Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

TagChristine Rosen

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In the last seconds of the sunset, the sunlight touched a bold, red bush and it's created some gorgeous colors and contrast with the white road.

Smartphone: The “Experience Blocker”

Experience is the key to emotional development and a fully human life

Smartphones are distracting and addicting, but according to Jonathan Haidt, and supported by our common experience, they can also keep us from a basic ingredient of human life: Experience. Sometimes I wonder if the worst aspect of the “dopamine culture,” as culture critic Ted Gioia calls it, is not that we no longer have the attention spans to focus on our work, but that we no longer seem able to enjoy activities that aren’t based on screens. Simple pleasures like a good meal, meant to savor and digest at a slow pace, or going through a rich and complicated novel that yields real insight and literary joy, or even kissing an actual person in an affectionate way are all “old-school” Read More ›

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Full-length body portrait shot of a group of seven young male and female teenagers standing and using smartphones and tablets while waiting for a queue. Concept of technology addicted in modern life

Experience is Going Extinct

A review of Christine Rosen's "The Extinction of Experience"
As more of our daily experience goes mediated and buffered through screens, it’s important to wonder what we’re losing. Read More ›
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Social media concept.

Should Kids Under 16 Be Banned From Social Media?

An internal study by Instagram found that using the platform made fully one-third of teenage girls feel worse — but they couldn’t stop

(This article by Texas State University engineering prof Karl D. Stephan originally appeared at Engineering Ethics Blog (June 20, 2022) under the title “Social Media: For adults only?” and is reprinted with permission.) Writing in National Review, cultural critic Christine Rosen recently proposed a total ban on social media for everyone under the age of 16.  One can imagine all sorts of problems with this idea, ranging from enforcement issues to what it would be like living in a country where nearly all the teenagers start screaming at the same time.  But let’s step back from the immediate issues and effects, and ask what the ethics of such a ban would be.  Rosen cites a number of other things that we don’t let Read More ›