There may be no scientific evidence to support the link between increasing cell phone functionality with decreasing intelligence, however the amount of common sense leaving the brain and manifesting itself on digital screens is indisputable. From apps to answer life’s most trivial questions to the simple amount of time people spend staring down at their do-it-all device, smarter and smarter phones may ultimately stunt mental growth. After all, if your pocket dwelling phenomenon handles quandaries both big and small, what use are brains altogether, aside from controlling basic bodily functions such as respiration and circulation?While phones have yet to replace the brain’s unconscious control over the body, they have apparently already overridden our most primitive forms of learned movement. As the “Distracted Driving” debate rages on, with people unable to balance basic car-wielding skills against the ability to talk, text and surf the web, perhaps an even more overwhelmingly failure to multitask is developing in city streets worldwide. According to a New York Times article, “Distracted Walking” has emerged as a serious threat to pedestrians, unable to put one foot in front of the other without losing focus. Somehow, despite over a full decade’s worth of practice for even the youngest cell phone users out there, too many smart phone junkies can’t look left and right before looking down to check their mail, messages, what-have-you. Read the rest of this entry »

read comments (0)