That was the question posted by a 50-something journalist for The Atlantic, the title of which I have borrowed for this blog. At least I think he's a 50-something, could be 60-something I suppose as he talks about buying his first smartphone device, a Blackberry, in 2000. Ahead of me, I think I bought my first Blackberry after I moved to the US permanently, around 2008 or so. At any rate, his article centered around how he doesn’t remember what he did before he had his smartphone and does that mean what he did wasn’t worth remembering? The article is a riposte to those people who are negative toward smartphone use.
Quoting the article: “Answering this question seems important, because smartphone use is supposedly deleterious. Extreme use is often blamed for contributing to anxiety, depression, and compulsivity—and almost everyone seems to use these devices to extremes. Smartphones are also said to disconnect us from the world and from one another. Instead of enjoying lunch or tourist attractions, people take photographs of them, frequently to secure approval from their peers, who are also using smartphones. The sociologist Sherry Turkle famously lamented how these devices encourage people to live ‘alone together.’”
He's right. I've heard those very same things, if not from acquaintances, from articles. "Oh, taking so many photos on my holidays destroys the feeling of being "in the now."" "People don't talk over lunch anymore, they are on their smartphones." Never mind that I barely remember a lot of the vacations I took before my first iPhone and oh how I wish I had photographs of what the world looked like back then! And scintillating conversations over lunch? There's some truth in that for me, I DO get a bit annoyed when the teenagers are constantly on their phones during a family outing. My son-in-law bans smartphones from the table at some family dinners, bless him, but the teens still answer monosyllabically. And, again, I barely remember wonderful warm conversations with my family over the family dinners--in the main, I was meant to listen not speak--or when I lived with my roommates. Not that they didn't happen, and I do have warm remembrances of sitting with friends and laughing. That's important and I do think if that feeling exists between people, the smartphones will stay in our respective purses. The teens? A tougher crowd.
Still, I don't remember hours and hours of wonderful warm experiences that occurred without a smartphone. I enjoyed "in the moment" all of my travels and being with my friends. But, personally speaking, I have just as many happy (and intense) memories of the trips I have taken with my iPhone camera in tow because I am a very "visual" person. I lean more toward visual cues, rather than auditory ones, to remind me of the past. And if those photos are my own, they remind me all the more strongly.
Going back to Bogost's article again: “Before smartphones, people didn’t invest their in-between time into forging social bonds or doing self-improvement. They mostly suffered through constant, endless boredom. So let us not lament or malign the time we waste on smartphones, at least not so much. It is bad to be seduced into argument or conspiracism, to shop or lust or doomscroll, to bring one’s job into the dentist’s chair or the living-room recliner. But it was also bad to suffer the terror of monotony. Now there is too much happening, but before, ugh, nothing ever happened.” Ian Bogost, The Atlantic
I agree 100% with what he wrote although I do wince at the words "suffering". Still, how many times did I take a long bus ride and kick myself that I had forgotten my book? Now my book is on my iPhone or my iPad. Or how many times did I get lost because I have absolutely no sense of direction. My iPhone has saved me several times now and I do not consider no longer juggling a map in the pouring rain, trying to read the street names, a lost art. Waiting in a doctor's office when the only magazines on the table were Parents Weekly or Reader's Digest? Not that I pooh pooh Reader's Digest, I grew up with stacks of R.D. in our house and I credit it for my vocabulary and for my love of short stories. But when you're nervous about the upcoming appointment, there's nothing like distracting yourself with Twitter. (We won't go there.)
Dear Editor/Blogger friend:
ReplyDeleteThe funny thing is, before smartphones (waaaay, way back, when my mom was still living) we had magazines and books. And what did we do? We read article snippets to one another, took quizzes printed in the magazines, talked about what we read, saw on TV, etc. Once in a while, if we felt strongly, we might even write a letter to the editor and mail it in (with stamps and envelopes). As a 10 or 11 year old I had one that I wrote get printed in the Omaha paper, and my parents and grandparents saw it... and had not known I had written it or sent it in. Adventures!
So yes... we did the same things, just with different technology. Signed, your respectful reader, OKM!
I did strike a bit of a nerve (smile). We all have different experiences and yes, I did some of that too and it was great. And I still do :) So I wasn’t so much putting down the good old days as defending my current techno habits against some who would say they aren’t a patch on those good old days. Both days are good if you get my drift, we are just in a different space (or at least I am).
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