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Meet the Family That Shuns Technologies Introduced After 1986

theatlantic.com

31–40 of 45 posts

Re: Meet the Family That Shuns Technologies Introduced After 1986

#31
Person 1: "I have a great idea! Instead of thinking critically about how we use technology and its impact on our lives -- good and bad -- let's just make some arbitrary restriction that'll actually probably retard our kids in this modern technological world more than it'll help them. Because, as we know, the best way to get children to do anything safely -- from driving to drugs to sex, or all three at once -- is to give them absolutely no preparation or understanding of these things in advance. (Although, to be frank, the mullet thing probably makes sex less of an issue until Junior gets his first used IROC-Z when he's 31.)"

Person 2: "I have an ever better idea! I'll write a short article about it as if you're making some big statement about our over-reliance upon technology that in no way considers what you're actually doing in a thoughtful way! Like how you're losing work which translates to less money and might impact your children's abilities to attend institutes of higher learning, or in a bad economy could cause you to lose your home or worse! Or how you might be negatively impacting them socially! Not to mention making them less able to operate in a global economy which, like it or not, basically requires low-level understanding of modern technology! Because, y'know, iPads are all, like, annoying and stuff."

Person 1: "Gnarly!"

[Fin.]

Re: Meet the Family That Shuns Technologies Introduced After 1986

#33
post #13

Nothing new to see here, we've seen those experiments countless times before. If one of them falls sick, they'll be glad for 2013 medical practices and technology.

Medical technology has not really moved forward too much for basic care from 1986 (HIV and new Chemotherapy drugs are the two things I can think of brought to market since then)

Re: Meet the Family That Shuns Technologies Introduced After 1986

#34
post #20

I'm reminded of those 60's futuristic reels of what the 80's would be like. Slight tangent: "The 1950's was the last time in our history people had any taste in clothing" - Patton Oswalt. In an ideal world, we'll all dress in 50's - early 60's fashion. Computers won't look, sound or even interact with us like computers I.E. they should be invisible and only have their presence known when we have a guest at the door o…

A balanced mix of wood & steel or iron is still my favorite form of construction.

Except for in automobiles and aeroplanes, two of the few places I say "good riddance" to wood.

Re: Meet the Family That Shuns Technologies Introduced After 1986

#35
post #20

I'm reminded of those 60's futuristic reels of what the 80's would be like. Slight tangent: "The 1950's was the last time in our history people had any taste in clothing" - Patton Oswalt. In an ideal world, we'll all dress in 50's - early 60's fashion. Computers won't look, sound or even interact with us like computers I.E. they should be invisible and only have their presence known when we have a guest at the door o…

That future still sounds a whole lot better than our present. I'm not anywhere near convinced that the 24 hour news cycle and social media are good for anything or anyone.

Re: Meet the Family That Shuns Technologies Introduced After 1986

#36
post #35
post #20

I'm reminded of those 60's futuristic reels of what the 80's would be like. Slight tangent: "The 1950's was the last time in our history people had any taste in clothing" - Patton Oswalt. In an ideal world, we'll all dress in 50's - early 60's fashion. Computers won't look, sound or even interact with us like computers I.E. they should be invisible and only have their presence known when we have a guest at the door o…

That future still sounds a whole lot better than our present. I'm not anywhere near convinced that the 24 hour news cycle and social media are good for anything or anyone.

Breaking news is probably the worst invention we've had so far. Unless something is killing me right now, I don't want to know about this not-quite-news-thing until most of the details (preferably all of the details) are totally sorted out and presented in one serving.

Instead, we have "Breaking: We don't know how, what or why, but it looks like something bad happened... probably". It sucks and it stresses me out for no reason except ratings.

I've started moving away from TV altogether for news just for that reason. There's a set time of day I take in news and that's about it for news for the rest of my waking hours.

Re: Meet the Family That Shuns Technologies Introduced After 1986

#37
post #20

I'm reminded of those 60's futuristic reels of what the 80's would be like. Slight tangent: "The 1950's was the last time in our history people had any taste in clothing" - Patton Oswalt. In an ideal world, we'll all dress in 50's - early 60's fashion. Computers won't look, sound or even interact with us like computers I.E. they should be invisible and only have their presence known when we have a guest at the door o…

A balanced mix of wood & steel or iron is still my favorite form of construction. Except for in automobiles and aeroplanes, two of the few places I say "good riddance" to wood.

One word: Bauhaus.

Despite having its heyday before Hitler's nonsense, there's so much of modern style that school influenced. There's no reason we can't have traditional materials and blend it with modern sensibilities.

Maybe cars and planes can do with a bit less of it (though I don't mind a wood dashboard), but a carefully curated blend of wood with a nice grain, a sprinkling of glass and a dash of metal on the side can absolutely work well.

Re: Meet the Family That Shuns Technologies Introduced After 1986

#38
The biggest risk of this kind of lifestyle is when parents get older they will be disconnected from their kids. (Kids will do just fine... all they need is some inevitable exposures to technology, albeit with some steeper learning curve...)

I actually know someone (not really my own contact directly) with similar lifestyle and what I have been observing is that she is so isolated from information inlet that she started developing high sense of skepticism as with current standard of technololgy adoptations by her peers, she'd be often last person to know everything. (I guess this also gives plenty of time to think about things, and every little things becomes very very big deal for her, but then that might be just her personality. She does show some hostility to people who are "informed" and they tend to become a target of complaints for just about anything...)

Re: Meet the Family That Shuns Technologies Introduced After 1986

#39
post #33
post #13

Nothing new to see here, we've seen those experiments countless times before. If one of them falls sick, they'll be glad for 2013 medical practices and technology.

Medical technology has not really moved forward too much for basic care from 1986 (HIV and new Chemotherapy drugs are the two things I can think of brought to market since then)

Are you forgetting about gene therapies? Or noninvasive surgeries? Or the incredible medical imaging techniques that are routine these days?

Have no fear, medical advancements are still coming as fast as ever.

Re: Meet the Family That Shuns Technologies Introduced After 1986

#40
post #33
post #13

Nothing new to see here, we've seen those experiments countless times before. If one of them falls sick, they'll be glad for 2013 medical practices and technology.

Medical technology has not really moved forward too much for basic care from 1986 (HIV and new Chemotherapy drugs are the two things I can think of brought to market since then)

> Medical technology has not really moved forward too much for basic care from 1986

This really depends on your definition of 'basic care', and, therefore, isn't a very interesting statement.

My immediate counter-example is this: If someone in that family gets gallstones, they'll want laparoscopic surgery as opposed to the "open 'em up all the way" technique that was actually common for cholecystectomies (gallbladder removals) in 1986.

Also, MRSA existed in 1986, but if it's resistant to the first-line choice of vancomycin, linezolid and other drugs that can cure vancomycin-resistant MRSA didn't exist then (and being in trials doesn't really count as 'existing' because, really, how many people can count on getting in on a drug trial?).

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