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Smart phones do not invade. People decide to use them. Why? Because we can use them to connect to relatives and friends. Because we can use them to provide information about virtually anything.
Maybe you should take a look at your hostility. Something is not right when a simple tool causes you so much pain.
How did you ever live without one before they existed?
Smart phones do not invade. People decide to use them. Why? Because we can use them to connect to relatives and friends. Because we can use them to provide information about virtually anything.
Maybe you should take a look at your hostility. Something is not right when a simple tool causes you so much pain.
Just curious, and I am asking rather than forming an opinion, but it appears that you don't have a problem with people talking on the phone while paying in a store, at the teller in the bank, etc.
I personally find that both rude and annoying. Cell phones are a wonderful thing, but it is how they are used.
They are extremely useful for texting while driving...
As others have pointed out, these devices are causing us to lose the ability to interact with each other in a meaningful way. I do wonder about the long term impact on both the psychological and emotional development of children who never learn about body language, facial expression, conflict management, etc.
They will resort to just sending a text...and so much can be relayed and derived from 144 characters.
I largely agree with you. The instability of the workplace, most of the cesspool that is social media, politics that has lost most civility and reason and become gratuitously divisive, the demise of credible journalism in favor of poor quality pseudo-news delivered via the Internet, new music and movie quality declining precipitously since the turn of the century or so, rampant political correctness unaccompanied by logic or sense, travel (particularly air travel) becoming a hassle, rampant inflation (and frequent gouging) in housing, medical and education costs, the rise of the entitlement culture and continuing lack of respect for education, the specter of terrorism-all of these things contribute to life being more stressful and harder to enjoy than it used to be.
On the other hand, the beer HAS gotten better and better.
Just curious, and I am asking rather than forming an opinion, but it appears that you don't have a problem with people talking on the phone while paying in a store, at the teller in the bank, etc.
I personally find that both rude and annoying. Cell phones are a wonderful thing, but it is how they are used.
They are extremely useful for texting while driving...
As others have pointed out, these devices are causing us to lose the ability to interact with each other in a meaningful way. I do wonder about the long term impact on both the psychological and emotional development of children who never learn about body language, facial expression, conflict management, etc.
They will resort to just sending a text...and so much can be relayed and derived from 144 characters.
People stand in line and talk to each other while paying at a store etc. even when driving if they have other passengers with them. People that text while driving probably were doing something else while driving before texting. Putting on makeup, drinking, yelling at their kids, reading. We caught one kid with a book across his steering wheel.
People have been complaining that parents have their kids involved in too many activities, after school sports etc., how is that not interacting?
The world's problems will never be solved and nothing really changed on 9/11. People have hated each other and have fought against each other since the beginning of human history. ..........quote]
Somehow many people seem to think that "belief" and "faith" are wonderful. That is something I have never understood. Maybe logic and reason only carries us so far but the lack of logic and reason can put us anywhere. Why do we want to label Muslim terrorists? Those millions of people are following their faith.....the same as "evangelists" who want to impose their beliefs, or the Inquisition, or the modern secret cults involving Catholic priests pursuing homosexuality and child abuse or the warring Popes or the Crusades, or the Puritan witch trials, or hundreds of other religious wars, or nationalism, or even team spirit and sports riots.
Will we ever learn to try to figure out the meaning of our own lives and to leave others to make their own choices?
I wish I could give you another rep for this post.
I am "only" 63 and a political moderate, but I just feel that the world for at least the past 15 years is not something I want to be part of. I cannot think of anything new that has happened in the world since about 1999 that I either enjoy or approve of.
I also cannot think of one single thing that has been invented since 2000 that I either need or use. Microwave ovens and cellphones were introduced in the mid-70's; CDs, personal computers, and e-mail became popular in the early 80's, the Internet was put in general use in 1991, and DVDs became popular in the late 1990's. And as far as social issues, equal opportunity for almost everyone was well on its way by 2000, and people generally had more of a "live and let live" attitude. No direct U.S; involvement in any war lasted for more than a dozen years, and people were not generally afraid of "foreigners" -- or even allowing their children to walk to school by themselves. Traveling by plane was somewhat of a pleasure, not one hassle after another. People also knew that if they worked hard and were honest, they could almost certainly earn a decent living (and very few people had the attitude that they were "entitled" to something they didn't earn, unless they were seriously disabled in some way); and most people who worked all their adult lives knew that they would have a fairly comfortable and secure retirement. Basic and routine medical and dental visits did not cost the equivalent of what, to many people, would be a week's salary; and medical insurance and expenses were not often the second greatest expense -- and often the greatest expense -- of retirees (and sometimes of young families, too). And, perhaps most importantly, people had hope that most of the world's problems could and would eventually be solved.
Now, however, it seems to me that the modern world is just mostly ugly and/or unpleasant; and it just makes me want to isolate myself in my home and become a complete recluse. Does anyone else feel that way?
How can you complain about modern life while using the internet to do so?
Nope - I look forward to new discoveries, new ideas, new yummy things to eat - lol!
Who knows - cure for cancer might happen in 2017 - why stick around in the 1990s!
I'm with you. I'm older than the OP, and I love learning about all the interesting science and technology developments happening now. I love my efficient appliances with fun features. I love my comfy SUV with all the bells and whistles. I love being alive and healthy because of 21st century medical advances. I love my shiny gadgets and all the opportunities my parents' generation didn't have.
There have always been really awful people in the world. Not everyone worked hard or was honest in the "golden age." There was always misery and injustice. There were always lazy, dishonest people. There was just as much tragedy and sadness. There just wasn't a 24-hour news cycle that brought that information to us, so we just didn't hear about it.
We have always had the option to choose whether to be happy. That hasn't changed.
I'm with you. I'm older than the OP, and I love learning about all the interesting science and technology developments happening now. I love my efficient appliances with fun features. I love my comfy SUV with all the bells and whistles. I love being alive and healthy because of 21st century medical advances. I love my shiny gadgets and all the opportunities my parents' generation didn't have.
There have always been really awful people in the world. Not everyone worked hard or was honest in the "golden age." There was always misery and injustice. There were always lazy, dishonest people. There was just as much tragedy and sadness. There just wasn't a 24-hour news cycle that brought that information to us, so we just didn't hear about it.
We have always had the option to choose whether to be happy. That hasn't changed.
I love history and it can be scary. All the things that went on in the good old days. Yellow journalism was popular and people loved to read gore and gossip. That hasn't changed - lol. Even small town papers. I subscribe to Newspapers.com for my genealogy research and dang - the things that were printed. One was of an auto accident in a small southeast Texas town. They printed the picture of the body hanging out of the car! This was in the 1950s or so.
I find it very interesting when people complain about folks talking on their cell phones while in public who find that annoying. What please explain and help me understand. People have been talking to each other in public for ever and ever. Did that bother you? Is the problem now that with cell phones you can only eavesdrop on half the conversation and not the whole conversation?
Is that leaving you hanging to hear a lady say on her phone " Did she really say that to you". Is the issue hearing another voice or not hearing both voices and knowing fully what is going on in someone else's life?
People talking to each other in person or on the phone don't bother many of us as we are not trying to know someone else's business.
Now if I am wrong please folks who have expressed concern about public cell phone conversations why they bother you if both folks being there don't.
If on the other hand you just don't like other people socializing that's another thread.
As far as texting goes it creates more interaction as both people don't have to be free at the same time to communicate. It is great for us texting with our grown up kids because it doesn't have to be done in real time with all of us having busy lives.
Have a question, text it and get a response a bit later when the are free. My one son yesterday texted a picture of a great barbq meal he had fixed and we texted about what it was and yup he had smoked some great ribs.
Snap Chat is great especially with grandkid's and we anxiously look forward to the pictures and view them together at the same time and go geeeeez, awww, wow, aren't they cuties. They take in Snap Chat and send and we enjoy when we can together. Technology is great. You can share good times and vacations with folks over the many miles and appreciate each others lives and in many cases retirements.
How did you ever live without one before they existed?
In our case we lived without prior but the quality of life has been enhanced with. Especially retirement life.
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