I do not have a smartphone. The rudeness of users around me convinced me not become one of them.
I have had iPads since the beginning. They run 80%-90% of smartphone apps. So I am well acquainted with their potential.
Life before smartphones (2020)
481–490 of 495 posts
Re: Life before smartphones (2020)
#482Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If someone comes up to me and talks to me, I may not even respond immediately. Maybe I’m too old fashioned, but there’s world of difference between ignoring someone contacting you through an async communication channel like SMS and them literally standing next to you and speaking to your face.
I'd be considered 'young' and would think it at least aloof so I don't think its your old-fashionedness.
There used to be an old-fashioned, well-known hand-signal for this situation. You pause long enough to hold up one finger for a second or two, then return to what you were doing. The polite would then poke around or sit down or return in a half-minute or minute to see if you'd paused. The impolite would get barked at.
Re: Life before smartphones (2020)
#483Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I have purposefully started training my friends by being erratic with my texts/messages/e-mails I would very much like to do what you say but with a million interrupts a day, it is now or never. If I neglect / defer something now, I would likely get back to it next week. Even for work. I do find time to focus 4 hours on some work activities but those are just the high priority visible stuff otherwise maybe if someo…
My million dollar app idea-- which I can't write because the OS's won't allow it... is I'd like fine grained control over my notifications. I used to do the Pomodoro thing and found it quite effective-- Id like to apply the idea to notifications as well. It would work like this: A list of firewall rules about who/what was able to send notifications. The firewall would be able to bump up or down the priority of a mess…
I've setup my iPhone to not display any notifications except for the red circles next to the app icon. I move all Apps that create notifications into a separate folder on the last home screen. That way I never receive interrupting notifications, and I have to proactively check my Whatsapp/Mail etc.
Re: Life before smartphones (2020)
#484Things I enjoy about my life now, after having ditched my smartphone: * Being fully into a stimulating conversation with friends for an hour or more, without constant interruptions for people to check their phones and then change the subject to something irrelevant and mildly infuriating. * Being able to go for random/spontaneous drives with my family in the car and negotiate where we're going next without having to…
You can literally still do all of these things with a smartphone.
I guess the wisdom here is to know yourself and your limits and whether you have an addictive personality.
Re: Life before smartphones (2020)
#485Now I feel old. I remember vividly running around with my first camera, looking for objects worthy of being photographed. The film cost money, so did developing it into pictures. I really had to weigh the pros and cons of taking a particular picture. And in a class of ~25 kids, I was one of three who owned a camera. Not that it was such a luxury item, but most people weren't into that. These days, (nearly) everyone c…
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…
> And he doesn't even mention that you could just be outside, and be unreachable and not able to reach other people too.
Because he's specifically talking about smartphones, not cell phones. He's talking about the information and attention economy, not the more simple highly available reachability.
Re: Life before smartphones (2020)
#486The second paragraph is funny to me: > I memorized phone numbers, jotted things down in notebooks, had conversations with taxi drivers, talked to random people at bars, wrote checks, went to the bank, and daydreamed. I did all of these (except the phone number one) in the last week. More than technological advancements or anything else, all of this nostalgia is really just about getting old. "The human civilization p…
Old fart here. The world seemed a bit of a mess when I was 12 (1976). Some of the worst architechture in the history of the planet https://www.google.com/search?q=70s+architecture&sxsrf=ALeKk... . I like modern stuff - roll on the singularity.
Re: Life before smartphones (2020)
#487Re: Life before smartphones (2020)
#488Earlier quoted context omitted.
The trick is to look at someone else's watch. Of course, today only old people like me wear a watch. Curses!
Is that really true, given fitness/smart watch sales?
I thought the same thing, but OTOH most of them have screens set on raise-to-wake so you can't sneak a peek at the time anyhow.
Re: Life before smartphones (2020)
#489Re: Life before smartphones (2020)
#490Earlier quoted context omitted.
>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.
Where I live, Ireland, it is illegal to operate a phone while driving and you will get a fine + penalty points on your license if you are seen. This includes holding the phone up to your ear on a call. I assumed it was the same in most countries, at least I'd expect so for other European countries.
In Washington, DC, it is illegal to operate a phone. But if you walk three or four blocks downtown looking at the passing cars, you are pretty sure to see more than once person driving and holding a phone.