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Life before smartphones (2020)

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Re: Life before smartphones (2020)

#261

Post by solaceb »

swayvil wrote: post #239
Sebb767 wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're missing the tree in the forest. No one is forced to look at their phone, the reality is that people have trained themselves to want it.

There are 6 anecdotes in this thread where friends and family apply force to get a person to look at their phone. Social force, but still. Force. Consider the soft forces of marketing, distraction, conformity, attraction and temptation. They are as real as a twisted arm.

Sure, I agree, it's all very coercive. But I think the point really is... physical force isn't even necessary. We're already addicted

Re: Life before smartphones (2020)

#262

Post by i_am_proteus »

oceanghost wrote: post #192
rapnie wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And he doesn't even mention that you could just be outside, and be unreachable and not able to reach other people too. As a kid I used to play outside a lot, and my mother had no clue where I was, nor could she easily find out. I could be outside all day without her worrying that I'd be abducted or involved in an accident. Now that all has completely changed, and my mother has too. Some years ago when I walked into t…

I wanted to say this. I hate how small the world has become and how we're supposed to be "reachable" all the time. Some of my friends will freak out if I don't text back in as little as 5 minutes. A particular needy friend once tried to get me to "promise" that I would always return her texts within 10 minutes. I said "hard no" explaining that it meant that it meant that I could never watch a movie uninterrupted, rea…

>I don't answer texts while I'm driving because I literally got in an accident texting (it was a freak circumstance, but these things do happen)

I'd like to address this in a non-judgemental way: not answering texts while driving should be the norm. It's not possible to operate a vehicle in motion and text simultaneously in a safe manner.

Re: Life before smartphones (2020)

#263

Post by ghaff »

theyellowkid wrote: post #156
lordnacho wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding photos: People our age only have a few childhood pictures, and they are warped by time on analog media. Those pictures of us as a kid look really old because they are naturally filtered. Soon people will wonder WTF old-pic filters are for, and some historian will have to explain why it's blurred and the colors are faded. Also why did people have clothes for each decade? Our kids, by contrast, have had pictu…

Looking back, I wish everyone had taken pictures of everyday life (probably with an Instamatic). Christmas pictures, awards, meh. What I really want are pictures of the halls in high school, street racing, parties with giant bonfires and beer.

As a high school yearbook editor and photo editor in college I think you got a lot of fairly day to day photos. You don't get that in the professional sphere as companies (probably even today) aren't that big on random photos of the workplace.

I have a deliberately created Year in the Life type book from a company I used to work for that was made a couple of years before I joined the company. But it's a very atypical work.

Re: Life before smartphones (2020)

#264

Post by Sebb767 »

swayvil wrote: post #239
Sebb767 wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're missing the tree in the forest. No one is forced to look at their phone, the reality is that people have trained themselves to want it.

There are 6 anecdotes in this thread where friends and family apply force to get a person to look at their phone. Social force, but still. Force. Consider the soft forces of marketing, distraction, conformity, attraction and temptation. They are as real as a twisted arm.

And there are quite a few anecdotes on how to prevent people from forcing you, some of them written by me :)

My overall point, however, is that there will never be an external negative reinforcement to look on your phone. We all have it internalized already and that's far more compelling than any external pressure ever could be.

Re: Life before smartphones (2020)

#266

Post by distances »

MayeulC wrote: post #258
harperlee wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have a look at this counterargument: https://www.sadanduseless.com/evil-iphones/

I was expecting to read that article from mid-1800s or early 1900s lamenting how everyone just sits there in trains, public transports, etc. Just reading their newspapers and not paying attention to their surroundings or socializing. Well, it was a visual version. But if anyone has a link to the article I remember, I would appreciate it.

Not what you asked for, but a related XKCD: https://xkcd.com/1227/

Re: Life before smartphones (2020)

#268

Post by distances »

paxys wrote: post #179
laurieg wrote: post #5

A couple of stand-out memories from the olden days (and I don't consider myself particularly old): Getting a call in a restaurant. Only happened to me once but I certainly felt like a VIP. Carrying a tiny map book of London around with me while cycling around. Missing turn after turn until finding there was a canal which basically took me from the center to my uncle's house. Arranging to meet a friend and then being…

Smartphones or not, being very late for planned meetups definitely hasn't changed as a concept.

Nobody waits for an hour though. With no contact I think I'd leave in about 20 minutes now.

Re: Life before smartphones (2020)

#269

Post by bombela »

Sebb767 wrote: post #243
freshdonut wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All the people I know with real technological addiction > problems (whether to smartphones, social media, scams, online radicalization or anything else) are like 45+. Exactly. No one is safe. Everyone I know in my age group (15-26) can not exist without opening up their smartphone every 5 seconds to check social media or watch YouTube. There was a good documentary about this topic called The Social Network. You may…

> There was a good documentary about this topic called The Social Network. Are you talking about the movie about Mark Zuckerberg? Because this movie is not bad, but it's definitely not a documentary.

Maybe the GP was thinking of the documentary/drama: The Social Dilemma

Re: Life before smartphones (2020)

#270

Post by Fr0styMatt88 »

oceanghost wrote: post #192
rapnie wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And he doesn't even mention that you could just be outside, and be unreachable and not able to reach other people too. As a kid I used to play outside a lot, and my mother had no clue where I was, nor could she easily find out. I could be outside all day without her worrying that I'd be abducted or involved in an accident. Now that all has completely changed, and my mother has too. Some years ago when I walked into t…

I wanted to say this. I hate how small the world has become and how we're supposed to be "reachable" all the time. Some of my friends will freak out if I don't text back in as little as 5 minutes. A particular needy friend once tried to get me to "promise" that I would always return her texts within 10 minutes. I said "hard no" explaining that it meant that it meant that I could never watch a movie uninterrupted, rea…

This is something I've been personally trying to get better at. As someone who did a lot of instant messaging in the 90s (think ICQ and IRC) I would think nothing of shooting off texts to people whenever I felt like it via SMS. There was never an expectation of immediately being answered back then and I always thought of messaging as 'write it while you remember and don't expect a response until whenever'. If something was truly urgent I'd call.

Except that's not how other people would perceive it. I've since learned that it can be incredibly annoying to others, to the point where some people would actually get distressed thinking they would have to answer the texts. Couple that with a bad habit of sending many short texts (it's how you'd write on messaging in the old days) and you have one REALLY REALLY ANNOYING FRIEND (regrettably I was that annoying friend).

So I guess I just want to apologize profusely from the other side of the fence. I'm trying to be much more mindful these days about whether that chit-chat message REALLY needs to be sent RIGHT NOW, or can it just wait for a conversation at a later time?

I'm trying to be much more self-aware in this regard.

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