March 6, 2015
Thanks to smartphones, people are always
distracted. They are not interacting with people
or places in the moment. Baby boomers like
David Douthit have banished them from their lives.
by David Scott Douthit
(henrymakow.com)
Everywhere, people seem to be glued to their smartphones. I was at one of my son’s baseball games. My ex-wife and my daughter were in the bleachers behind home plate. Neither one saw any of the game, as they were both busy texting the entire game. My son hit his first home run. After the game he asked his Mom if she saw it. She answered, “Saw what?”
My wife and I had to put a sign on our front door that reads “Turn that bleeping smartphonr off!” because her kids kept coming over to make phone calls, or at least that is the way it seemed. It was aggravating when a visitor comes over and just had to “take this call” or that call after call. Or, they would be sitting on the couch looking at the smart phone and texting. You get schizophrenic trying to converse with someone who is some place else mentally all the time.
HEALTH DANGERS
Then there is the matter of electromagnetic radiation waves emitted from the smart phone into the users brain.
There is ample evidence smartphones cause brain tumors, as well as a host of other maladies. I make it a point to tell all my family and friends about that risk. It is usually dismissed with a, “So what? Everybody dies sometime.”
This generation will be stunted. They have conceded their cognitive ability to computers and cell phones. It appears this has enabled them to argue and bicker with people non-stop. The smartphone is a extension of their sour attitude. Grammar and good manners are gone.
This generation has no morals. The breakdown of morality has a lot to do with rise of technology. You would think technology would not have affect morality, but it has enabled the wolves among us to be more wolf-like. Guys brag about bedding hundreds of women. They attribute the ability to meet more women to modern technology.
Most modern men have absolutely no standards. The only standard they have is their ability to use other people. The exact inverse of the Golden Rule.
I also try to stay off the computer. I have to admit, it is addictive. The pixels excite the brain in a drug-like fashion. I have spent too much time on the computer in the past. It didn’t make me any happier or wiser.
Knowledge and wisdom are two different things. Knowledge is accumulated information. Wisdom is the ability to know the right way to use it. Wisdom is gained by negotiating difficult situations, crises, real life moral dilemmas. Time spent on the computer is not real life experience. I think I will go for a walk and exercise some wisdom and my legs.
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Also by David Douthit- MD Pill Pushers-A Personal Story
————————— The AIDS Hoax
——————— Gulf War Troops Got vaccine Containing Nerve Gas
Makow comment- And David doesn’t even get into the surveillance aspects.
First Comment from Dan:
I’ve lived with dial phone ‘land lines’, sending letters by postman, and writing checks. “New” isn’t always better; it’s a always a trade-off. Switching from land line telephone to ‘smartphone’ exchanges one set of inconveniences for another, more complicated set.
At the moment people remain concerned mainly about the loss of privacy [1] that goes with storing every byte of information about you on these GPS tracking, hand held chipset.
But you’ll get over that. Now that they’ve got you hooked on ‘convenience’ , heavily invested into it (iPhones ain’t cheap), and visually dependent upon digitally processed images do recognize what you’re seeing on that little screen as ‘real’, privacy will become less important.
Just this morning I read another piece erosion of privacy perception in CBC News.
“At the border, we’re the ones who have voluntarily engaged with security, law professor suggests”
http://www.cbc.ca/news/alain-philippon-phone-password-case-powers-of-border-agents-and-police-differ-1.2983841
From now on, Airport police will require your password to your smartphone without due process. Privacy used to be a guaranteed Constitutional right. Now privacy is subject to ‘denial of service”. Want to use the plane ticket you bought?
Give up your right to privacy. Want to take your money out of the bank? Give up your right to privacy. Want to use the internet? Give up your right to privacy.
Social networking was designed half a century ago as gradual re-programming of mindset of the “collective” .
Did you know FACEBOOK scans user’s uploaded photos with facial recognition software, and keeps the file forever?
Germany banned this from German FACEBOOK, but if you have your photos on FACEBOOK in the Western Hemisphere…TAG! Gotcha!
http://www.engadget.com/2014/09/02/facebook-said-to-bring-back-some-face-recognition-features-in-th/
Smartphones are just another stepping stone toward acceptance of nanochipping anyway.
[1] How the NSA Accesses Smartphone Data
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/how-the-nsa-spies-on-smartphones-including-the-blackberry-a-921161.html
Comments for “Smartphones Have Debased Society”
TWH said (March 6, 2015):
I think the author is really onto something here. It seems to me as if the advent of cellphones coincided with a sharp increase in rudeness and selfishness. These characteristics were always present, however they seem to have really taken off since about the very late 90s.
The smartphones just exacerbate things by causing people to ignore one another while they ceaselessly monitor their glowing rectangles to make sure they capture the latest inane Tweet or Facebook update as it happens.
I recall visiting a dental office and seeing a family of three walk into the waiting room, proceed to sit down after checking in with reception, and immediately getting their phones out to start tapping away on them. They never said a word to one another while I was sitting there. It struck me that they looked as if they were somehow not human as they sat there and received their fixes from their electronic gadgets.
These devices could be useful tools if people were disciplined enough to use them as such. I have a cellphone, myself, but I never let it interfere with my social activities or even my mundane activities such as being out in public, shopping, etc.
The person I’m physically with (even if it’s a cashier ringing up my groceries) is always more important than some call or text message coming in. As a matter of fact, I often leave it at home. I also heed the warnings about the electromagnetic radiation emitted by these things and never carry it on my body unless it’s in “airplane” mode and I always use speakerphone when talking to someone on it. This is only prudent.
Alas, I fear society has degraded into such immaturity and lack of self-control that the vast majority of people just can’t help themselves and cannot handle the idea of not monitoring one during every waking hour. It’s become like an umbilical cord for most people. They simply cannot conceive of waiting until an appropriate time to check their call history or whatever else may have popped up on it.
David Douthit is correct in his assertion that the only standard men have nowadays is their ability to use other people. The smartphone craze/addiction is a poignant reminder of this selfishness and “instant gratification” attitude.
MacLeod said (March 6, 2015):
In Defense of Devices
The writer states: “I have spent too much time on the computer in the past. It didn’t make me any happier or wiser.”
A device is only as good as one’s use of it. In addition to wasting time on social media and New York newspapers, one can use a smartphone to a) access the entire contents of the Library of Congress; b) download a free copy of virtually any book in the public domain c) find the best deals on food, lodging and everything else in a new city, and — last but not least — d) keep up with Henry Makow’s well-researched and fascinating hourly tweets (even without joining Twitter). I also find Wikipedia indispensable as a starting point for digging deeper into any subject that comes up during the day.
Brian D said (March 6, 2015):
I don’t need to be glued to a little screen anywhere I go. I like to envelop myself in the actual world around me. And people who are glued to their “Smart”-Phones, I now see to be somewhat handicapped.
How did they survive before their “Smart”-Phones?
AH said (March 6, 2015):
Thanks to David for the article.
Of course, the driver for this manic obsessive behavior is “relationships”, aka Facebook. But let us remind ourselves that “Friendship is a cosmological constant”
“Just like momentum and energy, friendship is a finite quantity.
According to unshakable rules of physics, the more friends you have, the less of friends they are. It is physically impossible to have many
friends. By definition, the number of friends you ought to have is equal or less than the number of kidneys you are willing to donate to save someone else’s life, …”
http://www.dedoimedo.com/life/facebook.html
With a phone at home and one at work why the need for a portable? Car breakdown? Never happened in several decades.
When faced with a techno zombie the best action is to stop talking and stare at them, waiting for due human respect before continuing to talk.
Most are shocked and stop with the gadget.
David M said (March 6, 2015):
Ever go into a bar or a club? Look at all the women who using their phones and not notice any men come up and speak to them. They are all distracted with their phones.
When it comes to renewing our driver license now the government is issuing two kinds of driver licenses. One is the the real ID which has a gold star on it and allows us to board airplanes and enter federal buildings.
The other one is the standard ID which does not allow us to board airplanes and enter federal buildings. The Real ID has the RFID chip in it which is the beginning of the mark of the beast as revelation in the bible said it would be. Our freedoms are in fact slowly being taking away from us.
Gus said (March 6, 2015):
I have never owned any sort of portable phone. When they first became popular, I felt that I did not want people to be able to call me anytime, anywhere, and didn’t understand why others would want that. Since then, I’ve learned about the health dangers. Seeing people constantly talking and texting on them has convinced me that I made the right choice, despite people I care about making fun of the fact that I don’t have one.
It’s totally bizarre to me to see young couples out at a restaurant, both starting at their phones nearly the whole time (except when eating, though not always even then!). My girlfriend has a smart phone, but she isn’t dependent on it like most people, and she doesn’t use it for much besides texting and an occasional game to kill time in a waiting room or on a long trip.
I really wonder what these young people are going to be like in 20 or 30 years……..probably giving up all their freedoms to retain their addiction to digital devices.
Henry Makow received his Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Toronto in 1982. He welcomes your comments at
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Smartphones Have Debased Society
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