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BwareDWare94

These Goddamn Telescreens

Necessary Questions  

7 members have voted

  1. 1. Have we become too individually dependent on technology?

    • Yes
    • No
    • The worst thing we could possibly do is fail to embrace advances in technology, so no
    • Like most heated debates, middle ground is where the truth lies
  2. 2. Has excessive cell phone use stunted individual psychological and emotional development?

    • Yes
    • No
    • They're necessities of life at this point--why fight it?
  3. 3. No consequences--what would you choose to do with your cell phone right this instant if you didn't have to worry about what comes after?

    • Throw it into a lake
    • Smash it to pieces ala Ron Swanson
      0
    • Put it back in my pocket because I feel it truly improves my life
    • I'm not dependent on it at all--I don't even have it on my person so I couldn't do any of these things anyway
  4. 4. Should children have cell phones?

    • Yes. I don't believe they cause any harm
    • Unequivocally no
    • Only under special circumstances like single parents
    • Different folks, different strokes. It's really none of my damn business


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Answer the poll questions, then discuss the topic.

1. Yes, I believe that we are undoubtedly too dependent on technology.

I would liken our dependence on technology, particularly cell phones, to Orwell's Telescreen.

 

2. I absolutely believe that cell phone use is stunting emotional and psychological development.

We are raising youth who can't even adequately communicate in person because they're so used to instant gratification communication like text messages. We are raising young people who actually are afraid of human interaction. This is fucked up and we need to do something about it.

 

3. I would throw my phone into a lake. I live and work right by one and it's an everyday temptation for me.

I hate this fucking thing so much. I go to work and I leave it at my fucking desk because I'm sick of looking at it all the time. I'm sick of 30 phone calls a day because of my other jobs. At some point I will throw this thing in my local lake. Fuck it.

4. Only in special circumstances should children have cell phones.

I know too many single parents not to choose this answer. It just makes sense for a working single parent to have means for them to reach their child and vice versa.


Now the non-poll question--what do we do about this problem?
Recognize it collectively and address it. That's our only option. This is only going to get worse over time and it's fucking scary.

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I hate it, but I recognize the necessity of it. It's convenient, but perhaps too convenient. If we could go back to the days of flip phones I'd be all for it, but you can't put a genie back into a bottle and it's the same for tech. And I'm certain that there are harmful effects of carrying around a radiation machine in your pocket every day, but I have no idea how many studies there have done on cellphones.

 

As for children having cellphones, I'd say restrict it to an age limit. Kids in elementary school don't need smart phones, but as an emergency access point, it's good to have a way to contact parents and guardians if need be. As for children's development, they develop with the times, and the senior citizens will always hate on whatever new tech there is. Socrates complained about kids being unable to hold conversations in his day, people complained about the advent of paper because it'd hurt their memorization skills, etc etc. I'd say to be not so reactionary to changing technology, in a few years smartphones might just be obsolete, after all.

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We need to reach people at a young age to try and get them to use these incredible tools to learn. Engaging young minds and teaching them how to learn rather than simple memorize/use basic process of elimination skills. There's a lot of really awesome stuff out there that could help get kids into all kinds of science, math, history etc. We have to change how we do things in a major way.

 

As for right now I'm not sure there's much you can do that wouldn't infringe on peoples basic civil rights.

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