> How long do you wait after waking up before you pick up your smartphone and check your texts, notifications, or social media apps?
This narrative has bothered me since I was a teenager, though back then it was just "using the computer". I have always looked at these devices as multi-purpose tools. I did not want to "use the computer" -- I wanted to play a game. Or learn how to code. Or create music. Or read news. Or talk to my friends. Or watch a movie. The device is merely a means to an end, not the goal itself.
In other words, I was not interested in coding because it meant using a computer, I was interested in coding because you can build things and solve problems in interesting and mentally stimulating ways. I enjoy messing around with electronics and working on my house for the same reasons -- not because I was looking for an excuse to use a soldering iron or circular saw.
To lump these activities together makes no sense. They happen to use the same device, but that's it. I wake up and turn off the alarm on my phone. Once I actually get out of bed, I'll also notice if there are any texts -- it rarely happens but if someone texts me really early in the morning or overnight, it's probably something really important. What I don't do is check work e-mails or social media. There's usually some notification sitting there for that, but there pretty much always is, and it's easy to just ignore.
That's kind of reductive. The medium matters for any activity or information. You can't just discount the medium.
Whether for good or bad, the existence of phones has changed the human condition. Perhaps irreversibly. It's not just how we consume news or work. It's a very personal change. Remember in the nineties how we'd all have to plan ahead of time to meet up with friends or family or go on a date or whatever? You had to wait until evening, call when they would be home or leave a message, set up a time and place, and stick to it because once you left the house you couldn't coordinate further.
So whether or not that's good or bad is beside the point. It is a profoundly different method of socializing. Communication was sparse and delayed and you couldn't change plans or cancel 30 minutes ahead of time without looking like a dick. We are different for this. In some ways good, in some ways bad, but we have such a poor understanding of how it's working for us in the greater scheme of things that this fact alone should be somewhat alarming. And no, you can't just choose not to participate. Not having a smartphone on your person at all times and being always connected, always reachable, and always able to be obliged to work or respond or go do something at another's command is now tantamount to not participating in society.
Before this existed, we did a lot of the same activities in other ways as you said, but the restrictions of the medium we had available truly did change how it all worked in a tangible way. Yes, a similar thing happened with radio and land lines and other forms of technology before, but the extent of the change was lesser. The developments of the past ten or twenty years are so much more efficient and powerful and difficult to evade that they deserve unique consideration.
why not use watch? i bought Amazfit Bip which i wear 24/7 (ok take away few minutes for shower since i don't feel comfortable taking shower work watch despite being waterproof) and can only praise it, 6 weeks battery life with 24/7 Bluetooth notifications, measuring heart rate every ten minutes (every minute seem excessive and poetically world reduce battery life a bit) and pedometer
Yeah, I had a manual alarm clock for years, and recently discovered that my phone is actually the ideal alarm clock.
I travel a lot, often to different time zones, and instead of having muck around with hotel alarm clocks, my phone alarm always goes off at the same time every morning relative to the local time.
And there's no alarm clock at home that buzzes in the morning and annoys the heck out of my neighbors before shutting itself off after 30 mins.
A phone also doesn't blink 00:00 when the power goes out.
I've rarely had a phone successful in waking me up. I've had reasonably good luck with a Motorola Xoom tablet I still have that still works for this purpose. (The Xoom is a nice thick device that didn't slouch on component size, and can put out legit audio.)
But the most effective alarm clock I own is a good old-fashion quartz clock AM/FM radio. It's WAY louder than any phone or tablet can offer up, and having it is often more reliable as well, given that my phone sometimes needs a hard reboot after installing a security update and hence isn't booted when I wake up, or didn't align for charging correctly and ran out of battery while sitting on the charging pad.
On the other hand, the battery in the Xoom mitigates the risk of my alarm not going off due to a power outage, and it being smart mitigates the risk of being late due to a time change.
I don't use an alarm clock, but I'm privileged to set my own schedule. I think I check my phone ~5 minutes after waking though. For a while I put it to charge in another room, which I think was healthier - I might do that again.
How often do you place a blindfold on when you first wake up and spend a few hours with life without sight? Your phone is your 6th sense and it’s part of you now same way your eyes are. It’s called being a “cyborg” and we are all that now. And it will only get more integrated with surgery soon. Imagine bluetooth connections from chip in your head to phone in your pocket. Google search with your mind without looking at your phone. That changes school doesn’t it? Kids will have no choice but to get the surgery to compete.
I miss the time when I didn't have Internet connection, mobile phone, and had no one to distract me for 8 hours per day. I didn't have anything important to work on since I was a kid, but I remember I was able to concentrate on things for much longer and it was more enjoyable. I didn't have to exert any will power since I didn't have a lot of alternatives with regards to what to do with the computer and that simple stuff I was doing was providing enough of dopamine to keep me hooked. After reflecting back on that time, I'm starting to appreciate good old printed books, simple audio player that isn't connected to any kind of streaming service, offline documentation for libraries that make it possible to do some work without internet. There is something special about those hours of disconnect.
I'm really curious what the other 3 people do. I wake up before my wife, so I usually grab my phone, or laptop usually, and start checking news, planning my day etc. before she is up.
Do people just sit there and stare at the ceiling or what?
Go to the bathroom, brush your teeth and make breakfast? That's what I do.
I've noticed the tendency to check my phone/computer when I wake up, and I consciously try to avoid it. Checking within a minute really a sign of addiction, just like people who smoke a cigarette in bed after waking (and yes I knew somebody who did this.)
I definitely don't check my phone/computer within a minute of waking up. Probably 10 or 15 minutes on a good day, 3-5 minutes on a bad day.
I've been actively denying myself access to my phone when I wake up. I had gotten into the undesirable habit of reading reddit for like thirty minutes every morning.
Yea, that means I sometimes doze a bit sitting on the john. It does mean I'm at the point where I'm ready to do something productive in ten minutes after getting out of bed, though.
When were you born? I'm not trying to be insulting or snarky, it's just that this state of mind is so different from mine and I'm curious. I think even a lot of people who lived before smartphones and home computers have forgotten what it's like.
Wake up; get out of bed; have a hot drink; maybe breakfast/workout; hygiene routine. It's not that esoteric, and surely you remember a time before smartphones?
I've lately imposed a rule on myself: no electronics in my bedroom whatsoever. I've slept sounder and longer as a result, and I've noticed a greater propensity to get out of bed earlier and be more productive when I do wake up.
The only trouble is that I've only been able to abide by this rule 75% or so of the time --- it's easy to make an exception because I want to just finish this one testcase or something, and then I end up staying up much later than I intended and wasting time on bullshit in the morning. These brain extension devices are sticky.
Heh was about to post something similar, I'm not even on-call most of the time, I still check Slack when I wake up to see what happened to the person who was on call-if anything, since there's a 99.9% chance I'm getting roped in the second I get to my office. Best be prepared for it.
Not that I'm complaining about this, it just is what it is.
(Also because there's a sports radio show that isn't broadcast nationally from my hometown and I like to listen in as I'm waking up/getting ready for the day)
An intentionally limited device like an old-fashioned pager might work. I know it doesn't make logical sense to limit functionality: one might ask, "can't you just limit phone use to urgent notification instead of limiting yourself to a device that's physically limited to notifications?" Well, yes, but people don't work that way.
Before I had a smartphone, I had an alarm clock set to wake me up by playing NPR at 7:00. I would lie in bed and listen to Morning Edition, just to make sure the world hadn't blown up while I was asleep.
Today the alarm clock is set to buzz. I (literally) roll out of bed onto the floor and check the Washington Post app. To make sure the world hasn't blown up while I was asleep.
My phone is my alarm. But it’s also clear across the room. I also do not autofetch email so when I turn off the alarm I swipe to check for email as I get dressed. I’m always excited to see if I got some interesting email that will take me away from this routine.
I should also note I easily spend 5 days in the wilderness with no phone connection at all.
Within seconds I check what time it is. I check to see if my wife left any notes about how my newborn or toddler slept. I check to see if my dad wants lunch today. I check to see what the weather will be.
My phone provides important information that will shape my day. I'm wholly shame free about how I use it.
I check mine immediately, because it's in my hand since I just turned the alarm off. I almost can't not check it, since I'll see whatever notifications are on the home screen after I've touched the cancel button unless I go out of my way to look away.
Not that the alarm wakes me up very often. I almost always wake up a few minutes before it goes off. Even in different time zones. Not sure how my body does that. So technically I probably don't check it less than a minute after waking up, just a few seconds after the alarm goes off.
I only check my phone for texts maybe once or half a time per day. Sometimes longer if I forget. It's easy since I don't carry the phone with me and it's a dumb phone that can barely even do texting.
That said, I'm usually checking my main desktop computer and IRC within a minute of waking up.
It is my alarm clock as I don't think I could figure out how to use a regular alarm clock. They all have lots of confusing buttons and pushing that indented button with a sharp object is really annoying.
I can't tell if this is a joke comment or not. What "indented button"? My alarm clock has 2 buttons (hour and minute), and 2 switches (alarm on/off, and set time / set alarm / run). Not at all unusual: it's basically just a clock-on-a-chip that was used by lots of brands.
If you can figure out the C=64 reset system call, you can figure out an alarm clock.
I schedule in 5 mins when my alarm goes off to read reddit. For me, doing this extremely useful as my brain spins up and I feel like I do not want to go back to sleep.
i fail to see why this is different than the act of turning on the tv, reading the paper or whatever else people did to keep up to date in the days before digital communication
[+] [-] gregmac|7 years ago|reply
This narrative has bothered me since I was a teenager, though back then it was just "using the computer". I have always looked at these devices as multi-purpose tools. I did not want to "use the computer" -- I wanted to play a game. Or learn how to code. Or create music. Or read news. Or talk to my friends. Or watch a movie. The device is merely a means to an end, not the goal itself.
In other words, I was not interested in coding because it meant using a computer, I was interested in coding because you can build things and solve problems in interesting and mentally stimulating ways. I enjoy messing around with electronics and working on my house for the same reasons -- not because I was looking for an excuse to use a soldering iron or circular saw.
To lump these activities together makes no sense. They happen to use the same device, but that's it. I wake up and turn off the alarm on my phone. Once I actually get out of bed, I'll also notice if there are any texts -- it rarely happens but if someone texts me really early in the morning or overnight, it's probably something really important. What I don't do is check work e-mails or social media. There's usually some notification sitting there for that, but there pretty much always is, and it's easy to just ignore.
[+] [-] vertexFarm|7 years ago|reply
Whether for good or bad, the existence of phones has changed the human condition. Perhaps irreversibly. It's not just how we consume news or work. It's a very personal change. Remember in the nineties how we'd all have to plan ahead of time to meet up with friends or family or go on a date or whatever? You had to wait until evening, call when they would be home or leave a message, set up a time and place, and stick to it because once you left the house you couldn't coordinate further.
So whether or not that's good or bad is beside the point. It is a profoundly different method of socializing. Communication was sparse and delayed and you couldn't change plans or cancel 30 minutes ahead of time without looking like a dick. We are different for this. In some ways good, in some ways bad, but we have such a poor understanding of how it's working for us in the greater scheme of things that this fact alone should be somewhat alarming. And no, you can't just choose not to participate. Not having a smartphone on your person at all times and being always connected, always reachable, and always able to be obliged to work or respond or go do something at another's command is now tantamount to not participating in society.
Before this existed, we did a lot of the same activities in other ways as you said, but the restrictions of the medium we had available truly did change how it all worked in a tangible way. Yes, a similar thing happened with radio and land lines and other forms of technology before, but the extent of the change was lesser. The developments of the past ten or twenty years are so much more efficient and powerful and difficult to evade that they deserve unique consideration.
[+] [-] colomon|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mortivore|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Raphmedia|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Markoff|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] freeflight|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bovermyer|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mikejulietbravo|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wenc|7 years ago|reply
I travel a lot, often to different time zones, and instead of having muck around with hotel alarm clocks, my phone alarm always goes off at the same time every morning relative to the local time.
And there's no alarm clock at home that buzzes in the morning and annoys the heck out of my neighbors before shutting itself off after 30 mins.
A phone also doesn't blink 00:00 when the power goes out.
[+] [-] ocdtrekkie|7 years ago|reply
But the most effective alarm clock I own is a good old-fashion quartz clock AM/FM radio. It's WAY louder than any phone or tablet can offer up, and having it is often more reliable as well, given that my phone sometimes needs a hard reboot after installing a security update and hence isn't booted when I wake up, or didn't align for charging correctly and ran out of battery while sitting on the charging pad.
On the other hand, the battery in the Xoom mitigates the risk of my alarm not going off due to a power outage, and it being smart mitigates the risk of being late due to a time change.
[+] [-] echevil|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pranalli|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tlrobinson|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kradeelav|7 years ago|reply
Honestly though, I'm still shocked at the number of people who are on a screen that soon. That can't be healthy for the eyes.
[+] [-] 1auralynn|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] philip1209|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] crankylinuxuser|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] LeoPanthera|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cimmanom|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] raws|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jstanley|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] recursive|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] andrewfromx|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] biql|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] blhack|7 years ago|reply
Do people just sit there and stare at the ceiling or what?
[+] [-] chubot|7 years ago|reply
I've noticed the tendency to check my phone/computer when I wake up, and I consciously try to avoid it. Checking within a minute really a sign of addiction, just like people who smoke a cigarette in bed after waking (and yes I knew somebody who did this.)
I definitely don't check my phone/computer within a minute of waking up. Probably 10 or 15 minutes on a good day, 3-5 minutes on a bad day.
[+] [-] zanny|7 years ago|reply
Yea, that means I sometimes doze a bit sitting on the john. It does mean I'm at the point where I'm ready to do something productive in ten minutes after getting out of bed, though.
[+] [-] vertexFarm|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] warent|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ken|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] izzydata|7 years ago|reply
The question of what constitutes "checking" your phone is probably ambiguous.
[+] [-] quotemstr|7 years ago|reply
The only trouble is that I've only been able to abide by this rule 75% or so of the time --- it's easy to make an exception because I want to just finish this one testcase or something, and then I end up staying up much later than I intended and wasting time on bullshit in the morning. These brain extension devices are sticky.
[+] [-] localhost|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sparrish|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] iamdave|7 years ago|reply
Not that I'm complaining about this, it just is what it is.
(Also because there's a sports radio show that isn't broadcast nationally from my hometown and I like to listen in as I'm waking up/getting ready for the day)
[+] [-] quotemstr|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] GlenTheMachine|7 years ago|reply
Today the alarm clock is set to buzz. I (literally) roll out of bed onto the floor and check the Washington Post app. To make sure the world hasn't blown up while I was asleep.
Is there a significant difference here?
[+] [-] pelagic_sky|7 years ago|reply
I should also note I easily spend 5 days in the wilderness with no phone connection at all.
[+] [-] NullPrefix|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Waterluvian|7 years ago|reply
My phone provides important information that will shape my day. I'm wholly shame free about how I use it.
[+] [-] aaaaaaaaaab|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] godshatter|7 years ago|reply
Not that the alarm wakes me up very often. I almost always wake up a few minutes before it goes off. Even in different time zones. Not sure how my body does that. So technically I probably don't check it less than a minute after waking up, just a few seconds after the alarm goes off.
[+] [-] aasasd|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bitxbitxbitcoin|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] superkuh|7 years ago|reply
That said, I'm usually checking my main desktop computer and IRC within a minute of waking up.
[+] [-] sys_64738|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ken|7 years ago|reply
If you can figure out the C=64 reset system call, you can figure out an alarm clock.
[+] [-] j00pY|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gaspoweredcat|7 years ago|reply