How Smartphones Change The Way You Think | Jeff Butler | TEDxHilliard
Summary
TLDRThe script narrates a tragic incident in Jing Chou, China, where a mother's smartphone distraction led to her son's death. It delves into the reasons behind our smartphone addiction, citing South Korea's high usage and addiction rates. The talk explores sociological and neurological factors contributing to this phenomenon, such as peer pressure and dopamine release from notifications. It concludes with practical tips to manage smartphone usage, emphasizing the importance of focusing on depth over digital distractions to enrich our intellectual and emotional lives.
Takeaways
- 😔 The script starts with a tragic story from Shanghai about a mother distracted by her smartphone, resulting in her son's death, highlighting the dangers of smartphone addiction.
- 📱 The speaker introduces the topic of smartphone usage, aiming to discuss the reasons behind our attachment to smartphones and how to manage it better.
- 🧐 The talk is divided into three parts: the speaker's personal journey into smartphone usage studies, the factors that draw us into smartphone use, and tips for a healthier relationship with our devices.
- 🌍 The script mentions South Korea as the top smartphone-using country, with a high percentage of the population and children showing signs of smartphone addiction.
- 📈 Statistics are cited to show that the US is projected to reach 70% smartphone usage, emphasizing the importance of understanding smartphone addiction.
- 🤔 The script explores the concept of smartphone addiction, including symptoms like disregard for negative consequences, chronic anxiety, and lack of impulse control.
- 📊 Sociological factors such as peer pressure and the expectation to be constantly available contribute to increased smartphone usage.
- 🧠 The neurological aspect of smartphone addiction is discussed, particularly the role of notifications in creating a dopamine-driven cycle that reinforces checking habits.
- 📉 The script points out that our attention spans have decreased, with some studies suggesting they are now shorter than a goldfish's, due to the constant stimulation of smartphone notifications.
- 💡 Three tips are offered to improve our relationship with smartphones: understanding the reasons behind our usage, turning off phones during certain times, and reducing the number of notifications.
- 🚀 The talk concludes with a call to master new technology responsibly, learning from its unattended consequences to reach new heights of achievement.
Q & A
What is the tragic incident that the speaker mentions at the beginning of the script?
-A woman lost her two-year-old son who was hit by a white van while she was distracted by playing games on her smartphone at a bus stop.
What is the main focus of the speaker's talk?
-The main focus of the talk is to discuss why people are so hooked on their smartphones and how to have a more empowering and efficient relationship with them.
What did the speaker do in pursuit of their entrepreneurial dreams?
-The speaker took a big financial risk by adding a job to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams, which led to losses in money and relationships.
What percentage of the South Korean population was reported to be smartphone users in 2015?
-In 2015, 88 percent of the South Korean population was reported to be smartphone users.
According to a government survey in South Korea, what percentage of children showed symptoms of smartphone addiction?
-The survey concluded that one out of every South Korean child showed symptoms of smartphone addiction.
What is the ratio of smartphone addiction among children in South Korea compared to the ratio of alcoholism among Americans according to the National Institute of Alcoholism?
-The ratio of children with smartphone addiction in South Korea is higher than the ratio of alcoholism among Americans, which is one out of every 12.
What are some symptoms of smartphone addiction as concluded by researchers in the scientific social review article?
-Symptoms of smartphone addiction include disregarding negative consequences, chronic anxiety, and lack of impulse control.
What is the projected percentage of smartphone users in the United States in a couple of years?
-The United States is projected to hit 70 percent smartphone usage in a couple of years.
How does the speaker describe the sociological aspect of being pulled into using smartphones?
-The speaker describes the sociological aspect as peer pressure, where people feel the need to be constantly available due to expectations of immediate responses to texts and emails.
What is the neurological aspect that the speaker discusses regarding the pull of smartphones?
-The neurological aspect discussed is the brain's response to notifications, which triggers the secretion of dopamine, creating an association that leads to a cycle of seeking more notifications for the dopamine hit.
What is the current attention span of people in the digital age according to a study by Microsoft?
-According to Microsoft, the current attention span of people in the digital age has dropped to eight seconds, which is less than that of a goldfish.
What are the three tips the speaker provides to have a more empowering and efficient relationship with smartphones?
-The three tips are: 1) Write down the reasons why you check your phone so much, 2) Turn your phone off during certain times of the day, such as in the morning or during dinner, and 3) Reduce the number of notifications coming to your phone.
Outlines
📱 Smartphone Addiction and Its Societal Impact
The first paragraph of the video script introduces the topic of smartphone addiction, using a tragic real-life story from Shanghai to highlight the dangers of being overly engrossed in our devices. The speaker then outlines the structure of the talk, which will cover the study of smartphone usage, the reasons behind our attachment to these devices, and strategies for a healthier relationship with technology. The script also touches on the prevalence of smartphone use, referencing South Korea's high smartphone penetration and addiction rates among children, which are alarmingly higher than the rate of alcoholism in the United States. The paragraph concludes by emphasizing the importance of understanding smartphone addiction to prevent a similar situation in the U.S.
🌐 Societal and Neurological Factors Behind Smartphone Usage
The second paragraph delves into the sociological and neurological reasons that drive our constant use of smartphones. It discusses the pressure to be constantly available due to expectations in personal and professional relationships, citing France's move to limit work-related emails on weekends as a countermeasure. The neurological aspect focuses on the role of notifications in creating a dopamine-driven feedback loop, which can lead to desensitization and an increased need for these 'hits'. The speaker also addresses the impact of this cycle on our attention span, referencing a study by Microsoft that suggests our capacity to focus is now less than that of a goldfish. The paragraph ends with a critique of the shallow thinking that results from our adaptation to rapid digital stimuli, contrasting it with the depth required for true intellectual and emotional richness.
🛡️ Strategies for Managing Smartphone Use and Its Consequences
The final paragraph of the script presents three strategies to help manage smartphone use and mitigate its negative effects. The first strategy involves self-reflection on the reasons behind the constant checking of one's phone. The second suggests turning off the phone during certain times of the day, particularly during moments that require deep focus or rest. The third strategy is to reduce the number of notifications received, which can help improve the ability to concentrate. The speaker concludes by returning to the initial story, reinforcing the message that while smartphones offer great practicality, they come with significant costs that we must be aware of and manage. The goal is to master this technology to achieve greater heights without succumbing to its potential pitfalls.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Smartphone Addiction
💡Dopamine
💡Peer Pressure
💡Neurological Aspect
💡Sociology
💡Impulsive Behavior
💡Attention Span
💡Digital Age
💡Notifications
💡Intellectual Depth
💡Mastery
Highlights
Jing Chou China incident: A woman lost her son due to being distracted by her smartphone.
The talk is divided into three parts: the speaker's journey into smartphone usage study, the reasons behind smartphone addiction, and tips for a healthier relationship with smartphones.
The speaker's personal experience with smartphone usage as a coping mechanism for financial and relationship losses.
South Korea reported 88% smartphone usage in 2015, with one in every South Korean child showing symptoms of smartphone addiction.
Comparison of smartphone addiction prevalence to alcoholism in the United States, highlighting a potentially more significant issue.
Symptoms of smartphone addiction include disregarding negative consequences, chronic anxiety, and lack of impulse control.
The United States is projected to reach 70% smartphone usage, emphasizing the urgency to understand smartphone addiction.
Sociological factors like peer pressure and the expectation of immediate responses contribute to increased smartphone usage.
Neurological aspect of smartphone usage involves the brain's dopamine release in response to notifications, creating a feedback loop.
The brain's desensitization to notifications leads to an increased need for dopamine hits, causing a 'treadmill of dopamine' effect.
Adapting to rapid smartphone notifications can make everyday tasks and human interactions more difficult due to a shortened attention span.
Microsoft study reveals that the digital age has reduced human attention span to eight seconds, less than that of a goldfish.
William Powers in 'Hamlet's BlackBerry' discusses the importance of deep focus for intellectual and emotional richness.
Three tips are provided to improve the relationship with smartphones: understanding the reasons for checking phones, turning off phones during certain times, and reducing notifications.
The importance of mastering new technology while being aware of its unattended consequences to achieve greater heights.
The talk concludes with a call to action to learn from the consequences of smartphone addiction to leverage technology for betterment.
Transcripts
welcome to Jing Chou China a booming
city with many local attractions it's a
sunny day aside from a light smog and
noisy from the traffic zipping by on the
busy street a woman walks hand-in-hand
with her two-year-old son she's excited
to start her weekend shopping spree the
two of them sit down at a bus stop and
wait for the oncoming bus in order to
pass time the mother pulls out her
smartphone and starts to play games but
after a short while the mother hears a
loud crack starved she looks up and
realizes she's missing something her
two-year-old son she then looks in the
direction of the crack to find her
two-year-old son is bleeding to death
underneath a white van her son were not
when she was not looking he was
immediately rushed to the hospital but
did not make it in time leaving the
mother roadside weeping this is a true
story from the shanghai Chronicle and
that is why I'm here today to talk to
you about why are we so hooked with our
smartphones this talk will be divided
into three different parts the first
part is how I began studying smartphone
usage second is how do you get pulled
into using your smartphone and third but
last but not least our tips that you can
use after this talk to have a more
empowering and efficient relationship
with your smartphone now it's pretty
easy to scalp out someone who stuck to
their smartphone many of us have an
image of someone walking across the
street unaware of the surroundings
playing the game like I don't know
Pokemon go
this might be funny but it's a different
story when it happens in your own life
recently I took a big financial risk I
could add a job in the pursuit of my
entrepreneurial dreams but it was not a
yellow brick road
I immediately lost money and
relationships and more money
relationships that I lost the more time
I spent to my smartphone trying to
forget the reality that I lived in but
it was in seconds minutes or hours but
days where I was trying to forget who I
was as a person that is what led me to
study smartphone usage some people say
were hooked
others dependent some researchers even
go so far to say as we are addicted
regardless of the label to figure out
what's what's really going on let's look
at the number one smart phone using
country in the world South Korea in 2015
South Korea was reported that it had 88
percent of its population as smartphone
users in addition to that stat a
government survey concluded that one out
of every South Korean child
showed symptoms of smartphone addiction
to put this in perspective how many of
you know someone was an alcoholic well
the thing is is that the National
Institute of alcoholism states that one
out of every 12 Americans are alcoholics
which is a lower ratio the number of
children with self in South Korea who
have smartphone addiction now what is
addiction that's such a big word to
throw around
well the science social review a couple
researchers and article concluded that
if you have some of the following
symptoms
you could have smartphone addiction
disregard negative consequences chronic
anxiety or lack of impulse control I'm
sure many of us here have a smartphone
in either our pocket or purse and if you
keep checking that during the talk that
has lack of impulse control which is a
symptom of smartphone addiction
since the United States is increasing
the smartphone usage in fact were
projected to hit 70 percent in a couple
of years it's more imperative than ever
to understand why as addictions are
taking place in other countries if we do
not learn there's a strong possibility
that we will also follow in their
footsteps now how do we get pulled into
using our smartphones well I'm going to
go over two different ways the first one
is sociological peer pressure how many
of you get frustrating when someone does
not respond to a text message fast
enough come on yeah we all do that why
because there's a possibility that
someone can respond immediately so in a
way we expect it and being a recipient
you want to be a good spouse significant
other or co-worker so what do you do
well you make yourself just that much
more available here that much more
available there and it's perpetuates to
a point where you're literally on your
phone 24/7 because you're trying to keep
up with external obligation it may also
notice this is very common in the
workplace managers literally have their
employees on a leash because the
convenience factor of Technology
employees now they bring their home work
home saying oh I have to take care of
some 9:00 p.m. emails what we find
though is that moving forward that some
countries are fighting back France
recently announced that they are outline
banning emailing for companies more than
50 people on the weekends that's that's
funny isn't it the thing is is that they
state that people have the right to
disconnect people have the right to
disconnect doesn't mean that you also
have the right to disconnect in America
because the convenience factor that
technology brings to our daily lives or
expected to be more available through
external obligation now that's the peer
pressure aspect what about the
neurological aspect what happens in our
brains
well there's a lot of ways this happens
I'm going to go over one for the short
talk and that is through notifications
yes text messages emails or an app on
your phone telling you is a one degree
change in the weather
and when you receive this notification
you feel good why well loved one just
texted from across the United States or
you finally figured out that UPS package
finally arrived at your doorstep but
underneath the happiness the brain is
secreted dopamine and an instant the
brain associates dopamine with a
notification creating a bond also known
as an arrow
Association therefore when you look for
that notification in the future or
rather the dopamine you look for the
notification and there you go round and
round
notification dopamine notification
dopamine but the brain takes it one step
further after that it becomes
desensitized instead of needing 5-10-15
notifications to feel that hi you now
need 20 50 or 100 you're essentially
running a treadmill of dopamine through
notifications but is that really that
bad
I mean sure you're stuck on your phone
but more and you feel good from all that
dopamine hits well here's an interesting
question how many of you tuned me out
for a couple of seconds hopefully not
minutes during this talk we do this all
the time think of a really boring
meeting when someone uninteresting is
talking so what do you do you say well
I'm gonna tune them out for a little bit
so you take out your phone you look down
for a dopamine hit huh you see you have
a rhythm where you expect dopamine hits
and if I'm not fast enough you tune me
out because you've adapted to the rapid
stimulus of notifications from your
phone making everyday tasks such as
reading writing or simply talking to a
friend difficult out of all places
Margaret's off corporation supports this
point of view stating that in the
digital age our attention span has now
dropped down to eight seconds headlining
I kid you not
your attention span is less than a
goldfish
thanks Microsoft William powers in this
book Hamels blackberry points out the
caveat to this thinking as he says the
greatest thinkers of our time that were
considered geniuses were able to apply
their intelligence and focus depth to
their work to bear forth new ideas the
ability to focus or have depth is what
makes life rich intellectually
emotionally or through meaning end quote
yes the practicality that smartphones
brings to our daily lives is phenomenal
but it comes at the price of shallow
thinking is not what we do in the
digital world that's so powerful but
rather outside of the digital world who
are able to analyze interpret the
information for deeper meaning
unfortunately from adapting to the rapid
stimulus notifications we are less able
to focus now I know that sounds really
scary because now your attention spends
less than a goldfish
according to Microsoft so what do you do
about this well I put in three tips in
this speech that could help out with
this predicament the first one is you
get to play psychotherapist for a bit
write down why why do you want to have
why do you check your phone so much
maybe you're excited because a loved one
might text you guilty because your boss
is on your back or maybe you might want
to escape you want to avoid that escape
reason it's an easy segue into addiction
that's the first reason second very
common advice but it's turn your phone
off during certain times of the day
first thing in the morning lasting an
evening because smartphones have been
shown to drop sleep cycles or more
importantly during moments of
intellectual depth and focus big of
lunch with a friend or dinner with your
kids just put it away that's tip number
two tip number three is reducing the
number of notifications coming to your
phone yes I know it feels great being a
micro celebrity when your phone keeps
going off in front of your friends but
honestly no one cares except for you
what you'll find is as you reduce the
number of notifications the ability to
focus Rises and correspondence to review
play psychotherapist for a bit write
down why to turn off your phone during
certain times of the day and three
reducing the number of notifications
coming to your phone going back now to
Jing Jie Zhao China with the woman weak
and roadside because of the death of her
son we no longer see an oblivious parent
but rather there was a battle at hand
for the mother's attention a one hand or
smartphone the other her son in this
case the smartphone went out yes the
practicality that smartphones brings to
our daily lives is phenomenal but it
comes at the price and near addictive
behavior and the shortening of our
attention spans some pay higher price
than others but as we learn to master
this new technology just like any other
innovation in the past we will be
brought to new heights of achievement
and the point of this talk is to reveal
those unattended consequences so we can
use it as a stepping stone to those
bitter Heights thank
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