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“When we all have pocket telephones”

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Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#181

Post by lrvick »

WaitWaitWha wrote: post #84

> Now, increasingly, cellphones are * day-to-day life* . Far from the literal “pocket telephones” envisioned a century ago, they’ve worked their way into nearly every aspect of human existence, including those Haselden could never have considered. It is now essential to be considered part of the society, to the point that someone who does not want to or cannot carry a cell phone is sneered at. Anecdotally, I was in t…

I run a b2b tech company and do not own a cell phone. It started as a month long detox and I found I was happier and never went back. All the 90s ways of doing things still work fine.

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#182

Post by lrvick »

Buttons840 wrote: post #100
WaitWaitWha wrote: post #84

> Now, increasingly, cellphones are * day-to-day life* . Far from the literal “pocket telephones” envisioned a century ago, they’ve worked their way into nearly every aspect of human existence, including those Haselden could never have considered. It is now essential to be considered part of the society, to the point that someone who does not want to or cannot carry a cell phone is sneered at. Anecdotally, I was in t…

I've wondered, as wealth inequality grows, perhaps the poorest among us simple won't have enough money to exchange for goods. "Sorry, you don't have enough money to make a haircut worth my time, but if you let me invade your privacy and show you ads until the end of time, that will be valuable enough to exchange for a haircut. Read and sign this 200 page contract and I'll go get a chair ready." See also essential sof…

How do you define essential? I only use open source software and do not own a cell phone and I get along just fine.

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#183

Post by lrvick »

enedil wrote: post #110
Buttons840 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've wondered, as wealth inequality grows, perhaps the poorest among us simple won't have enough money to exchange for goods. "Sorry, you don't have enough money to make a haircut worth my time, but if you let me invade your privacy and show you ads until the end of time, that will be valuable enough to exchange for a haircut. Read and sign this 200 page contract and I'll go get a chair ready." See also essential sof…

I doubt that if somebody cannot afford a haircut, their data would be that pricey.

Rich/poor does not matter all that much to surveillance capitalists and atdech companies.

If they or their friends have the ability to vote someone will always be willing to for their data to have an advantage in swaying said votes.

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#184

Post by lrvick »

warner25 wrote: post #97
alistairSH wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, that's a new one for me (only app payments accepted). In the US, at least.

I haven't encountered that yet, but I'm starting to encounter mobile apps as required proof of membership for things. My family got a membership to a children's museum a few weeks ago, and the expectation is that my wife and I have their app on our phones to get inside. For our second visit, I brought our printed receipt, but my wife had to stand there downloading and installing their app so that we could use our gue…

As someone that does not own a phone I have had to explain I cannot install apps many times. Normally when I bring up the word discrimination, they always find a backup path they do not advertise.

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#185

Post by lrvick »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #120
alistairSH wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, that's a new one for me (only app payments accepted). In the US, at least.

Ticketmaster using monopoly power to force use of app to attend concerts. Can’t even print ticket any longer.

I do not own a cell phone and have attended many Ticketmaster events in recent years. If you explain you do not have a compatible device, and sometimes use the word discrimination, they will take a credit card by phone and have paper tickets waiting for you at the box office. It annoys them, but not my problem. Prepaid credit cards are recommended for privacy.

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#186

Post by lrvick »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #107
WaitWaitWha wrote: post #84

> Now, increasingly, cellphones are * day-to-day life* . Far from the literal “pocket telephones” envisioned a century ago, they’ve worked their way into nearly every aspect of human existence, including those Haselden could never have considered. It is now essential to be considered part of the society, to the point that someone who does not want to or cannot carry a cell phone is sneered at. Anecdotally, I was in t…

Joined a gym and they me to install an app and did a walkthrough. They way they asked was as if they were just asking me to pose for a photo, as if it was barely a request. I wonder what theyd say if I refused or said I had no phone. Also during covid scares the inconvenience of not having SMS and QR would have been insane.

I always say I have no phone, because I do not. They always have some alternative path so as not to end up with edge case discrimination lawsuits, though it is often only known to managers.

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#187

Post by account42 »

lrvick wrote: post #177
danudey wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When cell phones were in their infancy, I remember reading an article, some kind of op-ed, about how they were ruining society. His primary example, his primary complaint, was a situation where he was at dinner with his wife and his own cell phone rang. A friend was calling him! On his phone, at dinner! How incredibly, unimaginably rude could someone be? To call someone while he was in a public restaurant, at dinner…

Meanwhile I -still- think anyone who pulls out a cell phone when spending time with other humans is an asshole. Leave it at home or turn it off. You can doom scroll later.

I think that's going a bit far. Having your phone with you and turned on is OK because there sometimes are emergencies that have higher priority than whatever you are doing. Sure, take steps to avoid constant unneeded interruptions but looking at the phone once in a while to see check if a notification is important is not going to kill anyone. You don't own someones attention 100% when you are spending time with them.

And someone doom scrolling while "spending time" with others might not actually want to be spending time with those people. In that case the ire should be directed to those people or obligations making them spend their limited time in a way they dislike.

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#188

Post by account42 »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #109
darkwater wrote: post #9

I think the joke is still good, because it's still a bad manner to have your phone ringing and buzzing in many situations (a concert, at the opera etc). I mean, it's actually an impressive comic, it imagines a possible future tech and correctly identifies some real misuses, 70-80 years before it became reality.

It is great. I think they got there by extrapolating a home phone interrupting dinner table conversations, and similar. The urgency of a ringing phone dominating all else. Like a fire alarm alerting that this is the most important conversation to be had!

Unlike the home phone, mobile phones can at least be set to vibrate so I guess there is some improvement.

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#189

Post by lrvick »

account42 wrote: post #187
lrvick wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meanwhile I -still- think anyone who pulls out a cell phone when spending time with other humans is an asshole. Leave it at home or turn it off. You can doom scroll later.

I think that's going a bit far. Having your phone with you and turned on is OK because there sometimes are emergencies that have higher priority than whatever you are doing. Sure, take steps to avoid constant unneeded interruptions but looking at the phone once in a while to see check if a notification is important is not going to kill anyone. You don't own someones attention 100% when you are spending time with them…

If someone really deals with life or death emergencies they would likely benefit from a device made for that with multi-week battery life and very broad range, like a pager. Doctors and firefighters still use those for a reason.

Short of that, it is probably not an actual emergency and real human people in front of you should have your full respect and attention with a rare exception being when you are trapped, like on an airplane. If you are not trapped then just leave. Using a phone in front of someone for any reason not relevant to the current activity or conversation is just a passive aggressive insult.

Phones are like toilets. No one wants to watch you use one.

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#190

Post by account42 »

bsza wrote: post #5
huseyinkeles wrote: post #2

what's more interesting to me is at the date of this comic, even the landline phones were not fully adopted :)

Yet it predicted the future more accurately than Blade Runner (1982) where people still use pay phones in 2019.

But the inevitable retro-futurism is one of the charms of old sci-fi!
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