Question of The Day

Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? – The Atlantic

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Source: Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? – The Atlantic

Step away from the phone slowly and keep your hands where I can see them.

Check out the following quote from a celebrity interview.

I heard you deleted the Internet from your phone. And that you deleted Twitter and Instagram and e-mail. No way that’s true, right?
It is! Whenever you check for a new post on Instagram or whenever you go on The New York Times to see if there’s a new thing, it’s not even about the content. It’s just about seeing a new thing. You get addicted to that feeling. You’re not going to be able to control yourself. So the only way to fight that is to take yourself out of the equation and remove all these things. What happens is, eventually you forget about it. You don’t care anymore. When I first took the browser off my phone, I’m like, [gasp] How am I gonna look stuff up? But most of the shit you look up, it’s not stuff you need to know. All those websites you read while you’re in a cab, you don’t need to look at any of that stuff. It’s better to just sit and be in your own head for a minute. I wanted to stop that thing where I get home and look at websites for an hour and a half, checking to see if there’s a new thing. And read a book instead. I’ve been doing it for a couple months, and it’s worked. I’m reading, like, three books right now. I’m putting something in my mind. It feels so much better than just reading the Internet and not remembering anything.

Have LinkedIn and Medium Killed the Old-Fashioned Blog? – HBR

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Have LinkedIn and Medium Killed the Old-Fashioned Blog? – HBR.

Publishing exclusively on LinkedIn or Medium is indeed the right choice for some people, particular if you are a new or intermittent writer. If you’ve already invested time in building a LinkedIn network, you’re going to find an audience a lot more quickly than if you start a site from scratch. And unlike an independent blog, there’s no need to commit to a regular posting frequency on LinkedIn: you can write a post whenever you have something to share or say, and even if that’s only a few times a year, you’re extending your professional credibility and voice in a context where it can be discovered. It’s also a great way to try out posting without investing in setup or making a long-term commitment: you can write a few posts, develop your own voice, and then decide if you want to commit to running your own site.

Wrist blood pressure monitors: Are they accurate? – Mayo Clinic

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Wrist blood pressure monitors: Are they accurate? – Mayo Clinic.

That can’t be right.

I had my blood pressure taken at the dentist the other day.  The reading nearly sent me into cardiac arrest.  My observations:

  • The equipment used was a wrist BP monitor, not exactly known for accuracy.
  • The individual who took the reading is a dental hygienist who probably got zero training in the proper positioning and use of the monitor.
  • My blood pressure has always been normal.

I’ll stop at one of those ubiquitous upper arm machines you find at any pharmacy and do a recheck.  And those iPhone apps that measure blood pressure?  Don’t even bother.