N-gated Hacker NewsFeb 23
In today's thrilling episode of "Let's Blame the Tech" 😱, we've spent $30B on laptops only to discover they magically transform kids into less brainy versions of their parents. Who knew pixels couldn't replace neurons? 💻➡️🧠❌
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/u-spent-30-billion-ditch-110200869.html #BlameTheTech #TechSpending #LaptopLearning #EducationFailure #DigitalDistraction #HackerNews #ngated
The U.S. spent $30 billion to ditch textbooks for laptops and tablets: The result is the first generation less cognitively capable than their parents

Neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath said older generations “screwed up” giving students access to so much technology: “I genuinely hope Gen Z quickly figures...

Yahoo News
Hacker NewsFeb 22

The Dance Floor Is Disappearing in a Sea of Phones

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-02-20/a-boom-in-electronic-dance-music-is-changing-club-culture

#HackerNews #DanceFloorCulture #ElectronicMusic #ClubLife #PhonesInClubs #DigitalDistraction

The Dance Floor Is Disappearing In a Sea of Phones

Electronic music’s club culture is facing an existential moment as bigger venues, higher ticket prices and social media turn dance floors into spectator events.

Bloomberg.com
Manish AhujaJan 18

You open Instagram for one thing.
You lose 20 minutes.

This isn’t weakness.
It’s design.

👇 Drop your workaround in the comments if you’ve cracked it.

#FocusEconomy #DigitalDistraction #DarkPatterns #SocialMedia #Dopamine

[Focus Economy; Digital Distraction; dark patterns; social media; dopamine]

Mark CarriganJan 11

How to stop e-mail dominating your life

I did this over the summer and it’s life changing:

  • Remove e-mail apps from your phone and tablet
  • Remove the e-mail authenticator app from your phone
  • Get the app Freedom and add Screentime to prevent reinstallation
  • Get a physical dongle to access your e-mail
  • Buy a time-delay safe and keep it in your office (around £50)
  • Sit down and do e-mail once a day for an hour or less then lock the dongle in your time-delay safe until tomorrow’s session when you’re done

    • A caveat that I couldn’t do this when I was in charge of things which were occasionally time-sensitive. But I’ve been doing this routinely since the summer and it’s amazing, particularly the ritual of locking the dongle away for (most) weekends. It’s been startling to realise that I can almost always do all necessary e-mail in less than thirty minutes if I zoom through it at the end of the day in a focused way.

    A tip: start slowly. You have to understand the routines of your work for this to be safe because otherwise you might end up getting locked out. Also have a backup strategy: in my case I can unlock Screentime and delete Freedom then add Outlook to my phone again (the profile is set to automatically remain on the phone) OR I could break the safe relatively easily if I really needed to.

    #digitalDistraction #eMail #focus #timeManagement

    Mathrubhumi EnglishJan 9
    Lost your reading habit to scrolling? Experts reveal why reading slumps happen https://english.mathrubhumi.com/lifestyle/beat-reading-slump-rebuild-habit-nbp6mtmj?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #ReadingSlump #Books #DigitalDistraction #ScreenTime #MentalHealth
    Hacker NewsDec 2

    School Cell Phone Bans and Student Achievement (NBER Digest)

    https://www.nber.org/digest/202512/school-cell-phone-bans-and-student-achievement

    #HackerNews #SchoolCellPhoneBans #StudentAchievement #NBERDigest #EducationPolicy #DigitalDistraction

    School Cell Phone Bans and Student Achievement

    NBER
    valkyriexi at KillBaitOct 9

    Princess of Wales Highlights Harm of Excessive Screen Time on Family Bonds

    The Princess of Wales, Catherine, has expressed concern over the detrimental impact of excessive use of smartphones and digital devices on family relationships. In an essay co-written with a Harvard Medical School professor, she describes an 'epidemic of disconnection' caused by constant digital dis... [More info]

    Hacker NewsSep 10, 2025

    I didn't bring my son to a museum to look at screens

    https://sethpurcell.com/writing/screens-in-museums/

    #HackerNews #museumexperience #parenting #screensinmuseums #familytime #digitaldistraction #educationalvalue

    I Didn't Bring My Son to a Museum to Look at Screens | Seth Purcell

    Sir Thomas Goodwin, M.S.May 6, 2025

    Dive into the wild world of zoned-out minds, where tasks take five hours and we all pretend we were just "deep in thought" when caught staring at walls.

    https://open.substack.com/pub/funnybuttrue/p/digital-zombies-is-your-phone-eating?r=2kjx3z&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

    #MindWandering, #DistractedLife, #BrainOnVacation, #FocusFail, #DaydreamNation, #ZonedOut, #ModernAttention, #DigitalDistraction, #ThoughtTravel, #MentalVacation

    Digital Zombies - Is Your Phone Eating Your Brain?

    And how would you know the difference?

    Hacker NewsMay 5, 2025

    The Death of Daydreaming: What we lose when phones take away boredom

    https://www.afterbabel.com/p/on-the-death-of-daydreaming

    #HackerNews #DeathOfDaydreaming #Phones #Boredom #Mindfulness #DigitalDistraction #AttentionSpan

    On The Death of Daydreaming

    What we lose when phones take away boredom and interstitial time

    After Babel