Pointless and/or Tablet-centric Appearance Changes

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

I suppose that I'm not so much demonizing the technology as wondering why it seems to get an automatic free pass as a good thing

I guess the reason I like mobile tech is because I've been wishing it since I started working with computers and later as the internet showed up. I don't miss buying a map and try to read it when I'm lost, for instance, or going on the road without having a clue on the traffic ahead, or do a quick query on X subject while away from my computer, or having to maintain backups of stuff and moving it around, etc, etc, etc.

See, I don't like the stupid magazines in a waiting room, and hauling big books not knowing if you will be able to read them isn't that much fun either. Yes, there are low tech alternatives and probably mobile tech makes us more rude to each other in a number of scenarios, but for the most part in my case they allow me to use dead time in a more pleasant ways than before.

Now, the ability of a boss to f*ck your holiday isn't so much a fault of the device as a fault with your boss and the society that thinks that that is acceptable.
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As for credit and the consumer ethos, I bet education and common sense have more to do with it's problems -both from the lenders and the borrowers- than anything else. Of course, common sensical regulations would go far on that respect (and many others, like say, fossil fuels, or sugar in your food, etc, etc), but then again the problem is on how our society is structured more than the [in this case, financial] tools used.

[Griffin NoName]

I'm used to staring vacantly into space in waiting rooms, never read the magazines which are of no interest to me.

I had a hospital day procedure recently and took my Kindle and used when waiting a couple of times. First time I've ever done this having had it already for ~2 years. It was nice to be able to read my book; I did this to keep up with my book club list as I was falling behind.  I would have been just as happy staring into space.

Zono, it sounds like you fill every moment with input/output from/to mobile devices. I don't want to do this. I find the way young people are forever on their cell phones quite annoying. I want a quieter world.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

I love watching a sunset, but staring to the ceiling by itself isn't particularly fulfilling for me, then again that's me, heck if a ceiling has some random patterns I can try to look for them but the proverbial 'watch paint dry' isn't really my thing, then again leaving time for introspection is rewarding, but for me its a bit difficult in a noisy environment where a TV hanging from the ceiling has FOX/CNN.

My point was that I do like the choices provided by a mobile device and I'm perfectly happy if someone doesn't like them/use them, nor do I criticize their choices.

I do agree with some of Aggie's criticisms, like the culture of purchasing something for the sake of it (and with planned obsolescence that is indeed a problem), I'm not the kind of person who spends $700 on a device to change it after 10-12 months because a new one is out, the same way I don't lease cars but keep them for years after I paid them. And in both those cases I gave both phones and cars to family members because they were in good shape. My point was that the culture of consumption is the problem not the devices themselves.

[Griffin NoName]

I don't change my laptop until it more or less falls to pieces. Something like the mother board going where cost of repairs is too high compared to the fact of the thing being ancient anyway. This usually means about 5 or 6 years. I use my Kindle every day but it has a dim sort of dirty sage coloured background and even with larger letters it strains my eyes. I have to read it right under a spotlight. I've wanted the paper-white-with-a light version for over a year, so my decision to purchase the latest has taken at least a year. I don't rush to buy new stuff until it is bedded down, or very specific reason to do so. Tv/PVR both several years old althoughh BT forced me to have a new BT Vision box, but it was free. So I agree with Aggie too.

I would have felt like you Zono about staring at ceilings before I got ill. But I am often forced to lie in bed doing just that because I have no energy to use any device, or read a  book, or anything. So it has become a normal part of life, in fact a necessary part of life. Doing it while waiting conserves energy I can't afford to use up by any other activity. I cannot really describe what total lack of energy, or indeed very low, is like. It's technically like a car running out of petrol. The thing comes to a stop, which is what happens to people with CFS. So every minute of the day is geared to using as little energy aas possible because we are always running on empty.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

I'm with Zono.  I like having my choice of reading material with me everywhere I go, so I can make productive use of time I'd otherwise waste.

I also like having my choice of music; I really don't like radio these days, it's either depressing, or the music too repetitive. 

I also keep my devices as long as possible; I don't much care for change.  Alas, I've discovered these latest gadgets have a memory issue; after about 2-3 years of daily use, they begin to lose memory function.  It's because of destructive memory (the so-called FLASH memory); after so many writes, it's destroyed.  There is some forethought in this arena, and extra memory is bolted in, as it wears out, the extra is parceled in to the pool.  But, as I've discovered, after about 2-3 years or so?  The extra is used up too.

If I were in charge of these?  All FLASH would be user-replaceable.  It'd be quite simple, too-- an internal slot for a microSD would do the trick just peachy.  Another trick?  Only utilize 1/2 of the inserted micro card, slowly working from one 1/2 to the other over time. 

Memory is cheap enough, and so are slots.  This could keep these devices functional for many years; simply replace the worn micro card with a new one.  The OS would be copied from read-only memory, or FLASH that is *only* written to when the OS needs updating.  Rare enough to keep that part going for decades.

I hate that the makers of these things deliberately make them so that they wear out and become expensive paperweights.   There's nothing wrong with the *other* parts at the end of their life:  the screen is still bright, the touchscreen still sensitive, the CPU humming along, and so forth. 

Uggg....

[Aggie]

I do agree with some of Aggie's criticisms, like the culture of purchasing something for the sake of it (and with planned obsolescence that is indeed a problem), I'm not the kind of person who spends $700 on a device to change it after 10-12 months because a new one is out, the same way I don't lease cars but keep them for years after I paid them. And in both those cases I gave both phones and cars to family members because they were in good shape. My point was that the culture of consumption is the problem not the devices themselves.

Automobiles are a good analogy, and one that has drawn plenty of similar criticisms over the decades. I agree with you that it's the underlying culture, and possibly even human nature, that causes the issues (guns are a great example of this, which has been well-discussed here).

What I balk at is the way that these (wonderful, and seemingly indispensable) technologies become automatic-use devices, to the point where many people, in good health, on a beautiful day, will now hop in the car to go pick up a snack on a whim from a location less than a 10 minute walk from their house.  I'm not even criticizing that behavior here, just the fact that it's automatic and in some cases deeply ingrained in our image of what a 'real person' is.  At my last job, I nearly always walked to work (10 min) unless I was very late or the weather was very bad, and it confused my co-workers, especially when I refused a ride home. I think many of them suspected I had an impaired driving charge that prevented me from driving; many expressed surprise when they saw that I actually had a vehicle. I do, I just prefer for a number of reasons to leave it in the driveway when possible.

It may sound paradoxical, but I dislike information technology because I LOVE information technology; around the house I too frequently drop everything and rush to the internet when someone says "I wonder....?".  The loss of personal time and headspace would be too high of a price to pay for me.  I can quite happily listen to my own thoughts for hours, and having time to do so tends to help organize my scattered brain.  Constant access to new ideas and information can be disorienting and have the opposite effect. Perhaps this is my problem only, but there seems to be lots of scattered and disoriented tech users about....

Zono, it sounds like you fill every moment with input/output from/to mobile devices. I don't want to do this. I find the way young people are forever on their cell phones quite annoying. I want a quieter world.

I agree with Griffin here, although I'm not annoyed by other people's i/o habits.  It's the impact on the larger culture (especially developing minds) that concerns me.  I agree also that I'm being a bit of a codger on the surface and apparently opposing change for the sake of change; however, in my own mind it's the trajectory of cultural change (over the past few decades that I've been around and what seems likely in the near future), rather than the current state of affairs, that bothers me.  I see it very much as a top-down phenomenon of profiting from the underlying culture and human nature with little to no concern for the end results at that same human and cultural level.

[Griffin NoName]

I agree with Griffin here, although I'm not annoyed by other people's i/o habits.  It's the impact on the larger culture (especially developing minds) that concerns me.  

This is great - actually something the Siblings disagree on. Generating a discussion. 

The reason I am irritated by young people constantly on their phones is that they barely take in their surroundings - developing minds need to witness life as it happens so their brains can develop in a healthy way. So that's like Aggie is saying. It's not hard to see a distopian world where all humans spend 24 hours every day staring at their phones. tapping stuff in, or zoning in watching videos/tv or filling their head with whatever the latest top tunes are etc. There would need to be an underclass that shoved food and drink (or they could have a tube fitted from their bladder to their mouth so they could recycle their urine) in their mouths occasionally and swept away their waste matter.