Originally Posted by
DropBarFan
Phones are a curse for kids IMO, takes up all their spare time, no more casual outdoor play like bike riding. Parents give their kids car rides for even short distances, bikes rust away, forgotten.
I'm sure smartphones don't help but I think a bigger problem is how people are overly paranoid these days and will call the cops over just about anything. Including unattended kids riding around the neighborhood.
Originally Posted by
DanBell
Going a bit off topic here, but I had read that in Japan while the advent of smartphones had reduced young people's ability to write as many kanji as previous generations can/could, they can actually read more than previous generations, as reading on an internet enabled device gives you the ability to quickly look up a symbol you don't know. It's a really interesting issue, and certainly not all doom and gloom.
Sounds about right. I know for sure that my ability to use a regular kanji dictionary has suffered. I've always been terrible at remembering how to actually write though, so I can't blame spell check for that at least.