The Most Important Study I’ve Read All Year (Subscriber Post)
Following up on the idea that phones are causing some unintended and under-discussed social problems
Side notes before today’s post: Check out my recent interviews with Zero Hp Lovecraft and Simon Sarris in case you missed them, they cover the general ideas that we’ve been getting at and I think you’d really like them!
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The other day, dear reader, we talked about the reams of high quality entertainment that became instantly available since the inception of the smart phone, and how this has had the overall effect of making time much more valuable for younger generations especially.
Together all the beautiful Israeli women on instagram, all the bearded, fast-talking burger critics of TikTok, and all the semi-ironic anonymous sex-pest accounts on Twitter (X), raised the quality standard of free time by a huge margin, and now we’re all busy being entertained. A little too busy for one another.
Kids suffer most from our inattention
I mentioned a study which found that children are now getting the short end of the attention stick by parents who are spending too much time on their phones. I’ve thought about the study at least once a week since I’ve read it, and I found it again last night after some digging. It’s both a bit different and much worse than I remembered.
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