HW 10 - Informal research *Edited

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This article from the NY times suggests that we should use the speaker phone more, talk less, or text more rather than putting our ears to these cellular devices in which give out minimum yet still harmful (in the long-run) radiations.

I think this idea may help minimize the amount of radiation our cellphones give out and as a result will be less harmful pertaining to our health, but this alternative won't make the addiction any better. If anything - its promoting the use of more digital devices because in a way its like advertising how its not ALL that bad for you.

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Wikipedia says something quite different than the times article. Wikipedia explains how there's not even enough convinving evidence to prove that cellphones cause this type of damage. "The World Health Organization, based upon the consensus view of the scientific and medical communities, states that cancer is unlikely to be caused by cellular phones or their base stations and that reviews have found no convincing evidence for other health effects." (source above).

I think this actually might be the case. Honestly, who's the last person you heard of/knew that got cancer from the amount of radiation given out from their cellphone? Personally I know none and I think a lot of times people overlook/study things. I feel like most studies are more coincidental. Sure, cellphones do give out radiation which is harmful but are we really taking in so much to the point we're at risk for cancer? I don't know.

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Facebook is a highly addicting social network in which a lot of people rely on daily. "Average user has 130 friends on the site,
More than 6 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day (worldwide), More than 40 million status updates each day, ... 70% of facebook users are outside the U.S. There are more than 65 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices. People that use Facebook on their mobile devices are almost 50% more active on Facebook than non-mobile users."

I would have thought maybe at the very least 40% were in the US... That's quite ridiculous. I think this study supports a lot of our theorys/findings from our previous informal studies such as how much people value attention, how much people live their lives revolving around social interactions, how addicted we are to digital devices, etc.

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Studies show that people are capable of listening to music for hours at a time. Even some of the same songs. But they are not 'capable' of watching things for hours at a time. The ipod is merely used to listen to music rather than watch videos even though most people do indeed have ipods that hold videos.

Why is it that we can listen to songs for hours at a time (even on repeat) but can't do that with videos? What is it about our attention span, our ability to memorize songs and continuously enjoy them and not the same with videos, whats different about our vision vs. our hearing that we can keep going with sound but not with sight?

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People would rather watch tv than work out, play/watch sports, etc. "The study found that, outside of sleeping, the largest collective contributor to energy expenditure among the population was "driving a car," followed by "office work" and "watching TV," partly because so many people reported those activities. In contrast, leisure-time physical activity, such as jogging or playing basketball, accounted for only 5 percent of the population's total energy expenditure".

This is why Americans are so obese. We're definitely not as active as we used to be. I think mainly thanks to the amount of access we can obtain from different technology, we don't see the need to go outside for much anymore. We enjoy being lazy, we enjoy being distracted, we look for more distractions, we enjoy being able to escape the real world, we constantly fantasize and wish for better and are HARDLY ever grateful for what's in front of us. Damn.