MESSAGE
| DATE | 2016-04-21 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout-NYLXS] turn off your god damn phone
|
http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20160419-should-you-dump-your-smartphone-for-a-flip-phone
Technology Social Media Psychology
Should you dump your smartphone for a flip-phone?
Bigwigs, celebrities and ordinary people are saying no to smartphones
and going — or staying — old school flip.
facebook
Twitter
reddit
LinkedIn
Google +
Email
By Nick Clayton
21 April 2016
On the subway, commuting into the heart of New York City, Danny Groner
stands out. He is one of the only people in the carriage not staring at
a small screen.
He’s proud to not be one of the more than two-thirds of Americans who
own a smartphone.
Like billionaire business leaders Warren Buffet and Blackstone private
equity’s Stephen Schwartzman, Groner's only mobile connection with the
world is an old-school flip-phone used just for calls and SMS (text
messages).
Watch the video above for eight reasons why a flip-phone is better than
a smartphone.
But he’s not an old fogey. At 32, Groner is at the heart of the
smartphone target audience. He’s young, and he’s a manager at the $1.2
billion-listed stock photo agency Shutterstock, one of Silicon Alley’s
big success stories. His office is in the company’s swanky headquarters,
occupying two floors of the Empire State Building. It’s a start-up
vision complete with swings, games rooms and a yoga studio.
Surrounded by technology, Groner makes it crystal clear why he benefits
from being a smartphone refusenik.
“I worry about burning out,” he said. “I spend 13, 14 hours a day in
front of a screen, that’s enough. It doesn’t need to be 17 hours.”
Despite his enthusiasm for retro devices, he admits we can’t all ditch
our smartphones: “If everybody was like me, no work would get done,” he
said, even though Groner thinks his smartphone avoidance makes him a
better worker.
The rise of the flip-phone is a reaction to feeling… subservient to
your smartphone.
When those studies were extended to include workers across a broader
spectrum of occupations, and included a look at the effect of TV and
laptop use the results were confirmed. “Out of all those devices,
smartphones were associated with the most powerful effects,” they reported.
Harvard University psychology lecturer Dr Holly Parker believes that
flip-phone use could help people to define the line between work and home.
“People don't have to force themselves into the false choice of, I can
never look at work outside home versus I have to do it all the time,”
she said, suggesting that companies benefit from improved productivity
if they allow employees to cultivate the space to recover from work.
Addiction to old-school
“The rise of the flip-phone is a reaction to feeling as if one is
subservient to your smartphone. Adopting a flip-phone is a bold and
luxurious statement to proclaim that you have control,” said lawyer and
“tech ethicist” David Ryan Polgar. But, he thinks there are better ways
to show that you’ve mastered control over invasive technology. Just
don’t keep your smartphone around all the time.
Someone consciously choosing to not have their smartphone is
projecting power and freedom.
“Both a tech-savvy person using a flip-phone and someone consciously
choosing to not have their smartphone is projecting power and freedom,”
he said. “That is the status symbol.”
Of course, that sort of discipline is easy to aspire to and quite hard
to achieve for many.
Some even think it may be necessary to change laws to make people
comfortable switching off their smartphones. France is the first country
to consider enshrining the “right to disconnect” in legislation.
This initiative comes not from trade unions, but from Bruno Mettling,
deputy director of the French multinational telecommunications company
Orange, who last September submitted a report on digital work to
France’s Minister of Labour. Afterwards, in a radio interview with
Europe 1, he said that although there was no legal obligation for an
employee to stay connected, this doesn't recognise the reality of
relationships with managers.
Even with the protection of the law, however, it may be almost
impossible for most of us to resist the lure of the screen to make one
last check of email and messages before trying to get to sleep.
People tell me I could just leave it in my pocket and not turn it
on. But I don’t trust myself.
That’s what led Ellyn Shook, chief human resources officer for global
consulting firm Accenture, to go low-tech. After failing in her attempt
to ban her iPhone from her bedside table, early last summer she bought
a flip-phone. It wasn’t to be a permanent replacement for her
smartphone, but a substitute to be switched on when she needed to be
switched off from work.
It worked. As a result of her step back in time to use old technology
she was able to spend whole days on the beach at the weekend without
checking her phone, she said.
As for Groner, he said he won’t upgrade to a smartphone. “People tell me
I could just leave it in my pocket and not turn it on. But I don’t trust
myself,” he said. “If it was available I’d end up just as addicted as
they are.”
To comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Capital,
head over to our Facebook page, message us on Twitter or find us on
LinkedIn.
Follow BBC Capital
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin
--
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/resources - Unpublished Archive
http://www.coinhangout.com - coins!
http://www.brooklyn-living.com
Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
_______________________________________________
hangout mailing list
hangout-at-nylxs.com
http://www.nylxs.com/
|
|
