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[-] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 6 points 20 hours ago

On the one hand, the grumpy old man in me agrees completely.

On the other, they've been saying this for all of history, since that new-fangled writing wreaked havoc on our ancestors' children's memories. And it did in fact do that, but we changed.

Attention span is just going to become vestigial in the general population as it becomes less necessary in an evolving technological and sociological environment, just like memory and penmanship.

[-] mortalglowworm@reddthat.com 8 points 20 hours ago
[-] ikka@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

I'm sorry but not going to trust an author who has a very real financial incentive to sell a hypothesis. There are indeed numerous studies that do summarize the negative impacts of social media and smartphones on mental health, and it's also extremely true that the increase in mental health diagnosis can also, at least partially, be attributed to an increase in mental health awareness. My ADHD existed well before I got my hands on tech.

EDIT: to summarize, I don't really take issue with your comment, but I believe that you can find an even better source of information to link to when discussing this topic. Wishing you well!

[-] GrammarPolice@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

Shame. He's a very good author

[-] pandapoo@sh.itjust.works 7 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

Yeah it's not really up for debate, the science is only growing more conclusive on how smartphones negatively impact a developing brain, especially social media.

Also, attention span is not vestigial... It's pretty important function of your brain, and can't just be replaced by technology....but I was more referring to anxiety and depression disorders, which again, are on the rise.

I'm also kind of confused why you included penmanship in there, as that is not something a child's development requires to be healthy. It's simply a skill, and one that has been replaced by typing, almost 1:1.

[-] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 2 points 19 hours ago

Once upon a time people argued penmanship was crucial to building a well developed brain. Same with memorizing epics by rote. Books were actually considered bad for students because they would become dull and lazy if they did not commit all their knowledge to memory.

But memory can largely be replaced by technology, and that enables access to more knowledge than one person could ever memorize. Who knows how society will develop, for better or worse.

[-] yetiftw@lemmy.world 1 points 12 hours ago

yes but in order to effectively use technology to replace memory you still have to commit things to memory. if I don't know something exists then how can I Google it?

[-] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 2 points 11 hours ago

Attention isn't eliminated by smartphones, just shortened

this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2024
169 points (97.2% liked)

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