It read like a horror movie: \u201cHow smart-phones hijack our minds.\u201d That was the headline of a piece in the Wall Street Journal \u2014 an article that immediately got my attention, and caused me to curse my phone: \u201cAha! It was YOU who caused me to eat all those candy corn pumpkins!!! I TOLD my daughter I had nothing to do with it!\u201d<\/p>\n
The article gave some pretty shocking statistics: We pull our phones out 80 times a day \u2026 our phones are actually making us less focused and sloppier \u2026 their mere presence makes us dumber and we\u2019re willingly letting these devices \u201ccommandeer our brains\u201d \u2026 if there is anything resembling candy corn in the house, they will force us to eat it. Stuff like that. <\/p>\n
Truth is, if aliens wanted to invade Earth, all they need to do is buy a bunch of iPhones and pass them out for a free on a street corner. \u201cKeys to the planet for a free smartphone? Eh \u2026 sounds like a fairly good deal! Does it come with unlimited data?\u201d <\/p>\n
We are willingly letting ourselves get hijacked.
\n<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what we\u2019ve come to, and the article had some research about how our devices are impeding our ability to think \u2013 literally short-circuiting how well we turn \u201cinformation into knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n
That scares me. But I tell you, it\u2019s not my biggest beef with smart-phones. Frankly, it\u2019s that for all their abilities and technological advancements, they can\u2019t actually perform the duties I most want. <\/p>\n
For instance, why can\u2019t we get smart-phones to go to meetings for us? They can do everything else, but they can\u2019t do that! Or do our taxes? Why can\u2019t we get them to walk the dog when we\u2019re running late for work? <\/p>\n
Truth is, I don\u2019t need a smart-phone. I need a handy-man phone. One that doesn\u2019t look up step-by-step instructions on how to install an attic vent by the scary power line, but that actually goes up by the scary power line and does it for me!<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t need artificial intelligence. I need real intelligence. Like when my family and I went to the waterpark Aquatica in Orlando this past weekend. A REAL smartphone would have said to me, \u201cSay man, do you really think it makes sense to wear your beloved sunglasses that cost real money on a water ride that has waterfalls and rapids?\u201d <\/p>\n
I want a phone that will slap me and say, \u201cYo! Stupid-face \u2026 go put them in the locker and buy your daughter some $18 Dippin\u2019 Dots on the way back!\u201d I would be out $18, but I would still have my sunglasses. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s a phone I can use. That\u2019s a phone worth sacrificing my attention and intellect. And that\u2019s a phone I\u2019m perfectly willing to sell out the planet for when the aliens come calling. Provided, of course, they\u2019re offering unlimited data and plenty of candy corn pumpkins. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It read like a horror movie: \u201cHow smart-phones hijack our minds.\u201d That was the headline of a piece in the Wall Street Journal \u2014 an article that immediately got my attention, and caused me to curse my phone: \u201cAha! It was YOU who caused me to eat all those candy corn pumpkins!!! I TOLD my daughter I had nothing to do with it!\u201d The article gave some pretty shocking statistics: We pull our phones out 80 times a day \u2026 our phones are actually making us less focused and sloppier \u2026 their mere presence makes us dumber and we\u2019re willingly letting these devices \u201ccommandeer our brains\u201d \u2026 if there is anything resembling candy corn in the house, they will force us to eat it. Stuff like that. Truth is, if aliens wanted to invade Earth, all they need to do is buy a bunch of iPhones and pass them out for a free on a street corner. \u201cKeys to the planet for a free smartphone? Eh \u2026 sounds like a fairly good deal! Does it come with unlimited data?\u201d We are willingly letting ourselves get hijacked.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571,572,559],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2017-nutshells","category-in-the-news","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1652"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1653,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1652\/revisions\/1653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}