The Smartphone era

[Floydispink01]

I currently have the iPhone 6 (which I'm using to write this post. The irony) but I find myself always checking it with updates, notifications etc. It's certainly turned into an addictive habit for myself and I'm guessing for others too.

Everywhere I go I see people glued to them. Trains, restaurants, coffee shops etc. Face to face contact with strangers is pretty much non existent these days. How sad. The exception to these are the older generation. You will always see OAP's chatting with each other on a bus or in the street. Those basic skills are being slowly eroded as the years pass on. Even my 5 year old niece is using snapchat!

Then you have the messaging and social media apps like whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram blah blah blah. Everyone is easily reachable nowadays. Do I really want to know what my plain Jane friend from high school is deciding on eating for lunch today. Where is the fun in that? Where is the mystery? 'Oh hey John, good to see you. Haven't seen you in 10 years. How was your bacon and egg roll this morning?'


I'm thinking of leaving the smartphone and social media era and purchasing an old Skool 1990's style phone again. You know, the one's that only have calling and SMS options. The one which has the classic snake game built in. I don't want people to know where I've been or when I was last fvcking seen!

It's an invasion of privacy. Big Brother! I've even had a past girlfriend blowing up on me because I read her whatsapp which she saw and I never replied. I was In meetings with work!!

The 1990s were much simpler times. I'm bringing It back into my life. Starting with a Nokia 3210.

 

[Bible_Belt]

I don't have one. But stupid phones are being phased out, so it's only a matter of time. The only thing I'd use it for is Tinder, anyway.

 

[speed dawg]

I currently have the iPhone 6 (which I'm using to write this post. The irony) but I find myself always checking it with updates, notifications etc. It's certainly turned into an addictive habit for myself and I'm guessing for others too.

Everywhere I go I see people glued to them. Trains, restaurants, coffee shops etc. Face to face contact with strangers is pretty much non existent these days. How sad. The exception to these are the older generation. You will always see OAP's chatting with each other on a bus or in the street. Those basic skills are being slowly eroded as the years pass on. Even my 5 year old niece is using snapchat!

Then you have the messaging and social media apps like whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram blah blah blah. Everyone is easily reachable nowadays. Do I really want to know what my plain Jane friend from high school is deciding on eating for lunch today. Where is the fun in that? Where is the mystery? 'Oh hey John, good to see you. Haven't seen you in 10 years. How was your bacon and egg roll this morning?'


I'm thinking of leaving the smartphone and social media era and purchasing an old Skool 1990's style phone again. You know, the one's that only have calling and SMS options. The one which has the classic snake game built in. I don't want people to know where I've been or when I was last fvcking seen!

It's an invasion of privacy. Big Brother! I've even had a past girlfriend blowing up on me because I read her whatsapp which she saw and I never replied. I was In meetings with work!!

The 1990s were much simpler times. I'm bringing It back into my life. Starting with a Nokia 3210.

You can either choose to use social media, or choose not to use it. No one is forcing you to do this.

Smart phones are a tool to get things done. They haven't changed the people using them.

 

[LiveFreeX]

I have a smart phone but no service, I only use it where there is free wifi. My friends and I use something called WeCHAT which is basically a free messenger program that is far superior to anything out on the market currently.

 

[logicallefty]

I waited until the last geek snorted before I ever got a smartphone which was mid 2014. They are all an evolving product right now, Android or iPhone. My two core beliefs with them are 1) never ever get the latest and greatest one. Its not my job to test their product. If the newest is a version 8, always have a version 7 or even 6. and 2) Learn how to tone them down so minimal background data is running. Cell companies make a lot of money off of data that customers think they need only because they download all of these apps that talk to some "mother ship" all the time and eat the data plan up. I have made both my former Android and my current iPhone crash because I restricted their background data too much and they got "maaaad". lol The whole product is designed to suck you in and keep coming back for more. But they need you to WASTE lots of mobile data so they can charge you for it. Don't do it! There is a reason why unlimited data plans used to be more common and they no longer are.. Because its an easy money maker to charge you for data that you "think" you need!

 

[LiveFreeX]

Yep, a guy I used to work with was a telecom engineer and he said that the phones were designed specifically to gather information about you and make money off your stuff. I know people who pay a hundred dollars or more per month to surf the net on their phone. Long ago, I had an emergency cell in my car but nothing extra and never needed one. Now that we have cells everywhere and can be reached at a moment's notice, employer's love to abuse the hell out of that. Every night, last year, my wife would get called, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, by her boss because the boss had thought of more duties she could do (woman). And since the boss was a divorcee, she had nothing better to do than bug the hell out of my wife (her assistant) at any hour. When my wife would turn off her phone, the boss would call my phone and try and find out where my wife was. Apart from using instant messenger, have these phones really added anything substantial to your life that a laptop or an internet connection couldn't? I can understand a doctor or emergency service guy needing to be on-call but for the average joe, all this thing does is suck up your free time in meaningless conversation. You are at a woman's beck and call at anytime, my wife would often think I was cheating early on because I didn't answer her messages for an entire day..... until she found out that I would only use my phone to play Nintendo games.