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Feeling uncomfortable when leaving phone at home shouldn't be normal

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Re: Feeling uncomfortable when leaving phone at home shouldn't be normal

#381

Post by Falkon1313 »

_23sd wrote: post #102
mostlysimilar wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I had a feeling "without a terminal" was a typo and I wanted to look up the exact quote. I googled the sentence and expected the right quote to be at the top, but all Google gave me was results for helping people with terminal cancer cope with their coming death. It was only after I appended "Ian M Banks" that I got the result I was looking for. I'm honestly surprised Google failed that search so hard.

(I misunderstood your comment initially so corrected this sentence) The problem is that the sentence is typo'd so searching for the exact quote (not keywords) doesn't work correctly. For the record the actual quote is: >With a terminal, you were never more than a question or a shout away from almost anything you wanted to know, or almost any help you could possibly need When you Google that in quotes you get actual r…

For me on duckduckgo, the first two results are this thread and the fourth is the story itself.

>There were (true) stories of people falling off cliffs and the terminal relaying their scream in time for a Hub unit to switch to that terminal's camera, realise what was happening and displace a drone to catch the faller in mid-air; there were other stories about terminals recording the severing of their owner's head from their body in an accident, and summoning a medical drone in time to save the brain, leaving the de-bodied person with no more a problem than finding ways to pass the months it took to grow a new body.

>A terminal was safety.

>So Gurgeh took his on the longer walks.

Our cell phones might sometimes be pretty useful devices, but they're not quite capable of that sort of thing yet.

Still, you can walk around and explore without using it, while still having it along in a pocket just in case you do the modern equivalent of fall off a cliff or get decapitated. Just better hope you have cell service and your battery is charged up if you do.

I got a smartphone 10 years ago after a trip where I got lost in an unfamiliar city at night. I did manage to navigate my way around by sense of direction and spotting buildings and river, and was just a little late to the party I was going to. But I thought something with maps would be more useful than a flip-phone if I ever got lost while traveling again.

A few years later, exploring randomly in the mountains a couple of states away with my wife, we pulled into a small town late one evening and got out our phones to look for a place to eat and a place to stay. No service, for either of us. So we just wandered around the town with our eyes open and asked people. Found a great restaurant and a nice quiet little bed and breakfast. Once again serendipity beat the cell phone.

What is more concerning is that kids who've grown up with them their entire lives just might not be able to handle that sort of thing. They might just freak out as much as if they had fallen off a cliff or something.

Re: Feeling uncomfortable when leaving phone at home shouldn't be normal

#382

Post by mateo1 »

b112 wrote: post #236
xoa wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but a mere 25 years ago, most people had no cell phone, no mobile phone, and never, ever suffered mishap as a result. But that just isn't true. Being able to use a mobile radio to summon emergency services earlier has statistically significant association with improved outcomes [0]. It isn't just about what happens to you, it's about what you can do for others you come across in emergencies. 25 years ago, I'd need…

"most people", was in my comment. Many of your examples are non-common, special, too. For example, this thread is about someone in the city, taking a walk (eg, to the corner store or some such), and not feeling safe. It's all about stats, likelyhood, etc.

Have you actually lived in the time before cellphones?

I have a hard time imagining anyone not having been in a situation that was made dangerous by the lack of ability to communicate with others. Muggings, beatings, rapes, killings. Accidents, car crashes. Running out of gas, getting lost, losing your wallet. Being unable to reach family for an emergency when they're out.

Even meeting up with your friends was a pain in the ass.

The "connectedness" can be annoying or overwhelming, and the feeling of security when carrying a phone is probably overestimated in our heads, but before phones and cctvs any random moron could just kill you and get away with it if nobody was around. Some of the safety we feel is very real indeed.

Re: Feeling uncomfortable when leaving phone at home shouldn't be normal

#383

Post by b112 »

mateo1 wrote: post #382
b112 wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"most people", was in my comment. Many of your examples are non-common, special, too. For example, this thread is about someone in the city, taking a walk (eg, to the corner store or some such), and not feeling safe. It's all about stats, likelyhood, etc.

Have you actually lived in the time before cellphones? I have a hard time imagining anyone not having been in a situation that was made dangerous by the lack of ability to communicate with others. Muggings, beatings, rapes, killings. Accidents, car crashes. Running out of gas, getting lost, losing your wallet. Being unable to reach family for an emergency when they're out. Even meeting up with your friends was a pain…

Yes, I did. And I grew up in a rural area, with small villages (eg, 50 people, 200 people), and miles between houses outside of tbem.

Most of the stuff you mention above is not safer due to phones, only mere convenient.

For example, how is running out of gas dangerous? You just end up walking, or hitching a ride.

And if cell phones helped so much, wouldn't the stats show it?

Re: Feeling uncomfortable when leaving phone at home shouldn't be normal

#384

Post by daniel-cussen »

gruez wrote: post #137
daniel-cussen wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

This story is baffling. > Fortunately Jessica at the Farmacias Manríquez (near Merced and José Miguel de la Barra in downtown Santiago) across the street heard me scream "I want you to call the real cops! You have no right to do this! Look at my receipt!" (in Spanish of course) and called my people Maybe social circles in south america are orders of magnitude bigger than the ones I have, but in an urban area it seems…

> Why was slowly putting the bottles down and then getting out your phone not an option?

It was not an option. I needed a counter to set them down, or drop the glass on the pavement.

The other factor was their verbal and physical impatience. They could have sent only two guards, that would have been fine, they sent four and there were two more a little farther away. That's excessive, that's coercive. They look pissed, so they practice their faces that's part of it, I've seen private security make faces before especially in "Fuck the Law" psych wards. It is tied to their expectation that their demands (not orders, that implies some real authority) be obeyed.

So if an interrogator has tortured a hundred people he will be at some point a coercion magician, need only make a gesture or hint to get people to see in him that in his mind he intends to torture the sufferer, because that was true for a hundred people before. People can see it easily. So these guys expected, because they had in fact ganged up four-on-one when feeling brave, in this case six-on-one because they were feeling cowardly, talking to a lawyer about it they definitely YES kick people on the floor, maleteo as it's called, suit-casing. That's a real thing they definitely do all the time when nobody's looking. So that experience is imprinted in their face, movements and attitude when they order me, impolitely, and refuse to look at a receipt, to come back into the supermarket. So by reflecting in their attitude the experience of coercion and beatings, they communicated to me, unarguably, but in a way they think leaves no proof, that I either did exactly what they said right away or they would attack me.

Maybe that explains the lack of choice...but really I think it was the food was meant to be eaten with special thanks given to GOD for it. Small feast. That was the real reason I couldn't drop it, so I couldn't duke it out either, hence screaming. Those guards can suck it, obviously if they need to gang up six-on-one they're worthless fighters. It would have been my first sevensome.

Re: Feeling uncomfortable when leaving phone at home shouldn't be normal

#385

Post by mashtastic »

hooande wrote: post #199
aiisjustanif wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I always bring my phone in case I'm in a traffic accident and need to call someone to pick me up or let them know I'm going to the hospital

I understand how annoying stalking on the HN forum must be — I have literally 1 question about YC application (it's NOT "Can you revise the whole thing?")

would be insanely forever grateful if you'd come down and talk to me NB my email is in profile

Re: Feeling uncomfortable when leaving phone at home shouldn't be normal

#386

Post by manicdee »

Crabber wrote: post #294
manicdee wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because you don’t have the problem doesn’t mean you should trivialise someone else’s experience. How rude. Try listening more, and hold back from telling people how to solve problems they didn’t ask for help solving.

And yet you are trivialising the experience of the person you are replying to. How rude.

Someone expressed a problem they have which having a map helps them with, the reply was that people who need maps are lazy (despite the existence of maps suggesting that needing them is endemic to human existence).

Whose experience am I trivialising here?

I am not interested in participating in your purity politics.

Re: Feeling uncomfortable when leaving phone at home shouldn't be normal

#387

Post by Crabber »

PeterisP wrote: post #378
Crabber wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If some people genuinely have problems and some genuinely don't You only gather data to reach that conclusion by letting both sides talk about their experiences, not by telling one side "you're rude, shut up and listen more".

No, the conclusion that some people genuinely have problems can be reached without listening to the experiences of those who don't have problems, the testimony of the people with problems is fully sufficient for that conclusion. As I explained above, even if some people genuinely don't have those problems, that is simply irrelevant if others do have them.

No, that would lead you to conclude that all people have problems

Re: Feeling uncomfortable when leaving phone at home shouldn't be normal

#388

Post by Crabber »

manicdee wrote: post #386
Crabber wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet you are trivialising the experience of the person you are replying to. How rude.

Someone expressed a problem they have which having a map helps them with, the reply was that people who need maps are lazy (despite the existence of maps suggesting that needing them is endemic to human existence). Whose experience am I trivialising here? I am not interested in participating in your purity politics.

Not once was laziness mentioned, you are projecting. The post is just someone sharing that their own experience is completely different to that of the parent.

Re: Feeling uncomfortable when leaving phone at home shouldn't be normal

#389

Post by panaffa »

feanaro wrote: post #113
panaffa wrote: post #72

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.

Are you really being honest when you say you don't see this as bad? I couldn't help but peer into your comment history and notice you also talk about emptiness and loneliness. This, I think, is the price to pay for constant access to billions of possible thoughts, pictures and memes at all times. Why is it that you think you need that?

You are right, I was being sarcastic there. It comes from a place of hurt because for me the Internet was the only substitute I had for many of the formative, stimulating relationships and experiences in real life that I've badly wanted to find in my youth.

Re: Feeling uncomfortable when leaving phone at home shouldn't be normal

#390

Post by panaffa »

thenerdhead wrote: post #143
panaffa wrote: post #72

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.

I said the same thing as someone who just turned 30 and was one of the first generations born with the internet. Although I don’t mean to discourage your obsession with it, one of the most beautiful things in the world you can do is learn to think for yourself. Unplugging yourself from others opinions, thoughts, and picking up a book or two can help you start that journey.

Absolutely. I now spend most of my time creating content and trying to add to the conversation where I can.
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