@daveinwarsh@therealjrn That could be useful when you realize that Amazon has charged you for $300 worth of catnip toys and the cat is giving you an innocent look. Might need to line those bars with some window screen, though.
Does anyone do that thing where you go into your phone’s accessibility settings and put it on grayscale, supposedly to make it look less interesting? I found out that a friend of mine did that a couple years ago when I was using some of those flag emojis for countries whose flags are tricolors, and my friend had no clue which countries I was talking about because she had her phone on grayscale.
I’m not sure smartphone addiction is a thing. Web addiction, I could see – I use search engines probably heavier than is ideal.
Media – constant stimulation from a barrage of audio-visual (and conceptual) noise.
Or “social” addiction, Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, those Skinner boxes that hook your socialization impulse and then control your attention. Imgur definitely has my number, though that’s more like mainlining meme-heroin than anything else.
Crappy phone dopamine games. That’s an obvious one.
If I had to back off of the Internet – that’s the interesting hypothetical for me (not even computers, just the Internet). I suspect it’d be good for my health, but I’d have a smaller perspective on the world. I might have deeper and more specialized knowledge though. That attention would have to go someplace, and I’ve got some textbooks sitting around that I have wanted to dig into for years… 'course, I bought them on Amazon, and learned about them via some digression on the web.
Access to the Internet lets us do things in an ad hoc way that previously would have required a deliberately acquired expertise… I’m not sure that’s for the best. Wouldn’t we all be better off with more deliberation necessarily woven into day-to-day life? I miss, not from personal memory (mostly), systems from before computers were dominant, paper-based ways of doing things. Bills, directories, the yellow pages, library catalogs, inboxes… none of that seems now very efficient, but it was solid.
All we seem to have done since then is hollow the center out of everything, and misdirect massive amounts of control to whoever owns the servers.
My water bill still comes on a postcard, including a due date (helpfully in the future), and a higher fee to pay if late. I pay it by check with a sigh of gratitude.
I always have a sense of relief in a power outage. The world gets smaller and quieter, less distorted. I wonder if periods of deliberate blackout would be the ideal, say three days at a time. Could call it “going camping”, except it’d just be unplugging the cable modem and turning off the phone… might be worth a shot.
@InnocuousFarmer I was going to say: “I rarely even use the smartphone.” But really, I rarely use it for getting around the web, but I use it as a mobile hotspot for a laptop, so I guess I DO use it for the web. Sorta. Almost all of my banking and bill paying is done online. I’ve already filed my federal taxes. It took 15 minutes for something that took hours when I had to do it with paper and ink pen. My life wouldn’t be over without the web, but it would be hella lot more irritating and tedious. I think I’m a web addict, but I’m fine with my addiction. Really. I’m fine. Not a problem at all.
the only thing i really look at on my phone for more than a couple minutes at a time is instagram. they’ve recently allowed users to see how much time they’re spending on the app, as a weekly graph with hours listed. so i periodically go in there to shame myself and that does the trick. (i think you can also set up reminders to be like “hey you’ve been mindlessly scrolling for X minutes” but i’d just ignore and/or get annoyed by those.) either that or the eye twitch in my right eye let’s me know i better cool it
I very rarely use my phone for apps. Except Spotify in the car driving around town. Now my tablet? I use that plenty. Only reason I put it down is to charge it on the weekends.
I am still old-school enough that I do most of my web stuff on a desktop/laptop. Not a big fan of digital keyboards, don’t like the way some apps play on the phone (try to post a pic to meh in portrait mode…) like using a mouse, etc.
That being said, I just spent 8 hours listening to Pandora on my phone (using earbuds) while I drove from Central FL to central AL as my wife was on her laptop doing work for her master’s…
You realize we’re all on our phones while answering this useless question right?
@katbyter I never use this site on my phone - too tiny. I’m either on my iPad or on my desktop at home.
@stolicat I’m with you, but @katbyter you brought a smile to my face.
Whenever I realize I’m spending too much time on my phone, I switch to my iPad or desktop. Problem solved!
KuoH
Uh. I just use it when I need to and leave it alone when I don’t.
I don’t spend that much time on my phone. I use my iPad or laptop most of the time.
I have never seen a smartphone worth spending that much time on.
@daveinwarsh When phones break bad.
@daveinwarsh @therealjrn That could be useful when you realize that Amazon has charged you for $300 worth of catnip toys and the cat is giving you an innocent look. Might need to line those bars with some window screen, though.
@daveinwarsh I’m going to order one right now, using my smartphone.
I don’t have data on my phone. The ‘smart’ features are only accessible using wifi, or in an offline mode (like Google Maps). Works for me!
I don’t have a phone addition. I can quit anytime I want.
@hchavers You deleted the calculator app?
@DrWorm autocorrect, how i love / hate thee
@DrWorm … good eye!
Flipd app, pretty neat actually.
How to stay away: Keep reminding myself that it is a tracking device.
Does anyone do that thing where you go into your phone’s accessibility settings and put it on grayscale, supposedly to make it look less interesting? I found out that a friend of mine did that a couple years ago when I was using some of those flag emojis for countries whose flags are tricolors, and my friend had no clue which countries I was talking about because she had her phone on grayscale.
@lljk Tried it once, but it was annoying and unpleasant. Decided it’d be much easier to deliberately use my phone less, if I was ever so inclined.
This can mean two things: “I am addicted but don’t care” or “I don’t have an addiction”.
Count me in the latter group. If you were to encounter me in public, there is a well over 90% chance I wouldn’t even have my phone on me.
If my company didn’t require a smartphone for two factor authentication, I don’t know if I would ever remove my phone from my car.
Make it totally silent.
@godofbiscuits
/image smashed phone
@therealjrn Yeah, I did this to my phone on Saturday.
I’m not sure smartphone addiction is a thing. Web addiction, I could see – I use search engines probably heavier than is ideal.
Media – constant stimulation from a barrage of audio-visual (and conceptual) noise.
Or “social” addiction, Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, those Skinner boxes that hook your socialization impulse and then control your attention. Imgur definitely has my number, though that’s more like mainlining meme-heroin than anything else.
Crappy phone dopamine games. That’s an obvious one.
If I had to back off of the Internet – that’s the interesting hypothetical for me (not even computers, just the Internet). I suspect it’d be good for my health, but I’d have a smaller perspective on the world. I might have deeper and more specialized knowledge though. That attention would have to go someplace, and I’ve got some textbooks sitting around that I have wanted to dig into for years… 'course, I bought them on Amazon, and learned about them via some digression on the web.
Access to the Internet lets us do things in an ad hoc way that previously would have required a deliberately acquired expertise… I’m not sure that’s for the best. Wouldn’t we all be better off with more deliberation necessarily woven into day-to-day life? I miss, not from personal memory (mostly), systems from before computers were dominant, paper-based ways of doing things. Bills, directories, the yellow pages, library catalogs, inboxes… none of that seems now very efficient, but it was solid.
All we seem to have done since then is hollow the center out of everything, and misdirect massive amounts of control to whoever owns the servers.
My water bill still comes on a postcard, including a due date (helpfully in the future), and a higher fee to pay if late. I pay it by check with a sigh of gratitude.
I always have a sense of relief in a power outage. The world gets smaller and quieter, less distorted. I wonder if periods of deliberate blackout would be the ideal, say three days at a time. Could call it “going camping”, except it’d just be unplugging the cable modem and turning off the phone… might be worth a shot.
@InnocuousFarmer I was going to say: “I rarely even use the smartphone.” But really, I rarely use it for getting around the web, but I use it as a mobile hotspot for a laptop, so I guess I DO use it for the web. Sorta. Almost all of my banking and bill paying is done online. I’ve already filed my federal taxes. It took 15 minutes for something that took hours when I had to do it with paper and ink pen. My life wouldn’t be over without the web, but it would be hella lot more irritating and tedious. I think I’m a web addict, but I’m fine with my addiction. Really. I’m fine. Not a problem at all.
Not addicted.
@mml666 That’s the first thing addicts say.
@therealjrn or people without a problem.
@mml666 or people that are in denial.
@therealjrn both are true. However, I am not in denial about not having a smart phone addiction.
@mml666 Oh no, it’s worse than I imagined.
Thoughts & prayers.
@therealjrn See Anthony Jeselnik ‘Thoughts and prayers’
@mml666 You think I should I change my FaceBook icon too?
the only thing i really look at on my phone for more than a couple minutes at a time is instagram. they’ve recently allowed users to see how much time they’re spending on the app, as a weekly graph with hours listed. so i periodically go in there to shame myself and that does the trick. (i think you can also set up reminders to be like “hey you’ve been mindlessly scrolling for X minutes” but i’d just ignore and/or get annoyed by those.) either that or the eye twitch in my right eye let’s me know i better cool it
I dislike using my phone for web surfing, FB, etc. But I work from home so I usually have a computer to use the web.
I’m on the web a lot.
@therealjrn ditto
I’m still in the denial stage.
I very rarely use my phone for apps. Except Spotify in the car driving around town. Now my tablet? I use that plenty. Only reason I put it down is to charge it on the weekends.
I am still old-school enough that I do most of my web stuff on a desktop/laptop. Not a big fan of digital keyboards, don’t like the way some apps play on the phone (try to post a pic to meh in portrait mode…) like using a mouse, etc.
That being said, I just spent 8 hours listening to Pandora on my phone (using earbuds) while I drove from Central FL to central AL as my wife was on her laptop doing work for her master’s…
@chienfou Her master’s what? Request? Bidding? What?
@therealjrn Classical studies…
@chienfou @therealjrn impressive
By paying more attention to the road.
j/k j/k!!!
Once I stopped using fentanyl patches as a shock guard, it’s been a lot better.
LOL, I don’t?