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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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.