'I Asked My Students To Turn In Their Cellphones and Write About Living Without Them' (technologyreview.com) 77
Rog Srigley, writer who teaches at Humber College and Laurentian University, offered his students extra credit if they would give him their phones for nine days and write about living without them. "What they wrote was remarkable, and remarkably consistent," he writes. "These university students, given the chance to say what they felt, didn't gracefully submit to the tech industry and its devices." An anonymous Slashdot reader shares what some of them said: "Believe it or not, I had to walk up to a stranger and ask what time it was. It honestly took me a lot of guts and confidence to ask someone," Janet wrote. (Her name, like the others here, is a pseudonym.) She describes the attitude she was up against: "Why do you need to ask me the time? Everyone has a cell phone. You must be weird or something." Emily went even further. Simply walking by strangers "in the hallway or when I passed them on the street" caused almost all of them to take out a phone "right before I could gain eye contact with them."
To these young people, direct, unmediated human contact was experienced as ill-mannered at best and strange at worst. James: "One of the worst and most common things people do nowadays is pull out their cell phone and use it while in a face-to-face conversation. This action is very rude and unacceptable, but yet again, I find myself guilty of this sometimes because it is the norm." Emily noticed that "a lot of people used their cell phones when they felt they were in an awkward situation, for an example [sic] being at a party while no one was speaking to them." The price of this protection from awkward moments is the loss of human relationships, a consequence that almost all the students identified and lamented. Without his phone, James said, he found himself forced to look others in the eye and engage in conversation. Stewart put a moral spin on it. "Being forced to have [real relations with people] obviously made me a better person because each time it happened I learned how to deal with the situation better, other than sticking my face in a phone." Ten of the 12 students said their phones were compromising their ability to have such relationships. Peter: "I have to admit, it was pretty nice without the phone all week. Didn't have to hear the fucking thing ring or vibrate once, and didn't feel bad not answering phone calls because there were none to ignore." "It felt so free without one and it was nice knowing no one could bother me when I didn't want to be bothered," wrote William.
Emily said that she found herself "sleeping more peacefully after the first two nights of attempting to sleep right away when the lights got shut off." Stewart: "Actually I got things done much quicker without the cell because instead of waiting for a response from someone (that you don't even know if they read your message or not) you just called them [from a land line], either got an answer or didn't, and moved on to the next thing."
To these young people, direct, unmediated human contact was experienced as ill-mannered at best and strange at worst. James: "One of the worst and most common things people do nowadays is pull out their cell phone and use it while in a face-to-face conversation. This action is very rude and unacceptable, but yet again, I find myself guilty of this sometimes because it is the norm." Emily noticed that "a lot of people used their cell phones when they felt they were in an awkward situation, for an example [sic] being at a party while no one was speaking to them." The price of this protection from awkward moments is the loss of human relationships, a consequence that almost all the students identified and lamented. Without his phone, James said, he found himself forced to look others in the eye and engage in conversation. Stewart put a moral spin on it. "Being forced to have [real relations with people] obviously made me a better person because each time it happened I learned how to deal with the situation better, other than sticking my face in a phone." Ten of the 12 students said their phones were compromising their ability to have such relationships. Peter: "I have to admit, it was pretty nice without the phone all week. Didn't have to hear the fucking thing ring or vibrate once, and didn't feel bad not answering phone calls because there were none to ignore." "It felt so free without one and it was nice knowing no one could bother me when I didn't want to be bothered," wrote William.
Emily said that she found herself "sleeping more peacefully after the first two nights of attempting to sleep right away when the lights got shut off." Stewart: "Actually I got things done much quicker without the cell because instead of waiting for a response from someone (that you don't even know if they read your message or not) you just called them [from a land line], either got an answer or didn't, and moved on to the next thing."
How? (Score:3, Funny)
How could they write anything and send it to you without a cell phone?
Use a desktop or laptop computer (Score:2)
Students can "write anything and send it to you without a cell phone" by using a desktop or laptop computer.
And I don't see how it's likely that a student will end up at MIT without one. Compare to another private engineering college (Rose-Hulman in Terre Haute, Indiana), which has required all incoming freshmen to purchase a laptop of the model certified by the college's IT department. For the class of 2003, this was an Acer TravelMate 721TX laptop with 64 MB of RAM, a 6 GB HDD, and Windows 98.
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Some "computer" for students to use with a network at a "university"...
Not every network at a university is a students smartphone..
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What about kids who aren't allowed to go out without their cellphones? I don't let my daughter leave the house without hers.
It is a matter of basic safety. The rate of sexual assault has fallen by more than half since cellphones became ubiquitous. Many other crime rates have also declined dramatically as every witness has a camera in their pocket and the ability to dial 911 immediately.
I have also made it clear to my daughter that she can consider her phone a "get out of jail free card". If she gets in a
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>"What about kids who aren't allowed to go out without their cellphones? "
Presumably we are talking about adults, not children.
Anyway, such experiments are kinda silly- it makes more sense to perform them while carrying a non-smartphone. What would be even better would be an app that could lock out all functions except basic stuff like audio-only phone calls, contacts, calculator, maybe plain maps. A whitelist. No social, no games, no web, no messaging (of any sort). Then such an experiment could tak
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Having a loaded gun in her purse and being properly trained in how to use it and apply deadly force against an assailant would have a much better effect on the crime rate, particularly after there were tales in the local rag about a few assailants being shot dead when they attempted to sexually assault young women.
The passing of a local ordinance making it an offense to be "out in public" without having a loaded concealed gun on one's person would also help significantly, even were it not enforced.
Re: How? (Score:1)
Great. Then rapists would just use tasers to disable victims first.
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Re: How? (Score:1)
Actually, it is a game like that. You arm regular people, criminals will just get bigger guns, and more of them. At the end of the day, criminals have a motivation to overpower law abiding citizens. That's just the nature of the beast.
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I have a smart phone and have an established pattern of behaviour with regard to using it, I get really odd looks from people when it tell them, yeah, smart phone, I use it to make calls, not receive them, call me on the land line and I have no idea what my mobile number is. I only use it to receive calls from specific business contacts I am waiting for a response from. From anyone else, I will probably not pick up by far the majority of the time, including messages, the phone is in another room down the ha
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Wish I could mod you up. Absolutely the right approach.
I do something similar. I do keep my mobile with me most the time, but it's out of sight, with ringer off, and no voicemail.
People who know me know how to get in touch with me. For most people that's e-mail, and for my wife it's Google Chat. The rest of the world doesn't need to get in touch with me that urgently.
Re: How? (Score:2)
Clearly she'd be better off with a gun.
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The trend line began heading downwards in about 1980 +/- 2, which is before the first cell phone (1983), and two decades before they became small enough and cheap enough to be ubiquitous. So although it might have contributed to pushing the numbe
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First, this experment involved college students.
But anyone can at least get some of the benefits from this. I take my phone with me all the time because I have responsibilities that call for that. However, unless it rings, it stays in my pocket when I'm out. Nothing forces you to bury your face in it while you're out and about.
If the current situation dictates that I check for important messages, I step aside and check, then return to what I was doing. The phone remains it's own thing, not an integral part
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There are lighter alternatives.
Cold turkey (Score:2)
Just wait for the next Samsung! (Score:2)
It will be "Boom Boxes, err, table(t)s in da hood" all over again. Carried on the shoulder.
At least until the one after that. Which will be so thin that it slices your arm clean off. Dousing the surroundings in the red, red courago.
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I feel like James Bond with my flip phone.
I had to learn to turn my Walkman off (Score:2)
Does the article address arranging rides? (Score:1)
My subscription package happens not to include MIT Technology Review. Can a subscriber let us know whether the featured article mentions any of the following?
Re: Does the article address arranging rides? (Score:1)
I knew somebody would come along to point out how essential our gadgets are to cling to.
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And yet, people go camping to experience life without those things for a short time, and often feel refreshed for the experience. Nothing wrong with encouraging students to give it a try.
Re: Does the article address arranging rides? (Score:1)
You sound like just the kind of higher functioning civilised human being to which your post refers. We all admire you for your clear ability to take a measured approach to things.
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A few news flashes;
A nice car can be had for less than uber fares.
Who does their homework on a phone? Duh, wtf?
Deaf culture doesn't need you using them to strengthen your argument. Maybe you could cry about all the screaming bloody leper children with no finger tips instead.
Re:Does the article address arranging rides? (Score:5, Insightful)
Interesting that you should ask those questions, as nearly all of them were addressed.
Not being able to call the emergency number
It turns out this experiment happened in one of the safest cities in the US. And yet, the students expressed a general fear for their safety. Now, ask yourself, when was the last time you needed to call 911? Personally, I never have. Of the various people I know, there is only one instance that emergency services were needed (yes, I know people who have been hurt, and even seriously so, but in all but one case, an ambulance was not required; no one I know has needed to call the police or fire department for an emergency). What sort of fear mongering is going on that students don't feel safe about not being able to call 911 on their cell phones?
Not being able to book a ride home due to lack of a device on which to run the public transit, Lyft, or Uber app, or to place a voice call to a traditional taxi service
This, too was discussed. It appeared that the students felt that the ONLY way to access these services was through their phone. And yet, believe it or not, you have been able to get all of them either through the phone or printed information, or by just walking to the street, for decades now, and nothing has changed about that. You can, also, access all of that information on a laptop or desktop computer, crib down what you need, and proceed.
Not being able to log in to websites needed for coursework due to lack of a means of 2-factor authentication
In the case of deaf or hard of hearing people, having to use the TTY relay service
This was not discussed, but again, these services existed for many, many years before the advent of cell phones.
What baffles me about the current generation (and perhaps this is a universal truth that my generation is only now understanding as they age), is their apparent perception that the world could not possibly have worked AT ALL prior to the current state.
Indeed, one of the common responses from the linked report on this professor's experiments, was the students expressing an awakening to how the world actually works. As in, basic life lessons on interacting with the environment, people, and things around you.
My take: Stop using your phone as a pacifier.
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I think I'm probably from the same generation you are, but one thing I've realized as I've aged is that while m
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Many of the services and capabilities that used to exist prior to cell phones to deal with emergencies and other needs no longer exist.
Sorry but that is just horseshit. You just think they don't exist because you haven't looked.
Walk the street? Phone booth? If that's what you do in an emergency I don't want you handling any emergency. You don't go looking for a phone booth, you go looking for *people* not only so someone can call, but so someone can run to a supermarket and grab an AED, and someone else can crowd control and someone else can relay information about the emergency to emergency services while you help the victim.
Things still
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It turns out this experiment happened in one of the safest cities in the US. And yet, the students expressed a general fear for their safety. Now, ask yourself, when was the last time you needed to call 911? Personally, I never have. (...) What sort of fear mongering is going on that students don't feel safe about not being able to call 911 on their cell phones?
After decades of driving and being a passenger I'd still be alive if I wasn't wearing seat belts, not been in any collision that would have killed me. It's still a stupid and unnecessary risk to take, I only have one life to gamble with and wouldn't get into a car without them just so you can run a social experiment. Catastrophic risk means the outcome is never really acceptable, all we can do is lower the probability and every bit helps.
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You can live very easily without one (Score:2)
Re: Does the article address arranging rides? (Score:2)
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Before cell phones, people used pay phones or land lines, many of which have since been decommissioned since the rise in usage share of cell phones.
Before telephones in general, I imagine it was more difficult to contact emergency services, often causing people to just die instead of receiving help. Part of the life expectancy increase since the telephone became widespread is due to emergency services.
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Not being able to call the emergency number
I have been in many emergencies and I have never been the one who called the emergency number. The requirement was not to carry a phone, not to go into the middle of the Australian outback by yourself with no means of communication.
Not being able to book a ride home due to lack of a device on which to run the public transit, Lyft, or Uber app, or to place a voice call to a traditional taxi service
Good god I didn't realise taxis were invented with the iPhone.
Not being able to log in to websites needed for coursework due to lack of a means of 2-factor authentication
That would be a legitimate case ... the number of times I've been asked for a 2FA token that was only accessible on a phone can be counted on one hand.
In the case of deaf or hard of hearing people, having to use the TTY relay service
WHATABOUTISM ALERT! WHATABOUTISM ALERT! Seriously can you get any m
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Good god I didn't realise taxis were invented with the iPhone.
Before the iPhone and other mobile phones became popular, one could call a taxi using a pay phone. After the iPhone and other mobile phones became popular, the locations where there used to be a pay phone now contain no pay phone.
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*Old man shakes fist at cloud* (Score:2)
Phones: Out.
Nostalgiism and technophobia: Still in.
I'm old, by the way. I just feel no need to think of a fuzzy-lighted distortion of the "great" past that never existed, calling everything of today shit.
Maybe because I don't concern myself with "the world of the dead", as I like to call it, and surround myself with and use the many great things of today, and know the past was shit too.
E.g. this was written with a smartphone with a physical keyboard and Gentoo Linux on it, a replaceable battery, and multipl
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The students, their parents, some loan, the gov, scholarship
Unless its all free...
Enjoy the smartphone as part of free time.
Put in some time for education
grownups can escape the addiction (Score:3, Interesting)
I attended college in the early 90s after a long absence. I was surprised at all the cell phones (no cellular internet then). Between classes a large percentage of students were talking on their phones as they hurried to the next class. I began to notice patterns: females more than males; foreigners more than locals, especially orientals. I wondered- What is so important to talk about that it can't wait till classes are over?
Young people away from home inevitably feel loneliness and other pressures that I've forgotten. With the hypnotic enticement of 'social' media, the pressure they feel must be far greater.
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Later it was text chat and video chat on a smartphone..
To be seen with money to use on a telco plan and for the newest smartphone...
The ability to use new tech and be responsive to friends...
To be seen with someone to talk to and that the conversation was "fun"...
The phone use and friends to talk with becomes a conversations starter with people with phones
If the person ha
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What is so important to talk about that it can't wait till classes are over?
What is so important about waiting till later to make a call, when it is easier, quicker, and more convenient to just do it now?
Do you really see value in pointless procrastination?
If I have a ten-minute gap in my schedule, I will try to use it productively by returning calls, texts, or emails. After work, I have better things to do.
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The important thing about learning to wait is your mental health. The human brain is simply not wired to be fully active 24/7 without taking short breaks. If you feel you can do it, great, wonderful for you. But that means you are either lying to yourself or somehow wired different from the rest of your species. When you get the time to do so, ask yourself which is worse.
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I know several people who have managed to make a phone call and survive. So I think you may be exaggerating the negative consequences of talking to other people.
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I know several people who have managed to wait until they get home to make a phone call and survive. So I think you may be exaggerating the negative consequences of not talking to other people every free moment you get.
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Phone calls used to be so important that we had public phones on almost every corner where you could make a call for a quarter. Or less if you knew how to sweet talk it.
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By sweet talk you mean use your cap'n crunch whistle?
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I'm not a boomer. Using a whistle is long before my time. You can tell because I said "quarter" not "dime."
In my day everybody used a walkman to play the tones.
At home they often used a modem to do it, and probably used that software to create the recorded tones.
Re: grownups can escape the addiction (Score:2)
Perhaps you suffer from stereotyping people so much because you lack in normal behaviour when it comes to socialising and wanting to talk to people?
The reason foreigners used mobile phones more in the 90s is because the US was a mobile telephony backwater with delayed adoption due to lack of technical standardisation, e.g. distractions like CDMA. Then there was other crap too like receiver paying for airtime, usage of local area codes and the weird concept of roaming (itâ(TM)s a mobile!!) and just the
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We've taken what for every previous generation was an inescapable aspect of life, and we've created a delete button for it: boredom. When someone is sitting next to you and you take out your smart phone, you're deleting them from your experience.
But every emotional state you have evolved for a purpose. Boredom in the mental equivalent of physical hunger; it's a kick in the ass to go out and invent the wheel, or find out what's on the other side of that mountain. To find someone more interesting to talk t
Swearing acceptable in an essay nowdays? (Score:1)
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Sounds a lot like the most Luddite fantasy of older generations.
It started with Og, the inventor of fire.
A week later, the adults were complaining that all the teenagers were socializing around the campfire.
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Is that from "The Secret World of Og"?
Og OgOg Og
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Whatever, snowflake.
Really? (Score:2)
Stewart was lying.
" instead of waiting for a response from someone (that you don't even know if they read your message or not) you just called them [from a land line],"
I call bullshit that Stewart would know or could even FIND his friends' phone numbers, without his phone.
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You know that you can store numbers in a regular phone ?
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You expect that a young person who never has otherwise used a landline phone would think of that, do you?
I'm not a "hate on millennials" guy at all, but this is a generation that seems to have trouble making plans even an hour ahead of time. Not because they're "stupid" or "flawed"...they've just never HAD TO.
"Fucking" (Score:2)
Peter: "I have to admit, it was pretty nice without the phone all week. Didn't have to hear the fucking thing ring or vibrate once, and didn't feel bad not answering phone calls because there were none to ignore."
Maybe "Peter"'s decorum might improve if he got back in touch with a non-phone reality. I can't imagine having sworn to a teacher in an interview or a paper.
Urban life is inhuman (Score:2)
Humanity evolved to be in small, intimate circles of people, tribes, villages. Why should we have to be packed tightly into giant cities with millions of people?
Suspicious (Score:2)
Fancy that... (Score:1)
A year ago I decided to mute my phone.
It still does a low intensity vibrate if someone tries to phone me. But unless it's in my pocket, I can't hear/feel it.
I just look at the phone as and when I'm not busy doing real-life.
Just give it a try....:)
Enable read receipts, you stupid morans! (Score:2)
There's this setting called "read receipts", enable it and ask your so-called friends to do the same.
Not using iPhones? That's your problem. SMS fucking sucks.
letting go of the black turtleneck (Score:2)
This is covered in marriage counselling under pursuit dynamics: where one party or the other is pretending to be there (by presence in body), while not actually being there (absent in mind and spirit).
The solution is to abandon pursuit. Vacate the premi
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Counterpoint (Score:3)
On one hand, all of those socially awkward moments probably taught me a lot about social behavior. But then maybe the lessons it taught are no longer relevant. And on the other hand, cell phones have made it so I can have conversations with people without engaging in pointless smalltalk filler. This is very nice; it's like silence is no longer inherently awkward and I can keep my conversations to the actually interesting stuff. Maybe I talk less overall, but the talking I actually do is certainly higher quality.
As for why the response was so positive from these students... maybe they genuinely feel that way, or maybe they're trying to respond in a way that they think will maximize their grade. It's hard to say. I know that I have no desire to go back to awkward gaps in conversations where I struggle to come up with meaningless BS to serve as filler.
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