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Re:Things We Didn't Know About Ourselves by favourable on Wednesday February 14, 2024 @12:51PM (#39372795)
I think it was Aral Balkan who said we're like cyborgs now with our smartphones. I remember him saying that in a talk, and the idea resonated with me. The key difference is that it's not a chip in our brain, but a device we hold and treat like a pacifier. I think we need a new term for smartphones though. I don't know the stats, but who makes plain telephone calls anymore when we have WhatsApp etc? A smartphone is really just a small tablet that happens to have a baseband (that people rarely use apart from cellular Internet).
Re:Things We Didn't Know About Ourselves by TwoCent on Wednesday February 14, 2024 @01:32PM (#39373355)
They are kind of like pacifiers for adults, aren't they? The term "fondleslab" captures that; I believe I first read that moniker years ago in some article on the Register.
Re:Things We Didn't Know About Ourselves by bee_rider on Wednesday February 14, 2024 @01:09PM (#39373053)
It is shocking how fast we’ve become totally dependent on smartphones. I remember getting lost on my college campus, having to print out maps and stuff. And I’m not really that old.
Re:Things We Didn't Know About Ourselves by jiggawatts on Wednesday February 14, 2024 @05:49PM (#39376676)
If you’d had no idea what a smart phone was but were observing human behaviour from afar, then we would seem freakishly coordinated, as-if we had telepathy or a hive mind.

Imagine watching from space as drivers detour around an accident ahead almost like they had foreknowledge of conditions they can’t have seen yet…

Re:Things We Didn't Know About Ourselves by AnimalMuppet on Wednesday February 14, 2024 @02:00PM (#39373688)
> who makes plain telephone calls anymore when we have WhatsApp etc?

Um... I do? And almost everyone I know?