Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios.
Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. He there, and welcome to tech Stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and I love all things tech and
Speaker 1: today is Friday. That means it's time for a classic
Speaker 1: episode of tech Stuff. This episode originally published on January
Speaker 1: twenty nine, two thousand thirteen. It is titled Social Media
Speaker 1: and You, and it features Lauren Vogelbaum as my co host.
Speaker 1: Lauren had done a couple of episodes before this one
Speaker 1: that you're about to hear. I did not include those
Speaker 1: because they were particularly early ones. You can go back
Speaker 1: into the archive at tech stuff podcast dot com and
Speaker 1: find them. But I found that this one I think
Speaker 1: was a good starting point for the Lauren era of
Speaker 1: tech Stuff and hope you guys. And really there's a
Speaker 1: lot of fear out there, I think in a lot
Speaker 1: of a lot of news stories that are kind of
Speaker 1: amping up that fear. And there's been several studies that
Speaker 1: that talk with this doom and gloom about like about like, oh, no,
Speaker 1: social media is so big that we're not going to
Speaker 1: talk to each other in person anymore. Um, total communication breakdown,
Speaker 1: Captain Dogg's looking together that that kind of thing. Um,
Speaker 1: and uh, it's this is not pop stuff, but I
Speaker 1: like to just yes anyway, Yeah, no, no no, no, we
Speaker 1: quote documentaries all the time here on tech stuff. It's
Speaker 1: perfectly fine. And I agree entirely, Lauren. I mean, from
Speaker 1: an armchair psychology perspective, if I were to just look
Speaker 1: at the whole idea of social media and human interaction
Speaker 1: in general, uh, part of me would think, hey, social
Speaker 1: media is replacing that face to face human interaction that
Speaker 1: we tend to think of as being really important as
Speaker 1: part of our development as a person, right, or that
Speaker 1: seems to be really important for a very long time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's part of socialization. And the worry
Speaker 1: is that without that face to face interaction with something
Speaker 1: else replacing it, we would be less capable of dealing
Speaker 1: with those interactions when they come up. And a lot
Speaker 1: of the information about this tends to be anecdotal, which
Speaker 1: anyone who has done any science knows is not reliable
Speaker 1: when it comes to actually measuring it's not actually science. Um.
Speaker 1: There have been a few studies. There's a one one
Speaker 1: that you will here quoted all the time was from
Speaker 1: MD Stanford Institute for the Quantitative Study of Society. UM
Speaker 1: and uh, this one said, this one is was in
Speaker 1: two thousand five to be fair, so this was a
Speaker 1: few years ago and before Twitter and Facebook were really huge.
Speaker 1: But um, but it found that um, compared to people
Speaker 1: who do not use the internet frequently, those who do,
Speaker 1: um uh, spend seventy minutes less per day interacting with
Speaker 1: their family, twenty five minutes less per day sleeping, and
Speaker 1: thirty is less watching television. Although I'm not sure why
Speaker 1: that's necessarily a bad thing. Yeah, they could go the
Speaker 1: other way, but but that but that family thing, that's
Speaker 1: seventy minutes less a day talking to your family, that
Speaker 1: sounds that sounds awful, right until of course you're interacting
Speaker 1: with your family online exactly, and that's and that's what
Speaker 1: we're I think it turns out that that is what
Speaker 1: we are doing, right right. Yeah. Again, it's one of
Speaker 1: those things where I think the stereotype, the thing that
Speaker 1: we all imagine is the person sequestered in his or
Speaker 1: her room. Uh, you know, it's dark, Yeah, it's depressing
Speaker 1: and probably yeah, the only interaction they get is whomever
Speaker 1: is online is through a keyboard and never a microphone, right,
Speaker 1: and that's it. And it can be a synchronous communication,
Speaker 1: meaning that you know, you leave a message, then later
Speaker 1: on the person reads it and then they leave a message.
Speaker 1: This is essentially the way email works. It's a synchronous
Speaker 1: as opposed to a face to face conversation, which is
Speaker 1: generally synchronous unless you're talking to me, in which case
Speaker 1: it is just a monologue. But uh, that's the way
Speaker 1: I work. But anyway, that's generally speaking, that tends to
Speaker 1: be The view is that it's a person who is
Speaker 1: withdrawing more and more. And it's this this idea that
Speaker 1: social media could ultimately be dehumanizing us, at least in
Speaker 1: the sense of how we define what a human is
Speaker 1: right now, right, And to be fair, isolation is a
Speaker 1: very scary thing. Um. There's all kinds of studies about
Speaker 1: about how it can be as bad for you as
Speaker 1: smoking and obesity, how it increases cancerus tumors in mice. Um.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's developmentally, it's a very big problem. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's there are actual cases of tragic cases of children
Speaker 1: who are deprived the ability to interact with other people
Speaker 1: and how that has impacted their ability to develop as
Speaker 1: a human, like, like, you know, they never really develop
Speaker 1: beyond a certain what would be equivalent to a certain age,
Speaker 1: like a younger age. That there are stories about kids
Speaker 1: who were in terrible conditions and you know, grow up
Speaker 1: and never really develop beyond say a seven or eight
Speaker 1: year old mensial level. Lonely subjects have been found to
Speaker 1: have less brain activity than than people with a a
Speaker 1: healthy and diverse social network. Yes, whenever I get lonely,
Speaker 1: I'm not thinking of anything. It's just me and Supernatural,
Speaker 1: Natural Marathon. You had it, man, before I could even
Speaker 1: say it. Yes, it's just me and the next episode
Speaker 1: of Supernatural. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Brothers
Speaker 1: are dreaming. I wouldn't know. I don't want to they
Speaker 1: are dreaming. I'm like, I believe you know. Okay, cool,
Speaker 1: So anyway, Yes, these are these are all perceptions. Now,
Speaker 1: when it comes down to science, there are a lot
Speaker 1: of different stays that look at this, and there's some
Speaker 1: conflicting results. And part of that is because the nature
Speaker 1: of the studies. Part of it is that, you know,
Speaker 1: the studies are not necessarily looking at the exact same criteria, right,
Speaker 1: So it could be that one seems to contradict another,
Speaker 1: but it maybe that in a broader perspective, they're not
Speaker 1: really contradictory. It's just they're looking at they're looking at
Speaker 1: different aspects. Because when people are talking about social isolation, um,
Speaker 1: they're they're talking about the size, the intimacy, the diversity,
Speaker 1: and the location of your social network. Right. Yes, there's
Speaker 1: lots of different terms for this as well, about whether
Speaker 1: or not you have a certain number of confidence like
Speaker 1: people that you really connect with. These are the people
Speaker 1: with whom you share those deep personal things that are
Speaker 1: not something you would talk about to just your your neighbor,
Speaker 1: unless they're your confidence or or someone on the street
Speaker 1: or your coworker. Necessarily it's it's it's who you go
Speaker 1: to when you're upset or when you're happy. It's the
Speaker 1: first person that, if you're me, you text message when
Speaker 1: when something terrific happens to you, any text messages. Okay,
Speaker 1: so awkward, Uh, moving on, I'm dealing with a little
Speaker 1: heartbreak here, but it's okay. I I don't don't have
Speaker 1: to be everyone's best friend. Well, the thing is that
Speaker 1: people that people really um the average person has has
Speaker 1: one point eight ish and and that's that's you know,
Speaker 1: one one point eight close contexts like that, depending upon
Speaker 1: depending on which survey looking at, because some of these
Speaker 1: one of the one of the surveys I really looked at,
Speaker 1: which is one that you you sent me the information to,
Speaker 1: So I thank you, Lauren, because without it I would
Speaker 1: have nothing to talk about. But it was a Pew Internet,
Speaker 1: Personal Networks and Community survey. Now, before I even get
Speaker 1: into the data here, I should stress they surveyed two thousand,
Speaker 1: five twelve adults. Now that's a pretty small sample, and
Speaker 1: that's not so any results we get you have to
Speaker 1: keep in mind this is this is a very small sample.
Speaker 1: But within that sample they drew some pretty big conclusions.
Speaker 1: One of those was that of American adults said they
Speaker 1: used the Internet. So wow, didn't but anyway said they
Speaker 1: used the Internet. And nearly half of adults, or of
Speaker 1: those who said they use the Internet, say they use
Speaker 1: at least on social networking service. So this is stuff
Speaker 1: like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, that kind of thing, and this
Speaker 1: is sort of tangential to our community. Are our our
Speaker 1: conversation here. But I found it really interesting out of
Speaker 1: the ones they surveyed of those who used social networking
Speaker 1: services said they used Facebook. Them on Facebook is one
Speaker 1: of the ones I use, used my Space, LinkedIn, and
Speaker 1: used Twitter. So that means more people are using my
Speaker 1: Space than Twitter, which to me says the twenty of
Speaker 1: people who said that are all in the band. I mean, really,
Speaker 1: when was the last time you use my Space? I
Speaker 1: deleted my my Space account about a year ago. It's
Speaker 1: it's coming back because timber Lakes brought sexy and my Spacebook.
Speaker 1: Those are the two things he brought back. I don't
Speaker 1: know where he went to find them, but he brought
Speaker 1: them back. Um. But yeah, I don't use my Space either.
Speaker 1: It just blows my mom that more people are using
Speaker 1: my Space that in the survey anyway, than LinkedIn and Twitter.
Speaker 1: But um but but but that's I mean, that is
Speaker 1: indicative of the of the overall usage. I mean, Facebook
Speaker 1: as of October had um one billion monthly active users. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a huge, huge number. And h and five four
Speaker 1: million daily active users. That's a whole bunch of people.
Speaker 1: That's that's that's more people than there are even user
Speaker 1: accounts on Twitter. Um. As as of December, Twitter had
Speaker 1: had more than two million December twelve people with the
Speaker 1: Far Future are listening to Back in Future? Where's my
Speaker 1: jet pack? Is it on the way the time machine?
Speaker 1: Just bring it back to me right? There's no way
Speaker 1: they can tell me. This is the sad thing, Like
Speaker 1: you've been using it for three years. Time travel stinks
Speaker 1: because I only get to go one direction and it's
Speaker 1: really slow, second by second. As it turns out, hey
Speaker 1: there it's job from twenty nineteen here to say. We're
Speaker 1: going to a quick break to thank our sponsor. The
Speaker 1: interesting thing about this this survey, I mean we've been
Speaker 1: kind of talking about the things they found, but one
Speaker 1: of the things they were specifically looking for was this
Speaker 1: idea of social isolation and does the use of social
Speaker 1: media contribute to social isolation? Is it true that we
Speaker 1: are actually withdrawing from society in favor of the interactions
Speaker 1: that we have on social networking services? And according to
Speaker 1: the service spoiler alert, no, no it's not having Yeah,
Speaker 1: they said that according to the surveying that social isolation
Speaker 1: has not really changed since which this is just for
Speaker 1: people who aren't paying really close attention. Not really a
Speaker 1: big year for the internet. Um, if you were using
Speaker 1: the Internet, you were in a research facility or a university. Uh,
Speaker 1: you are not the average person. Because, of course, the
Speaker 1: Worldwide Web the main way we tend to think about
Speaker 1: interacting with the Internet, apart from apps and stuff. That's
Speaker 1: starting to really take control. But wed Web it wasn't
Speaker 1: a thing until ninety two, so obviously is before social
Speaker 1: networking services are a thing. Like three people on Prodigy
Speaker 1: as of eight and that's not it. So if you're
Speaker 1: on a bulletin board system, maybe, but it's before social
Speaker 1: networking services obviously. Uh. But these the extent of social
Speaker 1: isolation hasn't really changed the sense. So that tells us
Speaker 1: that it's very possible social networking services don't have a
Speaker 1: big impact. Now we can't say that for sure because
Speaker 1: there are a lot of different facts. Yeah, it could
Speaker 1: be that we are reducing social isolation at an exponential rate,
Speaker 1: but the social networking services are pulling that back. So
Speaker 1: it could be that there is an impact on social isolation.
Speaker 1: It's just that other factors are pushing it forward, so
Speaker 1: it ends up balanced. Yeah. This is the complex thing
Speaker 1: about science. This is why drawing conclusions is difficult. You
Speaker 1: have to do a lot of studies and really look
Speaker 1: at all the different factors and try and control for
Speaker 1: as many variables as possible, because otherwise whatever you say
Speaker 1: could turn out to be not so true in the
Speaker 1: grand scheme of things. But based upon what this survey found,
Speaker 1: it looks like social networking services are not turning us
Speaker 1: all into hermits. This isn't from the same Pew Internet study.
Speaker 1: I think it's from a different one. I didn't write
Speaker 1: down which study it's from in my notes, but um,
Speaker 1: it's been found that mobile phone use has actually made
Speaker 1: our contact lists smaller but more intense. That makes sense.
Speaker 1: So for instance, you know, it's not that it's not
Speaker 1: that the relationships are less meaningful. It just means that
Speaker 1: the ones that we contact were really depending upon them,
Speaker 1: and that we might be using a phone in order
Speaker 1: to make that connection as opposed to necessary you know,
Speaker 1: walking across the street or or driving to a friend's hell,
Speaker 1: are meeting up at a coffee shop or whatever. To me,
Speaker 1: you know, that just means that we're transferring that same
Speaker 1: need for interaction to a different medium. It doesn't mean
Speaker 1: that we're losing that interaction. It just means that it's
Speaker 1: a you know, we're taking advantage of technology in ways
Speaker 1: that we couldn't before, which is awesome because I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm sure you've known people who have moved away. You
Speaker 1: you yourself have moved a few times. Absolutely. I I
Speaker 1: play Halo every Wednesday night so that I get to
Speaker 1: hang out with my friends who don't live here anymore. Right,
Speaker 1: So this is technology giving us those social interactions that
Speaker 1: otherwise we might lose if if we were to relocate
Speaker 1: or our friends relocate. And in my view, that's a
Speaker 1: huge positive. It means that those those those relationships that
Speaker 1: have been formed over years sometimes decades of uh knowing
Speaker 1: one another don't fade away. They still remain relevant because
Speaker 1: technology allows us to continue to build those relationships. Now,
Speaker 1: those interactions, the nature of them might change it, but
Speaker 1: it's still a very important part of who we are
Speaker 1: and how we interact. And for some people, UM, you
Speaker 1: know there there are mentally and physically disabled people, the elderly, um,
Speaker 1: new new mothers who can't get out of the house, um,
Speaker 1: all kinds of people who they've been doing medical studies
Speaker 1: with to see if use of the internet can actually
Speaker 1: give them better social interaction. Sure it's it's it's been
Speaker 1: found to reduce depression in lots of those groups, UM
Speaker 1: and and has really helped people out. So yeah, I've
Speaker 1: even seen that there have been studies done with people
Speaker 1: who have various mental health conditions who otherwise would find
Speaker 1: it very difficult to socialize. They they either not just
Speaker 1: awkward like me and Jonathan. Right, No, no, no, the
Speaker 1: people who really find it difficult to form any kind
Speaker 1: of social contact. It's just one of those things that
Speaker 1: it's a block for them and it can be very frustrating,
Speaker 1: especially if they observe that other people are capable of
Speaker 1: doing this. And there are so many factors involved here.
Speaker 1: There's a there's an entire taboo about mental health in
Speaker 1: our culture that is that's problematic and so awful. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it feeds on itself, right, it defends this thing
Speaker 1: where it just mounts on the person who's experiencing this.
Speaker 1: And some of the studies had people using social networks
Speaker 1: and and they were finding it much easier to interact
Speaker 1: with people and making suggestions on how to create a
Speaker 1: social network with tools that would allow them to have
Speaker 1: a greater interaction. Which, yeah, you think about that, like,
Speaker 1: this is this is what technology should do. Technology should
Speaker 1: help people so that they can interact any way they want.
Speaker 1: In the you know in a way that brings them
Speaker 1: the satisfaction that people can have, you know, people who
Speaker 1: don't have these conditions tend to find naturally. Um, I
Speaker 1: like this to me, it's to me, it's a great thing.
Speaker 1: And anything that decreases that sense of isolation and that
Speaker 1: since that taboo is a good thing to and it's
Speaker 1: it's an added dimension. It doesn't have to be it
Speaker 1: doesn't have to be replacement. It can be and things change,
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean Socrates was terrified that writing was
Speaker 1: going to ruin people's brains. Oh, I want to talk
Speaker 1: about this, but we're gonna get into that all right. Now,
Speaker 1: hang on one second. Now, let's take a quick break
Speaker 1: to thank our sponsor, and now back to the show.
Speaker 1: So you were talking about Socrates and writing, right, the
Speaker 1: idea that writing things down means that you're taking stuff
Speaker 1: out of your brain and putting it on paper or
Speaker 1: stone or clay or whatever. Right a tree, your buddy Bill,
Speaker 1: who stands still for really long periods of time, whatever,
Speaker 1: you're taking it out of your brain, you're putting it
Speaker 1: on something else, and therefore you are no longer relying
Speaker 1: on your brain to process that information because you've offloaded
Speaker 1: it soccers. You thought this was a terrible idea. The
Speaker 1: interesting thing is that attitude has continued up to present day,
Speaker 1: which is, you know, I assume why you brought it up,
Speaker 1: because today we have computers and and uh smartphones and calculators. Calculators. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I could not do complex equations anymore without the use
Speaker 1: of a calculator because frankly, I just don't use those
Speaker 1: skills as frequently as I as I used to. Well,
Speaker 1: you're a writer, you're not a mathematician. I'm not a
Speaker 1: good one either, um, and then mathematician that is, I'm
Speaker 1: an excellent writer. You should read some of my articles
Speaker 1: that how stufforce dot com. You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: So anyway, yeah, yeah, I know. That's the exactly I
Speaker 1: mean the Nicholas Carr wrote the famous article for The
Speaker 1: Atlantic is Google making us stupid? This whole idea that
Speaker 1: because we've got so much information on the internet and
Speaker 1: we have access to information, and therefore we're less intelligent,
Speaker 1: right right, we don't. We don't have to remember stuff,
Speaker 1: we don't have to know stuff. We just because I'm
Speaker 1: d knows it, right, Yeah, yeah, why do we Why
Speaker 1: do I need to even process this information. All I
Speaker 1: have to do is type in search query and Google
Speaker 1: pull up the first answer, and then and then repeat
Speaker 1: it back. It doesn't even mean that I even process
Speaker 1: it on a level where I understand it social media
Speaker 1: or social networking services. Some people were worried a similar
Speaker 1: thing is going on with the social aspect. As we're
Speaker 1: talking with the memory and processing of information on the Internet.
Speaker 1: This idea that social networking services are creating a less
Speaker 1: meaningful way of connecting with people. But things like this
Speaker 1: Pew research survey suggest otherwise. It's suggests that we're getting
Speaker 1: just as much meaningful interaction online and through technology as
Speaker 1: we would face to face. Now, the the actual nature
Speaker 1: of that interaction may change somewhat somewhat, but it's still
Speaker 1: important and it's still helpful. Yeah, and and that's I mean,
Speaker 1: you know that kind of fear of technology. To be fair,
Speaker 1: we hear tech stuff are probably biased towards technology and
Speaker 1: just maybe maybe a little bit. Please listen to all
Speaker 1: our episodes on your computers contacts at Discovery dot com.
Speaker 1: But um, but but no, I mean, I mean, fear
Speaker 1: of fear of technology isn't going to change the fact
Speaker 1: that technology is out there, and it's not going to
Speaker 1: change the fact that things are changing. Change happens, society changes,
Speaker 1: everything changes, you know, and and fe people were also worried, um,
Speaker 1: in the Industrial Revolution that because um, because these these
Speaker 1: machines were starting to automate human processes, that that the
Speaker 1: the equality of workspace interaction was going to go down,
Speaker 1: and and all kinds of other ripple effects out from that.
Speaker 1: And sure, that's where we get the whole sabotage thing,
Speaker 1: because people, you know, the whole idea throwing the wooden
Speaker 1: shoe into the automated loom to destroy it. So are
Speaker 1: old old listeners to not not old listeners, but people
Speaker 1: listen to old episodes of tech stuff. I know that
Speaker 1: We've talked about that many many times, and and it's
Speaker 1: not it's you know, the answer is, yes, things are changing,
Speaker 1: but no, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Yeah, in
Speaker 1: fact that that Again, going back to that Pew survey,
Speaker 1: one of the other things I thought was really interesting
Speaker 1: was that they found that people who use the web
Speaker 1: a lot. Again, another one of those those uh perceptions
Speaker 1: is that these are people who don't get out as much.
Speaker 1: They don't you know, they don't interact in other ways
Speaker 1: other than online, but that doesn't seem to be the
Speaker 1: case according to the people that they surveyed. According to
Speaker 1: the survey, the folks who used the web were actually
Speaker 1: more likely to interact with people in their immediate physical environment.
Speaker 1: They were more likely to do things like speak to
Speaker 1: a neighbor on a on a regular basis or uh yes,
Speaker 1: it's six of respondent said that they talked to a
Speaker 1: neighbor at least once per month. And they found that
Speaker 1: bloggers are seventy two percent more likely to belong to
Speaker 1: a local voluntary association than those who do not blog.
Speaker 1: So there you've got people who are very much invested
Speaker 1: in the online world, but not at the expense of
Speaker 1: a physical one, so directly contradicting that armchair psychology approach,
Speaker 1: which is why we always say, like, yeah, there's that
Speaker 1: whole idea of common sense dictates, which often means I
Speaker 1: am wrong, but it seems like I'm right. I do
Speaker 1: this all the time. I'm like, well, common sense talking
Speaker 1: out of my butt because I don't have any data
Speaker 1: in front of me. But yeah, they also found out
Speaker 1: they said web users are more likely to visit a cafe.
Speaker 1: I did not say if it was an internet cafe,
Speaker 1: which obviously would increase the odds, but fifty two percent
Speaker 1: more likely to visit a library. Didn't say if that
Speaker 1: was because that's how they access the internet, But hey,
Speaker 1: thirty four percent more likely to visit a fast food
Speaker 1: restaurant that I don't necessarily think it's a good thing.
Speaker 1: You know what, I haven't visit a fast food restaurant
Speaker 1: in a very long time. I'm not a fast food fan.
Speaker 1: More likely to visit other restaurants now I'm in that category.
Speaker 1: We might like food and oh gosh, I love food,
Speaker 1: And then more likely to visit a public park, which
Speaker 1: is awesome. That is awesome. So we're talking about people
Speaker 1: who have a real investment in their community and an
Speaker 1: interest in the world outside the realm of the computer.
Speaker 1: So that does contradict are they aren't going outside, they're
Speaker 1: just taking pictures to upload when they get home. Right, Oh,
Speaker 1: that reminds me of something I wanted to talk about
Speaker 1: that wasn't on our on the notes, but it was.
Speaker 1: It's this idea. It's something that's interesting. So one of
Speaker 1: the one of the conflicts that people have with whole
Speaker 1: social networking services and everything is that it It is
Speaker 1: constantly interrupting our daily lives if we are connected in
Speaker 1: various ways, so that uh verver ties where it's inappropriate
Speaker 1: for you to stop what you're doing and respond to
Speaker 1: someone on Facebook or Twitter, like like you're at work,
Speaker 1: or you are in a conversation with someone, or you're
Speaker 1: up on stage developing a keynote address to a bunch
Speaker 1: of people. I'm sorry, but but I was gonna say
Speaker 1: like driving, but those are so uh anyway, have you
Speaker 1: ever been to uh dinner with someone or a meal
Speaker 1: with someone when the very first thing that happens is
Speaker 1: smartphone hits the table? Yes, that drives me so crazy.
Speaker 1: Are you ever that person? Or do you leave your
Speaker 1: smartphone away? Okay, to be fair, I'm very occasionally that person,
Speaker 1: but usually it's revenge smartphone use. Usually it's it's after
Speaker 1: someone else has brought out their smartphone. I I I
Speaker 1: have on occasion gotten a little b huffy and I'll fine,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna check Facebook too. Well, Lauren, I
Speaker 1: hate to break this to you, but you're gonna get
Speaker 1: way worse because now you're a tech stuff co host
Speaker 1: and uh, let me put it this way, when I
Speaker 1: hang out with other technology podcasts hosts and we all
Speaker 1: go out to eat, the table creaks under the weight
Speaker 1: of the electronics that hit it. First thing, I am
Speaker 1: not kidding. I remember meals with people like and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be dropping some names here, folks, because my back hurt,
Speaker 1: get ready, so I gotta drop some weight. Get Ready.
Speaker 1: But people like Sarah Lane, i Azactar and tom Merritt
Speaker 1: uh this Week in Tech or or Molly Wood of
Speaker 1: c net or um oh, justin Robert Young and Brian
Speaker 1: Brushwood and and and Veronica Belmont. We've all I've been
Speaker 1: to dinner with these folks in various settings, and invariably,
Speaker 1: the first thing that happens is everyone's smartphone hits the table,
Speaker 1: and anytime you're not looking at a menu or talking,
Speaker 1: you're way And I include myself, I am not immune
Speaker 1: to this. This is something I've done too, and some
Speaker 1: people are better about it than others. But it is
Speaker 1: one of those things that can be kind of distracting.
Speaker 1: And I will admit this is one of those behaviors
Speaker 1: that is socially It's becoming more and more socially acceptable
Speaker 1: in the sense that everyone's doing it but it's I
Speaker 1: still am a little bit eaked out by it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it can be. It can be insulting if you're talking
Speaker 1: to someone and you just see them looking because you know.
Speaker 1: But the reason why I brought it up, Oh, there's
Speaker 1: a restaurant in Los Angeles called EVA Restaurant E v A.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure it's not the only restaurant that does this,
Speaker 1: but EVA Restaurant has a policy which is if you
Speaker 1: come inside the restaurant and you surrender your cell phone
Speaker 1: to the waiter when you come in, you get a
Speaker 1: five percent discount on your bill. That's a delightful. So
Speaker 1: you come in. The waiter explains the policy, especially in
Speaker 1: l A. Yeah, you have the choice of yeah, especially yeah,
Speaker 1: no kidding all those actors waiting for the breakout call
Speaker 1: or those agents waiting for their actors to call them.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it means that you you just you hand
Speaker 1: it over and then you concentrate on the food and
Speaker 1: the experience. And you know, the restaurant's policy is that
Speaker 1: this way, you're really focusing on the meal and you're
Speaker 1: enjoying it for what it is, as opposed to distracting
Speaker 1: yourself and the meal is just something you're doing in
Speaker 1: between tweets. It also means Instagram hates it because there's
Speaker 1: so few, so many fewer pick there's a food flooding
Speaker 1: the Internet, which which we are in dire lacking of
Speaker 1: so food and cats. People need more food and cats
Speaker 1: on the internet. Staff. I'm I'm I'm starting my my
Speaker 1: me and my tumbler followers are starting a drive for
Speaker 1: more acute hedgehogs on the Internet. I think that this
Speaker 1: is a thing that needs to happen. Had a good run,
Speaker 1: it did well. That bucket, that bucket, it was a
Speaker 1: bucket list. Oh no, oh dear, that one. That one
Speaker 1: that was such a stretch. That wasn't that joke? Cut
Speaker 1: wasn't that that was just not sure? It was just words,
Speaker 1: That's what that was. But but but but no, but
Speaker 1: I mean it is, it is. It can divide our attention,
Speaker 1: and I do. I've seen a couple of news reports
Speaker 1: lately that that had this announcer being shocked shocked. Did
Speaker 1: you know that when young people wake up they check
Speaker 1: their cell phone before getting out of bed. Then I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm like, people don't do that. First of all, my
Speaker 1: cell phone is my alarm. Of course, my mind too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because of that by turning off my alarm, I am
Speaker 1: checking my cell phone right, And I don't get out
Speaker 1: of bed to throw off my alarm because that's just ridiculous.
Speaker 1: That would be that would help me wake up. Probably
Speaker 1: I should do that, but no, I do not. I'm
Speaker 1: a morning person anyway, So as soon as as soon
Speaker 1: as those eyes pop up and I'm ready to go,
Speaker 1: I'm not happy about it. I'm not sure full morning person.
Speaker 1: I'll still be grouchy at you. I just I'm just alert,
Speaker 1: that's all. But but yeah, but but but that that
Speaker 1: in the kind of behavior where you see more people
Speaker 1: at a concert, for example, um, taking photos at the
Speaker 1: concert than you do watching the concert. Yeah. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: that's the thing, And that's you know, Yeah, I get
Speaker 1: grouchy at concerts too. That's why every concert needs to
Speaker 1: be a private show of just me and the and
Speaker 1: the musician. When one of those get off my lawn
Speaker 1: kind of moments. Yeah, there's only a couple of musicians
Speaker 1: I know who would be willing to do that, oh,
Speaker 1: to to actually do like, okay, it's just me and you,
Speaker 1: I'll play my songs for you, someone that we know together.
Speaker 1: Because she's nice. Yes, and it would be you know,
Speaker 1: she she'd essentially be doing a favor for me. Yes,
Speaker 1: So I like hear anything. But yeah, no, I think
Speaker 1: it's a good discussion. I mean it's I think ultimately
Speaker 1: the takeaway we have to have is that we do
Speaker 1: not have a full spectrum of data to really support
Speaker 1: this one way or the other. But it looks like
Speaker 1: it's not as damaging as we would first think perhaps,
Speaker 1: and it may in fact be helpful. Uh, since it's
Speaker 1: kind of a social science thing, it's what we call
Speaker 1: one of the soft sciences, and whenever you get people involved,
Speaker 1: it really messes with the variables. So because we're not
Speaker 1: all the same as it turns out crazy. Yeah, funky
Speaker 1: about that, right. So ultimately it may we may not
Speaker 1: be able to come down and say definitively whether it's
Speaker 1: good or bad. It just it looks like it's not. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And that wraps up another classic episode of tech Stuff.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening. Hope you enjoyed this
Speaker 1: and the debut and the classics of Lauren Vogelbaum, who
Speaker 1: was my co host for for a little while, quite
Speaker 1: some time actually, And so we're gonna be hearing a
Speaker 1: lot more from her over the next few classic episodes.
Speaker 1: If you guys have suggestions for future episodes of tech Stuff,
Speaker 1: feel free to get in touch with me. You can
Speaker 1: email tech Stuff at how stuff works dot com or
Speaker 1: drop a line on Facebook or Twitter. The handle of
Speaker 1: both of those is text Stuff h SW. You can
Speaker 1: also pop on over to our website, tech stuff podcast
Speaker 1: dot com. As I said earlier, you can go to
Speaker 1: the archive of every episode we've ever published. It's searchable,
Speaker 1: so if you want to look for a specific topic
Speaker 1: you can. You can also find a link to our
Speaker 1: online store, where every purchase you make goes to out
Speaker 1: the show and we greatly appreciate it, and I will
Speaker 1: talk to you again really soon. Text Stuff is a
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