

There is nothing wrong with using your cellphone at dinner. - thekevan
https://medium.com/the-entrepreneurs-journey/defd9264bf14

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serf
I wholeheartedly disagree.

This isn't why I disagree with the article, but I think the example of a
newspaper is a poor one.

Newspapers are a one-way information exchange. People take information from a
newspaper and traditionally use this information as 'conversational currency'
with other people within their peer groups, or such as in the picture used in
the example, locality.

"They say it'll rain all through the week." "How about them Yankees?'", "I
can't believe our court systems let _him_ get away with _that_!"

A mobile device is different, as it is a means of two way communication. We
can take in the information from this method, but we can also spread this
information, or "spend our conversational credits" with the device as well,
with other people linked to us by their similar devices.

A person on a device is commonly networking with a very large group of other
people, and the information exchange is nearly never one way. Humans like to
receive feedback on information they receive. This gives us a wider
perspective that is further detached from ourselves, and is generally more
well-rounded in regards to the opinions the rest of the world shares.

People now use devices like this, to gain a larger amount of opinions so to
form their own views. As humans, that feedback loop with other humans is
necessary.

The problem : It has not been sufficiently shown to me that we are capable of
honoring both information sources very well at once. Most people who I have
spoken with who are busy (different than idling on) on their mobile devices
have a level of disconnect between myself and themselves that I have never
experienced with someone who was simply reading a newspaper or watching a
television.

I believe that this level of disconnect that I have experienced in an
anecdotal fashion may be related to the cognitive overhead being higher for
two way communications methods compared to information-receiving systems.

I don't believe technology is ruining us..

but, I wouldn't care to have dinner with someone who'd rather be spending time
on a device that'll be there once the food is gone.

It's more a human respect thing. I don't _need_ to believe that technology is
ruining us to be irked by the fact that someone can't be bothered to turn
their attention to those around them for forty five minutes out of the day
when those people are doing the same for them.

