What do you wish had never been invented?
TV,television is mostly there to distract and keep people ignorant. It can be informative but generally it' shows a load of horse crap.
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Picklebobble2 · 56-60, M
ArishMell · 70-79, M
TV, and the so-called "smart"-'phone.
Both have gone too far and become too addictive, and I do not regret having neither.
Portable telephones, fine, if just that. I bought mine originally for such things as calling for car breakdown assistance, and did indeed use it only a couple of weeks ago, both for a very brief social-arrangement call, and for when my car broke down, far from home! It is a basic model, its primary function is voice telephony (will that catch on?), text a very awkward second, and it has a couple of accessories occasionally useful.
The "smart"-'phone has encouraged a desperately self-isolating, semi-panicky way life for so many who now cannot bear to switch the damn' things off, as you see if you sit quietly in a town-centre cafe for half an hour, or use a bus or train; and worse, encouraged businesses that are meant to serve us, to make us serve them.
(I am typing this on a proper PC.)
..........
One weekend evening a while ago I sat among about twelve people in their late-teens or early-twenties, in the HQ of a club to which I belong. They were one group, all guests. I was the only club-member present.
Their organiser was busy on a lap-top: work or study, I think. A couple in the corner were using another: probably a film or game. The rest were all engrossed in their "smart"-'phones. Hardly a word between any of them, certainly no conversation at all, for a good two hours. They ignored me - their host - and I felt unable to try talking to them, so found something to read.
Eventually I left this eerie Silent Order of The Digits to their "Tap-Tap-Scroll-Scroll", went to the pub and engaged in real conversation with real people!
Both have gone too far and become too addictive, and I do not regret having neither.
Portable telephones, fine, if just that. I bought mine originally for such things as calling for car breakdown assistance, and did indeed use it only a couple of weeks ago, both for a very brief social-arrangement call, and for when my car broke down, far from home! It is a basic model, its primary function is voice telephony (will that catch on?), text a very awkward second, and it has a couple of accessories occasionally useful.
The "smart"-'phone has encouraged a desperately self-isolating, semi-panicky way life for so many who now cannot bear to switch the damn' things off, as you see if you sit quietly in a town-centre cafe for half an hour, or use a bus or train; and worse, encouraged businesses that are meant to serve us, to make us serve them.
(I am typing this on a proper PC.)
..........
One weekend evening a while ago I sat among about twelve people in their late-teens or early-twenties, in the HQ of a club to which I belong. They were one group, all guests. I was the only club-member present.
Their organiser was busy on a lap-top: work or study, I think. A couple in the corner were using another: probably a film or game. The rest were all engrossed in their "smart"-'phones. Hardly a word between any of them, certainly no conversation at all, for a good two hours. They ignored me - their host - and I felt unable to try talking to them, so found something to read.
Eventually I left this eerie Silent Order of The Digits to their "Tap-Tap-Scroll-Scroll", went to the pub and engaged in real conversation with real people!
Picklebobble2 · 56-60, M
@ArishMell I've just had an earful from a 20 something on here on why they think posting personal photos on social media is a perfectly reasonable thing to do with no thought on the possible consequences of foreign parties using said photos for personal or illegal gain.
Real life just doesn't occur to them
Real life just doesn't occur to them
ArishMell · 70-79, M
@Picklebobble2 They seem to have no concept of personal security and privacy, yet [anti?]social-media have been around for almost long enough for their own parents to have recognised or fallen foul of the problem!
One of the first cases I recall was of a student who went moaning to the papers about her and her pals having been reprimanded by their university authorities for drunken misbehaviour in the town, when their post-exam celebrations had gone too far. What upset her was that the university had acted on her
describing it on Facebook (or whatever was current then).
"They've no right to read my posts!", the silly lass moaned.
Oh yes they have, my dear. You used a public, non-anonymous forum to boast of your unsociable antics, something one might think a law student like you might understand.
Around the same time, there were highly-publicised cases of teenagers having to explain to appalled parents returning from holidays, why their homes had been wrecked by antisocial gate-crashers responding to private party invitations that had been spread on-line. Or wondering why they risked being dismissed, or their employment applications being refused, after insulting the company on Facebook.
......
Even people who sincerely and probably rightly think they would never be so stupid, undermine themselves. They make it too easy for the identity-traders like Google and Meta, by using Internet search and shopping patterns, portable-'phone location and use tracking, and conversation-eavesdroppers like 'Alexa'.
"But everyone does that now....", they bleat. So? That's a reason? Anyway, not "everyone" does. Baaa, Baaaa.
One of the first cases I recall was of a student who went moaning to the papers about her and her pals having been reprimanded by their university authorities for drunken misbehaviour in the town, when their post-exam celebrations had gone too far. What upset her was that the university had acted on her
describing it on Facebook (or whatever was current then).
"They've no right to read my posts!", the silly lass moaned.
Oh yes they have, my dear. You used a public, non-anonymous forum to boast of your unsociable antics, something one might think a law student like you might understand.
Around the same time, there were highly-publicised cases of teenagers having to explain to appalled parents returning from holidays, why their homes had been wrecked by antisocial gate-crashers responding to private party invitations that had been spread on-line. Or wondering why they risked being dismissed, or their employment applications being refused, after insulting the company on Facebook.
......
Even people who sincerely and probably rightly think they would never be so stupid, undermine themselves. They make it too easy for the identity-traders like Google and Meta, by using Internet search and shopping patterns, portable-'phone location and use tracking, and conversation-eavesdroppers like 'Alexa'.
"But everyone does that now....", they bleat. So? That's a reason? Anyway, not "everyone" does. Baaa, Baaaa.
Picklebobble2 · 56-60, M
@whowasthatmaskedman and who controls it
TheRascallyOne · 31-35, M
whowasthatmaskedman · 70-79, M
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likesnatural · 70-79, M
hunkalove · 61-69, M
In 1961 FCC chairman Newton Minow called it a "vast wasteland." One of its inventors, I think it was the Russian guy, was asked what was the best thing that could be done with TV. He said, "Turn it off." A total waste of time. Like the Internet.
BarbossasSpouse · 36-40, F
Dshhh · M
Do people still watch TV? I mean like the broadcast thing? Or is that just my grandmother
FurryFace · 61-69, M
there's no one more Youer than You so nope not invented , who would possibly be intelligent enough to make Me ? , excluding God , had to say it
Bumbles · 51-55, M
The self-propelled dildo
MaryJo1996 · 26-30, F
Camera phones. So much time wasted trying to take the "perfect" selfie.
Likes2drive · 56-60, M
I sometimes wonder if the internet should have been invented
Deceased · M
Marketing/Advertising
Jacko1971 · 51-55, M
It's a medium.
HannahSky · F
Internet
DearAmbellina2113 · 41-45, F
Guns
TheOneyouwerewarnedabout · 46-50, MVIP
Jobs
SW-User
Oil
Nitedoc · 51-55, M
AI.
DDonde · 31-35, M
I don't like TV either. I just watch what I want on youtube these days. And movies with streaming.
ArishMell · 70-79, M
@caesar7 I think the bomb would top anyone's list if we all had thought about the question as deeply as you have.
I've just read Julie MacDowell's Attack Warning Red, a description of the UK Government's Cold War ideas on how to protect the country during and after an all-out nuclear war; though touching on one or two other nations' examples, such as how to use a cartoon turtle to turn a generation of schoolchildren neurotic. It is stark and very frightening. Unfortunately, once invented, nothing can be "un-invented".
I've just read Julie MacDowell's Attack Warning Red, a description of the UK Government's Cold War ideas on how to protect the country during and after an all-out nuclear war; though touching on one or two other nations' examples, such as how to use a cartoon turtle to turn a generation of schoolchildren neurotic. It is stark and very frightening. Unfortunately, once invented, nothing can be "un-invented".
basilfawlty89 · 31-35, M
The Wonder Boner
[media=https://youtu.be/YpKtzumUmmA]
[media=https://youtu.be/YpKtzumUmmA]
SW-User
Casinos, gambling, betting.
It's incredibly sad that people ruin and lose their whole lives for gambling, all for the hope of winning the money they lost because of their addiction
It's incredibly sad that people ruin and lose their whole lives for gambling, all for the hope of winning the money they lost because of their addiction
Religion