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10 ways to use your smartphone smartly

Is your cool new gadget making you dumber and diminishing your cognitive skills? Well, er, yes

...The dangerous time when mechanical voices, radios, telephones, take the place of human intimacies, and the concept of being in touch with millions brings a greater and greater poverty in intimacy and human vision.” — Anaïs Nin

An ongoing study commissioned by the Imperial College of London will track 2,500 seventh graders in 160 schools throughout London to determine whether the use of smartphones by teens is leading to long-term cognitive deficiencies, including language, memory and concentration. SCAMP (Study of Cognition, Adolescents and Mobile Phones) will be the largest investigation to date on the impact of smartphones on the developing minds of young people, and the results should be pretty self-explanatory, at least in regards to what we need to do to prevent us from raising a generation of Borgs. “Resistance is futile!” I hear you say, but smartphones really are only as smart as the people using them, and if we strive to be smarter, then perhaps the world might just be a smarter place.

The human brain is a wonderful, wonderful thing. It has more synapses — which, you’ll recall from high school bio-logy, are the connections between neurons (don’t look it up!) — than there are stars in our galaxy (that’s the Milky Way; don’t look that up either!). In order to make new connections and increase those synapses, we have to build relations and connections with the information we receive.

Smartphones don’t build fine motor skills, linguistic skills, relational and 
communicative skills or anything else that could translate to better cognitive development, no matter what app you have or how much you paid for it.

Another area where smartphones delude us into thinking we’re better off is 
multitasking. Since the 90s, experimental psychologists have been debunking the myth that we’re naturally able to multitask, but clinical trials have proven otherwise, with most people being more efficient at dealing with one task at a time, and worse, not being able to complete two relatively simple tasks simultaneously. Psychiatrist Edward M. Hallowell, in his book Crazy Busy: Overstretched, Overbooked, and About to Snap! Strategies for Handling Your Fast-Paced Life, describes multitasking as a “mythical activity in which people believe they can perform two or more tasks simultaneously as effectively as one.” What that means is we are not able to text/talk and drive or walk, so you can now stop doing that.

So what can you do to learn new information, recall said information and focus better on tasks at hand and become more sociable, relatable and communicative and pass these on to your kids (and I don’t mean download an app or Google it!)?

#1. Use your phone for what it was built to do: Smartphones have made it so easy to keep in touch via multiple methods of communication, except the time-honoured pas de deux of humans — talking. Using our voice boxes helps us better our own language skills — like enunciation and pronunciation, for instance — pick up on subtle conversational hints and even gauge emotion and a host of other human characteristics. Call more, text and IM less. Better yet, talk to people face-to-face.

#2. Don’t use your phone as memory for your brain: Basically, give your wonderful brain some credit. Start remembering phone numbers and the faces that go with the names, birthdays, where you parked your car, and places and landmarks instead of relying entirely on your smartphone to do it. An additional security tip: remember your pins and passwords instead of saving them on your phone.

#3. Don’t rely on GPS and your phone maps: Maps are for tourists and you should strive to know your city like the back of your hand using your head. Know your surroundings and trust your knowledge of the area. Don’t be afraid of taking a wrong turn and discovering new roads, alleys and hidden gems. Don’t look at your smartphone’s screen when looking for a store in a mall or an alley — the signs are usually above you, which is where you should be looking.

#4. Don’t walk and text: Tunnel-vision affects even those guilty of this growing class of walking zombie Borgs attached to their phones as though they were appendages that needed constant monitoring. Dr Robert Glatter, MD, a contributor to the Forbes Magazine, in his article Texting While Walking? Think Twice, says that when people walk with their head down and not focused on the scenery in front of them, they become walking disasters. “Injuries can range from facial fractures, nosebleeds, and lacerations to foot and ankle injuries as result of missing steps or walking into telephone poles, not to mention collisions with other pedestrians or vehicles while crossing the street”. For your safety and the safety of the rest of the public, please stop. Nothing is that important and if it is, just stop moving and call them (see 1).

#5. Don’t text in the middle of a conversation with someone: When you are being 
waited on at a restaurant, or ringed out at the cashier’s, don’t be in the middle of a Whatsapp joke chainmail. Smartphones cannot teach you to be courteous, so remember to say your pleases and thank yous, smile and look people in the eye. It also builds real human connections, not connections on a screen.

#6. Don’t text, read, IM, respond to emails or anything else when driving: It’s against the law, for starters. It’s also extremely distracting and causes tunnel vision, which endangers you and your fellow drivers all hurtling down SZR at 100kmph. Don’t reach for the phone as a reflex, keep those hands firmly on the wheel where they belong.

#7. Don’t take Calls in the loo: This is more about civility than anything cognitive, although it does say something about behaviour. Remember a time when you used to be embroiled in a highly engaging debate on, say, the rising cost of coconuts, and you needed a loo break? Did you continue the conversation while you relieved yourself or wait until after? Precisely. You’re better than that.

#8. Use social networking to network: Facebook and Twitter are great to make new friends and reconnect with old or lost ones. But they don’t help you practise people skills. Get in touch, establish a connection, and then meet people in the flesh. Your brain will make valuable new synaptic connections and thank you later.

#9. Switch off, switch on: If you’re going to a show, a concert or a movie, or even just a walk in the park for a little alone time, switch off your phone. Concerts and shows are cool because you get to see your favourite bands or artists perform live, so instead of trying to capture 50 crappy pictures on your smartphone and Instagram them, enjoy the show. Your brain will remember the event more vividly than your phone will. “Don’t text or Twitter during the show. Just live your life. Don’t keep telling people what you’re doing… also, it lights up your big dumb face.” — Louis C.K. Live at the Beacon Theater.

#10. Use apps wisely: If you must absolutely download apps to occupy every last MB of memory on your phone, then at least download ones that will help you build some cognitive skills. Games like Candy Crush Saga or Flappy Bird are addictive and fun, but teach your brain no new skills. Instead, try keeping up to date with the news, learning new things (try YouTube channels like ASAPScience, SciShow, MinutePhysics, RSAnimate, etc, not cat videos), Instagram your life less and live it more!