Is it that they’re not waterproof?
Is it that they’re still so disruptive to traditional social interactions?
Is it that you’re a cyclist (like me) & you expect to be killed by someone texting while driving?
Mobile technologies are far from perfect, and perfection is almost certainly a pipe dream in any case.
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What I hate about mobile technology is the planned obsolescence and carbon footprint of it all. While my concerns regarding distraction, health, and being present are echoed by my peers, I am conflicted by the e-waste and constant updates needed for mobile devices. A few previous posters talked about e-waste and phone disposal and I feel similarly regarding environmental concerns. Designed to be replaced, we still don’t know the extent of environmental damage certain non-renewable resources used in mobile devices will have as they decompose and degrade. In addition to that, the carbon footprint of cloud-based storage is much larger than some might assume. More cloud storage means more servers that require buildings that use vast amounts of energy and water to keep them running and cool. The digital world is largely impacting the real one.
I echo the concerns voiced by many about the pervasive distraction brought about by mobile technologies in our everyday lives, whether it’s during school, work, or our personal time. The constant distractions of social media, notifications, and calls frequently disrupts my productivity and steers my focus away from tasks I intend to complete throughout the day.
I’ve also observed how mobile technology shapes our social interactions and worldview. Instead of fully engaging in the present moment, some individuals develop a reliance on their mobile devices. It’s common to witness people spending more time on their phones rather than interacting with those around them. Additionally, there’s a tendency for some people to prioritize capturing and sharing experiences on platforms like Instagram. Often times, instead of spending time fostering meaningful connections with others, or the immediate environment, a lot of their time is often dedicated to documenting their moments to share on social media.
As someone who remembers life lived before the internet and the rampant onslaught of technology, I would like to answer the question (what I hate most about mobile technologies) from both perspectives. From the first, late 20th century perspective, what my pre-internet self hates most about technology is that it has disconnected people socially and decreased clear, critical, and creative thinking cognitively. No one knows how to do anything, no one knows how to communicate, and I fear greatly for the upcoming hangover of the future of the world from too easily integrating AI and mobile devices into our daily lives. From this point of view, I want to retreat to my off-grid farm to live happily ever after.
From the second, contemporary perspective, what I currently hate most today about technology is its incompatibility and non-modularity. First, as we have all experienced that certain devices, hard and soft wares are incompatible with each other, forcing tech users to be endless consumers of increasingly expensive, ecologically destructive products. Attempts to ease this friction are in constant idea mill. The first example that comes to mind are universal chargers. There are many, many more. Regardless, these solutions are still working within the space of problem and have not innovated themselves out of the box yet.
Perhaps one out-of-the-box innovation could be to make phones ‘modular,’ to build them like Legos. Too often, when one piece of a device breaks, like the screen cracks or charge port gets wet, the whole device needs to be replaced. Short of innovating a strong DIY consumer culture for everyone to fix their own machines, it would be a great idea to be able to simply replace that one part. When I googled ‘Lego phone,’ plastic toy blocks were displayed on screen – perhaps as expected. But when I typed ‘build mobile phones like Lego phones’ into google, I got a much more interesting result. I discovered that this does actually already exist (d’oh! There go my billions! Lol). It is called Phoneblok and was designed in 2013:
https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/phonebloks-is-a-lego-like-phone-that-lasts-forever/
So where did it go? Why did this fantastic trend NOT catch on? I googled ‘phonebloks’ and was taken to their updated website:
https://www.onearmy.earth/project/phonebloks
I learned that this was once a Google funded project called Ara defending consumers Right to Repair. While a Lego type phone device is still in existence, Google disconnected itself professionally from the project, thus killing the idea of modular phone building. Phonebloks seems like a perfect solution to saving both money and the environment. So, why are we not all using it? Google’s monopoly over the spread of this information may be responsible for driving consumers to specific products. Is there an APP to reverse THAT trend?
I think that being able to build a phone would be so great for so many people. To assume that people want to have the newest and most high tech everything is sort of naive. I think there also needs to be more options for low tech phones that don’t fall apart and render themselves useless at the drop of a hat. We need to stop thinking so much of the next bigger and better thing, and see what people actually need.
Similar to previous posts, I think of it as a love/hate relationship with how connectivity has created an environment of always being in touch with friends, family, colleagues. The benefits outweigh the challenges, but it also has created an environment where it takes a concerted effort to disconnect. I have tried setting my phone to grayscale, removing apps that I have not used in more than 2 months, and shutting down social media for a time, but I often find these efforts to be cyclical and I will be in a similar position to where I was before. The accessibility of these tools at our fingertips speaks to a growing dependency, which I think what I dislike the most is the overreliance on mobile technologies.
I know of people that will not drive without the use of Google maps, which I think can be just as disruptive as using Google or Siri in the middle of a conversation to confirm a specific fact. In my professional context I see a growing number of instances where colleagues will use chatbots on mobile device like a laptop or smartphone and defer their decision making to AI rather than applying their own critical thinking. I worry that mobile technologies are a crutch in which we lose confidence in ourselves to make decisions or be afraid of being wrong, which in turn means taking less risks. Connectivity is great but using it as a crutch is concerning.
As much as I love being connected to my family and friends who live thousands of miles away through a small device, sometimes being connected 24/7 is also exhausting. Often times I feel myself yearning for a break but unable to put my phone down or resist from replying right away. And when I meet someone who is not on social media, I find that so odd yet I want to be that person. How does this person have the guts to be so disconnected yet content? What do they even do with their phones? I think in this day and age, using your phone has become more or less equivalent to “doom scrolling” down a social media rabbit hole. And when I engage in this behaviour myself, I think to myself, why do I know so much about this person’s life?
So I guess what I’m trying to say is I hate the absolute control my mobile phone has on my life and others I know, and my lack of restraint when it comes to responsible use of it.
Mobile Technologies…are they bad for us physically?
After staring at your mobile device, do your eyes feel dry or tired? Do you get headaches after working on your laptop for too long?
The Canadian Association of Optometrists (2023) describes several symptoms of computer vision syndrome, also known as digital eye strain and this is one aspect I hate about mobile technologies, despite all the benefits. I have inherently dry eyes, which is made worse through the prolonged use of mobile devices, which can be very uncomfortable. The longer term impact on my eye and vision health is unknown, but it seems to be trending in a negative direction…
How about the term ‘tech neck’? The Mayo Clinic Health System (2024) describes ‘tech neck’ as “any form of chronic neck or shoulder pain, soreness or stiffness caused by poor posture while using technology, such as phones or computers” (para. 8). I regularly suffer from ‘tech neck’ and often feel like mobile devices do more harm than good to me, physically.
Do others experience any other physical issues from the countless hours spent using mobile devices? What strategies do others employ to maintain your physical health while using your devices?
References
Canadian Association of Optometrists. (2023, March 27). Computer vision syndrome (digital eye strain). https://opto.ca/eye-health-library/computer-vision-syndrome-digital-eye-strain
Mayo Clinic Health System. (2024, April 10). ‘Tech neck’: Technology’s effect on your neck. https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/effect-of-technology-on-your-neck
My biggest concern is the move towards the “life is elsewhere” mentality mobile tech seems to be driving. (credit to Milan Kundera for the phrase https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44559.Life_is_Elsewhere?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=IC9lqNJozL&rank=1 ) Even the smallest moment of downtime or lack of interest is cause to jump on a device. And as with many issues, there’s an element I agree with: there can be substantial dead time in existence that could be enriched by doing something else (dentist waiting rooms and subway rides would be my top suggestions). But that’s spilling over to everything: at home, at school, on vacation, at work… Questions can’t remain unanswered, details unchecked or status not updated. Overall, I think it’s moving people to miss a lot of opportunity in the here and now.
Personally, I think part of this fueled by the persistence of social media. With every app seemingly having a way to share, comment or check a leaderboard status, more and more actions are becoming evaluated on their relations to each others – who ironically, are usually not the people one is actually sharing an experience with in the moment.
Mobile has the capability to help people do amazing things everywhere, but we seem to be using it to do mundane tasks, even in extraordinary places. Yes its’ convenient that I can renew my mortgage while on the beach in the Bahamas, but is that what I should be thinking about while there?
When I read this prompt, I was admittedly rather drawn to it immediately! Technology is fantastic, I use it and embrace it, but there are certainly some things that I hate about mobile technologies. As soon as I started reading all the previous posts, I realized that many of the dislikes I harbor are shared with fellow users, so I’m just going to try and spin a couple in a new way.
1. Too much ease of access – I hate that it is becoming so easy to use, so integral to instant access, that it slides it is normalized to immediately reach for a mobile device without thought or true intention. I am absolutely guilty of this, and I see it in my family, and in my students. It is seen as advantageous and socially acceptable to have the device at all times and use it to immediately access information, and use tools and games. It becomes uncomfortable for people to NOT have that constant connection. Bored? Pull out the phone. I don’t like it overall.
2. Mobile technologies are designed to keep you on. Endless scrolling on Social Media, games that have constant progress and discourage users from stopping … it is profitable to keep users endlessly online rather than coming on and getting off to engage with more important things. I hate that aspect of mobile technology. Ask my son to stop playing a game on his phone, and it is exceptionally hard for his ADHD brain to be willing to just click it off when he knows he will lose progress, it won’t start at the same point, etc.
I would love a world where the internet and mobile technology were actually about the good of the user rather than the profit of the company.
Well, since the original question was posted, our mobile devices are now waterproof, so thank god we can drop them in the toilet and it won’t totally ruin your day.
These supercomputers we hold in our hands represent the ultimate personal tool. But to have 24/7 access to all the information and entertainment in the world, for free, is both an incredible gift and potentially too much of a good thing. As adults we can analyze ourselves and (try to) work on our self discipline to manage our use of these devices in a way in which we can find a healthy balance. We cannot expect the same of our children. I believe it is incumbent on us to guide our adolescents in navigating a world with these powerful devices. What I hate about mobile devices (or rather how people are managing this technology) is seeing (some) adults give these devices to young children or even babies. I am sure we will look back on this era in utter disbelief.
When I see this topic, I think of many perspectives, such as dependence, addiction, information filtering and other issues. But when I saw the hint about waterproofing, I suddenly thought of the often missed considerations about the device itself. The iteration of the Mobile Internet has shifted from hardware-driven to software-driven. The update of the hardware itself also focuses more on storage capacity, computing speed, etc. It seems difficult to see breakthrough developments in the convenience of daily use. We can see wearable products such as Google Glass and smart watches that are trying new breakthroughs in convenience, but they are still inseparable from physical items. I have to say that today, when mobile technology can make our lives and studies more convenient, it actually encourages me to want more convenience. Sometimes I hate the fact that I have to carry a mobile phone with me no matter what I do.
What I dislike about mobile phones is how immersive and distracting they are. I have ADHD, and one of the tools I use to help me overcome my struggles with executive functioning is to set a timer, for 20 minutes to half an hour, this makes it more of a race, and adds a competitive edge, which motivates me to work for that time period, and have a break afterwards. The problem is that as soon as I pick up my phone to set a timer, my fingers start to drift, look at a message notification, I better check that and reply, or I’ll fall down an internet Google research rabbit hole because I just wanted to fact that one thing before I started my project, or oh I’ll start in a minute I just want to see if there is an update about that ‘thing’ on social media, and half an hour later I’ve realized I’m still on social media and haven’t started work on my project. There are apps you can get to block other apps for a set period of time so you can’t access them, but the problem is that I have to pick up my phone to open that app first, which starts the cycle again. Mobile phone’s ability to connect with so many things, and to be so immersive makes them an amazing tool but also the ultimate distraction, especially if you have ADHD. I actually ended up buying a timer cube, so that I still have my timer without touching my phone. It has already proven on multiple occasions to have been a worthwhile investment.
One of the drawbacks of having access to mobile technology is that we are constantly overstimulated by various apps, videos, audios, social media interactions, notifications, and messages, leading to addiction. Many people experience boredom and even anxiety without their smartphones. I’ve noticed that many kids these days struggle to pass the time without technology. I had students who didn’t know what to do at the playground during recess and asked if they could use their devices. So many of us rely on our smartphones daily that they have become an essential part of our lives. While they provide us with convenience and entertainment, they also consume our time, distancing us from analog activities that might be more meaningful and productive than what we have in our digital world.
My mobile tech ecoysystem consists of the following device I use daily: iPhone, iPad, laptop, and garmin watch. What I most hate about mobile devices is running out of juice (especially in the worst times – yes, you remember that time!) and then waiting for your device to charge. It’s ironic that once you plug one end of the charger to your device, and the other end to an electrical outlet, that your mobile device becomes immobile (let’s call this mobile immobility).
One positive of mobile devices is also a negative (at least in my eyes) — that is, the amalgamation of so many different functions onto a single device. There continues to be a push to streamline everything and have it on your mobile device. It’s taking the place of a TV, a movie theatre, a gaming console, a desktop computer, a tablet, a record player, a telephone, an alarm clock, a map, and a post office to name a few. There’s the benefit of convenience and potentially lowering the cost of having to purchase these items individually. However, this is at the cost of marginalizing each experience, and making it less intentional and social. There’s no wait time to worry about when a new movie comes out. Just watch it on your small phone screen alone instead if you’d like. This reduces the community aspect of seeing it with so many others, and potentially overall enjoyment because so many details can be lost watching on a little screen as opposed to huge theatre screens. While streamlining is convenient, I believe it is making us far less intentional and less focused on each individual task that we do.
I like this comment and have thought along similar lines myself. At least the first part. The mobile device is almost too many things/ functions. Sometimes I would like it to be less, or have several more focused devices, such as one that focuses on productivity and one that focuses on entertainment. I think a lot of people probably feel this way whether they know it or not. For example, many people have two phones, a work phone and a personal phone. Sometimes the only reason they choose to keep them separate, at personal cost to themselves, is so they feel they have separation between work and personal life. Is this effective? I don’t know. I have everything on my work phone and then put it on airplane mode or vibrate while sleeping.
What I hate about mobile technology is our dependence on it and its ability to make us dumber. I’ll give an example: I used to do deliveries for a construction company, and I used Google Maps all the time, mostly to avoid traffic. That worked great, and no doubt saved me hours a week, something I was appreciative of. However, when I had to go to the same places I had been dozens of times, and my phone was dead, I would struggle to get there. My dependence on Google Maps stopped me from actually retaining directions.
Since we carry our phones all the time, mobile devices bring us incredible convenience to our daily lives. With the convenience comes dependency, and I think this phenomenon is inevitable in human evolution, as with any technology development, we would hope to be able to carry it with us if it provides this much information, resource and support. My main concern is social isolation this dependency comes with. Humans are interactive and social in nature, and the advanced development in mobile technology actually set us back in our social interactions and development. We spend many hours a day on the phone, doing things we could have done without it, such as talking to an actual person at the coffee shop, or going to a theatre to watch a movie with a friend instead of binge watching an entire season on Netflix in a single night (guilty…). This creates a new level of isolation that we may not even feel we are going through. Furthermore, this level of isolation, combined with idealistic world of social media, comparing one self with unrealistic ideas and images the society in isolation can be unhealthy for one’s mental health. In this isolation people can also develop different personas in the online world, disconnecting with their true identity. And I have not even gotten into cyberbully yet, which can further increase social withdrawal and isolation. Overall, I love my phone, don’t get me wrong. But I sure am uneasy about the social isolation it comes with!
Your point about isolation is important in the context of connectivity. Mobile devices allow for a level of connection and instantaneous connection that was previously impossible. However, this prevents us from ever really being able to unplug. If someone does not respond fast enough, people often get frustrated (as I do with my parents for example), but this results in the requirement to be connected. It is no longer always culturally acceptable to leave work communications not responded over a weekend or holiday, nor do friends usually appreciate if it takes longer than a few hours to hear back. However, becuase we are always connected we can seek to disengage entirely from others further exacerbating the social withdrawal you mention. This constant demand to be connected and responsive is probably what I hate most about mobile technology.
One thing I dislike about mobile technologies is the anonymity or confidentiality of online communications compared to face-to-face interactions. On the one hand, I enjoy the necessary protections to prevent unauthorized access to my personal confidential information so that I can trust and enjoy using those technologies. On the other hand, however, there are some cons related to online data privacy. I believe that everyone is not foreign to online abuse, which is any type of abuse that happens on the internet. Identity protection on the internet sometimes worsens online abuse by hiding the evildoers behind the screen. Not everyone can endure the mental damage from online abuse, especially for some vulnerable populations, including children, disabilities, or people with mental disorders. In fact, everybody can get influenced by bad words on the internet to some extent, and some effects are long-lasting even if people do not realize it. I had enough terrible experiences seeing appearance-shaming comments made under girls’ posts, and every time I wonder how the cons and pros of confidentiality can be balanced.
To go along with idea I hate seeing that this anonymity creates this dissociation from the person. You see comments made by people to people that I could never imagine someone would say to that persons face. Mobile technology creates this sense of separation and anonymity that allows people to feel comfortable saying things that are hurtful with very few consequences.
One thing I dislike about mobile technologies is that sometimes it knows me better than I know myself. For example, my phone has been sending Siri suggestions that remind me to message certain people at certain times of the day, and in most cases it is usually someone I was supposed to message but had forgot to. Sometimes, I struggle to find words to curate messages, but the mobile’s predictive text knows me better and provides the words for me, knowing what I wanted to say before me. Although this can be useful, I dislike that mobile technologies have become a personal assistant of sorts with minds of their own, learning about us and constructing a comprehensive database on us.
What I Hate About Mobile Technologies…is how it excludes the very young (not from benefiting from mobile uses, but from being participants), babies and children ages 0- 4 (at least) who do not use mobile technologies. This article shows the sad truth of how mobile phones and technology use can affect the thoughts and feelings of young children. https://soranews24.com/2016/01/21/elementary-school-students-wish-to-become-a-smartphone-breaks-japanese-internets-heart/
In the article, a teacher reads an assignment about how the student wishes to be a smartphone because her parents love their phones so much and pay so much attention to them. The child goes on to say that his parents don’t pay as much attention to him as they do their phones and that they spend time with their phones and not him. While I hope this is not true in most households, it holds in many, and while parents often are doing important work on their phones, a young child will not know or understand that. Hopefully, mobile technology use will not result in a generation of children who feel unloved and neglected due to their parents’ mobile technology use.
*Disclaimer this article does seem a little too convenient to be true, however even if untrue it’s still thought-provoking and impactful.
The one thing I really hate about mobile technology is sitting face to face with someone who is constantly using their cell phone. If you made the effort to see me face to face, please do me the courtesy of paying attention to the people in front of you. The distractions are immense. I call cell phones “tools of mass distraction”.
On the one hand, I enjoy the flexibility brought by mobile technologies. On the other hand, I feel like mobile technologies have been dominating my life and I need a break. While some regions are still struggling with poverty, electricity and technology. In developed countries, people are “hijacked” by digital devices, particularly mobile devices like cellphones. After 8 hours of screen time at work, then another couple of hours of TV or phone browsing are tiring mentally and physically. A friend of mine was troubled with digital device addictions and had to attend a week-long to get “clean”. That’s an extreme case I understand. What I want to express is, that we need to be conscious of how we spend our time and how we use mobile devices.
It is such a juggling act sometimes! Although addiction and normal use are two different beasts, it’s hard to imagine a world without technology as things slowly become paperless. For example, receiving statements, emails and work forms are something that are gradually becoming all online. Your thoughts do give me an idea that maybe technology should come with anti-addiction mechanisms, although I guess that’s why we have family and access settings for parents.
What I hate the most about mobile technologies is that I find it incredibly hard to find a balance. Although I connect with people more easily, I also feel less of a need to work on face-to-face relationships. Although I enjoy taking time off of certain apps (e.g. a month off of Instagram every so often), I also find it incredibly easy to waste a few hours scrolling through them when I do use them. Although I am fortunate to be able to have access to any news outlet I want, I sometimes find it incredibly overwhelming and feel like I’m oversaturated with information. I love technology and, in some ways, it has ‘improved’ me as I can more easily gather knowledge, work on friendships, explore my passions, etc. However, technology has also brought on isolation, misinformation, confusion, etc. I don’t think it always has to be enjoyed or pushed away at different extremes, but I do find it difficult to meet in the middle and find a balance.
Eye strain is the issue I have the most with mobile technologies. I have pretty good vision but I do have astigmatism and extremely dry eyes, through my constant use of mobile devices, especially during the pandemic and also taking online courses, my eyes have gotten dryer and my astigmatism has gotten worse. Even tools like blue light glasses do not always do much to minimize the strain in my eyes and I find myself having to take more breaks during homework sessions or consistently using eyedrops like, Systane, to ensure that my eyes can survive the session. I often find myself printing my articles to be able to read without strain. I also now have gone back to purchasing or borrowing physical copies of books as opposed to reading too many of my iPad as the strain that it causes can be limiting.
Some technologies can be held responsible for many physical issues. As you mentioned, eye strain, but also posture, or carpel tunnel. It’s kind of funny because I use my phone to access yoga videos in order to improve my flexibility and posture which have probably been negatively affected by my use of phones and other technologies.
While utilizing a desktop or laptop, I can use a stand-up desk or a chair to enhance my ergonomics and make my neck and shoulders comfortable after long stents of computer time. However, when it comes to the small screen of my mobile device, I need the device closer, so it is difficult to not slouch when typing or scrolling. In an earlier comment, I mentioned how cool it would be to have a cell phone you could toss up and hover to take photos. In a similar effect, I often wish when I am sitting that my cell phone could hover in the air, at eye level, so I do not have to bend my neck and shoulders, in a hunched position to view my phone. The way we typically hold our cellphones naturally makes us slouch over and strains my neck and shoulders, causing tension headaches. Is this a cause for frustration for anyone else?
I found this website that offers tips for using mobile phones in an ergonomic way: https://www.allthingsergo.com/ways-use-smartphones-tablets-ergonomically/.
In my search, I found other problems that may impact mobile users: hand fatigue, hand cramping, or injuries using mobile devices. Mount Sinai (mountsinai.org/selikoff) offers suggestions for stretches to reduce hand fatigue when using mobile phones: https://www.mountsinai.org/files/MSHealth/Assets/HS/Patient%20Care/Service-Areas/Occupational%20Medicine/Ergonomics-Smartphones.pdf.
What irks me about mobile technology is battery life. I have two phones- one I use for calls, and texts, mostly, and another that I use for gaming and functions that don’t need cell service, but that operate on Wifi, like checking out the news or watching a show. In airports and ferries, the limited plugs for electronics are usually already taken. When I think of students using technology for education, I wonder how much juice the app will use and how long before the devices will need to be charged again.
Yes – this charging can be annoying! I remember getting into difficult situations because my phone ran out of battery. I think this is improving though – I recently got an iPhone 13 and it charges completely within a few minutes – I think this is impressive. In the future, it seems like we’ll see wireless charging. Some companies are already developing these technologies. You can look at one case here: https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/watch-a-new-wireless-charging-technology/article33992510.ece
One thing I hate (dislike) about mobile technology is our inevitable dependency and addiction to it. I have tried to take long and healthy breaks from my phone on multiple occasions, however, with our world so technologically reliant, how am I supposed to “live” without it? For example, I wanted to take a break from my phone in the early months of 2019, however, I was, at the time, a TTOC (teacher teaching on call). The only way I could guarantee work was to answer my phone when the system call me and accept it from there. I thought to myself: “what if I just was someone that didn’t have a phone? Could I still be a TTOC?” Another occasion was during the height of the pandemic when restaurants were just opening, I went looking for a physical menu only to find out that they were only offering QR codes. How was I supposed to choose my meal without my phone? Therefore, the one reason I hate (dislike) mobile technology is that I feel this inevitable sense of connection to my phone, it is hard to take much needed breaks when our society relies so heavily on contact and work-related purposes by contacting ones mobile device.
Good observation, Megan. Indeed, mobiles have become an essential component of our modern societies. I think this has happened because the things they enable us to do are linked to our essential survival needs and also because, in some cases, they allow us to save time and increase productivity. I think that if the dependency is on the practical / survival aspect there is no problem – the issue is when the dependency is on our emotional wellbeing!
Above all, I am frustrated by the inequalities more present than ever encouraged by the possessed mobile device, particularly among adolescents and young adults, who are very heavy consumers of mobile technologies. Mathieu* has the latest iPhone that his wealthy parents bought him for his birthday, a new device every year. On her side, Julie* has her father’s old Android phone with the cracked screen glass. Sam* doesn’t have a phone because his family can barely afford groceries. In the class, Mathieu is so cool and popular, Julie goes free and Sam is always the last chosen for teamwork. I am certainly exaggerating the situation, but the smartphone is like a fashionable accessory of clothing and encourages value judgments, even intimidation in some cases. What I hate, therefore, are the high prices and the difficult accessibility for a large majority of less fortunate people. *fictitious names
I agree Sebastien. I also believe that bullying has always been present in schools, every generation had a different type of bullying. In recent years among teenagers, cyberbullying became a big problem like sending or posting embarrassing photos and videos on social media or spreading rumors online. I hope we can find a solution to bullying soon, and that’s why I think that online classes and self-paced educational courses are great for children who experience bullying in schools.
I am frustrated with mobile technology’s change in how people communicate with each other. I understand the concept of limiting the amount of characters used (you -> u) in order to fit a tweet within the character limit but this new language has found its way into inappropriate venues (students use this method of communication on assignments, for example).
What I dislike about mobile technologies is the feeling of being overwhelmed when I have to learn a new application, style or update. The constant ‘change’ in what I’m looking at screams at me, like when the grocery store moves things to different aisles, the burner on your stove isn’t the same, or something on your desk has shifted. It’s the same thing for me when my mobile phone goes through a series of updates or I’m learning a new application for supporting my learning, teaching, and lifestyle. The time spent sitting there and problem-solving to make it work. Do you know what doesn’t do that? Books. Books are the same; you instantly know how to work them when you pick one up. So in truth, it’s the ever-changing capabilities of mobile technology that have me vacillating between a love and hate relationship of new and fresh to old and familiar.
This is true. Often changes to what we are accustomed to can be chaotic. I just changed my phone (from a Huawei to and iPhone) and experienced this. A couple of days ago I turn my old phone after months of not using it and getting around it was uncomfortable because I have become accustomed to the iPhone. It is not an update case, but a similar dynamic taking place!
One thing that I hate about mobile technologies is the ever-changing and inconsistent nature of the accessories needed to use all the functions of the device. As someone who maintains a status quo across mobile device brands (Apple in my case), nothing is more infuriating than opening up the box of a new device and seeing that it does not come with a charging brick or has a different cord, or utilizes different connections than previous devices. Making changes in these accessories never appears to be motivated by advancements in technology, but rather for financial gain. Additionally, trying to maintain a large number of mobile devices for a setting such as a school is greatly complicated by needing to know what brand and generation each device are and what corresponding accessories are required. One of my favourite functions of the iPad is being able to sketch on margins and highlight any text, but this functionality is locked behind the purchase of another accessory (Apple Pencil).
Lol, I know what you mean, Braden. The folks at Apple are experts at this! I recently got a new iPhone and a MacBook Pro and it seems like every year they are becoming more exclusive and dependent on Apple accessories.
Don’t forget the argument that they removed certain accessories from packaging or devices to be more environmental friendly. A few years back, apple removed the disk drive from their laptops and I had to buy it separately as an add on.
I think the word hate is pretty strong but I think one negative aspect of mobile technologies, particularly smartphones, is that they can diminish our ability to communicate face-to-face. It is common to find ourselves grabbing our phones and travelling (sometimes scaping) to our personal worlds while being in the company of others. Of course, this might be a reliever when experiencing some forms of social awkwardness, such as being at a gathering where you don’t know anyone or not knowing what to say in the company of others. However, on the other hand, if we didn’t have a device to run to maybe we would be forced to engage with other people, discovering and developing in-person communication abilities that are necessary for healthy and empathic relationships.
The only thing I hate more than typing on a smartphone is trying to move that blinking cursor in between two letters. It’s a near impossible task and leads to simply deleting half the text. I do like the relatively new swipe typing feature though. But honestly speaking, I don’t really care enough about my phone to the extent of harbouring actual hatred 🙂
Aaron, your example made me think how the smaller the device, the necessity for finger dexterity and steadiness increases. This makes some options of using a mobile device inaccessible to users who experiences hand tremors, or arthritis in fingers.
Definitely it’s going to be over dependency. As an ice breaker for my classes I ask my students a series of decision making questions, one of them is “would you rather loose your wallet or smartphone?” An overwhelming majority choose wallet as their smartphone is pretty much equivalent to many things (wallet included). That being said, while I don’t necessary “hate” it, I think it’s worth reflecting how dependent we are on our phones to conduct our daily schedule. Things such as contacting people (who still remembers phone numbers?), planning for school/work, looking up info, paying for things/services and navigation functions are all done via our phones. Recently smartphones have extended to acting as a car key to start your engine or locking your front door! I wonder if we can still function if faced with a sudden phone withdrawal situation, would we feel lost or helpless? While they make our lives considerably easier, an adverse side effect could be it actually lowers our critical thinking/adaptability skills over time
One thing that irks me about some mobile technology companies and their devices has to do with their tricks to prevent rights to repair. For example, Apple using different screws to make DIY repair work more difficult. There are also cases of companies gluing on batteries or other miscellaneous things to make replacements difficult. By making exclusive parts, they will be the only people that can repair those devices.
Yes! Agreed.
What I hate the most of mobile technologies is their complexity. Does anybody actually know much about their phone? Are you aware of all the things that it can and cannot do? Does anyone know of their passwords, profiles, and other data is secure? There’s so much technology in a phone that we don’t understand that the mere thought of it scares me. There are so many algorithms, apps, locations services, etc., that we are not aware of. Every year the technology advances and how much time to we put aside figuring out the technology? Phones now do more than most people can do on a regular basis, it’s multi tasking variants disconnects people from the real world. I personally like learning and knowing a lot and even with all I know about technology I still know nothing!
My biggest pet peeve about mobile devices is that they are purposefully designed so that they are required to be replaced every few years. Companies in fact design their software updates to make older devices incompatible over time, due to the amount of space they take up. And if you don’t update, then sooner or later you will be seriously limited in the apps that work on your device. Not only is this wasteful and greedy (on the part of the developer), but it creates a have and have not system.
Hi Erica,
Your post makes me wonder if this will change as resources for components of mobile technologies become more scarce (the current microchip shortage) or become too expensive? Will companies shift to other materials or redesign products to maintain constant consumerism? I also question since this type of purposeful consumerism redesign doesn’t exclusively happen to mobile technologies does it feel this way to some since mobile technologies are the ones we use most and where innovation (debatable) is likely to occur?
I was reflecting on this idea recently in relation to DSLR cameras (a mobile technology). When camera companies shifted from analog to digital there was high redesign at first as technology legitimately advanced every few years (in relation to sensor size) but it seems to have saturated as sensor sizes became large enough for the average consumer. But, I recognize that this is a specialized product now as DSLR cameras are being replaced by mobile phones which meet the needs of the average user. So I am not sure if the drop in frequency of redesign is saturation or a shift in consumer preference. That being device preference is driven by the consumer (mobile phone not a DSLR). Either way, It seems like as long as there is a consumer need there will be a redesign but whether that redesign is practical and purposeful or not seems to be decided by the consumer.
In the case of Apple products, I don’t think we can blame the consumer for the needs of the replacements because we want more. Rather I think about the need to replace my mom’s iPad, not because she needed the latest and greatest, but because Apple’s updates finally made her old iPad dysfunctional to use for the basic functions that she uses it for – email and watching streaming sites. And I chuckle when I say ‘old’, as when we think about how long iPads have been in existence, we realize that iPads can in fact not be that old.
What I hate about mobile technologies is how addictive it can be for children. It offers so many great opportunities for learning and connecting but I also find that most young children and teens have no ability to moderate their use. As a parent, it is a constant presence in my life and I would love to not have to ‘manage’ how much my children are using technology but I know that without strict limits they would never get off of their Ipads, Iphones, video games. The fault is often not the technology but that it’s being used by young people and children who haven’t learned how to moderate their use and are unaware that you can have ‘too much of a good thing’.
The technology is partly at fault here, as time is put into designing apps … etc to hold users attention and to draw them back. Time and thought is put into making them addictive. And the problem isn’t just with kids, adults suffer from it too.
I hate that we boycott physical interactions because we are “connecting” through mobile technologies. As I struggle with this dilemma, someone who did not grow up with mobile technology, I genuinely worry about this “human downgrading” (social isolation, instant gratification, decreasing attention spans, etc) for our youth, the digital natives. We are societies with their heads stuck in their mobiles and missing what’s happening on the other side of them. At a place where I am recognizing my own downgrading, I have started to log off and look up. By no means do I tend to fall behind in technology or not continue to enjoy the infinite world of possibility that mobile technology brings, but I have begun to play a more active role in educating students and challenging them to acknowledge (and dare I say, decrease) their social media interactions and increase their physical ones.
“Overdependancy” is what I hate the most about mobile technologies. How much can we be effective without our smartphones and all their features? I still remember the times when we used to do calculations by ourselves or remember the grocery list without checking our phones. It scares me that I sometimes struggle to remember my wife’s phone number when my phone is dead or not around. Back in the time, I used to drive around without GPS, but now I use it even for the nearest destinations. Do we really need to be that dependant? I tell my mom to send me a voice message for the recipe rather than tell me how to prepare lasagna on the phone. Now, we need our smartphones to exercise, count our steps, register how many glasses of water we drink, and even remind us to read! How well can we perform without our mobiles? It is true that it makes things easier to do, but are we becoming dumber limiting our brain capabilities? I am not talking about addiction but rather lazy thinking habits. Some people don’t even get educated on basic topics because they know uncle Google is always there to debate on their behalf.
Hi Feras, I understand your thoughts. In my experience in China, I am consistently amazed how much people rely entirely on their mobile devices for information and communication. I often see young couples in restaurants who literally don’t say words to each other over the entire evening; however, they are both heavily focused on their mobile devices. I assume they are chatting to each other through them, or at least I hope. Some of my Chinese friends in Beijing would get lost in the city without their phones directing them home. As someone who has lived in the city for 5 years, I often tell people where a destination is from our current location, simply because I have biked around the city on many occasions without using my phone for directions. However, as I read in the very first post of this discussion. We need to question if this “overdependence” is the technology’s fault or should we place more blame on users for so quickly handing over all control to the technologies. I would suggest perhaps it is a combination of both. Undoubtedly, many of our current mobile technology applications have morphed into products seeking to get users to use them as much as possible. However, consumers also need to understand how technology should be used and where to draw limits. In my opinion, I think this balancing act between the pull of mobile technology and the control of users will be something we continue to circle back to throughout this course.
Hi Graham. Your question is a golden one: whom to blame? Given the fact that overdependence seems to be prevalent but still relative, I believe it more of the user’s responsibility to determine how immersed or engaged they are with their mobiles. I know many people who rarely check their Whatsapp messages or even use the GPS. Good for them and their brains, I guess, but of course, we cannot deny that they are missing on many things or rather late. On the other hand, this addiction feature is, for the most part, done by design. Creators or apps and software invest in persuasive technology to keep us hooked on the devices as long as possible, mostly for commercial reasons. The balance you mentioned is essential, and people should be aware of the fact that they are forming lazy thinking habits by being overdependent on their mobiles.
Something that I hate about mobile technology is the need to constantly update – hardware and software. I like the advancement of technology and I understand that it is happening and supposed to happen at a rapid rate. There are times where it is hard to catch up. Once I get used to one piece of hardware, it is time to get an upgrade! There is also an added pressure to “keep up with the Joneses”. This creates an unhealthy culture where children pressure their parents to buy them the latest technology and adults spending even more money to keep up with the latest technology. I also noticed that with some software, it stopped working if the software or hardware is not updated. These software updates also happen unexpectedly. The other day, I had a Zoom meeting with clients and during the meeting, I noticed that some functions didn’t work. After the meeting, I updated the program and for my next Zoom meeting, all the functions worked properly. Sometimes with these unexpected updates, it causes inconveniences and disruptions to my regular day and work day.
I agree! When we first moved to online learning and I was working as an administrator for my elementary school, this constant updating caused so many issues for my staff and also for my own daily life in trying to jump into different meetings using different technology. It often led to delays, difficulty connecting or incompatibility and I never see any added value to these updates. I also see with my own children, the constant request for the ‘latest and greatest’ technology that is out there and that their friends have and it is endless. It does create an unhealthy culture and it it feeds the need for immediate gratification for the latest release of whatever version of video game, ipad, iphone, ipods are being sold in order to connect with friends online or compare products when they are together.
I would agree that upgrading is a nuisance and the lifespan is usually shorter than hoped for. In schools, it is usually about a 5 year cycle but the final year is often a stretch. This is somewhat disturbing because the processes that computers and tablets and other mobile devices used in schools require fairly low computing power. Only some of the specialized courses have needs for more power and processing. I wonder what people think of the idea of easily upgradeable devices. If it didn’t mean that you had to be a computer engineer to change out a processor, add more ram or expand space but the trade-off was a slight larger machine that lasted twice as long, would you take it? What difference would it have depending on if it was a laptop, tablet or phone. What trade offs would you be willing to make to have a device stick around for longer?
I would definitely take a slightly larger, heavier machine if it would last twice as long. With my personal machines, I usually get nervous when I’ve used them for 4-5 years. I think this speaks to the confidence that I have in the technology that I buy? There are articles saying that the life expectancy of a cell phone is only 2 years. Which is an insane amount of money to spend for a necessity that only last 2 years.
On various websites, there are quizzes that help the consumer narrow down the machine that fits their needs. I often use that quiz because I know I don’t need the top of the line machine, but I might just need something that is just above the basic line. As a result, I will probably spend less for a machine that just fits my needs.
I’m not super savvy with technology, so I don’t know what I need to do to help my machines last longer. *Knock on wood* But my machines have been working so far!
Have you ever feel frustrated when the Wi-Fi can’t connect and you’re just trying to teach a Zoom class or have a Skype meeting from your iPad? What I hate the most about mobile technology is the instability that sometimes occurs due to poor network connections. When I was teaching students online during Covid I had many connection issues which disrupted the class all the time. So many applications and features that we use daily on our devices rely heavily on the internet service that once the connection is down, our devices seem to be useless. Smartphones can still function on a 4G/5G network, but the costly bill that comes after massive data usage makes nobody happy except the telecommunication companies. Perhaps we would have a more stable and affordable network service as telecom technology continue to develop, but meanwhile, it’s still something we need to bear with while enjoying the great convenience of mobile technology.
What I hate about mobile technology is losing the item such as my mobile. Since my life is stored in that tiny little object. For example, when I traveled, I would save my boarding pass in the apple wallet. Also, I have the app with my vaccine passport. The calendar keeps all my reminders and appointments. I don’t know anyone’s phone number, but my mobile has that information. I can’t always recall what medication I take for my disability, but you guessed it my mobile knows. So the panic I get when I misplace my phone is due to all my important information being unavailable. Furthermore, the potential of going through the difficulty of retrieving should I be unable to find my source of information. Mobile technology can’t live with it and can’t live without it.
Something very basic that I dislike about mobile technologies is often the physical hardware. I feel like I have an easy time receiving information, however, because I am a terrible texter and touch screen user, I HATE having to write anything substantial on my mobile device. So, for me, it is often a one-way street of only acquiring information and not contributing. Anything more than writing a text message, which I don’t enjoy, will preferably get typed on my computer. If it weren’t for auto-correct my communications on my mobile device would be incoherent.
What I hate about mobile technologies is that it makes it really difficult to just “be”. You are waiting for someone at a restaurant, a commercial comes on, you’re in an awkward situation, the first thing most people do is pick up their mobile device. Additionally, you are technically reachable at all times and people expect you to answer. Have you ever left your mobile device at home and spent the entire day without it? It is such a debilitating feeling. It is not what mobile technology can provide that I hate, I think it is the state of mind that it creates.
Thanks for sharing Joelle. Love the way you articulated this idea of mobile technologies as a crutch to our lives. If only we could all take a deep breath and enjoy the people/world around us without the need to be “technologically connected”.
I totally agree with Joëlle! This is what I hate most about mobile technologies as well. I feel like I need to have my phone with me “just in case” even if I am just going out to walk my dog. I also have a hard time paying attention to one screen at a time. Sometimes I’m watching a show and surfing on my phone at the same time which is ridiculous. It’s like a never ending yearning for stimulation. For a long time I resisted getting a smart phone because I didn’t feel it was necessary to have one. However, as our society moves more and more online, smart phones are slowly moving to be a necessity.
Hi Joëlle, Sam, Olivia,
I came to this discussion to write something along these lines. I think Feras and Anna articulated something similar too. You’ve neatly articulated my thoughts as “…it makes it really difficult to just ‘be'” – This is SO true. It’s the double-edged sword of “mobility” – we can take it anywhere, and so, we do. It’s just too easy to always have it with us and always have it ‘on’. I guess it’s a discipline some of us didn’t grow into when we were younger, and so, we’ve all had to recognize it and find balance ourselves. As I’ve been creating personal boundaries with my phone (ie: I leave it in my purse when I eat with friends) I find myself increasingly bemused when the people I’m socializing check their devices at every lull in conversation.
Hi Joelle! I completely agree with you. My friends and I went into a restaurant that had a sign that said “Talk like it is 1950”. We all laughed because we all believed that when we make time to eat together, we should really be spending this time to catch up and talk to each other. However, we came to a time where we had to find the location of our next hang out spot, a waiter popped out and jokingly said “it is suddenly not 1950 anymore”. Sometimes I wonder what was like it before everything was on my phone. Is quality of life better before or after everything is on a mobile device?
The things I hate about mobile technology are that it’s too accessible and most web pages are not mobile-friendly. When I encounter sites that are only meant to be viewable on the desktop or are badly designed it makes for a really unpleasant experience ( small text, zooming in to tap on content, images that are either cropped inappropriately, etc.)
Secondly, mobile devices are too accessible and through ease of access becomes an addictive tool that everyone must have on them at all times. I see socialization occurring more on a device than with others around them. The phone became an extension of us, it became a need. It is interesting to see the function of the phone evolving from just talking to each other by voice to our needs changing the phone’s purpose and features – the smartphone.
I discussed with my family that we should get back to using the phone for that function alone – voice communication. We may even get another phone which will only be able to make calls and text. We would leave our smartphones at home or in the car and have that phone when we go out.
There are few issues I have with mobile technology.
The first issue is a phone or tablets’ ability to assist the human brain to release large amounts of dopamine and make it so addictive.
The second issue is the speed of development in mobile technology. By the time I graduate from the MET program I might have a iphone 20 or 25 with holographic capabilities. In my opinion, the development of a single hardware device that can be upgraded via software.
The third issue is battery life and durability.
The one thing I do not like about mobile technology is it’s addictive nature. The mobile and portable devices instantaneously give self-gratification to the senses that make us crave for the technology all the time. I feel this has taken away the family time, social interaction and conversational moments which the people used to have prior to mobile technologies. Being a secondary school teacher, I everyday observe the students using their phone to chat with their friends who are sitting next to them. Face-to-face conversations and smiles have changed to hangout conversations, facetime and emojis.The most concerning use of mobile technology is that the people are getting more comfortable in the company of technology. The reason being is that they can be with their own self without being judged. However, it is making people drift from each other and from their personal relationships.
Hi Loveen,
This is so true, especially since there are apps out there that were created with the idea of making you addicted to it. Recently, my high school students have been playing a genre of games call “gacha games”. The games involve a lot of gambling aspects and the systems were designed to get the player to build a habit of playing it. I know of people who spent thousands of real money chasing in-game characters. There are more regulations surrounding it now, it definitely shows the negative aspects of consumerism.
These students sometimes prefer to text with the phone rather than verbally speak to the person – even if they are right next to them. I think they rather this form of communication because some think that talking verbally is not engaging enough. Texting enhances the experience – gifs, emojis, animations, etc. It’s fun. I also think that since they use their device as a tool for acquiring knowledge it is easier to send a link and discuss it on the platform they are using. It seems like most of their knowledge is coming from the internet via a mobile device. To gain knowledge, I remember going to the library, reading print media, and discussing it in person. Sometimes I go into that with students when they can not be bothered with research, “Back in my day…” They have too much accessible knowledge via the internet that they have not learned how to filter the great information from the not so great ones.
One thing that I hate most about mobile technologies is the seemingly lack of ethical standards that are held against mobile technology companies. It feels like almost everyday there is something in the news about some technology company that was somehow using and abusing its power over the user. This may look something like collecting and distributing user data and monitoring user interactions with their products to then use this knowledge to further increase the user interaction time with their products. This information may be hidden within a Terms of Service agreement, but I feel like mobile technology companies (and technology companies in general) and abusing their power over the user by hiding these terms within a document that they could never expect the user to read. So, maybe my issue is more with the design and layout of Terms of Service agreements. I wish technology companies would just be clear and upfront about exactly what they are going to do with anything they collect from the user, and somehow display this information in a way that can be easily accessed by anyone who is going to use their product.
Part of the problem is that users freely give up their time to the big companies. Andrew Yang has an interesting proposition, that companies should pay us for our data and “no longer be able to get away with hoarding the gains made off your data.”
https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-andrew-yangs-plan-to-pay-you-for-your-data-doesnt-add-up/
One thing I hate about mobile technologies — even as I cheerfully acknowledge that it’s good for the technology itself, and perhaps eventually good for us too — is the seeming redundancy of so many “new” apps. I understand that when a technology is genuinely new, there is merit in end users — us — being given a diverse choice of applications and vendors to choose from, and a variety of (hopefully different) solutions, costs, platforms, features, etc. But particularly with social-focused technologies, having a choice of seven different apps (three of which work on your phone, five of which are free, two of which don’t do everything you need, one of which everyone is talking about — that one isn’t supported by your phone — and all of which your friends use) creates unnecessary confusion if all you want is a quick, simple, free video chat app, or similar.
I can’t propose a workable solution for this. I’m certainly not in favour of tech monopolies. But I would rather that designers and developers devote their time and resources to new and innovative solutions rather than running to market with “their own” derivative and nearly identical versions of the latest thing. If an app is just something I use by myself, this isn’t a concern, but social apps, by necessity, are shared technologies, and surely we wouldn’t want to live in a world in which Apple phones could only call other Apple phones, and Android phones could only call Android phones.
What I hate about mobile technology ironically enough, is when I can’t use it. I’ve grown so accustomed to using it for everything from paying for things to storing membership information on APPs, I am bothered when I have to carry cash on me. I feel like money is so dirty because everyone touches it, and the coins are annoying because I can’t find them in my bag. I usually don’t carry cash on me and just use my phone to pay for everything, so when I can’t do that I feel annoyed. If I go shopping and they keep physical cards for membership rather than keeping it in an APP, it makes me not want to become a member.
I do feel like I’ve become a slave of my mobile device in that I really can’t live without it. Every year I pay a lot of money for cloud services to keep all my information stored.
I sometimes feel as if there is no consideration from the mobile technology movement towards the fact that some people do not want to increase their screen time. I teach a course that is very hands on, and I still can not believe how much time I spend on my laptop or phone with work related items. For example, I was recently asked to create a digital course outline for all the electives that are offered that I teach (there’s a lot). This is hours of additional screen time that is technically not in my job description and I will not be financially compensated for. Yet, I feel uncomfortable bringing this up to my employer. I feel as if the answer will be “it is just something you can knock off over a couple evenings online,”
Something I do not like about mobile technology is most of the apps or programs that accompany mobile technologies are free. Thus, the user becomes the product, and the mobile experience is spoiled from reaching peak user experience. The marketable product is the user in the end. Thus, rather than design apps and user-interfaces to be optimized for the user’s benefit to feed our information obsession. There is a negative feeling about the amount of time users will spend in an app, possibly because the total amount of time is associated with addiction. Rather, a sense of joy rolling over a user for the time spent on their mobile technology. Instead, the user may feel guilty for the time wasted that could have been used to be read, perform an activity, or engage with others in the real world.
I believe this feeling of guilt stems from the fact that these free applications and programs internally are designed to hold a user’s attention for as long as possible because they are the product.
Check out this podcast by Seeker: How The Internet Uses Your Reward System to Keep You Hooked. It is available on most podcast/streaming platforms. They talk about the science of internet addiction and how new technologies are met with skepticism, and how this same skepticism dates back centuries.
https://archive.org/details/podcast_seeker-plus_how-the-internet-uses-your-rew_1000407146506
I feel that the trend to increase the size of mobile devices are making interaction designers lazy. I would love to see a hard limit of what can fit in the average person’s one hand and pocket be the defacto limiting factor on size. Than the limitation on size will drive display technologies (see my post on dream devices! https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec523/2020/04/10/w02-mobile-technologies-i-want-to-see-someday/#comment-3247) and interaction design to become more fluid and responsive without causing carpal tunnel syndrome and busting out of pockets!
What I hate about mobile technologies is that it leaves no privacy or personal life. Before people were so used to mobile devices, people have more personal lives and are easy to be away from the work environment. However, with mobile technologies, work intrudes on personal lives easier. Many times, I feel like I have to keep on working 24hours a day. When people use mobile technologies, it is hard to keep privacy. It is unconsciously for people to leak personal information with mobile technologies, such as where people visited, what they searched online, pictures or videos, and even what they talked on their phones. It feels like a stoker I am taking in my purse that I could not drop.
Hi Nini,
I wholeheartedly agreed with you. Sometimes, I need some isolation and loneliness or just some time for relaxing. But even if you switch off your device, you can be tracked, and there will be a lot of information when you turn on your device. There is an invasion of privacy disguised as the content of related interest.
I agree with you Nini. When we carry our mobile devices around boundaries are crossed by employers. We are not expected to work on our “time off” but at the same time a hardworking individual is a person who answers their emails anytime. Most would love to turn off thier phone when it’s their personal time because some employers do not respect that. They always say “we respect your time” then why email me on my personal time?
One thing I hate about mobile technologies is getting “dropped” from my connection. This can happen whether I’m using wi-fi or a data connection, using an app for fitness tracking, streaming music, having a video chat, or a variety of other things. Suddenly I’m no longer connected, often progress I was trying to track is lost, and I have to reset whatever I was doing and start again. It’s frustrating and time-wasting, and sometimes makes me wonder if I’d be better off going back to using something low-tech.
Hi Wendy, I agree with you. I’m so used to being connected on my phone, that when I am not, it feels uneasy, and if I’m not responding soon enough to people, they think something is wrong. Sometimes I do miss just uninterrupted time of looking into the trees and nature, without feeling like I need to tell people that I won’t be reachable in the next hour.
However, I do really enjoy the convenience my mobile device brings, and I almost can’t live without it! I use it to communicate with my family, many of whom are living in different countries, so it’s so great to be able to stay in touch at the tip of my fingers.
I would feel uncomfortable if a shop assistant followed me around when I was window shopping. Recently I got this feeling sometimes after I had done some window shopping online. Here is the thing: every time, as long as I had hung out a goods page at the online store for a while, the next day I would get an email of promotion from that store (I don’t know how it entered my primary category of Google email service). The emails flattered me that what I found were spectacular (and still available!). Although I know the emails came from a “back-end” intelligent agent that tried to infer customs’ intentions by collecting and analyzing their operational behaviors on the devices, I really hate that I was followed, examined by a shopping assistant, even if by a virtual one. It’s really terrible if one day my face is to be read by agents furtively while I am working on my phone.
How can an intelligent agent do without being annoying?
Oh, I remember getting those emails from the online shopping stores saying “Dear Esther, You’ve left something behind!” or “Still thinking about it?” Very creepy!
After having a conversation on some products/services with my husband, quiet often related advertisements on that products/services show up on my Facebook/Instagram feeds. It is Google or Siri who keep listening to our conversations 24-7. Maybe I should turn my mobile devices off when it needs to be a private conversation? haha
What I hate about mobile technology is the lack of compatibility between brands, apps, devices, etc. The appeal of mobile tech is it’s seamless, supportive presence in our lives. So if I can’t use an app because I have an Android phone, or can’t share a gif in my Instagram feed and so have to switch the conversation to WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, or have to reformat my Canva image to fit different app requirements, it feels like a technological failing: unnecessary friction.
These companies have no reason to work together. They’d much rather keep me in their sphere of products. But I can’t help but think progress will include better compatibility (look at Canva vs other video/image apps just a few years ago) and standardization. Ease the friction! (preferably not via monopoly or censorship…)
I love the term you used- “unnecessary friction.” I agree, and think that there should be more of an emphasis on universal design and function. I like to use the example of cars. Every car seems to have their controls in a different spot and controls work in a different way, making it difficult to switch between vehicles and causing like you said, unnecessary friction in the user experience. For such an important piece of machinery there should be more standardization such as always having the blinker on the same side and the headlights always being in the same spot so any user can immediately operate it. The same for mobile devices and the companies who make them- don’t reinvent how you access the internet on each new device, just make it faster and more user friendly instead of spending so much energy trying to be different that the functionality is lost.
My thoughts exactly! Especially with Apple devices, compatibility is just horrible. Like you said, these companies will never “merge” and they have no reason to. However, I do think that the friction or competition helps with technology advancement. For example, when the first AirPods came out, a lot of people were skeptical of the idea. Now, almost all tech companies have developed their own versions of wireless earbuds! The lack of compatibility does make things uncomfortable but maybe it’s providing us with different options to choose the technology that best suits our interests. I personally love the new foldable phones and gadgets Samsung has developed over the years but I don’t think I will ever switch to Android devices. As much as I hate the compatibility issues Apple products have, I love what their iPads, Apple Watches, and iPhones offer.
My most hated aspect of mobile technology is the cables…lightening cables, thunderbolt cables, USB cables, micro USB cables, HDMI cables! I have an entire shelf devoted to storing these endless cables. Get rid of them you say? Sure, but every time I throw one out I end up needing it a few months later for some ridiculous reason (maybe charging my 3rd generation Kindle because I remembered it had a lot of decent ebooks stored on it) and then I have to go buy a new cable!
We got wireless chargers for our smartphones and they are awesome. One upstairs, one downstairs. It’s slower than charging by cable, but who cares overnight or if you’re working at your desk anyway? The more wireless charging the better, I say!
Connected to this, my most hated aspect of mobile technology is the fact that many devices are great for one or two very specific uses, and so I end up with so many devices it makes it impossible to travel lightly and work efficiently. For example, I have a laptop, tablet, smartphone, and smartwatch, and I use them for all different things. The laptop is great for school and work use, until it comes to reading or annotating documents and books, then I switch to my tablet. That being said, my tablet emits blue light, so for casual reading in bed I have been debating getting an e-reader that doesn’t emit blue light. My phone I use for phone call, social media, texting, etc… and I can access similar apps for planning and email that I also use on my laptop and tablet, but they aren’t designed as well and have worse user experience. My smart watch I use for tracking my steps, recording runs and workouts, and to set timers while cooking or doing other activities. I hate that I can’t have all of these things in one, versatile, adjustable item, or even a pair of items. Instead, when I go on a trip I end up having to bring all of these devices, chargers, and adapters. I am pretty sure I pack more electronics than I do clothes. Shirely expressed a similar frustration and desire to see a versatile all-in-one product in the Mobile Technologies I Want to See Someday discussion thread. Though it isn’t my strongest desire for mobile technologies, it is certainly my biggest pet peeve.
Neill – I so agree. There’s a dongle/dingle/dangle for everything! And they all seem to be a bit different. The worst right now at our school is that we have new short throw projectors, but we need two different adapters to connect them to our ancient laptops!!! But we are getting new devices soon which will really help. But options for wireless at school are limited, as students often jump in on those connections so it can be tricky.
And adapters too! In order to hook my old Macbook up to my classroom projector, I needed to buy one adapter, which didn’t work when I bought my new Macbook, so…another adapter. Add in that there’s no USB plug in the new Mac (or iPads), so I need yet another adapter to hook up to my printer because I can’t seem to get it to connect wirelessly to my Mac. I’m sure that when my current Mac is at the end, I will be doing this all over again with its replacement.
I also “hate” the cables. We have a whole countertop area in the kitchen for charging everything: phones, computers watches, etc. I don’t allow any technology in the kid’s bedrooms at night so everything gets charged here. Just looking at the tangle of chords and plethora of cables gives me anxiety – I can’t wait for a chargeless technology!
What I hate about mobile technologies is that people no longer talk on the phone, they only text. I think that the reason this is, is that people want to be able to edit their communication before sending it. We also cater our responses to the messages that we receive. Sometimes when someone calls me on the phone, I feel anxiety, like I am being put on the spot. It’s almost the same feeling as when someone knocks on your door unexpectedly, and you are still in your pajamas. Talking on the phone has now become ultra intimate, and almost needs to be scheduled, like a date. I actually love talking on the phone and I remember when I realized that this was no longer the default option. It started with a feeling of frustration and then, eventually, acceptance.
Along the same line as feeling like we are now are ‘crafting’ our responses, I feel that mobile technologies, in specifically when used with social media accounts have become about crafting a persona. When we interact with the world now, we express ourselves in an acceptable or ‘branded’ way. Although I understand the importance of businesses having memorable logos, I don’t really want to be a brand.
Jennifer – I couldn’t agree more. And I think the anxiety around actually speaking to someone has led to students being so anxious to speak in class for presentations or even to respond to a question. Educators are using online platforms to ask questions and collect responses and thoughts on a topic, but I think we need to make sure we have a balance of that with actual conversations.
Remember the times when people couldn’t get a hold of you at all times? When you could be at work and focus on work??? I love the freedom technology affords us, but it’s nice to get away once and a while.
Absolutely agree.
I would give talking on the phone a C, but I give texting etc an F. It does nothing for me and of course the broader theme of your post is the unforeseen and foreseen negative consequences all tech has.
I think one of the most important skills people could have is to be adept at public speaking and in person presentations.
I totally agree with you!
I feel the same too when I get a call. I worry I might say the wrong thing, or not have enough time to consider what I need to say. I often follow up a phone call with a text summarizing what we talked about. For me, talking on the phone (for work) has become a “bring us closer” kind of activity, but to make sure we are on the same page and we haven’t missed out on any information, I send out an email or a text for confirmation.
Now a days if I receive a real letter, or a phone call from a store that I shop at, I think it’s great service because they’ve gone that extra step in communicating with me.
One of the things I hate most about mobile and open technologies is just how reliant they are on having an internet connection to function. Without internet, these mobile technologies would mostly be useless, which is a real shame.
For an experienced user of mobile device, I hate how much technology, especially cell phones, is interconnected to consumerism. From the release cycles to the user interface, the advancement of technology is limited by how much money it can make. Personally, I have made the switch from Apple to Microsoft to Google to Samsung. Although there has been added funcationality to ease the pains of transfer, there is a learning period between the different operating systems. Furthermore, apps keep changing with different but not necessarily better ones, to keep the consumer interested in the experience. While it renews interest in recreational apps, it might sometimes create difficulty in work related ones.
The quality of these devices is also sometimes called into question. I would imagine that there would be more faulty devices than before as the demand to push out new and shiny phones are greater. It makes you think about one of the major barriers for mobile learning to be integrated into our educational system: a set standard. My own experiences taught me that as an ex-apple user, none of the skills I gained from lining up to buy the iPhone 3 is going to be useful with any Apple products today. I am sure that there are people out there that feel the same way about Android. As educators, I shudder at the thought of having to learn two distinct systems to be able to give the same educational experience to my students.
Hi Wynn,
Do you think there is any benefit from having students learn two distinct systems? Does it encourage flexible thinking, increase perspectives?
I hate that technology makes everything easier because sometimes, it results in a regression of a skill. I have noticed that my ability to spell is getting worse. When I only need to type in the first three letters of a word before a program predicts what I am about to type, I miss out on the opportunity to practice writing that word, and so how that word is spelled starts to fade away. Of course, one can argue that perhaps such skills will become irrelevant in the future. If communication is becoming more verbal and visual, is there a place for writing? I also feel my level of patience decreasing. With micro-expressions dominating social media, I find myself ticked off when I have to read something lengthy. What other skills do you feel are in regression?
I was thinking on the exact same wave-length as you on this one. Since I am teaching grade 1 online this year, I had to weigh how much tech to use without skipping those essential skills that they need to learn, specifically printing. I have been noticing that printing skills have been getting worse and everyone thinks that it is fine because you don’t need to print to write because you can type on a computer. However, this can have longterm negative effects such as not developing a proper signature is what comes to mind for me. (Also the skill of reading analog clocks!).
Ying – I couldn’t agree more! Spelling is brutal and my personal pet peeve – handwriting – is almost non-existent! Most of my high school students don’t even have a signature. My boys are 8 and 10 and we were talking about the lack of signatures and they asked what a signature was. So I found a website where I could enter their name and it populated a worksheet where they can trace the signature – now they both already can handwrite their first and last name with little help!
https://www.worksheetworks.com/english/writing/handwriting/cursive-practice.html
Erin and Meg, do you think that the lack of practice in physically writing negatively affects fine motor skill development? Does the modern student need fine motor skills in their hands? Other than typing and texting, none of our students need high dexterity.
That is an interesting question that I have discussed with my husband a few times. He is a Occupational Therapist and I have a son with the worst pencil grip ever (OT’s help with pencil grip!) My husband who has worked for years with kids with fine motor skill deficits keeps telling me that it doesn’t matter because they will be mostly keyboarding and eventually speech to text recognition technology will be so accurate they won’t even need to type. Luckily for my son who is in Grade 8, this is already true as he is in a school where they do their classes on Chromebooks and he rarely writes out an assignment by hand. I think a lack of writing does not mean that students are missing out on fine motor skill development as they are still doing other activities such as keyboarding, playing with LEGO or using utensils to eat.
Absolutely. So many students need OT help for their printing but there is not enough money or resources to go around. Since holding a pencil and printing are not natural skills, they need to be taught and practiced in order to be developed and maintained.
I think our kids are still getting lots of fine motor skill development in the Primary School years through play and printing, but I think it may be something that needs to be focused on for longer now. There are still many jobs and life skills that require dexterity.
Ying, I was thinking along the same lines, but in terms of math skill and technology dependency. More and more students pull out their devices to check single digit calculations rather than trusting their brains. On a biology test I gave recently, students needed to figure out that if there are 750 nucleotides in a DNA sequence, they had to divide by 3 to find out how many amino acids in the protein were coded for by the DNA gene. I was thinking 750 divided by 3 should be straight-forward, but I had over a third of my grade 12 class panicking because I don’t let them have their phones during tests. I’m a math teacher, so I’m constantly devising mental math activities to build those skills. Technology dependency is one thing, but I think it also leads to not having the numeracy skills to comprehend when the technology isn’t working to get you to the right place.
What I dislike most about mobile technologies is the time it takes for personal customization and/or understanding your options. If you are fairly technology-savvy, you can usually go to settings and set up everything you need. However, some have a lot of difficulty understanding their options, and are unsure what is even available to them. For example, some phones have the ability to know when you are driving and do not allow you to text or check your phone. Great, but how do I set this up, and is the setting even available on my phone? The problem with mobile technologies is some settings you only hear about by word of mouth, and can only set it up if someone shows you how, or by googling until you find a good tutorial. There needs to be better setup/training whenever you buy a new phone, to ensure the person sets up the phone to align with their life and their needs.
Hi Emma,
I cannot agree more! It seems that as technology improves, the settings menu for anything gets longer and longer. To make matters worse, there are options in settings that I do not even understand. I am immediately reminded of when my parents struggled adapting to the computer and the internet when it came out, and now it’s me struggling. With privacy laws under scrutiny, I imagine that the settings menu will become even more complex and that the average user will not even understand what each setting does.
Yes, thank you for your input Ying! That is exactly how I feel, with each new setting, I worry I need to google it to understand the pros and cons of each option.
I know the next generation has been discussed, but one of the concerns I have is the loss of certain skills. My wife and I got rid of our house line several years ago, so our children haven’t seen us talking as much as texting. Just simple things such as greeting a person or saying good bye is something they don’t necessarily know how to do, as their parents typically text.
This is not something I hate, but I concern about how people, including myself, rely on reading fragmented information and news from self-medias as the primary source of knowledge about the world. It is not the issue of mobile technology alone, but rumours and fake news get easily spread to people through mobile devices, mainly cell phones. On the one hand, the rise of self-medias significantly expands the way we know about the world. On the other hand, without any quality and ethics supervision, many of these media don’t care about the truth and how the rumour they concoct will affect their readers in the long-term. To attract as many clicks as they can, many of these “media writers” either fabricate some news from thin air or twist the stories to incite readers’ emotions. It is quite significant within the group of immigrants. I have experienced so many times in chat groups on WeChat (a chat software like WhatsApp but associated with millions of self-medias, extremely popular in Chinese users) wherein Chinese immigrants discuss something entirely untrue or in a wrong direction. Since many of them have a problem reading in English, reading self-media is the only method to get informed. Many people cannot understand why the government had spent so much money receiving refugees and criticized it as a massive waste of their tax. And the same misunderstanding of LGBTQ as well. I was trying to tell them that this is the beauty of Canada, the respect of Multiculturalism and diversity make this country so unique in the world, and we, as immigrants should treasure and protect it because how it protect and help refugees and LGBTQ in today, will shelter us in future. And now, in this specific situation, many Chinese get horrified by the discriminations and aggressive behaviours against Asian-Canadian, I would say we should feel lucky we are in Canada. Anyway, self-medias and mobile technology can be very convenient sources for news and information, but they make some horrible misunderstanding and discrimination when using inappropriately.
I completely agree with Yi Chen. Additionally we tend to like and share information we agree with, which means our viewpoint is shared with our network. Our network is really likely to agree with us and like and share the same things. It’s highly unlikely for anything on social media to actually change our opinions, especially if we hold them strongly. While we’re more connected than ever, we’re arguably less challenged than ever.
I hate that with mobile technology, we have something that for a great many is irresistible, although we don’t fully understand why (I’d love some links to research if you know them!) and the impact that has on our mental ability to “go deep” on something. One challenge I see (and face myself) is that with the level of connection that mobile devices bring, it can be very easy to spend hours (days, years) interacting and experiencing at a very superficial level. I feel that meaningful creativity, and creation occurs when we get lost in something, and that good decision making requires clear, focused thinking.
As an early childhood educator, I have always championed the value of boredom, not just for children, but for adults as well. I’m concerned that these devices make it much harder to find yourself without something to do. Boredom now becomes an intentional choice, something we have to “carve out” for children, and perhaps also for ourselves.
Hi Matt,
I agree strongly that superficial games and speed-reading headlines as Yi Chen (https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec523/2020/04/10/w02-what-i-hate-about-mobile-technologies/#comment-816) noted has reduced our attention spans!
The solutions to this could be citizen science and other citizen or community-linking activities. Apps that encourage citizens to observe their world and to add to the data on a single subject helps focus people. They become more aware -at least of that subject- and it helps them see how a database can be analyzed and the results shared.
Citizen science aside, I advocate device-free zones and boredom periods!
What I hate about mobile technologies is how much they have become part of us. I personally have my phone nearby at all times. I have tried to moved my dependency to my Alexa speaker, in an attempt to not have the urgency to check so many apps and feel like I’m on my phone all the time. I also hate trying to balance being a good role model for my kids with the use of technology, and how much I am using it.
This one really speaks to me, My phone is a constant source of anxiety for me, especially lately as I’ve been spending a lot of time alone in the house. I find myself mindlessly switching between three or four apps, several times per hour, viewing content I’ve already seen. But when my phone is in another room, I feel disconnected, like I’m missing out on something that’s happening in the outside world. I find my attention span has reduced drastically over the last few years, I even find it difficult to watch a movie or a hockey game.
It’s relatively small, but settings/privacy. Every new app I get, I have to try to figure out how to update settings. The default is often everything is open to everyone and you get every alert for every little thing. I always end up saying “ugh, how do I turn this off?!” People can see what you like, who you are friends with, the last time you were online. You can’t do anything without someone knowing you did it. For many people, this a great…but sometimes I’d rather turn it off. Every time I think I’ve updated my privacy settings or just general settings, I find I missed something…and some things you can’t turn off. For example – I love Facebook marketplace and have scored some really good deals, so I browse it often. I discovered that people can see when you are online and would chat me (or worse, “poke” me) when they saw that I was on. All I wanted to do was browse mindlessly and now I’m stuck in a conversation that I didn’t really want to be in. I then had to figure out how to turn that off. Same with Whatsapp, it says the last time you were on. Maybe I don’t want people to know that for a day. Yes – it can be updated most of the time, but I still find it a headache because it never feels easy.
Hi Natalie, I agree its pretty scary that a small device like your phone can store so much information that you might not want shared with everyone. The tricky part is trying to navigate through the settings on how to shut things off, and then question yourself if I shut this off what does that mean? I always go through and end up second guessing myself. Do I really need this on? Do I need it off? What will my phone not do if its not on. Its very frustrating.
Hi Natalie,
I share your frustration. I also don’t like how when you download each app, it asked for permission to access your photo album, contact, and other information that are irrelevant to the functions of the app. I remembered when COVID-19 first started, all advisors had to download an app to mask our numbers in order to offer phone appointment to students. There was constantly a chat head on my phone screen after downloading the app and it was so difficult to find the setting to turn the function off. As someone who likes to keep her home screen clean, it caused me much anxiety by looking at it.
I would say that what I hate about mobile technologies is its disruption to the traditional social interactions and its impact on our identity that we are not sure of its scope.
We used to interact with our parents, siblings, and friends through face-to-face encounters in our spare time, but nowadays the face-to-face encounters tend to decrease and we are inclined to interact with a much bigger community via the internet when we have time. In Technology: Is Technology Stealing Our (Self) Identities?, Dr. Jim Taylor (2011) states that the proliferation of social media and the Internet has allowed for an “almost-limitless universe of people” to impact our fragile self-identities, as we give external sources a disproportionate value relative to internal ones, such as our values, morals, and belief systems. Dr. Sherry Turkle (2011) further points out that “technology does not cause but encourages a sensibility in which the validation of a feeling becomes part of establishing it, even part of the feeling itself” (p. 177).
I guess that’s why people are addicted to social media, striving for approval and expecting to see “likes” from their virtual communities. We tend to seek external sources to go to for validation, security, and reaffirmation, don’t we?
References
Taylor, J. (2011). Technology: Is Technology Stealing Our (Self) Identities? Retrieved from Psychology Today website: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-power-prime/201107/technology-is-technology-stealing-our-self-identities
Turkle, S. (2011). Alone together: why we expect more from technology and less from each other. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Hi Ceci,
I appreciate your post. It brought memories of some parent-teacher conferences where parents have shared their frustration from their child connecting with their peers through various social media channels using mobile technology. There is definitely an element of addiction – many social media apps are designed to draw and captivate users’ attention.
I have been reflecting about how our social interaction has changed. In our current situation with COVID-19, many people are having to use video conferencing tools such as Zoom and MS Team. Many are experiencing the “Zoom” fatigue and in my experience, it has been challenging to work remotely as I usually rely on my colleagues’ experience and expertise.
What I hate about mobile technology is our attachment to our phones. Every vibration/notification, there are people who feel the need to check their phone immediately and drop everything else to make sure they didn’t miss anything important. People feel “naked” or like they’re missing a limb if they forget their phones at home. There is a phenomenon called “Phantom Vibration Syndrome” where people think that their phone vibrated but it didn’t because our brains are so used to our phones vibrating (https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/rewired-the-psychology-technology/201305/phantom-pocket-vibration-syndrome). This attachment goes beyond adults too! When giving a punishment to kids/students such as taking away their phone time is worse to them than not getting any dessert, we know that they have become too attached.
In a previous course, we looked at this “anxiety” of being away from our phones as “Nomophobia” (see: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6510111/ and https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/artificial-maturity/201409/nomophobia-rising-trend-in-students). It is a wide spectrum, and I think in a way it is circumstantial. If I am out alone in an unfamiliar area, I would be VERY anxious if I did not have my phone to refer to Google Maps or reach out to anyone in case of an emergency. Is this paranoia or “normal”?
I think for a lot of teens it’s the FOMO aspect when it comes to their phones, since most of their social life is dependent on it. It’s just more comfortable to have constant access to the phone. When I have test days in class, I ask my students to pull out all of their phones, put them on silent and leave them (face down) in front of them on the desk where I could see them. This helps them focus on the test, there is no compulsion to pull the phone out mid-class to check for notifications, there are no sudden bursts of anxiety for where their phone is and if they are missing out on something, and yes – no phantom vibrations either! Not to forget – no chance of sneaking peeks at it under the desks to try and cheat 😀
Hi Binal, I am the face of Nomophobia lol. I think we took the same course and when I learned about it I was getting anxiety that it basically was saying who I am and how I can’t function when I can’t see my phone.
Hey Binal,
The other weekend I ended up in a fight with my daughter about her phone (of course!). She was going on a walk (socially distanced) with her friend and wanted to take it, but she has a certain amount of time for screens and had used it up by sitting in her room, on a gorgeous day, playing some online game with her friends. Now, myself being an old curmudgeon, I told my daughter that back in my day we went everywhere with our friends, from sunup to sundown, with no kind of technological device whatsoever… and with no shoes and uphill both ways in snowstorms. We went back and forth for quite sometime until cooler heads (my wife) prevailed; my daughter took her phone and lost some screen time for the next day. That very next day, I went mountain biking with a friend at a new place we’d never been. After about an hour and a half, we came out of a trail and had no idea where we were (or, at least, we weren’t where we thought we should be). No prob! We pulled out our phone, opened a trail app, and figured out where we needed to go. On the ride home it kind of hit me that having the phone with me allowed me to be more adventurous and explore and find new trails to ride. It gave me confidence. And it was the same with my daughter; it’s a tool that makes her feel comfortable with exploring the neighbourhood and beyond with confidence. So I don’t think it’s paranoia as much as a new normal; one that we have to adjust to (sigh) but younger generations have just taken for granted as they have never known a time without.
Greg, I appreciate your POV. I like how you said it enabled you to be more adventurous and confident. Very often I’ve heard people say how the dependence on an app like Google Maps makes one less perceptive of their environment, less likely to explore and find where they are or how to get back, not likely to go and ask actual people for directions, and not see the bigger picture by focusing on the directions seen on the phone. I’d argue that reading and following directions, and orienting oneself to the directions by looking at the map (even on a screen) is still a very valuable skill. For me at least, it is a safety net. Your example and realization are both illustrative of the positive use of such technology.
Juliano,
I can relate to that naked feeling when I do not have my phone or it is on it’s last leg of battery life and it is about to die before you get to a charger. Just over a year ago, I decided to turn my phone to silent all the time. It has been such a great change. Now I don’t wait for an alert or better yet, I don’t hear it, so I just check it when I think of it or see it light up. Of course, if I am waiting for a certain call I will turn on the sound. But again, best change I have made to my attachment to my phone. This all being said, it is usually right next to me, so I see it light up ;).
Hi Kylie
That’s a great idea! I think I might actually try it for a week as a little experiment for myself and see what a difference it makes. Having distanced myself from social media apps, I know what a positive difference even a small change in our mobile phone routines can have.
Hello Kylie,
I kinda did that too. I put it in silent mode but it still vibrates. I know it does not make sense. I still need to know if messages come in. Sometimes there is so much noise that I cannot hear the cellphone vibrating. I am not as attached to my phone anymore. However, I still prefer to be looking at my cellphone. I do not want to have to answer tons of emails or messages all at once. Once I forgot my cellphone at home and by the time I came back it was 5 missed calls, 30 messages, and 10 emails. Whatsapp is one of the apps I use most. Even with my phone in silent mode, the message still pops up on my computer because I installed the application on my computer too. It seems that I do not want to be fully disconnected.
Hey Kylie,
I love having my phone on silent!! It allows for that little bit of disconnect; actually puts the power back in your hands as to when you want to access your device. I find it most important when I come home so that I make sure to give my family my full attention and choose the times when I can detach and check for messages or texts. It’s a good happy medium!
Juliano,
This is one of the things I hate the most about mobile technology, the need to reply or answer every text, message, email we get as soon as we get the notification. As a teacher, the first week of emergency online learning, I was in such a high level of anxiety with so many notifications from students, that I had to cancel the notifications on my phone. I ended up sending all notifications to my email and creating a filter, so that I can go at my set schedule and answer to comments.
What I hate about mobile technology is the whole phantom vibration feeling. Mobile technology has become such a part of our daily lives, that even when it’s not actually in our pocket or in our hands, we still get that feeling that it really is. It really bugs me when I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket, reach in and realize that it is actually sitting on the living room table.
Great minds think alike! For me, it’s in my pocket and I think it vibrated but it actually didn’t and it usually happens when my hands are occupied like when I’m washing dishes. It drives me nuts!
Right with you two… I get it when I’m waiting for a response to something important on my work phone. “Did it go off? I think it did… I’ll just… nope.” I always feel like a schmuck as I pull my phone out and then quickly put it back in my pocket. Glad I’m in such good company!!
I hate that when I can’t go to bed at night, I have a sudden urge to check my phone. “I’ll just browse for five minutes” I say to myself. When I look back at the time, 30 minutes have gone by. It’s not that I can’t put it away, it’s that I don’t want to.
According to an article that I read, phones or electronic devices in bed can be a problem because they stimulate the brain when it is time to wind down and relax. These devices emit short-wavelength light, which can inhibit the body’s production of the sleep hormone melatonin. This occurs most strongly when devices are near a person’s face. In addition, when we are perusing content on the web, this arouses us and releases neurotransmitters like adrenaline. Poor sleep can affect our intellectual achievement, our emotional control and behavior, and our ability to manage stress levels. Use of devices before bed is especially unfavourable for children and adolescents who are showing up to school tired.
https://lighthouse.mq.edu.au/article/please-explain/do-mobile-phones-affect-your-sleep
Hi Ravneet,
I have fallen into this trap, I’ll check just for five minutes, and then it is 30 minutes later. I have been trying to create better sleep hygiene, but having my phone outside of my bed by the time I go to sleep, but I just feel “naked” like many have mentioned without it. It is one of my goals, as a new parent, thinking about how to help my kids when they grow up to establish a healthy relationship with mobile technology. I don’t know how realistic my expectation is, but it is one of my goals.
Yes, it is very easy to get lost in your mobile device, whether it is a game or another app. I like that devices are starting to have tracking of usage, and limits you can put on, which is quite handy with children.
I have a love/hate relationship with mobile technologies, the hate portion applies to the dizzying variety of mobile apps, all trying to reinvent the wheel and accomplish the same goal. Two main reasons why –
#1: Whenever I look for a new app, I’ll download and install a handful to try out, before selecting the best to keep. What’s frustrating is that many require the creation of a new account or third-party login (i.e. Facebook, Google) before test driving. For example, the last time I searched for a ‘productivity timer’, I was met with over a dozen options – all with the same 4 star review, number of functions and aesthetic (minimal layout, Helvetica font, cheerful colour icons). Some had in-app purchases, but came with backup and sync options, while others were free but known for incessant ads. As I don’t want to be overwhelmed with welcome emails I may not need, I abandon the apps with these requirements. (I’m not against signing up for an app/service I feel strongly about, but I’d like to try it out first). With this mindset though, I wonder: in the long-term, am I missing out on an exceptional app/service?
#2: When I worked on a massive website redevelopment project, our team used a multitude of mobile technologies to collaborate and complete the work. Everything from Basecamp, Slack, Outlook Webmail (Email), Drupal CMS, Google Drive to Zoom Meetings and more. We were working with our external agency, consultant, temporary contractors and in-house staff. At the height of the project, I was jumping from one app to another – checking-in on the temps we hired via Slack, logging support tickets in Google Sheets, reviewing work in the CMS, following up with our vendor on Basecamp, emailing status updates to senior team and sharing site progress with family leaders over Zoom. The variety of apps involved and attention required to each, sometimes felt like a task itself. I would have liked to use a few solid apps, with the functions streamlined. Even with the help of automation tools, the project’s success relied heavily on our own organization skills. Many of the apps mentioned are industry standard or at the top of their field. Yet, my most valuable tool was my simple 5″ x 8.25″ Moleskine agenda with all my handwritten notes.
The Android Playstore has a solution to Aiann’s #1 Problem! Developers can enable a function that permits potential users to test out an app before installing it. You can try a few out and only install the one you prefer. I haven’t tried it myself but it sounds like it should prevent all those welcome emails and hassle of uninstalling and removing permissions.
https://developer.android.com/topic/google-play-instant
There’s one word in a post by Matt (reposted by David on May 17) about relationships that really stood out to me – self-esteem. Mobile technologies can have a major impact on how one views oneself and one’s worth. Have you ever found yourself asking these questions: Has anyone liked my post? Has anyone replied to my post? Why hasn’t anyone liked my post? Why hasn’t anyone replied to my post? Not only do we gain validation through how others interact with our social media platforms, but we can also discredit our contributions from a lack of interaction.
Self-doubt can also occur when we don’t receive the validation that we are looking for or have received in the past. Take for instance dating apps. One day, an individual may receive 25 matches and the following receive 5. The first day, an individual may feel very confident, but that confidence is quickly dropped the following day due to the latest numbers; it’s a self-esteem roller coaster! When a person bases their self-worth on such an unstable foundation, it can lead to some mental and emotional turmoil.
Hi Julia,
I agree wholeheartedly with you and Matt’s post below. I can speak from first hand experience as a parent about the negative aspects of excessive cell phone by teens and the negative effects on teens mental health, self-esteem and negative impacts on their studies resulting from lack of sleep, poor study habits, lack of concentration and focus during studying. I believe that there are a number of studies out on this. I recall reading the papers in one of my other MET courses.
Then as a teacher I have talked about distracted students in the classroom before.
I think related to this is the need to post everything. Some moments are meant to be enjoyed in the present and are completely ruined when experienced through the screen.
I am not a fan of the new norms and unrealistic expectations surrounding communication and availability that mobile devices and technologies have created. For us to always be connected and reachable isn’t a healthy expectation to have or try to meet.
Along with device-attachment, an over-reliance on our devices is problematic, especially in educational settings. This past semester, I taught HS students for the first time in 5 years, and when I asked students to group up and brainstorm, they pulled out their phones and Googled the question instead of brainstorming. The question was: what slang words/phrases do you use with your friends that you wouldn’t use with your teachers or adults? I was astounded but not surprised, and I understand there were factors that led students to do this – they didn’t know each other very well, and instead of being uncomfortable in the group brainstorming process, they turned inward to their phones – now an extension of themselves.
I often fall victim to this over-reliance, too, in personal interactions and daily living. Why spend 2-3 minutes trying to remember or figure out what the name of that artist or song is when we can ask Siri? Why quickly step outside to check the temperature? Why get up out of my chair to turn the radio off when I can do it in Sonos or out of bed to turn the lights on/off, because I have an app for that, too.
Hi Mel
I feel the same. At first I thought that the connectedness offered by mobile phones is a great feature and in many ways it is but we have reached a point where it has just become overwhelming. Some people have extreme expectations of how quickly one should respond to text messages and others are so driven by the impulse to check every notification that comes through that I get a little sad every time someone I have lunch or dinner with checks their phone in the middle of a conversation. Even after all those promises of increased human connection, the technology eats away at the moments where we get to experience true physical human connection. The addiction to our phones and other technologies have fundamentally changed how we live and I think a pause every now an again is needed to re-calibrate ourselves to make sure that the way we are doing things are still healthy for us (https://youtu.be/Z7dLU6fk9QY).
Our expectations of constant connectivity with mobile devices are an interesting cultural phenomenon. We could say the mobile devices are to blame but we’re also living in a workaholic culture that encourages people to push harder, do more, defy sleep, etc, and that cultural piece is what pulls a lot of us to check our phones constantly instead of having down time we need. What would mobile device habits look like in a culture that venerated heroes that are good at relaxing instead of heroes that are good at pushing themselves past the limits of exhaustion by staying constantly on?
So true. People expect you to respond right away. This coupled with the fact that many apps allow you to see when the person was last online. So now people know you are online and wonder why you are not answering their message. It’s now difficult to hide.
For me, it’s sort of the “black box” effect found increasingly within consumer electronics.
The computers, smartphones, etc. that we buy are essentially just sealed slabs of steel and glass. The average consumer will probably never see much of the inside of their devices — how are we supposed to know how these things work? Given that many products are also designed to NOT be taken apart or tampered with, I feel like we are becoming more passive as well as reliant on “experts” (oftentimes, representatives of the companies themselves) for our technological needs.
It’s probably no coincidence that your smartphone’s Settings list is only becoming longer and longer — a pessimist might even point to these as mere toggles and switches which provide the user with a sense of (false) control.
Lyon, I completely agree with this limitation of consumer electronics and our allegiance to only a few bigger companies. I watched a YouTube documentary on Shenzhen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGJ5cZnoodY&t=4s and its electronics maker culture and was impressed of consumers being able to have devices built for them by independent electronics creators. Here’s an article about it, as well. https://creativeconomy.britishcouncil.org/blog/18/03/01/maker-culture-shenzhen-bottom-meets-top-down/
Hi Lyong, I found myself thinking deeply about your statement of our phones being black boxes and not being able to see the inside components or understand how they work. There is a very dark side to this story of course when we let those company experts decide for us what we need and want. One thing that doesn’t sit well with me is for example how little I know about the materials required to build my smartphone and where those materials have been sourced from. When going out to buy a diamond ring, we enquire about the diamond’s paperwork and want information about where it was minded etc. to eliminate the possibility that it is blood diamond for example. Well, do we do the same with electronics? Do we question where the cobalt needed for our smartphones came from? No, most of us didn’t even know there was cobalt in their phones and so we don’t worry about it. Yet, Amnesty International (https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2016/06/drc-cobalt-child-labour/) revealed most mobile phone manufacturers probably use cobalt sourced from mines that employ children as laborers. There is a 50% chance that a child as young as seven years old has mined the cobalt that now sits in one of our smart phones.
Hi Lyon, I wanted to speak to the “black box” issue you raised from a slightly different POV. In British Columbia, where I live, the government has recently mandated the use of covid vaccination passports. I approve of this in theory but naively assumed that it would consist just of a screenshot or pdf of the dates, places and times of our shots. Basically, the bare minimum information needed to confirm that a person was, in fact, vaccinated. Instead, the passport is a QR code. Now, that actually makes sense since a pdf would be really easy to fake but, on the other hand, I have no idea what information the QR code carries or how to access that. If the QR code is later modified to track and store other kinds of information about me how can I know that or prevent it? You don’t need to be an anti-vaxxer to see some real privacy issues here. This leads to my main concern which is that our desire for convenience and safety will incrementally, painlessly lead to a loss of autonomy and maybe even eventually, a part of our private agency.
What I hate about mobile technology is that when you go to explore something and do not have the app that it wants you to use, you often cannot view the item until you download the app. For instance, “My Maps”. I do not have that on my iPhone because I prefer to use Google Maps due to accessibility, ease of use, and I find it intuitive, or maybe it is because that is simply what I am used to. So when someone shares a map on My Maps I cannot view it, I become extremely frustrated. That goes with all the other browsers that won’t work on a mobile device. I just trying to do some resource mining and love using Piktochart on the computer to create visually appealing infographics and it looked like it would work, the layout looked great on my phone until I actually started the creation process and it told me my browser was too small. So now I continue to hunt for some good mobile technologies out there that work in the browser without an app. Does this frustrated anyone else?
I agree! The competition between the different tech giants is good in the sense that they lead to better outputs for us, the users, because each wants to be better than the other. Apple Maps vs. Google Maps, MS Teams vs. Google Classroom, Gmail vs. Outlook, Samsung vs. iPhone, Chrome vs. Safari and so on and on… we have the options to choose what we like. The compatibility issue you mention becomes more and more frustrating as a company tries to shut the other one out (try running Windows based apps on a Mac ????). It would be amazing to go from one device to another, one browser to another, one location to another, and one format to another, without compromising on quality or time. I have been using more simulations with my students now that I cannot do traditional experiments with them at the moment. I have found myself spending a lot of time troubleshooting why the simulation won’t work for them, regardless of whether it is a Mac or Windows. Definitely frustrating.
Yes! The incompatibility between devices is so frustrating and so much of it is based on corporate greed! Heck, even within their own products they make things incompatible without an adapter (Apple not including a headphone jack and instead needing to use the same jack that you use to charge your phone). I’m all for competition as it does lead to greater innovations but as Binal said, to exclude or shut out the other companies is a different story.
Juliana…
I couldn’t believe it when I could no longer charge my phone and listen to music at the same time! Then I was travelling a lot too, so I need to charge my phone all the time because I was using it so much. Also all the little changes that are made, which as a result you need to buy more products for the latest version…Always changing, but yes, improving too!
Juliano**
Binal, you bring up some really good points, especially the Windows to Mac issues. I use a Mac myself, but my school uses Windows and Chromebooks. So I find that I can do certain things on my Mac at home then give them the link to access at work on their Chromebooks and it won’t work for one reason or another. I notice this quite often with the digital based games… They will work on my computer, but not the Chromebooks, or the iPads, but not the Chroembooks. Compatibility is frustrating!
I absolutely hate hearing the comment “Oh, you don’t have an iPhone?”, knowing that working with an android phone and a PC instead of iPhone/Mac is going to limit me in some way when interacting with friends, colleagues or classmates. For years, I missed out on messages (or created/dealt with additional hassle) because including an android user in group texts caused issues. This lack of compatibility has been a major headache, and has actually pushed me away from using Apple products as much as possible – it’s forced me to choose a side, when I’d love to be able to pick and choose devices based on the specific needs I need them to fill.
I totally get it! I have a MacBook and an iPad, and I love them both – so much so that I do not want to ever get a PC. However, I do not want to get an iPhone either, I am very happy with my Samsung.
Notifications.
By default with most apps, notifications will be turned on and will inundate the top of your screen forcing you to feel like you have OCD as you clear each one and try and dig through to disable them from returning. Even when someone calls you and doesn’t hang up in time before leaving you a nice “click” voicemail – you’re then stuck with an unclearable notification until you go into your voicemail and delete it. Phones are meant to grab your attention, and differ greatly from computers. Phone app makers seem much more reliant on micro-transactions and ads than desktop software makers. Phone apps will remind you to check them with notifications, display intrusive ads, and buz and beep at you.
I find using my desktop a relaxing experience with so much screen space and very few interruptions. Within the cramped confines of my phone screen, a small pop-up will often force me to wait until it goes away before continuing what I was doing.
Don’t get me wrong, I love having a connected phone. I think back to cycling across Canada in 2008 and having to send 10 cent texts to a friend to get them to tell me the rain predictions for the day (not to mention the larger areas without service). My last tour across Europe was a breeze with maps, forecasts, and translations at my finger tips. I still find it a much more stressful and feature-gimped experience than my desktop though.
Hello Jonathan,
You are right. Once downloaded, the first time you open the app it does give you the feature of setting the notifications. I am so impatient that I hit the next button without even paying attention to what the screen is saying. Then, I get all the notifications that start bugging me and I have to go into each app and turn them off. Typically, my intention was to turn off the notification and I end up spending more time with my cellphone. Basically taking my attention and time away.
It seems that these days our mobile devices are like our “kids”.
We need to make sure they are safe by adding screen protector and even a case.
We need to feed them by charging them so they do not run out of battery.
We need to update the system once in a while so they can run smoothly.
We devote much of our attention to it; turning notification off and replying to emails.
I prefer laptops too because they have a big screen and I can see better. My only complaint with the laptop is that is too heavy to carry around. I should not complain, because the current laptops out in the market are much more lighter that the ones we used to have.
It seems that I cannot keep pace with technology as there is always something coming out. The truth is that there might be some new app or gadget out there that I am not even aware of. Once I am up to date on what is happening in the mobile technology world it seems that something new has already come out. I understand that evolution cannot be stopped but is going way too fast for me to catch up.
Shock resistant. Mobile devices are way too fragile. I wish these could be resistant. Well, I have butter hands. My cellphone usually slips off my hand and that is when my phone gets a big hit. However, if they were not that fragile, then it would last longer. Putting a case on it does not work, I have already broken three cellphone cases. Plus, having it fixed the cellphone is always as expensive as buying a new one.
Silvia, I know this is not quite the shock-resistant solution you are calling for, but here’s a case with a wrist strap: https://www.apple.com/ca/shop/product/HMSJ2ZM/A/lander-torrey-case-for-iphone-xs?afid=p238%7CsF9EJrKLw-dc_mtid_1870765e38482_pcrid_204238781435_pgrid_45491873498_&cid=aos-ca-kwgo-pla-btb-3pp–slid—product-HMSJ2ZM/A-CA
Phone Battery
My major problem with smartphones in general is the life battery. When you have a brand-new phone, the battery can last for days but progressively the battery life span decreases rapidly. Of course, it’s due to many reasons probably because of the games and other apps that people download on their phones. However it bugs me when I constantly need to find a power socket either at the airport or on the train. I got rid of my old phone because the battery was draining suddenly and rapidly and I had to keep recharging it to last for a whole day.
I don’t think I’m addicted to my phone. While I’m working, I usually put it away. I use it to check my Wechat messages during my breaks or on my way home. But nowadays you need your smartphone for everything. China is slowly but surely transitioning to a cashless society. In some shops, they refuse to take cash and want me to pay with Wechat. Instead of calling you, people now send hundreds of messages. Because of Covid-19 health measures, I have to show the security guards my health code every time I enter my residential complex. The usage of mobile phones is being seamlessly integrated in our way of living and more than ever, we rely heavily on those devices.
However, little has been done to improve the life battery of mobile phones in my mind. If anything, I feel it’s worse now. Before, we could replace the battery of our phone when it showed early signs of giving out. At present most phones come with the battery built-in and once the battery is on its last leg, you have no other option but getting a new phone. It’ s a waste of resources and most people are not very careful when they dispose of their mobile phones which contributes to the rising problem of managing e-waste.
It seems to me as they continue to create new phones the batteries are not the same. My new iphone needs charged like every few hours. Now like you said we are using it more and more so that could be the main factor there.
Originally Posted by Sarah Wong on 12 Jan 2019
I hate that having mobile technologies seems to take away from real life social interaction. More and more people are find it difficult to talk to people. Kids and even adults would rather text than call or even meet up. When going to a restaurant, I see numerous people sitting around a table on their phones. Sure some might argue that they are interacting “online”. They are using social media and participating in chat groups; however, I think that this is still different from real life personal interactions. An additional thing that I hate is how slow people walk when they are texting. In addition to a bike lane here in vancouver, we should have a text lane for people that are texting to walk because they are always so slow.
Originally Posted by Shaun Pepper on 18 Jan 2019
I hate that mobile and non-mobile sites still existing, They should be one site that can adapt to optimize the experience given the device screen real estate. For instance, I cant stand doing work on my iPad when it involves typing or commenting into an embedded platform. My mobile devices work correctly in only about 50% of these cases. My frustration isn’t necessarily with mobile devices, but more with people who are designing and developing their online experiences.
Originally Posted by mikemo44 on 15 Jan 2019
One thing that I do not like about mobile devices is the increasing dependency that children have on devices that are paid for by their parents. The costs associated with the purchase of these devices, monthly usage fees, and buying apps and games results in a significant amount of money for kids who may not be able to afford it when they are older but are currently accustomed to getting it all for free. To enter the work-force with this dependency will definitely be a financial burden for those starting at minimum wage (which most will be). I would like to see more parents permit their kids to have a mobile device only if they are responsible for all payments and costs. Maybe this will help some kids understand that their mobile device is a luxury not a necessity.
Originally Posted by Rebecca on 13 Jan 2019
very much worry about my ten year-old and the mobile world he is entering. I think you’ve nailed it in your comment above when you talk about attachment. I see students either come in, head down buried in their phones, or they come in and ensure their phone is at the ready. It’s how much is missed when we allow our devices to disengage us form the world around. We need to notice the homeless person, the elderly who need a seat on the bus, the beauty of spring flowers, the laughter of children. Watching people walk around in their own bubble freely uninteracting with their environment bothers me … deeply. When we do so, we lose community and to what end? The fact that my son’s school has a ban on cell phones is another pet peeve. We need to talk about this and to do that, we need to be living it. I think the school is putting its head in the sand when banning is the response.
Originally Posted by Matt on 8 Jan 2019
Oh man, I have a definite love-hate relationship with mobile tech. I love all the things that it does for me that makes my life easier. My maps with traffic updates, my podcasts in the car, my Kijiji shopping addiction, texting, and video calling, my email anywhere – it’s all SO GOOD! But I hate the way that technology influences human interaction and relationships. Especially with young, developing minds. It seems be be filling an “attachment” void that young people have so they’re becoming increasingly more dependant on their devices. They need to get their dopamine hit from their notifications and streaks instead of actually communicating in deeper ways with people who really care about them. I’m all for the being connected with people we love and care about….even via devices. But devices connect us so easily with people who don’t care deeply about us and it can really mess with our self-esteem. I think it’s contributing to the major increases we’re seeing in depression and anxiety in countries with ubiquitous mobile use. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ4ifp2lKvs&feature=youtu.be This is just one video with a phycologist who’s writing about this. I’ve seen a bunch lately, but this one sums up the points nicely.
I believe that these mobile devices have made parents’ life easier. I have seen several times in restaurants, coffee shop or even at the doctor’s office that parents instead of paying attention to their child, they would just give them the cellphone so they could stop nagging. Kids, who in turn have become mobile devices attached, know that as long as they nag parents will give in and let them play with their cellphone. Even at restaurants, I see the iPad in front of the kid and he watches while he eats. There is no interaction between parent and child.
I also don’t like how mobile technology takes away from in-person interactions. As the video accurately described, digital media is very addictive. Gabor Mate (the psychologist ) pointed out that friendships on social media are highly conditional and can give the wrong sense of what it means to be friends. It’s not about the likes or the streaks. It’s about people who care about and support you. While I thought the video brought up some interesting points, the view of Gabor Mate seemed a little extreme to me sometimes. Mate suggested that computers should’t be introduced until Grade 11 or 12 for education, which is much, much later than when schools normally introduce them. While I agree children’s contact with digital media should be limited and controlled by adults, Grade 11 or 12 seem really late to me. I can’t imagine letting a kid grow up without interacting and learning to use these devices in the world full of smartphones, ipads, laptops. What age do you guys think digital media and devices should be introduced?
Yes, love hate.
Lots of good and and the value of the tool is often dependant on how the tool is used.
However, lots of negative as well. “Not about the likes”, this made me think of the documentary on Netflix, “american meme”. Some pretty empty human behaviour there.
Originally Posted by Brian Haas on 11 Jan 2019
One thing I hate about mobile technologies is the pressure to always upgrade and get the “new version”. I am a gadget lover. One of my favorite things is spending hours fiddling with new technology and figuring out every detail of how it works and how I can make it work most efficiently for me. One of the challenges that comes with having this personality is the constant desire to get the new device. The more I think about, read about and watch videos reviewing devices, the more likely I am to go out and buy it. From an educational perspective, it seems often that technology is designed to become redundant fast enough that you have to fork out tons of money to stay relevant. I wish there was a way to make mobile devices that were upgradable themselves, instead of just being replaceable. I know there has been some movement in this direction with the development of modular phones, but as of yet no company has successfully implemented a fully upgradable phone on the commercial market (and to be honest, why would they if they can just get you to buy the new iPhone for $1000 every other year).
Great post! I wonder how many used cell phones do you keep in your drawer, how many have you dropped off at an e-recycling center, and how many have you tried to sell on Craigslist? I’m so surprised to find out that my husband and I have over ten used cell phones shoved in a drawer in our study …
This is an article I came across while researching. Although published in 2017, I still see the relevance today.
The model for Recycling Our Old Smartphones is Actually Causing Massive Pollution
Originally Posted by Mark on 13 Jan 2019
What I hate about mobile technologies is the anti-mobile technology movement. So many of the comments below deal with the way people use mobile devices. The fault is not in the technology, but in the users themselves. I think that as we teach students how to use technology as a tool rather then a toy, we will develop a culture that sees the potential and value in mobile technologies.