Smartphones, Hell and iDisorders

The lyrics of a song by the band, Talking Heads, says:

“Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.”

Since hell is the opposite of heaven, Nicholas Carr flips that line and takes it to its logical conclusion:

“Hell is a place where something always happens. One would have to conclude, on that basis, that the great enterprise of our time is the creation of hell on earth. Every new smartphone should have, affixed to its screen, one of those transparent, peel-off stickers on which is written, “Abandon hope, ye who enter here.”

Today, things have moved so far down that road that there’s even something called “phantom phone vibration syndrome”. Simply put, it means thinking your phone is vibrating or ringing when it’s not! Larry Rosen says;

“We are now so primed with anxiety….that we misinterpret a simple signal from our neurons located below our pocket as an incoming message rather than as an itch that needs to be scratched.”

Rosen even coined the term “iDisorders” to describe how tech in general is changing our brain circuitry.

Robert Rosenberger feels such terms don’t make sense. He told Barbara Speed:

“There are ways to talk about technology without reducing everything to brain rewiring talk…Yes, you’re brain’s involved, but your brain’s involved in everything. There's a weird scientific legitimacy that comes from saying it's changing your brain, as opposed to just claiming it’s changing your behaviour or society.”

He argues that the inclination to respond to a perceived signal for attention has been there since we were cave dwellers: who hasn’t spun around thinking somebody called out their name only to find it was a false signal? By his logic, the smartphone is just a signaling device, indicating someone called or messaged or posted on Facebook. We aren’t responding to the device; rather, we’re responding to the (sometimes imagined) communication from a known one. And so Speed concludes:

“The technology and tools may change, but we're only as neurotic and anxious as we've always been.”

I agree with Rosenberger; but I’m sure this isn’t the last word on the subject.