Schaff: Text, not whine about ascendancy of ‘electronic connectedness’

We’re finally there: More than half of young adults with smartphones use them in the bathroom…. We’re finally there: More than half of young adults with smartphones use them in the bathroom. Now that we’re sharing toilet-time with Siri, is this sure-fire evidence that society has descended into a depraved pit of self-deceiving loneliness? That we have once and for all ceded our precious humanity to social media overlords?

Assuming people are sanitizing their phones afterward, I think not. Sure, the various forms of “electronic connectedness” continue to transform our lives, but those who decry the changes as a slippery slope toward a world teeming with lifeless automatons are simply wasting time whining. They’d be better off swapping the quixotic pontificating with toilet-time (with or without cell phones).

A new survey conducted by polling firm Harris Interactive has revealed the obvious: As of May 2012, Americans are more attached to their smartphones than ever before. Fifty-eight percent of smartphone users say they cannot go an hour without checking their phones, 87 percent become panicked or desperate when misplacing their phones and 30 percent admit to checking their phones during meals with others. And yes, 39 percent of total respondents take smartphones into the bathroom. That statistic goes up to 51 percent for people aged 18-34.

Barring the study’s methodological limitations (2,097 respondents were hand-picked to be representational, not quite as good as a random sample from the U.S. population), its implications are clear — and potentially jarring, at least for certain observers. That is, if you were to survey editorial pages of American college newspapers for the past 10 years, you’d amass mountains of articles warning readers about the supposed “social dangers” of the proliferation of electronic connectedness (we’re talking about things that connect you: calls, texts, emails, news feeds, Facebook and Twitter, but  generally not TV or video games).

You know these arguments. They would say that time spent on Facebook threatens to diminish the value of face-to-face interaction or that relationships born by texting are destined for sorry conclusions or that diverting time toward social media would invariably depress your grades and productivity. All of the arguments would end with some desperate appeal to “unplug” and go outside to hear birds chirping and children laughing.

With all respect to birds and children, the writers behind such editorials offer nothing more than good intentions. As future studies like Harris’ bring the ubiquity of electronic connectedness to the public consciousness, be prepared to recognize the same old arguments as the benevolent fraud they are.

What’s the biggest reason to push back against the Facebook finger waggers? How about this: There’s no evidence to support their claims. Despite the hubbub, no research — as far as I’ve found — has demonstrated lines of causation (or repeatable correlation) between time spent electronically connected and any of the commonly cited variables, such as subjective feelings of “humanness,” friendship or relationship quality and grade point average.

And it makes sense researchers have largely come up dry — electronic connectedness may, overall, exert the effect opposite that which the social media Puritans fear. Indeed, putting smartphones and Facebook accounts into our hands may actually enhance our humanness, at least as social animals.

In economics, a new technology is some kind of advance that allows us to produce a certain good or service at a lower cost, which promotes more consumption and, at some point, economic growth. As an example, the 1960s saw the invention of specialized shipping containers that could be lifted from barges to railcars or freight trucks, and this technology dramatically reduced transportation costs, thereby helping fuel the post-war economic boom. If the vast network of contemporary human interactions could be thought of as an economy of sorts — exchange of verbal, visual “meanings” replacing exchange of goods and services — and inextricably tied to the real economy, then the recent advances in electronic connectedness could mirror the function of a technology; that is, smartphones and Facebook are growing the human network.

Here’s the crux: Our electronically connected America features more human interaction per person than our once-unplugged America. That’s because our new hardware and software have reduced the cost of connecting with not only friends, but club members, coworkers, employers and even customers and patients, definitely in terms of time and often in terms of money. And with so much instant access to what others are doing, the average person’s exposure to positive social opportunities (and ability to pursue those opportunities) has skyrocketed. From scouting for jobs to organizing revolutions to memorializing friends who’ve passed, everything’s easier, so there’s more of everything.

Of course, as with any new technology there are kinks left for ironing. Yes, the ever-present availability of infinitely diverse stimuli can distract some people from attention-demanding activities, such as homework and driving. But these issues should not be manipulated by those who want to say smartphones seek to undermine our human existence. We just have to accept that posting a status can be just as human as chatting with your neighbor (if not more so, unless you operate a backyard auditorium to simultaneously address 800 neighbors at whim). Alas, perhaps all we’re waiting for is an impending shift in social norms.

Write Matt Schaff at matthew.schaff@gmail.com.