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+--- Thread: Why phubbing is harmful + Chimps can't tell us much about humans (primate community) (/thread-5666.html)
Why phubbing is harmful + Chimps can't tell us much about humans (primate community) - C C - Jul 4, 2018
Why “phubbing” is so harmful to our social lives
https://digest.bps.org.uk/2018/07/04/psychologists-have-looked-into-why-phubbing-is-so-harmful-to-our-social-lives/
EXCERPT: If you are with someone who is ignoring you while they interact with their smartphone, you have been phone snubbed, or “phubbed”. Phubbing is common, at least in Western cultures – in a recent US survey, nine out of ten respondents said they had used their smartphone during their most recent social activity. There’s also evidence that it is socially harmful, leaving people less satisfied with their face-to-face interactions and generating feelings of resentment and jealousy. Now the Journal of Applied Social Psychology has published a new study exploring the reasons for these effects....
MORE: https://digest.bps.org.uk/2018/07/04/psychologists-have-looked-into-why-phubbing-is-so-harmful-to-our-social-lives/
Chimpanzees Can’t Tell Us Much About Being Human
https://www.sapiens.org/evolution/chimpanzees-cant-tell-us-much-about-being-human/
EXCERPT: The argument goes that if warfare, sexual coercion, male aggression, the creation and use of tools, hunting, and other patterns show up in both chimpanzees and humans, then these are evolutionarily old, shared traits. Thus, understanding the reasons behind these behaviors in chimps can offer insight into similar behaviors in humans.
This premise is nice, but it is mostly wrong.
There is significant overlap between humans and chimpanzees. However [...] Most of what chimpanzees and humans do today is not directly comparable—because we have evolved independently for millions of years. [...]
[...] Historically, through to the present day, certain scholars, philosophers, and religious thinkers have argued that human “nature” lies outside of the natural world, with no connection to other living things. For example, a conviction in “human uniqueness” has been used to justify the exploitation of other species. And a refusal to recognize our connection to other primates is a hallmark of anti-evolutionary dogma; rejecting our evolutionary past denies our biology and history, and negates basic realities about our bodies and lives. Recognizing that we share so much with other primates, especially chimpanzees, enables us to tackle human hubris and rebut those who perceive humans as being above or outside of the natural world.
[...] But we also know chimpanzees don’t have cash economies, governments, religious institutions, creeds, or fanatics. They don’t arrest and deport one another, or create massive economies of material and social inequity. They don’t change planet-wide ecosystems, build cities and airplanes, drive thousands of other species toward extinction, or write science blogs. We do.
We are a very particular mammal, primate, and hominoid that is able to look at the world around us, see it as it is, imagine entirely new possibilities, and convert those imaginings into material reality—or at least try to. [...] Focusing primarily on the continuities between humans and chimpanzees (and other animals) without recognizing, understanding, and investigating the discontinuities confounds our ability to offer evolutionary insights into critical contemporary challenges. Racism and global climate change are not explained by our shared history with chimpanzees, nor are gender diversity, the #MeToo movement, and the recent rise in nationalism....
MORE: https://www.sapiens.org/evolution/chimpanzees-cant-tell-us-much-about-being-human/
RE: Why phubbing is harmful + Chimps can't tell us much about humans (primate community) - Magical Realist - Jul 4, 2018
I had a friend some time ago who would phub me as I would drive around with her and even at the theater waiting for the movie to start. It came as a shock to her that normal people should remain open to each while in each other's presence, undistracted by a cellphone, even if nothing is being said at the time. For me there was a definite sense of being shut out of whatever mental process she was going thru while studying her cellphone.