Gen Z (The Cell Phone Zombies)

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jacob
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Gen Z (The Cell Phone Zombies)

Post by jacob »

http://gulfnews.com/news/world/other-wo ... -1.1455083

"Facebook? Of course. Books? Definitely not. Video games? For sure. Sport? No way. Speed? Yes. Patience? Not so much."

http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/t ... s/8582485/

J_
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Re: Gen Z (The Cell Phone Zombies)

Post by J_ »

any idea's to help one's nephew, grandchild, neighbour child? I see some of them behaving like the name of this thread. Or are they lost? Or am I just another grown up who does not understand a new generation?

skinnyninja
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Re: Gen Z (The Cell Phone Zombies)

Post by skinnyninja »

A little worried about the zombies myself. I am 39 and have owned a cell for over a decade, but I don't think I display zombie behavior.

Today I was a bit perturbed by my coworker, who I was training. It was her third day of work at a job in the health care field. She was on her phone constantly, either texting or checking Facebook.

Seems really unprofessional to me. Very disturbing. You would think being at a new job and trying to learn the ropes would focus your attention. Apparently not.

We have created an army of "screen tappers." Devices are cheap, and apps are mostly free! How long until there are rehab centers that exclusively treat cell phone addiction? I would bet one exists already......

theanimal
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Re: Gen Z (The Cell Phone Zombies)

Post by theanimal »

Not sure if I listed it in the pet peeve thread, but this is my biggest one. Cell phone zombies. There is a limited number of my friends my age (read under 3) who I can hang out with, without them staring at their smart phone for a good portion of the time. Go to any college campus and you'll see the vast number of cell phone zombies roaming the streets. It's pretty sad. For a couple weeks last year I made sure to observe other students behavior before class (sized around 25-30) started. Almost every one would be on their iphone or whatever beforehand. And this was every class, everyday. It was pretty sad to watch. It's anecdotal, but I only know two other people around my age who don't have a smartphone.
"The other day, I saw this young woman walking out of the post office on campus, making these absurd pseudo-emotive faces. Of course, she was Snapchatting, or at the very least, taking selfies with her phone. Completely unaware of the physical environment around her, she tripped up the stairs, dropped her books and her mail, and nearly gave herself a concussion in the process.

"Her experience may be extreme, but in fact, her inhabitation of the world is more or less typical of those around her, including people like me. I would not say this issue is confined to adolescents. With our headphones plugged in to shut out interaction with the world around us and our smartphones increasingly acting as communication hubs, we have become zombies of a sort — psychologically, emotionally, one might even say cognitively detached from our surroundings and from other physical beings."
Oh gosh..I hate this! Do these people realize how stupid they look? :lol: It's everywhere... I'll be sitting around a table with friends and one will be on their smartphone, make some stupid face, take a selfie, then go back to swiping as if nothing happened. Am I the only one who finds it sad that that's normal now?

About 3 years ago, my former high school required the students to purchase Ipads. No more physical textbooks or notebooks. Well you can probably guess what happened. My brother currently goes there and he says that the majority of kids just play games and mess around during class.

arrrrgon
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Re: Gen Z (The Cell Phone Zombies)

Post by arrrrgon »

Hearing about all of the people on cell phones before class in college makes me kind of sad. That's the time we spent getting to know each other. That's the time where you make new friends, and maybe even meet the girl of your dreams. Don't get me wrong, I love technology, but human interaction is important. I guess it has been almost 10 years since I graduated from college though. A lot can change in 10 years. I have to admit that I find myself staring at my phone too much. I leave it in the other room sometimes to keep it from happening.

anomie
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Re: Gen Z (The Cell Phone Zombies)

Post by anomie »

These young people are a stage toward a new internet-connected hive mind species perhaps, ala

Stephen Baxter and Arthur C. Clarke?

Not sure if that is exact book I am looking for, but it is close...
... corruption and crime are drastically reduced; nations discover the true causes and outcomes of international conflicts; and religions worldwide are forced to re-evaluate their divine histories. As the underground movement grows, it utilises a direct neural interface coupled with the unlimited communication provided by the wormhole technology to develop a group mind. ...

Tyler9000
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Re: Gen Z (The Cell Phone Zombies)

Post by Tyler9000 »

It's not limited to kids by any means -- many adults do the exact same thing but with work email, stock tickers, and message boards. I used to suffer from this. In a 24-hour global product development cycle, I found myself monitoring my email on my phone day and night, regardless of my surroundings. I became acutely aware of how ridiculous it was between a combination of persistent work anxiety manifesting in physical problems and, upon intentionally putting my phone away for a while, watching young professionals wander the Bay Area streets like zombies. Deleting work email from my phone (and refusing requests to monitor it) was one of the best thing I've ever done to reclaim my own sense of self.

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GandK
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Re: Gen Z (The Cell Phone Zombies)

Post by GandK »

Tyler9000 wrote:Deleting work email from my phone (and refusing requests to monitor it) was one of the best thing I've ever done to reclaim my own sense of self.
Awesome! I'm glad you were willing and able to put some healthy boundaries in place.

And you're right, adults are every bit as bad IME. They just don't see it as equally problematic because money is involved.

bradley
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Re: Gen Z (The Cell Phone Zombies)

Post by bradley »

DH is on his phone 24/7... with texts, Facebook, apps, and games. I left my phone at home when we went grocery shopping, and I didn't really care, and he was shocked. He's also appalled that I deleted Facebook off my phone (What's gonna go so Facebook-urgent that I can't view it on my phone later?)

Suffice it to say, it's not just kids, but adults, too (where else do they pick up these habits?). Instead of TV to distract/occupy their toddlers, parents now give out tablets and cell phones.

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Re: Gen Z (The Cell Phone Zombies)

Post by jacob »

I wonder, however, if the kids' zombie behavior isn't different in kind compared to just reloading emails and stock tickers.---Whether it's closer to what anomie quoted. I suspect GenZ is far more international, specifically that nations (or rather traditional geographic lines on a map boundaries) matter less to them, than prior generations.

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Re: Gen Z (The Cell Phone Zombies)

Post by m741 »

I'd just add that I think it's much worse and more jarring in big cities than the 'burbs. Here in NYC, people are constantly stopping in the middle of the sidewalk, weaving around, stepping into traffic, and being a general nuisance because they're looking at their cell phones.

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Re: Gen Z (The Cell Phone Zombies)

Post by George the original one »

Out in the Oregon boonies, it's not a problem (heh, you have AT&T, you ain't gonna get a signal!), but closer in to the population centers, it is. For instance, it is now apparently permissible to leave the cubicle & staff meetings to answer personal calls. Another coworker is texting with her adult daughter all day... in her case, she manages it transparently, but it sets a bad precedent for coworkers who do not have that level of skill. Strangely, these distractions appear to be more approved than surfing the web on a work computer?!?

Definitely not a Gen Z thing, IMHO, though it is more prevalent there.

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Re: Gen Z (The Cell Phone Zombies)

Post by jacob »

If it's not a GenZ thing ... my other hypothesis is that "smart phones were invented for people who are too computer illiterate for a computer". It just seems to me that the people I know whose noses are glued to their smart phones are the exact declared anti-nerds of yesteryear. My sample space is not large however.

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Re: Gen Z (The Cell Phone Zombies)

Post by theanimal »

Well I can confirm that at the high school and college level, the cool thing is to have a smartphone (preferably an iphone) and use it a lot. If you don't have a smart phone you are much less socially relevant.

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Re: Gen Z (The Cell Phone Zombies)

Post by George the original one »

LOL, yeah, that maybe is more likely!

Was just reading a report on smartphone usage in business. One of the bullet points was the prevalence of streaming sports on the devices. Another bullet point was that the larger the screen size, the more data consumed. iPhone 6 Plus users used twice the data bandwidth of standard iPhone 6 users which were using more than the smaller screen sizes and it was all very correlated. Dating apps are used heavily at noon-1p and 6p-9p (local times).

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jennypenny
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Re: Gen Z (The Cell Phone Zombies)

Post by jennypenny »

Hello, my name is jennypenny, and I'm a cell phone zombie. :oops:

I don't do social media, so I'm not checking that, but I use my phone constantly. I text with DH and DD all day, and routinely text with several other family members. I check email. I use it for stock tracking and trading. I do most of my surfing on it (9 out of 10 posts I make on the forum are from my phone).

I prefer a smart phone because I can do all of those things on the phone, and still use it as a phone. It means I have no need for a tablet or a laptop. I keep my PC for work, and only rarely use it for something fun (usually when someone sends me a video, or for reading longer articles like Archdruid). I like the freedom it gives me. I'd go crazy sitting on my butt all day. With the phone, I can watch the market, email friends, and bother all of you from my garden, or my treadmill, or my kitchen, or the beach, ...

I will admit that I'm too much of a hermit to interact with people in other ways. I will occasionally, but I'd never have the emotional stamina to talk to all of those people every day. The phone is a great way to stay connected without actually having to be around people. I consider it a Godsend. Seriously.


Ok, you can go back to making fun of zombies now. :P

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Re: Gen Z (The Cell Phone Zombies)

Post by Dragline »

I'm not sure this is any different from the obsessive-compulsive behaviors of yester-year or older generations. Perhaps just a lot more visible though. Although we all got in trouble for just spending too much time TALKING on the phone (landline wall phones with long plastic squiggly cords).

The new trend reminds me of the Mike TV character in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" in some respects.

I do agree that the nicer, larger and shinier the thing is, the more time people seem to spend with it. My company-issue blackberry just doesn't engender such devotion.

But we haven't had these things for even a decade yet. The trend before smart phones was how tiny your phone could be -- there were even SNL sketches about that phenomenon.

I imagine today's youngsters will be complaining about their children's obsessions with portable hologram projectors.

Tyler9000
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Re: Gen Z (The Cell Phone Zombies)

Post by Tyler9000 »

George the original one wrote:Strangely, these distractions appear to be more approved than surfing the web on a work computer?!?
Speaking of that, I know quite a few people who are on their smartphones or tablets all day at work primarily because the data connection allows internet access that bypasses the company network.

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Ego
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Re: Gen Z (The Cell Phone Zombies)

Post by Ego »

We met a fortysomething Dutch woman at a backpackers hostel last week who looked at us along with the room full of kids in their twenties all pecking away on our small tablets/phones and gasped, "When I was here fifteen years ago we would have all been talking and having fun together."

My first reaction was to agree so I put down my tablet and talked to her. Then I realized how obnoxious she was. Fifteen years ago everyone was a sitting duck to this person, the lowest common denominator conversationalist. Where once the only place to seek shelter from her was behind a book - a tenuous defense at best - today there are whole worlds that offer far more interesting conversation.

We've only had the tablets for a few months now and have never had smart phones so this is all new to me.

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Re: Gen Z (The Cell Phone Zombies)

Post by RealPerson »

Reading on a tablet to protect yourself from unwanted conversation is pretty good. You might try earphones. It hink they still work the best. You don't even have to be listening to something.

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