Aristocrat wrote:The big flaw in the "all people do nowadays is stare at their phones like mindless zombies" argument is the preconceived notion that people stare at their phone and do nothing with their minds blank, when in reality people do, as you already said yourself, a variety of things. Why do people use their phones so much? Because todays phone encompasses telecommunication, radio, television, email, gaming, encyclopedias and much more. My parents had the same "people on their phones are zombies" attitude until they got smartphones. And guess what, now they're on their phones all the time. And they're as much brainless zombie as they were before. Instead what happened is that they realized that a lot of tasks can be comfortably done from one device. 40 years ago thinking that such a device would exist one day would have been utopic, and now that it exists somehow people still complain about it.
What annoys me about your comment is that it always seems to be people who desperately try to find something to bicker about, just to be a downer for no reason at all, unless you're really naive enough to think that a complex array of issues can be blamed on one single scapegoat.
The reason I brought up newspapers is that back then people complained about the same things. "No one hardly talks to each other anymore, all they do is read those newspapers!!" You should've seen the uproar from adults when radios became widely available. "All those kids do anymore is sit around and listen to music instead of playing outside!!!" Then in the 60s TVs started to replace radio and now phones and computers are starting to replace TV.
Yes, phones also have downsides. People waste a lot of time with cheap mobile games and social media, but again, if playing Candy Crush is really more interesting than partaking in a conversation then people can't really be putting in much effort.
Also make no mistake. You might claim that there are phone addictions, but those are in reality either gambling (gaming) or social media addictions. Being on the phone all the time is a symptom, not the cause.
I don't know where you picked up the notion that people going with the times is a bad thing (your parents probably?) or what phones did to you personally to cause you to be like this but I find it rather irritating. You're not being a moral guardian, you're just being a downer. And that upsets me.
I can see what you mean by the ''they are all looking to a thing and look zombies because their mind seem blank'' but, in reallity, any addiction is bad, not only ''smartphones and stuff'' one, and I just want you to know that I perfectly understand what you are trying to explain by talking about the fact that each time there is something new, we seems to alway find a problem, but unlike tv, newspapers, radio and other stuff, have you ever SEEN any ''addictions'' to these? Sure, TV addict exist, and is worrying but, the fact that the TV is stationnary and can't be moved for the home somehow stop people from watching it by walking on the street, even if videogames are also a problem since they are having portable versions, but here is not what I really wanna talk about.
See, the fact that ALL tasks (or a bunch of them) can be made from a phone really isn't a good thing. Sure, it has a lot of advantages, but here is also the problem; since a single device can do tons of things, humans are needing less and less of other technologies and other stuff such as books and, since a single machine can do everything, making them more and more dependent to their smartphones, and they seems to don't even be able to ''live'' without it.
TV? Don't need it, my Iphone can do it.
Radio? Don't need it, my Iphone can do it.
Camera? Don't need it, my Iphone can do it.
Visiting a museum? Don't need it, my Iphone can do it.
Communicate? Don't need it, my Iphone can do it.
Taking notes? Don't need it, my Iphone can do it.
Videogames? Don't need it, my Iphone can do it.
They are alway watching their fucking screens.
That really isn't ''utopic''.
