Smartphones Ruining Our Brains

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jocoo 10 Aug @ 9:27am

The universal addiction to smartphones is actively ruining our brains — especially Generation Z — and at a pace that should absolutely freak everyone out.

The Financial Times recently published a devastating analysis of American personality changes using data from the Understanding America Study, and the findings should stop you cold.

In less than a decade, conscientiousness — the trait most closely linked to responsibility, follow-through, and self-control — has collapsed among young adults. For those aged 16 to 39, it’s not a gradual erosion; it’s a plunge from respectability into the low 30th percentile. Older adults (who aren’t addicted to smartphones), meanwhile, remain essentially unchanged.

A deeper commitment to a digital world over the real world is also evolving at an alarming rate, as is a sharp decline in trust and extroversion. If you need evidence of this just go to any public park and witness the vast majority of people staring into their phones.

Let me tell you why this isn’t just concerning — it’s civilizational.

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Showing 1-15 of 50 comments

Affronter 10 Aug @ 9:28am

So is the internet as a whole.

jocoo 10 Aug @ 9:29am

Originally posted by Affronter:
So is the internet as a whole.

Good point.

HypersleepyNaputunia 10 Aug @ 9:34am

But putting lead in the wine makes it taste sweet

Doctor Go-Go 10 Aug @ 9:35am

Yup, most people are looking for an escape. UNLESS someone else forces them to keep up with a routine they won't, the entire purpose of regiment and duty.

pasa 10 Aug @ 12:35pm

Err, where do you find people not addicted to smartphones?

And yeah, sure, it's going on since these gismos got introduced and will be fully enhaced with "AI" soon too. We don't need articles to know that.

Lime 10 Aug @ 12:42pm

Originally posted by pasa:
Err, where do you find people not addicted to smartphones?

And yeah, sure, it's going on since these gismos got introduced and will be fully enhaced with "AI" soon too. We don't need articles to know that.

i don't even own a phone

Z i o ⚡ 10 Aug @ 12:56pm

Old news. The smart takes it away from the person into the phone.

S̶E̶V̶E̶N̶F̶O̶L̶D̶ 10 Aug @ 1:05pm

I can not have that thing anywhere near my body. I feel some kind of radiation from those damn things. laptops do the same. i can't have one on my lap. it burns like a piercing charge is ripping though every cell. i can't imagine what it is doing long term to your brains. maybe the cause of rising lunacy and autism.

jocoo 10 Aug @ 4:18pm

Originally posted by S̶E̶V̶E̶N̶F̶O̶L̶D̶:
I can not have that thing anywhere near my body. I feel some kind of radiation from those damn things. laptops do the same. i can't have one on my lap. it burns like a piercing charge is ripping though every cell. i can't imagine what it is doing long term to your brains. maybe the cause of rising lunacy and autism.

Good post.

HypersleepyNaputunia 10 Aug @ 4:21pm

You might have legit emf sensitivity, not very common with most

#10

miakisfan 10 Aug @ 4:25pm

Originally posted by jocoo:
The universal addiction to smartphones is actively ruining our brains — especially Generation Z — and at a pace that should absolutely freak everyone out.

The Financial Times recently published a devastating analysis of American personality changes using data from the Understanding America Study, and the findings should stop you cold.

In less than a decade, conscientiousness — the trait most closely linked to responsibility, follow-through, and self-control — has collapsed among young adults. For those aged 16 to 39, it’s not a gradual erosion; it’s a plunge from respectability into the low 30th percentile. Older adults (who aren’t addicted to smartphones), meanwhile, remain essentially unchanged.

A deeper commitment to a digital world over the real world is also evolving at an alarming rate, as is a sharp decline in trust and extroversion. If you need evidence of this just go to any public park and witness the vast majority of people staring into their phones.

Let me tell you why this isn’t just concerning — it’s civilizational.

Smartphones aren't doing it to us all ... we are doing it to ourselves by using the smartphones.

This is as ignorant as blaming guns for killing people when anyone with common sense knows an inanimate object can not do anything if a human isn't using it.

Until you learn to properly target what the real issue is your arguments mean absolutely nothing.

Example: instead of picking up your phone how about you go for a walk instead?

F.Y.I. I keep my music collection on my smartphone. Listening to music is good for you ... unless you define the reason the music was made incorrectly. Oddly enough that is also on the human being ... not the music itself.

Please learn where to properly direct blame TC.

#11

LeviathanWon 10 Aug @ 4:26pm

Not really, the old flip phone or pager era was just a way to avoid someone or pretend to look somewhere else in the case of feeling of control of a social situation or to avoid some thing that is outside of a bubble.

I don't blame the phones, mostly is just the software people who didn't take up wood working or metal shop work and wanted to do more maths or something that they enjoyed...

I just saw a great game made in China or is a product of China, was playing that game a year ago, and it's smooth silly COD type game call Bloodstrike... it's made for phones, runs perfect on all PC's, everything is simple and direct in it... problem was that everyone in China plays it on a phone... and that isn't fair for people who aim with a mouse. So they made Marval Rivals and Fragpunk so they could hang out here with the big money cool kids.

Last edited by LeviathanWon; 10 Aug @ 4:49pm

#12

LeviathanWon 10 Aug @ 4:44pm

Did you ever ask yourself, why did they make the telephone... why did they make the fax machine... then why did they start putting software into cell phones?

Last edited by LeviathanWon; 10 Aug @ 4:44pm

#13