I feel just the same way. I use my laptop constantly, and my iPad and iPod Touch occasionally for games, music, etc., but my phone is a primitive non-smart Nokia which I usually don't even turn on. I do not want to have the All-Seeing Eye in my pants.
PS: I found the Academic Computing article. Very interesting. In some ways they got it just right, though some of the whimsical details are pretty far from the reality we know ("NeXT buys Apple").
really good post: visceral, cerebral and quite accurate imo. i dont get all the hoopla about technology anyhow, although you cant completely reject it because then the world will abandon you. True, the ways of communication have changed... "evolved" some may be calling it. However, in its sophistication, it has really lost its meaning.
I'm sort of the opposite. I've had a deep-seated hatred of talking on the phone my whole adult life, and only got a cellphone when they did other useful things.
Oh I am absolutely anti-smart phone. I do have a cell, but it is very primitive, I do not pay for texting service on it and I only use it to make phone calls. I'm a bit surprised at myself that I don't have a land line, because really, I dislike cell phones. I do like the fact that they're portable and that you can call for help during an emergency, but that's really about as far as it goes. If I could get away without having a phone at all, I would. And I have gone long stretches of time without one, by choice.
That article sounds neat. I'll have to look it up; sounds like some of their predictions were absolutely uncanny, while others where mere whimsy.
I agree with you about the SmartPhones. To me, it seems like too much information, artificially induced, and a great deal of time wasted. I know that others would violently disagree.
When did that computing article first appear? So that we get an idea of how far in the future the story projected into the future...
great post, readily agree. I see people absorbed in their little hand-held screens on the bus, doing anything but communicating... It's a bit sad. It's like we don't know how to be alone anymore, or content with ourselves to be alone for a moment. Must check facebook. Must check twitter. facebook. email. twitter. email. facebook. email. twitter. etc. Bizarre behaviour really. Someone might've texted, or posted, or tweeted! Check again. Facebook. Email. Twitter.
It's not communicating with people, it's a bunch of device interfaces broadcasting to eachother.
And also (I could go one...), all these features on a tiny screen - why not wait a couple of minutes and do it on a computer, with a proper screen? Bizarre...
I do the same with my cell phone (I still have a LL too, with a real dial phone(much to the chagrin of AT&T)and a more modern one for the boss). Phones are for speaking with someone. Who really needs all the extra and high priced stuff of a 'smart' phone. Besides, who needs to be in constant contact with someone at a remote location?
I remember the 1964 Wrold's Fair when AT&T predicted one day we will be able to call someone on the phone and see them also.
Then in about the 9th grade a friend of mine in the electronics industry told me by the time I'd graduate we would have televisions on the wall just like a picture. Well I guess I never graduated until recently because the flat screen TVs did not exist much before 2000.
I do the same with my cell phone (I still have a LL too, with a real dial phone(much to the chagrin of AT&T)and a more modern one for the boss). Phones are for speaking with someone. Who really needs all the extra and high priced stuff of a 'smart' phone. Besides, who needs to be in constant contact with someone at a remote location?
I remember the 1964 Wrold's Fair when AT&T predicted one day we will be able to call someone on the phone and see them also.
Then in about the 9th grade a friend of mine in the electronics industry told me by the time I'd graduate we would have televisions on the wall just like a picture. Well I guess I never graduated until recently because the flat screen TVs did not exist much before 2000.
The electronics our kids take for granted would have made me swoon in the '70s of my youth. In college, in the mid-'80s, I got to use Usenet and Telnet from a long distance dial-up connection. So exotic and expensive! Who remembers navigating the pre-WWW Internet with Unix?
I appreciate much of what you are saying and happily give up my technology on all too rare vacations. Unfortunately, I deal with so much information throughput in my policy work that I have multiple screens running at once. It is not rare for me to be on a webinar with the web meeting on one screen, email/agendas on another and reference documents on a third. Yes, I even text other participants to trade information on the fly and have pulled up a fourth screen on occasion along with marked up paper documents. Other employees look quizzically at my electronic lair, but most of them do single tasks for a living.
10 comments:
I feel just the same way. I use my laptop constantly, and my iPad and iPod Touch occasionally for games, music, etc., but my phone is a primitive non-smart Nokia which I usually don't even turn on. I do not want to have the All-Seeing Eye in my pants.
Speaking of which, don't miss the latest Pipe and Grumble.
PS: I found the Academic Computing article. Very interesting. In some ways they got it just right, though some of the whimsical details are pretty far from the reality we know ("NeXT buys Apple").
Here it is for other readers.
really good post: visceral, cerebral and quite accurate imo.
i dont get all the hoopla about technology anyhow, although you cant completely reject it because then the world will abandon you.
True, the ways of communication have changed... "evolved" some may be calling it. However, in its sophistication, it has really lost its meaning.
I'm sort of the opposite. I've had a deep-seated hatred of talking on the phone my whole adult life, and only got a cellphone when they did other useful things.
Oh I am absolutely anti-smart phone. I do have a cell, but it is very primitive, I do not pay for texting service on it and I only use it to make phone calls. I'm a bit surprised at myself that I don't have a land line, because really, I dislike cell phones. I do like the fact that they're portable and that you can call for help during an emergency, but that's really about as far as it goes. If I could get away without having a phone at all, I would. And I have gone long stretches of time without one, by choice.
That article sounds neat. I'll have to look it up; sounds like some of their predictions were absolutely uncanny, while others where mere whimsy.
I agree with you about the SmartPhones. To me, it seems like too much information, artificially induced, and a great deal of time wasted. I know that others would violently disagree.
When did that computing article first appear? So that we get an idea of how far in the future the story projected into the future...
great post, readily agree. I see people absorbed in their little hand-held screens on the bus, doing anything but communicating... It's a bit sad. It's like we don't know how to be alone anymore, or content with ourselves to be alone for a moment. Must check facebook. Must check twitter. facebook. email. twitter. email. facebook. email. twitter. etc. Bizarre behaviour really. Someone might've texted, or posted, or tweeted! Check again. Facebook. Email. Twitter.
It's not communicating with people, it's a bunch of device interfaces broadcasting to eachother.
And also (I could go one...), all these features on a tiny screen - why not wait a couple of minutes and do it on a computer, with a proper screen? Bizarre...
It's good for calls and texting, and that's it.
I do the same with my cell phone (I still have a LL too, with a real dial phone(much to the chagrin of AT&T)and a more modern one for the boss). Phones are for speaking with someone. Who really needs all the extra and high priced stuff of a 'smart' phone.
Besides, who needs to be in constant contact with someone at a remote location?
I remember the 1964 Wrold's Fair when AT&T predicted one day we will be able to call someone on the phone and see them also.
Then in about the 9th grade a friend of mine in the electronics industry told me by the time I'd graduate we would have televisions on the wall just like a picture. Well I guess I never graduated until recently because the flat screen TVs did not exist much before 2000.
I do the same with my cell phone (I still have a LL too, with a real dial phone(much to the chagrin of AT&T)and a more modern one for the boss). Phones are for speaking with someone. Who really needs all the extra and high priced stuff of a 'smart' phone.
Besides, who needs to be in constant contact with someone at a remote location?
I remember the 1964 Wrold's Fair when AT&T predicted one day we will be able to call someone on the phone and see them also.
Then in about the 9th grade a friend of mine in the electronics industry told me by the time I'd graduate we would have televisions on the wall just like a picture. Well I guess I never graduated until recently because the flat screen TVs did not exist much before 2000.
The electronics our kids take for granted would have made me swoon in the '70s of my youth. In college, in the mid-'80s, I got to use Usenet and Telnet from a long distance dial-up connection. So exotic and expensive! Who remembers navigating the pre-WWW Internet with Unix?
I appreciate much of what you are saying and happily give up my technology on all too rare vacations. Unfortunately, I deal with so much information throughput in my policy work that I have multiple screens running at once. It is not rare for me to be on a webinar with the web meeting on one screen, email/agendas on another and reference documents on a third. Yes, I even text other participants to trade information on the fly and have pulled up a fourth screen on occasion along with marked up paper documents. Other employees look quizzically at my electronic lair, but most of them do single tasks for a living.
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