LOS ANGELES: PROF ROHM ON HOW TECH STEALS YOUR TIME AND FEEDS BAD HABITS

HALEY HARBUCK WRITES — “We are running out of time,” said Dr. Andrew Rohm, LMU’s Professor of Marketing.

Rohm was explaining what happens when we get carried away with our dependence on technology. As a professor, he has noticed America’s millennials’ growing use of technology that, in their minds, seems necessary in order to cope with a calendar full of required classes and a repetitive four-year cycle.

Professor Rohm spoke on Saturday, October 27, at a well-attended TEDx Loyola Marymount University conference about global change.

Rohm said he noticed a recurring pattern:  Students, like all humans, are entirely reliant on routine. For those who depend on schedules and plans, change requires some sort of “instruction manual”— though none exists, of course. Yet Rohm argued that there is no personal growth in an unchangeable routine and that reliance on technology continues to feed this monotonous loop.

Rohm encountered his first iPhone in late 2007. The first time he touched one was to stream a live Patriots game, and now the iPhone has evolved into a mobile computer. Today, he worries that his phone becomes, at least for him, a bad habit. It seems as if gadgets like the iPhone, and apps such as Youtube and Twitter are deeply embedded in our society.

Rohm encouraged people to ask themselves, “At what point does change occur through a phone?” And “What we want to do with our time?”

Conversations created through community outlets such as TEDx may help answer these questions. In the end, they may even direct individuals toward smarter and brighter futures, as well as a more cohesive society.

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