Demonized Smartphones Are Just Our Latest Technological Scapegoat

Is today's concern about smartphones any different than other generations' anxieties about new technology? Do we know enough to make any conclusions?

Alarm at the corrosive effects of new technologies is not new. Rather, it is deeply rooted in our history. In ancient Greece, Socrates cautioned that writing would undermine the ability of children and then adults to commit things to memory. The advent of the printing press in the 15th century led us to think that knowledge would vanish once manuscripts no longer needed to be copied manually.

In 1926 we feared that the landline telephone would make us lazier. It would break up home life and the practice of visiting friends.

The pattern of technophobia recurred with the gramophone, the telegraph, the radio, and television. The trope that the printing press would lead to loss of memory is very much the same as the belief that the internet is destroying our ability to remember.

Just because these themes have played out benignly time and again does not, of course, mean that all will turn out fine this time, with mobile phones.

So it should come as no surprise that concerns about children and smartphones have been rising steadily. For the past decade, researchers have been trying to establish a link between teen depression and obsessive smartphone use. So too have parents, who oscillate between complacency and panic as they watch their children—and themselves—become increasingly attached to their devices.

The smartphone is today's emblem of whether one believes in progress or decline. It is a powerful tool, and any such tool has the capacity to do harm as well as great good. Finding balance has never been a reliable human attribute, but it has never been more needed.

▍生詞好句

demonize /?di?m?n??z/: vt. blame sth. or make sth. seem worse than it really is; describe someone or sth. as very bad or dangerous even though they may not be so bad or dangerous

deeply rooted: very strong and firmly fixed and set (= firmly rooted)

trope /tr??p/: n. sth. such as an idea, phrase, or image that is often used by an artist or a film director; a theme that a writer hopes his audience or his readers will immediately recognize and understand

play out benignly /b??n??nli/: "play out", when a situation plays out, it happens and develops in a particular way; "benignly" means pleasant and kind, not harmful / dangerous / serious / severe.

concerns have been rising steadily: "concern" means an important matter or situation [ 常見搭配：a(n) increasing / growing / rising concern(s) ]

oscillate between /??s?le?t/: if you oscillate between two feelings, you continuously change your feelings, opinions, or decisions from one position to the other

emblem /??mbl?m/: n. a picture or an object that is used to represent a particular person, an idea, a group or a country