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IT’S HARD TO imagine an Ireland where smartphones don’t exist – and yet, just a decade ago, we could hardly have imagined how much they’d affect our lives.
Eighty six per cent of adults in Ireland own or have access to a smartphone, according to Deloitte’s 2016 consumer survey.
The smartphone is a great thing: it makes the world smaller, and it brings us access to people, places and things in a way we didn’t have before.
But it also demands our attention and can suck up our time.
Professor Larry Rosen, who literally wrote the book on being distracted by our smartphones (The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High Tech World), told TheJournal.ie:
Everyone is distracted by their smartphone. The typical smartphone user checks their phone all day long with younger people checking 60 or more times a day for about 3-to-4 minutes at a time.
A global study on students’ use of mobile phones found that phones “function both as this generation’s Swiss Army knife and its security blanket”.
According to the study, some students were “refreshing Facebook every 15 seconds”, and across a range of countries some reported experiencing isolation, distress, confusion and failure when ‘unplugged’ from their smartphones.
Live A Better Life
Here at TheJournal.ie, we know that people want to have a better and more balanced relationship with their phone.
That’s why, from Easter Monday, we’ll be starting a month-long series that will help you to do just that.
In Live A Better Life: Make Your Phone Work For You, we’ll be taking a look at how and why we behave the way we do with our phones.
We’ll guide you along the way, with articles from Monday to Friday – and an email sign-up so that on the Friday, you’ll get a handy round-up of what we covered during the week, with some extra reading.
And of course, we’ll be asking you to tell us how you’re getting on, what challenges you’re experiencing and to share your tips and tricks.
But to help us make this work for you, we’d like to know:
If you would like to share feedback or be part of a users’ panel who would like to talk about smartphone use or take some of the challenges we will be setting over the month, email aoife@thejournal.ie
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Makes no difference who you vote for, You still get the WEF government
@087 bed: WEF? – World Economic Forum?
@087 bed: see https://conspiracychart.com for all things NWO, chemtrails, chipping, and replacement theories.
@9QRixo8H: Are you a qualified tool or still an apprentice, All you do here is push disinformation in the comments.
I wonder if the same secret service would protect Netanyahou…. That could solve a lot of problems
@Dominic Leleu: and potential assassins should be vetted by the NRA to ensure a more positive outcome. Might be an idea to invite putin, xi, orban and others
@Alan: agreed
When thinking about Simon Coveney , this a verbatim quote
Owning your own home is not a bad aspiration, but if there was more certainty in the rental market in Ireland, you would see more people choosing to rent and to invest in rental property,” said Coveney.
“The attitude towards long-term rental is changing in Ireland and we need to respond to that with market conditions that reinforce and encourage that change of mindset.”
@Andrew Kiely: what’s your point?
@SYaxJ2Ts: His point is, that Coveney’s prophecy, hope & implementation of same came through in Govt policy & is part of the problem today. It wouldn’t affect you Kevin as a Govt lackey on a big salary, but it affects thousands of young working Irish people who are paying extortionate rent & who can’t buy or afford a home in Ireland today.
@SV3tN8M4: context is key here, and I don’t know when this quote is from, but surely certainty in the rental market is a good thing, albeit aspirational rather than real? You know, some security of tenure, rent certainty, that kind of thing. Anything to add here? Or are you just going to sling insults
@SV3tN8M4: and any chance of backing up your claim from yesterday that SF will introduce sleight of hand legislation to increase granting of asylum applications? I’ve asked twice already. Surely you’ve managed to find the relevant evidence by now
@SV3tN8M4: I suppose all those people the Gardai have charged were all working very hard to buy a house and provide for their families. Most of them staying in the city centre at the taxpayers cost
@Peter Byrne: Wouldn’t know Peter, don’t have anything to do with them, too busy working trying to make ends meet & pay my mortgage. You must be a happy man today that you & your buddies got a top up of 750,000, you might get your bumper Exit package & NDA now. Harris likes to reward Deceit & Incompetence, some of those in your organization are no better than those you judged above.
@Andrew Kiely:
I’ve just spent a week in Metz France.
As in other European cities all accommodation within the city is in apartments. Apartments cannot be used for property speculation. If an apartment is unoccupied for an extended period it has to be sold back to the freehold company (owners association).
If you want to live in a house – to go to a village 10 -20 km out.
Buttimer has repeatedly been rejected by the cork electorate, and now finally by his own party. Maybe this time the penny will drop
@mickey mac: Once Fine Gael learned that Buttimer was attending pro-Palestinian events that was end for him.
@mickey mac: He is left there for Tokenistic reasons by Fine Gael.
Simon Coveney looked well, which is important in politics. But after that he lacked leadership. He fronted up the ‘ same-s marriage’ referendum by parroting the party line and adding in his own daughters. One of them might be that way.
Fair point but not compelling. let them have all the rights of marriage, but call it something else. Marriage always meant man and woman.
Neologisms are used every day to overturn the established order.
For example – gender was a grammatical term to distinguish three different forms of a noun. Male and female got into it because they were two obvious categories. But there was never a case of an obvious male having a female noun form or visa versa.
Generally a neuter gender noun is a noun that denotes a lifeless thing. A thing which is neither male nor female.
But as anyone who learned French knows a pen and a pencil have different genders even though they both are technically neuter.
La plume de ma tante
Le crayon de ma tante
In fact there is no neuter gender in French. An omission which the French chattering class are struggling to cope with.
Anyhow this is a long way from Simon Coveney – other than to point out that weak leaders are easily pushed into fronting up anything which a mob (nowadays a Twitter mob) wants.
There is certainly a FG seat in Cork SC, especially as it’s now a 5 seater. Going to a battle royal between Úna McCarthy and Shane O Callaghan to whose ahead after the first count. That’s vital. As it’s extremely unlikely both will get elected
have your say