Child-Sized Screens and Adult-Sized Exposures to the Internet Parade of Horribles

August Stream of Thoughts re: Tech

Disclosure: I am under the influence of having just watched the coming-of-age dollhouse-inspired Wes Anderson film Moonrise Kingdom, with the young khaki scout and his “wife” and her left-handed scissors.

Why do we have full-grown adults using a device scaled for the fingertip of a pre-school child, and children accessing massive planetary-scale addictive infrastructure at their fingertips?

Are we just plain nuts?

Cell Phones at the Gym

When I am in the gym, often members are leaning over their cell phones. A number of exercisers juggle water bottles, phones, ear buds, towels, and eyeglasses…some alternating between putting on their eyeglasses and looking at their cell phones, and then taking off their glasses to do an exercise or use a machine.

I think that if Martians were to land on the roof and teleport themselves to the gym floor, they would have a question.

Why would adult humans use a device with alphabetized buttons sized for a child’s fingers, and with a screen so small that they can’t see it with the naked eye?

I think that Martians might come to the conclusion that for some strange reason, the adults are using their children’s phones.

I recently saw a staff member dismantle a StairMaster because it ate a frantic member’s phone. (Actually, she dropped it while she was stepping, hunched over, watching the screen.) Great that she steps, not great that she is wrecking her eyesight and her neck and spine while engaged in shallow breathing – because of the intense focus needed to look at a device that does not harmonize with her biology.

The brain really does not like being expected to coordinate the dual functions of walking or running and using large motor muscles, vs. visual focus on a tiny screen with the other senses diminished.

This is not how the body or brain are designed.

And the spine is not designed for ‘forward head’ – with the weight of the skull hanging in front of the body.

Yet, regarding exercise, I am grateful for 2 things…