We spend half our lives online nowadays and it’s obviously causing damage to our health. Do you think it would be worth the benefits to stop carrying a smartphone and to disable the WiFi at home?
We spend half our lives online nowadays and it’s obviously causing damage to our health. Do you think it would be worth the benefits to stop carrying a smartphone and to disable the WiFi at home?
I think I disagree. The benefits of portable internet are negligable, but the harm is significant.
Opioids are popular, too, and have significant benefit as well. There are a lot of parallels than can reasonably be drawn between smart phones and opioids.
The internet, in general, is a net good; it’s the accessability to that dopamine button controlled by corporate interests that tips the scales for smart phones. IMHO, of course.
I have to navigate my city’s public transit system every day, so mobile internet has been a game changer for me personally. Thanks to that I’m able to check live arrivals and see which station it makes more sense to walk to in my neighborhood, or figure out exactly when where to switch lines (also based on live arrival times), etc.
Having access to streaming music doesn’t hurt, either. IMO it really just comes down to not installing dopamine slot machines (e.g., basically any social media). Keep the thing simple and utilitarian
Navigation is the one area I agree has benefit, although there are some not sucky offline navigation apps. They’d be better if Maps hadn’t dominated the market and knocked the motivation out of everyone else. Modern CPUs are more than capable of planning routes, and modern storage more than big enough to hold several states worth of roadmap data; there’s no fundamental reason other than user tracking for nav being offloaded to servers.
Personally, I never stream music; if I’m going to pay for it, I want to own it, not just rent it. My phone’s a couple of years old and has 256GB - more than enough for all of the music I listen to.