Pat Fitzgerald sounds off on negative impact phones are having on attendance/society

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RememberMurray said:
What's sad in this case is that there is something really important that's being lost in The Age of the Phone Zombie. That being: direct human interaction.
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That’s my point. Who says that direct human interaction is so important? Just because we have always been taught so doesn’t necessarily mean it is so. Maybe to you, maybe to others, maybe to most, but maybe not to others. I preach the same to my kids - get off your phone, interact more —- but maybe I shouldn’t. Maybe I only do because that’s what I’ve been taught is “right.”


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Spoofin said:
That’s my point. Who says that direct human interaction is so important? Just because we have always been taught so doesn’t necessarily mean it is so. Maybe to you, maybe to others, maybe to most, but maybe not to others. I preach the same to my kids - get off your phone, interact more —- but maybe I shouldn’t. Maybe I only do because that’s what I’ve been taught is “right.”


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I don't want to live in a world without direct human-to-human interaction.

I want to see faces, and read expressions, and sense what it is that other people have in common with me. I want to be able to shake hands and hug, and send and receive all the other verbal and non-verbal, tangible and obvious and subtle signals that we instinctively use as people, and that we need in order to feel our common humanity with others.

I was not "taught" these things, or told that they're important. I can feel it in my bones and in my being. It's obvious to me.

If that doesn't make sense to you, I have to say it saddens me. No offense, but that is just depressing.
 
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RememberMurray said:
I don't want to live in a world without direct human-to-human interaction.

I want to see faces, and read expressions, and sense what it is that other people have in common with me. I want to be able to shake hands and hug, and send and receive all the other verbal and non-verbal, tangible and obvious and subtle signals that we instinctively use as people, and that we need in order to feel our common humanity with others.

I was not "taught" these things, or told that they're important. I can feel it in my bones and in my being. It's obvious to me.

If that doesn't make sense to you, I have to say it saddens me. No offense, but that is just depressing.
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No offense taken. Not sure why I would. It fully makes sense to me; however, you are projecting your feelings/beliefs on to what “all humans <b>need</b>.” Enough on this topic.


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Spoofin said:
No offense taken. Not sure why I would. It fully makes sense to me; however, you are projecting your feelings/beliefs on to what “all humans <b>need</b>.” Enough on this topic.


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Thanks for not taking offense. I have to say I generally enjoy my (digital, I know!) interactions with you on GH.

And maybe you're right about me 'projecting', but I strongly feel that most humans need real, live contact with other humans — whether we consciously know it or not.
 



Spoofin said:
Honest Question. Let’s assume the bolded is true. Why is that sad and wrong? If everyone at the table prefers it that way, why is that bad? We tend to decide something is wrong based on how we were taught. Doesn’t make it right. I think there needs to be two spaces after a period, but that is no longer how it is taught. Is that wrong or do times just change?


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You would change your mind if you could be a fly on the wall, at a high school, for just a day.
 

RememberMurray said:
Thanks for not taking offense. I have to say I generally enjoy my (digital, I know!) interactions with you on GH.

And maybe you're right about me 'projecting', but I strongly feel that most humans need real, live contact with other humans — whether we consciously know it or not.
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30 years the idea of randomly being able to talk to a stranger a half world away on a moments notice would be incredible. Now we take it for granted and some think that ability is bad.

What's bad about it is that it lacks the personal touch of human interaction which in most cases builds empathy because they see the person vs a username.

Reading your screenname, I know very little about you and conclude very little about you or whether you have family, spouse, etc. All I know is that you're a huge Eric Murray fan.
 

Spoofin said:
That’s my point. Who says that direct human interaction is so important? Just because we have always been taught so doesn’t necessarily mean it is so. Maybe to you, maybe to others, maybe to most, but maybe not to others. I preach the same to my kids - get off your phone, interact more —- but maybe I shouldn’t. Maybe I only do because that’s what I’ve been taught is “right.”


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It's not that deep. Less human interaction means less empathy for other humans. Less care for others. Less love, etc..
 

Face The Facts said:
30 years the idea of randomly being able to talk to a stranger a half world away on a moments notice would be incredible. Now we take it for granted and some think that ability is bad.

What's bad about it is that it lacks the personal touch of human interaction which in most cases builds empathy because they see the person vs a username.

Reading your screenname, I know very little about you and conclude very little about you or whether you have family, spouse, etc. All I know is that you're a huge Eric Murray fan.
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No, I don't 'think it's bad' to be able to communicate via technology.

I do think we lose something vital, though, if that particular means of communication completely replaces direct human interaction.

What saddens me is to see people interacting almost exclusively with their phones, rather than directly with their companions.
 
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As someone that interacts face to face with a wide swath of the general public of all demographics, race, creed, sexual orientation, nationality from top to bottom I’ve found that over the decades I have developed less, not more, empathy for the majority of human beings and have less desire for interaction. Sorry. I could bore you with “reasons” but one probably doesn’t need to strain the brain too much.

I think smart phone use is a symptom of the disease, not the cause. Sometimes online media, social groups, forums, discussions are more interesting than talking to the people in your physical sphere. Maybe we just don’t like each other that much?
 

Pompous Elitist said:
I’ve found that over the decades I have developed less, not more, empathy for the majority of human beings and have less desire for interaction. Sorry. I could bore you with “reasons” but one probably doesn’t need to strain the brain too much.
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Dealing with too many Badger/Hawkeye fans? I can understand that.
 

Student here.

What he says about how much of a problem phones are in day to day life, like going on a date at a restaurant, is absolutely true as many of you have said. It’s just a constant presence and something that I try to avoid.

But I don’t see the correlation between phones and decreasing attendance. Does it affect engagement at the game? Absolutely. I get extremely irritated with people staring at their phones while the game is going.

Cost affects attendance. Interest as a whole affects attendance. At least from my experience here, if someone isn’t going to a game, they aren’t watching the game at home either. It could maybe be argued that lack of interest stems from the decreasing attention span brought on by social media, but that’s a different conversation. I also may have interpreted his argument completely wrong.
 

What I agree most was Pat's comments on concert goers with their phones. Really distracts those that are there just trying to enjoy the moment, blocking the view. I wish they would ban phones, but many artists/venues are going to digital tix, so just not possible.
 



All I can say is that my family had a lot of human to human interaction and now my sister does not communicate with any of my family. So having human to human interaction can be very destructive to the family unit as well.
 

RememberMurray said:
I don't want to live in a world without direct human-to-human interaction.

I want to see faces, and read expressions, and sense what it is that other people have in common with me. I want to be able to shake hands and hug, and send and receive all the other verbal and non-verbal, tangible and obvious and subtle signals that we instinctively use as people, and that we need in order to feel our common humanity with others.

I was not "taught" these things, or told that they're important. I can feel it in my bones and in my being. It's obvious to me.

If that doesn't make sense to you, I have to say it saddens me. No offense, but that is just depressing.
Click to expand...

There has been a shift in normal human interaction over several generations. On one level kids are in more constant contact with each other than ever, I can remember as a kid thinking I had no idea what was going on because my dad was on the phone all the time and we didn't have a second line. That kind of isolation is unthinkable in our now totally connected world. The idea that if i wanted to find out what my friends were up to meant I probably had to physically visit each of their homes seems pretty inefficient and it consequently narrowed to a pretty finite physical area where my friends were and who i was close to, was probably literally who I was close to.

That has changed greatly obviously and I had that driven home again watching the trailers for the new Mr Rogers movie. By 70's standards, super nice guy, not very macho, but loves interacting with kids. By today's standards, A kid's show where an elderly white guy invites neighborhood kids into his house to play with his magic trolley and make believe friends sounds disturbing not quaint.
 

GO4INLALALAND said:
All I can say is that my family had a lot of human to human interaction and now my sister does not communicate with any of my family. So having human to human interaction can be very destructive to the family unit as well.
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I wonder:

Was it the person-to-person communication that actually caused the rift, or was it really about certain behaviors?
 

GO4INLALALAND said:
All I can say is that my family had a lot of human to human interaction and now my sister does not communicate with any of my family. So having human to human interaction can be very destructive to the family unit as well.
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Hey, if an abusive relationship is happening, cutting those people out of your life is a tough but good call.

If we're talking regular imperfect friends and family, well relationships are messy and confrontations happen. Avoiding them might be akin to avoiding cancer rechecks because it's uncomfortable and might not be the best news.
 
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Speaking of phones, the Minnesota hands free cell phone law that goes into effect August 1st should be interesting. You really needed to do this when cell phones first came out. I know I am going to have to check myself when driving. It has become such a habit and second nature. I could not even guess what the ticket and violation rate is going to be.


Go Gophers !!!!!!!!!!
 

maroonfive said:
Speaking of phones, the Minnesota hands free cell phone law that goes into effect August 1st should be interesting. You really needed to do this when cell phones first came out. I know I am going to have to check myself when driving. It has become such a habit and second nature. I could not even guess what the ticket and violation rate is going to be.


Go Gophers !!!!!!!!!!
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Don't expect a massive change. It's been the law in many states for a few years now, including here in Nevada, and I see virtually no difference. I'm amazed at how many people I still see on their phones. My favorite is the f'ng moron who is in the #1 lane (left lane, fast lane, whatever you want to call it) using their phone because it's "safer" over there, but is going barely the speed limit, speed inconsistent, because they're screwing with their phone.
 

LakerFan said:
There has been a shift in normal human interaction over several generations. On one level kids are in more constant contact with each other than ever, I can remember as a kid thinking I had no idea what was going on because my dad was on the phone all the time and we didn't have a second line. That kind of isolation is unthinkable in our now totally connected world. The idea that if i wanted to find out what my friends were up to meant I probably had to physically visit each of their homes seems pretty inefficient and it consequently narrowed to a pretty finite physical area where my friends were and who i was close to, was probably literally who I was close to.

That has changed greatly obviously and I had that driven home again watching the trailers for the new Mr Rogers movie. By 70's standards, super nice guy, not very macho, but loves interacting with kids. By today's standards, A kid's show where an elderly white guy invites neighborhood kids into his house to play with his magic trolley and make believe friends sounds disturbing not quaint.
Click to expand...

While there are obvious benefits to electronic interaction, I think the point is the costs are real too, and have been WAY underestimated and discounted ("Social Media is gonna be great! AI too!"). When you only had that physical proximity, you couldn't simply avoid the difficult relationships. You had to learn how to deal with them (gasp!).

Not to mention, a world where Mr. Rogers would be presumed to be a creep is pretty f-ing depressing. That's pretty much the perfect example of how screwed up we've become.
 

kisarazu said:
Hey, if an abusive relationship is happening, cutting those people out of your life is a tough but good call.

If we're talking regular imperfect friends and family, well relationships are messy and confrontations happen. Avoiding them might be akin to avoiding cancer rechecks because it's uncomfortable and might not be the best news.
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Yeah I had a friend who cut her family out entirely. It was the only way for her. It's an unbelievably hard thing to do but she managed it and after a decade or so reconciled (to some extent) with some select family members who she has met in a way that leaves the others out of it. For her no doubt it was the best choice.
 

tato2001 said:
While there are obvious benefits to electronic interaction, I think the point is the costs are real too, and have been WAY underestimated and discounted ("Social Media is gonna be great! AI too!"). When you only had that physical proximity, you couldn't simply avoid the difficult relationships. You had to learn how to deal with them (gasp!).

Not to mention, a world where Mr. Rogers would be presumed to be a creep is pretty f-ing depressing. That's pretty much the perfect example of how screwed up we've become.
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This is a good point. There are highly publicized incidences of eg male teachers sexually abusing children so every male teacher becomes subject to subconscious or overt prejudice from parents. Along the same lines you have a handful of highly publicized unjustified police shootings and now every police officer is at war and murdering or otherwise abusing innocent minorities. There is little room for nuance or real discussion off what’s really going on.
 

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