151–160 of 395 posts
I'm part of the new generation and I think the opposite. I am obsessed with my phone and the Internet. And I don't think it's bad. It's extremely stimulating in a way real life is orders of magnitude worse at. Point of reference, born around 2000. There's no going back for me. I want my phone at all times to have access to billions of possible thoughts, pictures, memes. It's literally a god like power.
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> but you really don't know what could happen at any given moment, and need to phone emergency services. This is not paranoia (well maybe it is), but paranoia doesn't work retroactively, you have to be proactively paranoid. It would be nice to not live that way sometimes you know? There are places where people aren’t conditioned to feel that way.
You know, medical emergencies are a thing. You could always come across someone that needs help.
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> So phones? Not always a big help. I don't understand how you came to this conclusion when you simultaneously say > [Jessica] called my people, whom I couldn't reach because I left my phone at home If you had a phone, you could've just...called them yourself.
Except no because the whole hands full and bottles thing. Did you even bother reading the comment?
Soon much of my life started to feel more full. I’d get lost in a big city like Montreal and have to ask for directions in a language I don’t know. I’d lose touch with coworkers who wanted to go out at night and I’d randomly stumble into them. So much serendipity happens because I didn’t have my phone. Although I only have anecdotes of my experience, I think Nick Carr talks about these challenges in depth with his book “The Shallows”.
When I was a child, even going around my own city was a stressful thing. What if I get lost? What if I run out of money for the train? How do I know I got the bus in the right direction? (the darn things didn't announce stops at all).
The first times I traveled involved printing a stack of papers including names, addresses, and maps. Getting to a hotel in a country you've never been before and without having a good command of the local language is stressful.
With modern tech? It's all a breeze. I can find a route to anywhere, check if the place I'm going to is open, call for help if needed, find a bar/restaurant/hotel if something unplanned happens, talk to the people I'm going to meet, check on the status of my flight...
Yeah, I don't feel very comfortable without my phone precisely because it provides so much useful stuff that I don't have otherwise. And no, it's not because I've grown addicted to it, but because the discomfort that I already had before smartphones were a thing returns.
After reading the title to my wife she quickly said most likely a man wrote this article, possibly an older gentleman. As a female having a phone at all times makes her feel more comfortable for emergency use.
I wrote the article. I am 19. Trust me I really love to do things like these which have chances to promote a good behavior. For the same reasons, I am off of Instagram for a year now (believe it or not, I think this would be really difficult for the current generation).
I completely agree with you about social media doing more harm than good. Keep up the good habits young man.
That said I also believe having a phone with you at all times is a good thing for emergency use or crushing on the candies
My phone screen was cracked, I had to leave it with the repair place for an hour or two. It was glorious. I leisurely strolled past shops, sat down to eat something without being distracted, and generally enjoyed being outside. I had to ask someone for the time. I resolved to go without phones more often, as it made me feel connected to me environment more, with less stress and reduced absentmindedness. Of course I n…
My advice: get a watch. A nice Seiko, Citizen, etc dumb watch. I found myself always pulling my phone out to check the time, then getting sucked in by notifications. Now, I only use my watch to check the time, and find myself pulling my phone out way, way less in public.
Well not that I live in a bad neighborhood or anything like that, but you really don't know what could happen at any given moment, and need to phone emergency services. This is not paranoia (well maybe it is), but paranoia doesn't work retroactively, you have to be proactively paranoid. If you're concerned about privacy buy one of those cheap Nokia dumbphones that old people use. Keep your smartphone at home, and swa…
There's places where a phone won't help you at all. On the other hand, just screaming will. Screaming, like not yelling, screaming. Helped me out exactly three weeks ago today, when I was getting coercively shepherded by supermarket guards, into the supermarket, because the cashier accused me of not paying. But they weren't interested in seeing my receipt. Just in harassing me. Fortunately Jessica at the Farmacias Ma…
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That's nice and all, but when I travel overseas having a universal translator with me is super cool . Being able to order a safe reliable taxi in most major cities, also super cool. If you don't want email on your phone, don't set it up. But having a map that redirects me around traffic accidents in real time saves me a lot of time. I'm not going to argue against smartphones being horrible little dopamine boxes, beca…
> purely utilitarian device You're absolutely right kid. Sincerely. I look forward to the day when the real utility shines through again. And I come from a time (as a now well bearded computer nerd) when it was all utility and coolness. But we're in some weird in-between days [1] where motivations have gotten distorted, ideals have got lost, and the utility just isn't enough any more to stave of the wrongness. FWIW I…
