other words: Use the device as the tool that it is...
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FTFY (Score:3)
99.9% of the discussions in a social environment are NOT about the facts.
Sorry but your friends are no like mine. Mine like to talk about facts and opinions of those facts. With mine I would say the ratio is closer to 80%.
Look it up and you find the truth. The discussion can move on.
Other outcomes are as follows;
You waste time supporting your conflicting opinions and the discussion gets hijacked over who is correct.
You accept the wrong fact and the discussion becomes invalid because it is based on a false premise.
Talking to others is what was important.
I like to learn things along with talking.
I always prefer to verify a fact when I can rather than assume what someones says is t
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And so our my friends. We would rather have the actual information rather than assumptions and mis-remembered facts.
I don't do "social events" (Score:2)
I do, however, go out with my GF, and when I do, the phone is in my pocket. I might check my email when she's getting 2nds at the buffet, and she checks hers while I'm taking a leak, but when we're eating or watching a crappy movie, we don't use our phones.
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I remember an occasion back when phones were first becoming popular, when I was at a hamburger stand and there were five girls in a nearby booth. Four of them were talking on the phone, and the other was sitting looking incredibly bored. It really struck me at the time - why go out with friends and spend the time yakking on the phone?
We All Have Cell Phones (Score:2)
https://www.youtube.com/embed/... [youtube.com]
Today at the post office (Score:2)
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SMH. The person asked postal worker to "hold on a second" as opposed to interrupting the phone conversation? With people waiting in line? WTF?
Do these people not understand that they are being rude and obnoxious or do they just not care?
Rude people definitely suck!
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I've seen several places which have signs up which say "we'll be happy to serve you when you are done with your phone".
The funniest thing I saw around that was some guy answer his phone just as he started to place his order, and the kid at the cash basically yelled "next", and then refuse to serve that customer who answered his phone. He just pointed at the sign and served the next guy. "Sorry sir, you'll have to get back in line".
The people who ask the guy at the counter to wait while they do whatever the
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I was standing in a long line, and watched two people at the counter trying to simultaneously mail parcels and talk on their phone. In both cases the postal worker had to explain things multiple times, and wait for them to finish chatting for a second before paying.
Fortunately, I'm not friends with any such people, but I wonder if the phone conversation can be any less distracted than the in-person one. The person on the other end must know their friend is at the post office, and hear half of the conversation with the employee. I presume this person is multi-tasking both conversations equally poorly.
If I were on the phone with someone, and they said "Hold on a moment, I'm next in line at the post office", I would not be offended.
This is going to be a big female future problem (Score:1)
If your in a cinema then no your coughs wont disguise your ringtone.
Couple of years ago we had 'invited' guests over when an easter occurred. a girl spent most of her time with her friends who might have been with us physically the phone had the attention. Not my problem...
It's not what, but how (Score:2)
My belief is that it's not that you are using your cell phone, but how. I'm OK with people using it during whatever social event as long as it is in a constructive manner. Say, to pull up movie times while discussing after dinner plans, coordinating with other people to meet up, settle an argument with some facts, etc.
The phone makes it easier for someone to be non-social if they want to be, but it doesn't automatically turn social people non-social.
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It seems like most people use their phones at social events as a measure of status more than anything...
Ahem, let me just check my phone.... oh, what that? Why yes, this IS the new ePhone 2000 cylinder with feedback buzz touch... See? The whole thing is a screen... I can check faceweb from any angle...
Use Common Sense (Score:3)
I have pretty strict rules for myself on pulling out my phone. If I am in a conversation I will not check it, period. If I am expecting a message that is urgent (how often does that happen though), I will excuse myself and step away. But if someone is in a group and there is a break in the interactivity and they check infrequently in a very low key way then that's cool by me.
Nothing worse than socializing with someone or a group of people, over a beer or whatever, and a good flow of conversation and laughs and then they just suddenly zone out for 3 minutes on their phone(s). That's a buzz kill man, and I am more than likely going to wrap it up and find something else to do.
Also, watched a fireworks show in Ottawa in August and the three teens sitting in front of us pretty much watched the whole thing through their phones recording it. How asinine is that?
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Also, watched a fireworks show in Ottawa in August and the three teens sitting in front of us pretty much watched the whole thing through their phones recording it. How asinine is that?
Don't you see? They're collecting very useful data! Today, our grandparents can tell us how much better everything was when they were young, but they can't prove it. When these teenagers grow up and become grandparents, they will have video proof that the fireworks of their day were better than the ones their grandkids have.
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They will prove many things about themselves to future generations. :-)
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Also, watched a fireworks show in Ottawa in August and the three teens sitting in front of us pretty much watched the whole thing through their phones recording it. How asinine is that?
Pretty typical for tourism these days. People walking around bumping into things while taking photos and recording stuff rather than actually experiencing the world.
Years ago, I lived in Rome for a short time. I got to observe idiots wandering around like this every day. I think I took less than a dozen photos the entire time I was there. If I want photos of all the gorgeous things around me, I can buy a book with professional photographers taking things from angles and with lighting I couldn't hope f
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You're the type of people I can travel with. You get it. Cheers.
Boors will be boors (Score:2)
Using your phone in church (Score:3)
snapping a picture? (Score:2)
people say they used their cellphone during their most recent social activity, whether it was texting, checking the web, or snapping a picture
One of these things is not like the others. Snapping a picture is part of the in-person interaction. Snapping a picture of the people you're with is quite different from sending a text to a person who's not there.
Phones on the table (Score:5, Interesting)
There is a new meme going around. At the beginning of the dinner everyone puts their phone face down in the middle of the table. The first person to pick up their phone without the consent of everyone else before the end of the meal pays for everyone. This leave the option open to do things constructive to the conversation, like checking on a late party member, while still not paying.
Wait, what? (Score:1)
Those are my clue words.
When I hear them, I know the speaker, although physically part of a conversation, had changed their focus to their device and is attempting to re-engage.
Their attempt to re-engage is usually precisely timed to match a) when they think the conversation has returned to being about them or b) when they want to interrupt the conversation to say something that they think is important but was JUST SAID WHILE THEY WERE NOT PAYING ATTENTION.
So frustrating.
Wait, what?
Such interesting developments. (Score:2)
When I got into computers in the 1980s, the lucky few of us had dedicated computer desks in some remote corner. I guess my parents wanted it to be in some common area instead of my own room so they could see what I'm doing. Also, grownups with computers used it either for work or "work", but in a separate location likewise.
These were interesting times because cell phones had a somewhat similar life cycle. In the past, you'd call a place, but with the cell phones in the mid-90s, you could actually call a
Texting while walking (Score:2)
I am amazed at how many people walk around head down and texting without a clue of their surroundings.
1. Girl standing on a busy downtown street corner, looking down at her phone, completely oblivious. A huge flat bed truck hauling an excavator is creeping around the apex of the corner and the side of the truck frame is getting closer and closer to her as the truck cuts off the corner. I finally realize she doesn't see the truck, now only inches away and grab her shoulder and pull her back a
Re:The cost of external cognition (Score:5, Interesting)
they are quite literally incapable of normal conversation without involving the smartphone because it has become a part of their thought processes.
At some point Ray Kurzweil's vision of a connected brain will be a reality, and we will literally be able to use external computation in our regular thought patterns. Information retrieval is only the beginning; soon* these devices will help us be more creative by loaning us extra neurons when we need them.
* By soon I mean probably within a few decades
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More creative? I'd think it would lead to more groupthink.
Creativity is when someone goes off the beaten path and does something new a different.
I'm of the belief that there are no truly original ideas, just new combinations of old ideas. The more old ideas you know the more creative you can be. This is just an opinion though.
I also think group think is more of a problem among the uneducated. I doubt making knowledge more available will increase group think, although I agree it will certainly not get rid of it either.
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I'm of the belief that there are no truly original ideas, just new combinations of old ideas. The more old ideas you know the more creative you can be. This is just an opinion though.
I also think group think is more of a problem among the uneducated. I doubt making knowledge more available will increase group think, although I agree it will certainly not get rid of it either.
That's got the parts of creativity, but what is needed is parts to do something, and then restrictions. It sounds crazy, but when we have no restrictions, creativity suffers badly. This is tied to education, where you are given a project which might sound weird, like photographing hedges ( I was assigned this once) and you have to produce something worth looking at.
The basic preise though is very interesting, because once you have a huge tool set, the creative mind can work with th restrictions. Awesome.
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And by "us", you mean "really quite rich people". Don't imagine the proletariat will be able to afford many "extra neurons".
Yeah, I can't think of any examples of technologies that were once only affordable by rich people, but are not ubiquitous. Its not like everyone owns a car, computer, mobile phone, dishwasher, microwave, refrigerator, or any other number of items originally affordable by only the rich ...
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