OT: Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?

[christopher3393]

I will tactfully avoid the important, interesting,  powerful, tragic, but potentially contentious and passion-inducing issues mentioned above.

 

Here's an interesting recent book I've browsed: Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked  by Adam Alter:

 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Irresistible-Addictive-Technology-Business-Keeping/dp/1594206643/

 

Blurb: "Welcome to the age of behavioral addiction—an age in which half of the American population is addicted to at least one behavior. We obsess over our emails, Instagram likes, and Facebook feeds; we binge on TV episodes and YouTube videos; we work longer hours each year; and we spend an average of three hours each day using our smartphones. Half of us would rather suffer a broken bone than a broken phone, and Millennial kids spend so much time in front of screens that they struggle to interact with real, live humans."

 

 

[christopher3393]

2 hours ago, Jud said:

 

Was he on Fresh Air?  If so, thanks for the link, was thinking of reading it (on my iPhone  ).

 

Yup: http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2017/03/13/519977607/irresistible-by-design-its-no-accident-you-cant-stop-looking-at-the-screen

 

I ran into the book through a brief review by UC Berkeley philosopher Alva Noe who blogs on NPR's 13/7 Cosmos and Culture. Noe's doing very interesting work of his own as well: http://www.npr.org/people/336061213/alva-no

[christopher3393]

I think some historical perspective might be helpful here regarding communication skills and education, so I've cobbled together something to provide context:

 

Quote

In 1892, in response to many competing academic philosophies being promoted at the time, a working group of educators, known as the "Committee of Ten" was established by the National Education Association. It recommended twelve years of instruction, consisting of eight years of elementary education followed by four years of high school.

 

At the turn of the 20th Century, it was common for high schools to have entrance examinations which restricted entrance to fewer than 5 percent of the population in preparation for college.

 

Between 1910 and 1940 the "high school movement" resulted in rapidly increasing founding of public high schools… The shift from theoretical to a more practical approach in curriculum also resulted in an increase of skilled blue-collar workers. The open enrollment nature and relatively relaxed standards, such as ease of repeating a grade, also contributed to the boom in secondary schooling. There was an increase in educational attainment, primarily from the grass-roots movement of building and staffing public high schools.

 

By mid-century, comprehensive high schools became common, which were designed to give a free education to any student who chose to stay in school for 12 years to get a diploma with a minimal grade point average.

 

By 1955, the enrollment rates of secondary schools in the United States were around 80%, higher than enrollment rates in most or all European countries.[10] The goal became to minimize the number who exited at the mandatory attendance age, which varies by state between 14 and 18 years of age, and become considered to be dropouts, at risk of economic failure.

 

After 1980, the growth in educational attainment decreased.

 

A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform is the 1983 report that touched off a wave of concern about education in the U.S., addressing concerns about primary, secondary and undergraduate education. Quotes from opening pages: "the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people" and "If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war."

 

The report surveys various studies which point to academic underachievement on national and international scales. For example, the report notes that average SAT scores dropped "over 50 points" in the verbal section and "nearly 40 points" in the mathematics section during the period 1963-1980. Nearly forty percent of 17-year-olds tested could not successfully "draw inferences from written material," and "only one-fifth can write a persuasive essay; and only one-third can solve a mathematics problem requiring several steps." Referencing tests conducted in the 1970s, the study points to unfavorable comparisons with students outside the United States: on "19 academic tests American students were never first or second and, in comparison with other industrialized nations, were last seven times."