Professor Sitt lectures on the dangers of technology addiction

Technology’s effect on humanity is undeniable. The countless benefits of having such an advanced society allow us to ignore the potential consequences.

Dr. David Sitt presented a lecture on how to balance the benefits of technology and the potential costs of being a bit too addicted to your cell phone.

Albert Einstein purportedly once said, “I fear the day when technology overlaps with our humanity. The world will only have a generation of idiots.”

Sitt, who is a therapist, educational entrepreneur and psychology professor at Baruch College, opened his lecture with this quote and posed the question to the audience, “What was Einstein so afraid of?”

Before the lecture began, Sitt’s dedicated team asked attendees to drop their cellphones off before entering the room.

The team also handed out “smart pads” that were actually small, paper note pads and asked them to keep track of every time they felt the urge to check their phone.

The generation gap was evident from how people reacted to the request. Older participants were much more willing to surrender their devices.

As team member Eunjung Lee asked a woman in the audience to “get the full experience and accept the challenge,” she simply responded, “That’s really not a challenge for me, no one ever calls me.”

read the rest after the jump

The Ticker