In today’s globalized world which operates 24/7, it is hard to imagine life without the ubiquitous smartphone. But it wasn’t always so. The first iPhone was introduced in 2007, so even though there are 6 billion cell phone users today, millions of people were raised without cellphones or indeed any phone at all! This possibility is, of course, inconceivable to a Generation Z-er.
There are undeniable benefits to owning a smart phone – navigating, contacting loved ones, organizing business, taking photos and recording music. A myriad of convenient functions all contained within one small digital rectangle! The smartphone did change the 20th Century, but it came at a cost. It brought with it, unique and perhaps unintended consequences into every sphere of our lives.
What negative effects is this dependency having on our behavior? What can we do about it?
Paul Greenberg quit his iPhone three years ago to research Goodbye Phone, Hello World after he realized that he had wasted one whole year of his life on the phone that could have been spent with his teenage son.
Do you love or hate your phone? Could you live without it?
Recorded 2/22/20222
Support our mission to provide free and open discussions about the pertinent issues and ideas confronting us, in the world today.
Join the conversation. Support our ongoing public events and radio series. Contribute $100 or more and receive our newsletter and invitations to special Cambridge Forum events.
To join, call the Forum office at 617 495-2727 or make a contribution now online via Paypal.
Most conversations today involve distracted people looking at their phones and not their partners. This, according to Sherry Turkle, is leading to a “crisis of empathy” at work, at home and in our public life. Turkle is Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT, and spent four decades studying the relationship between people and technology. Her current research indicates that the decline in thoughtful face-to-face dialogue constitutes an epidemic and that in moving from “conversation to mere connection”, we are losing our humanity.