"Look Up"

[Tim]

I agree 100% with this - I love technology and its my day job, but it works for me not controls me and I don't have a smart-phone either



Things I have recently observed with disappointment.

• 3 of the people I work with all sat together in the meal room - each one glued to their iPhones
• A tube train in London where 80~90% of its occupants were glued to smart-phones. Even couples sat together were ignoring each other, whilst glued to their screens
• 5 kids walking through town the other day, all in a line all looking down at their phones (maybe they were tweeting or texting each other?)
• A co-worker taking a piss whilst holding his iPhone in his free hand and reading something - WTF!
• The same co-worker had to go home recently during his working day to get a spare iPhone when an app upgrade caused his main phone to malfunction - and yes, he does have a landline on his desk
• The look of sheer disbelieve on this same persons face when I told them I often go out for a walk and leave my phone at home
• A friend taking out their iPhone and leaving it in view on the dining table during dinner
• Another friend constantly checking their Blackberry whilst we were chatting at a bar having a beer together

Slaves to technology . . . and we are losing the ability to think or discover for ourselves too, we want someone else or some gizmo/app to do it for us. Just read a thread where someone wanted an answer to a question that was in the same thread a few posts back and repeated a few times near the beginning. Dim or just plain lazy? . . . who knows

[Marco]

Lol - you know my feelings on this, dude... The world's gone bloody mad!!

The dehumanised, socially inept, 'zombies' you mention do my fooking head in.....

Marco.

[Firebottle]

+1
I don't even have a mobile phone that works in the UK and I'm happy to be different.
The looks I get when I answer no to 'you don't have a mobile?' are priceless.

Smartphones are fabulous technology but they are also an obsession, one I can live without

Alan

[John]

Yes amazing how the phone has taken control
Awhile back I was chatting to someone on a train she said I was the only other person not using their phone I looked around and everyone else had a mobile phone in their hands

[Marco]

It's sheep mentality at its worst, John.

Marco.

[Tim]

Are You Addicted to Your Cell Phone?

I answered 'No' to every one of the questions in the above link, so I reckon I'm not an addict

However, I thought of this fact the other day whilst having a conversation about peoples attitude addiction to smart-phones, when a colleague got pissy with someone who spoke negatively about them. They were making the point that life does revolve around them and thinks that's a good thing . . . There are over 7 billion people on the planet, 5 billion of whom don't even have their own toilet, let alone a smart-phone, so they have not taken over yet

[Gordon Steadman]

I didn't bother as I don't have a smart phone or any mobile come to that. We have our own toilet though.

The expression 'first world problems' comes to mind. So many seem totally oblivious to just how lucky they are.

[Tim]

So many seem totally oblivious to just how lucky they are.

Absolutely Gordon (I need to go and lie down now as I have agreed with just about everything you have posted recently )

[Macca]

I started working in the cellphone industry when it was still all-analogue. Calls were a quid a minute peak and 50p off peak, no free minutes and texting did not exist. The only people who owned them were businessmen, drug dealers and rich kids wanting to look flash. On top of that the analogue system was simple to break into so you would be looking at a couple of months at best before your phone was cloned. Less if you lived in London. One of the largest departments in the firm I worked for was devoted entirely to sorting out cloning issues. Nevertheless, having used walkie-talkies in the past I always thought that the idea of a mobile communication device was a brilliant idea. As soon as the network went digital in 1996 I got one. Lots of people said to me 'what do you need it for?', including a lot of my co-workers. When I expressed the opinion that within a couple of years they would be as ubiquitous as the wristwatch I was laughed at. Of course in les time than that they all had one and some had actually become obsessive about them. There is no doubt that they are one of the most useful inventions of the last century.

I did manage to answer no to all of the questions on the 'test' but the I do have the advantage that I hate talking on the phone and I am far too lazy to be writing texts. I do have a smartphone which I got so I could look at the internet when I am on the train and it is dark. if it's daytime I prefer to look out of the window - hey look that's reality going on out there!

If I went for a drink with a mate and he was checking his stupid phone all the time he would get some grief about it; that is pretty ignorant behaviour. Unless he had some big business deal going on or trouble at work, I suppose I would make an exception in that case.

As for people using them on trains and buses well that is up to them, I can't see how it bothers anyone else. No different from reading the newspaper or a book and folk have been doing that on the train since Victoria was on the throne. Sometimes you can have an interesting conversation with folk on the train but that is pretty rare and you can end up with some right bores telling you how great they are for an hour and a half, that's not fun. As for the London Tube that is such a de-humanising experience nowadays it is hardly surprising that people need a distraction. It's not like there is anything else to look at in a tunnel. And I'd much rather have someone looking at their phone than listen to their 'tss tss tss' from their crappy earbuds. 'Enjoy your tinnitus, suckers! You won't!'

[Gordon Steadman]

Absolutely Gordon (I need to go and lie down now as I have agreed with just about everything you have posted recently )