Are Smartphones Making Us Dumber?
by Jonathan Alpert, Licensed psychotherapist, executive coach, columnist, and author of "Be Fearless: Change Your Life in 28 Days", The Huffington Post, 11 July 2014
The other day I was walking down a busy Manhattan street. Sidewalks were bustling with activity and were filled with people from just about every demographic imaginable. It was a typical summer Saturday afternoon in New York. Several strides ahead of me, I see a 20-something guy with his face buried deep in his phone, walk directly into a crosswalk, into a red light and into moving cars, without lifting his head, probably without even blinking, and obviously without thinking about anything but his texting. Fortunately the cars saw him and were able to slam on their brakes and avert what may have been a terrible accident. The young guy looked unfazed by this and went on his merry way, continuing his texting. I thought to myself, have we become that numb to the world around us? So self absorbed that we forget the very basic rules of safety that most people learned at a very young age? Have smartphones made us that dumb? Sadly, they have.