Larry Rosen opens his interesting book with two situations. The first is at a movie theater. While Rosen tries to watch the movie, people around him are texting and talking on their smartphones. And, as soon as the movie is over, Rosen notes that just about everyone in the theater immediately checks their cell phones. The second story involves dinner in a restaurant. Rosen sees that at EVERY table, people have their smartphones next to their plates. They’re constantly checking their phones and ignoring the people they’re with. Larry Rosen thinks hand-held devices like smartphones and iPads and iPods are creating a society of narcissistic, AD/HD addled loners. I can add fuel to this fire. Walk into any of my classrooms and you’ll see the majority of students constantly texting and checking their phones. How much of my brilliant lectures are these students absorbing? Sadly, very little. Their distracted listening, their fragmented attention isn’t conducive to learning. Rosen offers a number of solutions, chiefly limits on use of these devices. I doubt if that will work with smartphone-addicts. GRADE: B
Have you read Nicholas Carr’s THE SHALLOWS about changes in our brain chemistry due to being constantly on-line? I’m sure Rosen’s book is a great companion piece. But working in the schools, I can tell you that this is a losing battle. Kids as young as seven can’t go for an hour without checking their phones; and at the high school where I work, one mother sent the principal a long email about how she’d tracked her daughter’s cell phone use and the daughter was texting all day, during classes, and why didn’t the teachers catch it? (No word about the mother’s role in perhaps taking the phone if she didn’t want her daughter texting all day.) Between telling boys to pull up their baggy pants and telling kids to put away their cell phones, sometimes teachers spend more time hectoring than teacher. Sigh. The rules in our family are no phones in church, no texting at the table during meal times and no texting when an adult is talking to you. My kids also know that if they’re ever caught with their phones on at school and the phone is confiscated, mom and dad ain’t gonna bail ’em out.
I like your family rules on cell phone usage, Deb. My students spend most of their time texting instead of listening to my brilliant lectures. I haven’t read THE SHALLOWS yet, but it’s in the Read Real Soon stack. I don’t own a cell phone.
The flash of lights when people check their phones in a theater takes me right out of a movie. And watching a group of four girls, all with their cell phone in hand, crossing a busy street in New York was probably a defining picture of our time.
In just about every movie theater I’ve been in this year, kids have been texting during the movie, Patti. Very annoying! Girls (and boys) with their cell phones in hand…the very definition of the early 21st Century…
That’s the part that worries me most, Patti–the complete lack of awareness of what is going on around them that people have when they’re glued to their phone. I’ve seen women crossing parking lots at night, totally oblivious to their surroundings, head down, looking at their phones. They may have forgotten where they are, but I’m sure a person with his mind on assaulting them hasn’t.
The guys who are busy talking on their cell phones while at the urinal show how obsessed guys are, Deb. And they’re completely unaware of what’s going on around them, too.
Good thing we’re not addicted and can quit any time we want, as Dr. Crider always says.
I agree 100% with both of Rosen’s examples (obviously) and I’m afraid he’s correct about the “younger generation” – although in the theater I see older people checking their smart phones too. The one about couples sitting opposite each other in a restaurant and each checking their phones repeatedly is one I notice ALL the time and it drives me crazy. Or else you’ll see a group of young women “talking” to their friends while 90% of their attention is on the incoming text.
I must say that even though we recently got smart phones ourselves we never do this. Jackie only looks at hers when there is an incoming call and while I do like to check my email I’ll only do it when socially acceptable – sitting in Starbucks, for instance, or while watching television.
I took Diane out to dinner last Thursday and all around us other couples had their cell phones on the table next to them, Jeff. How can you have a conversation when the other person is constantly checking their cell phone?
Oh yeah – and stay off my lawn (if I had one)!!
😉
I cringe when I see somebody using a mobile device at a restaurant table. Don’t they know how filthy and germ-ridden cell phones can be? Worse than a toilet handle.
Not only is the cell phone a source of germs, Drongo, it’s a sign of disrespect to the person across the restaurant table. The cell phone on the table says, “My mobile device is more important than you.”
I know I’ve posted before about being in the restroom at Sam’s Club and hearing the woman in the cubicle next to mine answer her cell phone while she was–well, otherwise occupied. Gross! I’d never answer my phone in the restroom and I’d hate to call someone and have them say, “Oh, I’m just sitting on the potty right now.” Please! Let some things remain private, OK?
Deb, or how about the student who was talking on his cell phone at the urinal when he dropped the cell phone you know where and calmly picked it up and kept talking,. Totally gross!
George, the simple answer to your question (how can you have a conversation…) is that you can’t. And – basically – they don’t. Jackie agrees with Rosen’s “narcissitic…loners” comment totally. We know people like that. I have certain close family members who shall remain nameless who are checking Facebook constantly even though you’d think they were old enough to know better.
Deb, that’s exactly right – it is totally disrepectful. You see people on what appear to be first dates and she is checking her phone constantly. Then she complains to her friends about not being able to find a nice guy.
Something here does not compute.
Rosen, and the NY TIMES, point out that people who constantly tweet, answer email, update FACEBOOK usually have both obsessive-compulsive issues and are depressed, Jeff.
I used to think it was just women but I’ve heard guys in the stalls having phone conversations too. I mean, WTF is so important that it can’t wait until you finish and WASH YOUR HANDS?
So true, Jeff.
Well, my sister definitely fits into that category, George. She was felt the need to share everything about my mother’s illness and death with her 500 or so “friends” on Facebook, as well as every other aspect of her life, according to my brother. (As you know I am not on FB.) He’s had to “unfriend” her more than once. She talks about being depressed, etc.
How is this anyone’s business?
Diane and I are not on FACEBOOK, we’re not on Twitter, and I don’t have a cell phone, Jeff. Diane only uses her cell phone when we’re traveling. We know plenty of people like your sister who are addicted to FACEBOOK and send Tweets all day long. I consider both FACEBOOK and Twitter to be big Time Wasters.
If that’s not addiction, I don’t know what is!
Like you, George, I have no cell phone, am not a member of Facebook nor do I want to be, do not Tweet, etc. My wife uses her smart phone to do two things: make phone calls and look things up, usually as part of getting directions or a phone number. We have a land line I use. The only socially interactive thing I do is blog, and I’m not on the computer every day, sometimes going a week between looks. If I was in a restaurant or somewhere else and the person I was with started checking a smart phone without asking my permission or explaining why it was necessary, I’d walk out.
As soon as someone puts their cell phone on the restaurant table, it’s a Bad Sign, Rick.