# Are Smart Phones Creating Dumb People?



## Tabby Ann (Dec 22, 2021)

There is much news about the devastating effects of some Internet websites on children, but equally disappointing is the effect of the Internet on some adults who feel Internet technology supersedes and is more important than interaction with real live humans in their immediate vicinity. These people think nothing of scrolling their smart phones and talking on them while they are visiting others or out to lunch or dinner with others. These people are not invited back to my home and I do not make further lunch or dinner plans with them. The key to a good life is good balance and one should balance all the knowledge the Internet has to offer with the opportunity to interact with real live people in one’s immediate vicinity, and do it with old fashioned good manners that preclude talking on the phone during meals or visits with others.


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## Devi (Dec 22, 2021)

*Are Smart Phones Creating Dumb People?*

I don't know if I'd call that "dumb" — I'd call it _*rude*_.


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## dseag2 (Dec 22, 2021)

I think the internet and smartphones are a wonderful invention because they allow us to access just about anything with the touch of a button.  That said, I do agree that it is not polite to have your face in your phone during any type of social event.  It's just rude.  It shows disrespect for the person that may be trying to have a conversation with you.  I also agree that balance is important in life and don't blame you at all for not inviting "phone junkies" back into your home. 

Now, if we have kids in our house we never expect them to look up from their phones.  Adults... that's another thing entirely.


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## Don M. (Dec 22, 2021)

If all cell phone service were to suddenly go down, for any extended period of time, half our population would go into panic mode.


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## palides2021 (Dec 22, 2021)

Tabby Ann said:


> There is much news about the devastating effects of some Internet websites on children, but equally disappointing is the effect of the Internet on some adults who feel Internet technology supersedes and is more important than interaction with real live humans in their immediate vicinity. These people think nothing of scrolling their smart phones and talking on them while they are visiting others or out to lunch or dinner with others. These people are not invited back to my home and I do not make further lunch or dinner plans with them. The key to a good life is good balance and one should balance all the knowledge the Internet with the opportunity to interact with real live people in one’s immediate vicinity, and do it with old fashioned good manners that preclude talking on the phone during meals or visits with others.


I agree with what you said! There's a place and a time for smartphones, but not while interacting with people.


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## Devi (Dec 23, 2021)

palides2021 said:


> I agree with what you said! There's a place and a time for smartphones, but not while interacting with people.


Agreed. Nothing says "you don't matter to me" like incessantly talking on a phone while amidst a group of people.


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## Alligatorob (Dec 23, 2021)

Tabby Ann said:


> Are Smart Phones Creating Dumb People?


In my case I do feel a little dumb that I can't do 99% of what my phone is supposed to do.  Had to laugh when my sister-in-law insisted that I could do anything on my iphone that I could do on my ipad - I have no ipad, never used one...


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## Packerjohn (Dec 23, 2021)

Tabby Ann said:


> There is much news about the devastating effects of some Internet websites on children, but equally disappointing is the effect of the Internet on some adults who feel Internet technology supersedes and is more important than interaction with real live humans in their immediate vicinity. These people think nothing of scrolling their smart phones and talking on them while they are visiting others or out to lunch or dinner with others. These people are not invited back to my home and I do not make further lunch or dinner plans with them. The key to a good life is good balance and one should balance all the knowledge the Internet has to offer with the opportunity to interact with real live people in one’s immediate vicinity, and do it with old fashioned good manners that preclude talking on the phone during meals or visits with others.


You see, Tabby Ann, that smartphones have become the drug of choice for many people.  It does not have to be like that.  Smartphones are good tools if you know how to use them.  If visiting folks, shut the bloody phone off unless you are 100% that a dire emergency is waiting to happen.  Then you need to talk to the good people you are visiting and explain the situation to them.  Smartphones become a drug when people are looking at them all the time.  They are giving a signal that a mechanical/technical thing is a lot more important than a human thing.  No wonder people are getting more and more lonely as the years go by.  It is extremely rude to visit someone and then talk on the phone while they are trying to talk to you.  These kind of people deserve no friends.  They can hug and kiss and sleep with their phones because they are showing that the phones own them.  It should be the other way around.

Far as do smartphones make folks dumb?  I don't think so.  I am pretty sure that they were pretty dumb before they ever bought or were given the darn thing.


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## Jules (Dec 23, 2021)

If my phone rings while I’m visiting someone or at a store, I just decline the call.  There’s no need to read messages either.


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## David777 (Dec 23, 2021)

Human beings are social Earth creatures with much recent brain structure evolved for interpersonal communication and actions, both verbal and non-verbal. Recent science has shown humans begin life with a vast neocortex structure of 300 million pattern recognizers needing to be filled and meaningfully wired. Not regularly experiencing those interpersonal interactions in ways humans evolved leaves a poorly filled brain without adequately wired dendritic connections.


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## fuzzybuddy (Dec 23, 2021)

Fo 13 years, I just had a flip phone. I used to laugh at people and their smart phones. And especially, the people, who talked to their phones, "Hey Siri". Buy one dark, and stormy night, a smart phone was placed in my pocket, and I became one of THEM. So, yeah, I'm "Hey Siri" all over the place, now. I love my phone. The technology is so cool. And like DonM says "If all cell phone service were to suddenly go down, for any extended period of time, half our population  ( me, included) would go into panic mode..


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## Murrmurr (Dec 23, 2021)

David777 said:


> Human beings are social Earth creatures with much recent brain structure evolved for interpersonal communication and actions, both verbal and non-verbal. Recent science has shown humans begin life with a vast neocortex structure of 300 million pattern recognizers needing to be filled and meaningfully wired. Not regularly experiencing those interpersonal interactions in ways humans evolved leaves a poorly filled brain without adequately wired dendritic connections.


I disagree, in part.  Human brains evolved for interpersonal communication and actions very early on. Even apes live within a social construct (of their own creation) and communicate with each other all the time.


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## bowmore (Dec 23, 2021)

The saddest thing I saw was a couple seated near us in a restaurant, and instead of talking to each other, were both on their smartphones.


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## JustBonee (Dec 23, 2021)

No   ....  just   "Distracted"  people


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## Jackie23 (Dec 23, 2021)

Devi said:


> Are Smart Phones Creating Dumb People?


I don't think so....just too many people trying  to avoid other people, situations or life in general by hiding behind their phones..


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## Don M. (Dec 23, 2021)

I think cell phones, held in close proximity to the brain, for any length of time, could prove to be dangerous.  The brain consists of millions of Neurons, which transmit "instructions" to all the other parts of our bodies....via electrical impulses.  Holding a cell phone to that area allows the signals to/from the cell phone to potentially impact the capabilities of these neurons.  

The way some people are starting to act, I wonder if this isn't already happening.


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## Packerjohn (Dec 24, 2021)

Jules said:


> If my phone rings while I’m visiting someone or at a store, I just decline the call.  There’s no need to read messages either.


Good for you Jules.  You are showing control.  The phone is there for your use yet it does not control you.  You are probably in the minority in the urban world.  Unless you are a medical doctor, a fireman or a police officer, very few messages are of the type that they need an immediate response.  Those "*messages from loved ones*" can just wait a few minutes, can't they?


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## Packerjohn (Dec 24, 2021)

Devi said:


> Agreed. Nothing says "you don't matter to me" like incessantly talking on a phone while amidst a group of people.


Correct Devi:  I find it especially annoying when I go grocery shopping when the young lady in front of me (yes, it's almost always young ladies) is yapping loudly on the phone while her groceries are being run through.  Then, if she is in Superstore where you bag your own groceries, she still is yapping like a dog with it's tail in the door while she is bagging her groceries with one hand because she is holding the "almighty" talking machine in her other hand. Not good manners; by a long shot.


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## Devi (Dec 24, 2021)

Devi said:


> Agreed. Nothing says "you don't matter to me" like incessantly talking on a phone while amidst a group of people.





Packerjohn said:


> Correct Devi:  I find it especially annoying when I go grocery shopping when the young lady in front of me (yes, it's almost always young ladies) is yapping loudly on the phone while her groceries are being run through.  Then, if she is in Superstore where you bag your own groceries, she still is yapping like a dog with it's tail in the door while she is bagging her groceries with one hand because she is holding the "almighty" talking machine in her other hand. Not good manners; by a long shot.


I'll add to what I said above. I do wonder if persons always being on a phone while in the midst of people is a way to announce their importance.


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## OneEyedDiva (Dec 24, 2021)

I was just telling my BFF that due to the smart phone feature of just clicking someones name to dial, the only phone numbers I remember "by heart" is my son's, my sister's and my (late) DIL's.  If I lost my phone, had an emergency and could commandeer someone else's phone to use, I'd be out of luck if I couldn't call either of those people. Also, I'm sure most people will use the calculator on their phone rather than add numbers in their head.


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## Irwin (Dec 24, 2021)

One of the nice things about smartphones is that if somebody says something that's complete bullsh*t, you can just Google it right there on the spot. It's funny how some people get mad when you do that, as if you have no right to check their facts.


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## Nathan (Dec 24, 2021)

Tabby Ann said:


> Are Smart Phones Creating Dumb People?


Not "dumb" but maybe *dependent*, which is understandable since a smart phone can provide so many different uses in just one handheld package.  I like all the features a smartphone offers except....telephone calls.  Talking on a smartphone is awkward, and I have hearing issues which are compounded by the cellular phones inferior voice quality.  Every other feature rocks, navigation with voice prompts, the ability to lookup goods & services while on the road, texting, calculator, all the information that Mankind has generated since stone tablets...available right at your fingertips.


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## Victor (Dec 25, 2021)

The phones can make you dumber if you already are. But they can make smart people smarter


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## Alligatorob (Dec 25, 2021)

When I started college we were still using slide rules.  When the first calculators appeared there was a lot of resistance, one big concern was that students would become dumber, just relying on electronics to do the calculations.  I finally got rid of my slide rule a few years ago, anyone here still use one?

I suspect all technological advances have been greeted with skepticism.  It takes a generation or two for the full effects to be seen.  I am of the pre-smart phone generation.  Dumb and unsophisticated, and will probably die that way.  Doesn't mean the smart phones are bad, who knows on that one.  But so long as we don't run out of silica or electricity good or bad they are here to stay, until the next big advance comes along anyway.  Typed and posted from my 20th century computer keyboard...


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## Alligatorob (Dec 25, 2021)

Victor said:


> The phones can make you dumber if you already are.


I resemble that remark!


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## helenbacque (Dec 25, 2021)

They are like any other device.  You can own it or _*IT CAN OWN YOU*_.  Your choice.


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## katlupe (Dec 25, 2021)

Jules said:


> If my phone rings while I’m visiting someone or at a store, I just decline the call.  There’s no need to read messages either.


That's what I do too. Most of my calls are appointments. I only talk on the phone to one person and if I am out, I am with him. My son calls at times to tell me he coming over.


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## Packerjohn (Dec 25, 2021)

Nope!  They are definitely not important people.  Seems more likely that they are uneducated and bad mannered sheep!


Devi said:


> I'll add to what I said above. I do wonder if persons always being on a phone while in the midst of people is a way to announce their importance.


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## Packerjohn (Dec 31, 2021)

These days there is a new "society ignored and maybe approved drug" called Smartphone Addiction.  I looked it up yesterday on Google and it's very interesting.  I did this after watching my grown-up daughter who carries the smartphone around with her all day.  She puts it in front of her on the table when she eats, has it in the bathroom when doing makeup in the morning and believe it or not, she sleeps with the smartphone.  On a car trip to visit family (1 hour, 10 minutes one way) she stayed glued to her phone, missing any sites).  If you don't think that there is something wrong here, then my name ain't "Packerjohn" and maybe you too have the same addiction!


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## Manatee (Dec 31, 2021)

I am reminded of the woman that was so focused on her phone that she walked into the side of a moving train.  It knocked her on her butt, but she did survive.


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## Shero (Dec 31, 2021)

Oh no! you do have to be "smart" to master a smart phone.


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## fuzzybuddy (Jan 3, 2022)

Are Smart Phones Creating Dumb People?​No! We had plenty of really dumb people way before they invented Smart Phones. Just ask Siri.


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## bingo (Jan 3, 2022)

Those people are  just rude


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## hollydolly (Jan 3, 2022)

I heard the word Doomscrolling for the first time today.. apparently it's causing and creating mental illness in the people who are obsessively searching for bad news on their phones.. it means thus..


_Doomscrolling or doomsurfing is the act of spending an excessive amount of screen time devoted to the absorption of negative news. Increased consumption of predominantly negative news may result in harmful psychophysiological responses in some._


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## hollydolly (Jan 3, 2022)

Manatee said:


> I am reminded of the woman that was so focused on her phone that she walked into the side of a moving train.  It knocked her on her butt, but she did survive.


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## kburra (Jan 3, 2022)

My Take,hate the bloody things!


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## Ruthanne (Jan 3, 2022)

I think it depends on the descrision of the person.  I don't use my phone when with others because that would be inconsiderate.


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## Irwin (Jan 3, 2022)

I'm using my smartphone to read this forum while sitting on the throne. 

Just thought you might want to know.


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## Packerjohn (Jan 4, 2022)

bowmore said:


> The saddest thing I saw was a couple seated near us in a restaurant, and instead of talking to each other, were both on their smartphones.


Yes, I have seen this many times over the years.  I often wonder how long these kind of relationships last?


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## Aneeda72 (Jan 4, 2022)

Irwin said:


> I'm using my smartphone to read this forum while sitting on the throne.
> 
> Just thought you might want to know.


So glad you are potty trained


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## Aneeda72 (Jan 4, 2022)

My smart phone is on 24/7 and if my Joey (or other children) has an issue I can be instantly contacted.  Such a relief.  Remember the days when you didn’t have this ability, to respond instantly to a loved ones needs?

Remember the nights, and days, waiting to hear the news of a hospitalized relative?  A missing family member -victim of a national disaster?  The call of a son serving overseas?  Smart phones are a blessing.  Smart phones create a connection to the world.


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## JaniceM (Jan 4, 2022)

I only use mine for texting- on average, every couple of weeks, and calls only when absolutely necessary.  Plus checking the weather report- before I got current phone where I can't find it.  
But as for all the other stuff people use cell phones for-  nope, not interested.


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## horseless carriage (Jan 4, 2022)

Alligatorob said:


> In my case I do feel a little dumb that I can't do 99% of what my phone is supposed to do.


Are Smart Phones Creating Dumb People? Like Alligatorob I am a complete dunce with my smart phone, it's far too smart for me. In the eleven years that I have had it I found that it had a torch/flashlight, that took three years to discover, another two years would go by before I knew there was a camera, and here I am, eleven years on and I'm still none the wiser how to connect it to the internet. 

Now if you wanted to know about indices, no problem:
Index laws are the rules for simplifying expressions involving powers of the same base number. = ( 3 √ 27)2 = (3)2 = 9. (2) 
Watch out for powers of negative numbers. For example, (−2)3 = −8 and (−2)4 = 16, so (−x)5 = −x5 and (−x)6 = x6.
See, simple.


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## Packerjohn (Jan 5, 2022)

Aneeda72 said:


> My smart phone is on 24/7 and if my Joey (or other children) has an issue I can be instantly contacted.  Such a relief.  Remember the days when you didn’t have this ability, to respond instantly to a loved ones needs?
> 
> Remember the nights, and days, waiting to hear the news of a hospitalized relative?  A missing family member -victim of a national disaster?  The call of a son serving overseas?  Smart phones are a blessing.  Smart phones create a connection to the world.


Yes, our society seems to want everything, NOW!  Unfortunately stress, heart attacks and depression is up.  There are many health reasons for not be with your cell phone 24/7.  Read the following:

https://www.verywellhealth.com/reasons-why-you-should-not-sleep-with-your-cell-phone-4


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## Packerjohn (Jan 5, 2022)

fuzzybuddy said:


> Are Smart Phones Creating Dumb People?​No! We had plenty of really dumb people way before they invented Smart Phones. Just ask Siri.


Correct, dumb people have been around since biblical times.  However, it appears that dumb people get addicted much faster than the smart people who actually have a life beside the phone.  There is a life before and beyond the smartphone but for the dumb people the smartphone is their entire life.  They can't seem to live without it.  Humans lived thousands of years before Billy Gates and Mr. Job.


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## Aneeda72 (Jan 5, 2022)

Packerjohn said:


> Yes, our society seems to want everything, NOW!  Unfortunately stress, heart attacks and depression is up.  There are many health reasons for not be with your cell phone 24/7.  Read the following:
> 
> https://www.verywellhealth.com/reasons-why-you-should-not-sleep-with-your-cell-phone-4


well, if you have a heart attack you had better hope your cell phone is with you


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## Irwin (Jan 5, 2022)

I've been using my smartphone to read ebooks since it has better resolution than my tablet, plus it's easier to hold. It can be used to control the TV and streaming, but I haven't transitioned yet from the remote... probably because I'm far sighted and can see the TV without without having to wear my glasses.


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## fmdog44 (Jan 18, 2022)

hollydolly, Great video. I see similar nearly every day,


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## Oris Borloff (Jan 18, 2022)

Aneeda72 said:


> well, if you have a heart attack you had better hope your cell phone is with you


Had a cell phone, didn't make any difference -- no signal.  Made for a good story to tell the CCU nurse.


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## Liberty (Jan 19, 2022)

Helped one gal fish one out of the toilet bowl at an Olive Garden Restaurant...lol.


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## Paco Dennis (Jan 19, 2022)

David777 said:


> Human beings are social Earth creatures with much recent brain structure evolved for interpersonal communication and actions, both verbal and non-verbal. Recent science has shown humans begin life with a vast neocortex structure of 300 million pattern recognizers needing to be filled and meaningfully wired. Not regularly experiencing those interpersonal interactions in ways humans evolved leaves a poorly filled brain without adequately wired dendritic connections.


I am wondering if the cell phone communicating fulfills those dendritic connections. Why not? If we think we are connecting to others that must be this area of the brain you describe.?


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## Paco Dennis (Jan 19, 2022)

You think we are in a new age of communicating with 4g, Misa's carrier is offering a free new 5g smart phone NOW! This is going to be a total game changer.


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## RFW (Jan 19, 2022)

If I had done that back in the day, I would have probably gone ballistic and jumped back in to save the car somehow because it'd be either that or my dad killing me later.


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## DaveA (Jan 19, 2022)

Alligatorob said:


> When I started college we were still using slide rules.  When the first calculators appeared there was a lot of resistance, one big concern was that students would become dumber, just relying on electronics to do the calculations.  I finally got rid of my slide rule a few years ago, anyone here still use one?
> 
> I suspect all technological advances have been greeted with skepticism.  It takes a generation or two for the full effects to be seen.  I am of the pre-smart phone generation.  Dumb and unsophisticated, and will probably die that way.  Doesn't mean the smart phones are bad, who knows on that one.  But so long as we don't run out of silica or electricity good or bad they are here to stay, until the next big advance comes along anyway.  Typed and posted from my 20th century computer keyboard...


Haven't used mine in years but I think it's sill in a box in the cellar.


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