Is technology taking over our lives?!?

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  • brianlux
    brianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 43,662
    hedonist said:
    brianlux said:
    Thoughts_Arrive said:
    When people talk to each other whilst always looking at their phones then the answer is yes.
    Yes, these phones are annoying as hell.  I've had customers come up to the counter, drop a book in front of me that I assume they want to purchase, and go right on yacking on their damn phone.  Rude!

    Speaking of phones- the other day I saw this woman driving her mongo soccer mom SUV, fiddling with her cell phone with one hand, looking a some papers she was holding in the other, all the while repeatedly turning to the young girl next to her in the front passenger seat talking and laughing.  Setting a great example for your kid there, Mom.  If I had the chance, I would have asked her, "So lady, if someone talking on there cell phone, shuffling paper and being distracted with a passenger killed your daughter while driving, how would you feel?"  I can't believe this shit when I see it.  Really pisses me off. 
    I see that too, very often, though they're in all types of vehicles - even Priuses =)

    Really, rude assholes are rude assholes, no matter their environment or mode of transportation.

    To me, it's not so much technology as it is our willingness to have it (unnecessarily?) ensconced in our lives.  I really appreciate many of the benefits of tech, but when it comes to stuff like telling Alexa to turn on the stove or close the blinds or adjust the thermostat, I can do those things myself (plus, I can totally see my fucking up the command/appliance integration).
    Yes, even Prii.  :lol:  

    What, they have stoves that you can tell to turn on now?  Wow!
    "It's a sad and beautiful world"
    -Roberto Benigni

  • HughFreakingDillon
    HughFreakingDillon Winnipeg Posts: 39,458
    if I can be ready for work in the amount of time it took George Jetson, sign me up! 
    Hugh Freaking Dillon is currently out of the office, returning sometime in the fall




  • PJ_Soul
    PJ_Soul Vancouver, BC Posts: 50,664
    Thoughts_Arrive said:
    When people talk to each other whilst always looking at their phones then the answer is yes.
    That is so damn rude. I always call people out if they do that.
    With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy. ~ Desiderata
  • Thoughts_Arrive
    Thoughts_Arrive Melbourne, Australia Posts: 15,165
    PJ_Soul said:
    Thoughts_Arrive said:
    When people talk to each other whilst always looking at their phones then the answer is yes.
    That is so damn rude. I always call people out if they do that.
    My two brother in laws do it to me all the time, so frustrating.
    I was sitting down in the student cafe at university on my break and there were 3 girls sitting on the chairs opposite me and they had this long conversation whilst glued to their phones. They hardly ever looked at each other whilst talking. Quite sad.
    Adelaide 17/11/2009, Melbourne 20/11/2009, Sydney 22/11/2009, Melbourne (Big Day Out Festival) 24/01/2014
  • rgambs
    rgambs Posts: 13,576
    HughFreakingDillon said:

    I've made that point here before too, many people have always avoided unnecessary social contact.
    Monkey Driven, Call this Living?
  • Meltdown99
    Meltdown99 None Of Your Business... Posts: 10,739
    LOL.  Modern-day nativity scene...



    Give Peas A Chance…
  • brianlux
    brianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 43,662
    Meltdown99 said:
    LOL.  Modern-day nativity scene...



    I want one!  :lol:
    "It's a sad and beautiful world"
    -Roberto Benigni

  • tempo_n_groove
    tempo_n_groove Posts: 41,359
    HughFreakingDillon said:

    Not a woman on that train...
  • cincybearcat
    cincybearcat Posts: 16,826
    tempo_n_groove said:
    HughFreakingDillon said:

    Not a woman on that train...
    Home making sammiches
    hippiemom = goodness
  • HughFreakingDillon
    HughFreakingDillon Winnipeg Posts: 39,458
    tempo_n_groove said:
    HughFreakingDillon said:

    Not a woman on that train...
    nope, but gender issues aside, doesn't change human nature. 
    Hugh Freaking Dillon is currently out of the office, returning sometime in the fall




  • Thoughts_Arrive
    Thoughts_Arrive Melbourne, Australia Posts: 15,165
    Meltdown99 said:
    LOL.  Modern-day nativity scene...



    LOL
    Adelaide 17/11/2009, Melbourne 20/11/2009, Sydney 22/11/2009, Melbourne (Big Day Out Festival) 24/01/2014
  • brianlux
    brianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 43,662
    I've was thinking about the original question, "Is technology taking over out lives?" and got into this OCD existential thought process of wonder, is it "over our lives" as in society in general, or as in "our individual lives". 

    "Over our lives" is debatable (I think it is) and difficult to measure. 

    Over an individual's life is a lot easier to assess and is somewhat measurable.  The way to do that would be to imagine you had to carry on with life in such a way that you would still have any or all the necessities and pleasure of life that were available when you were a kid- say 8 or 9-,  but had to live without the technology you utilize and rely on that came about since you were a kid.  How would you do?

    For me, if I went back to living like when I was a kid at 8 or 9,  I would have to live without some of the things that I do have now, or have access to now.  Those things I would have to live without would include:

    -Cell phone
    -Computer
    -Automatic dishwasher or clothes dryer (they existed but we didn't have them)
    -Photocopier or scanner (although our schools did have mimeograph machines)
    -Telephone answering machine
    -Handheld calculator
    -Digital camera
    -Any kind of remote control devise
    -CD player
    -Portable CD or tape player

    That's all I can think of at the moment. 

    I would miss these things but I could adjust to living without them.  I could still have books, a stereo, records, reel-to-reel tapes, a telephone, postage stamps.  I would no longer have an on-line business,  but I could still sell books.  People would have to call back if I didn't answer.  I already (mostly) hang my clothes to dry and hand wash the dishes.  I can do math.  Having no remote controls would suck, but I'd get by.

    I believe I could live without those things again so I would have to say, no, technology has not taken over my life but, yes, I am currently dependent on technology in my current life situation.

    "It's a sad and beautiful world"
    -Roberto Benigni

  • Smellyman
    Smellyman Asia Posts: 4,528
    HughFreakingDillon said:

    Back then the only way to get news of the world and sports etc. was reading the paper on the way to work.
  • HughFreakingDillon
    HughFreakingDillon Winnipeg Posts: 39,458
    Smellyman said:
    HughFreakingDillon said:

    Back then the only way to get news of the world and sports etc. was reading the paper on the way to work.
    yeah, and now people are just using a different medium for the same thing. 

    obviously there's a difference, I just think people get a little too hung up on the "ills" of the newest generation and how they are all being poisoned by product X. For our parents, it was the tv ruining family/dinner time. for us it was cable tv and video games. now it's phones. I don't let my kids watch a lot of tv or have a lot of screen time (we don't have cable, just netflix). But whenever my wife starts to flip out over the screen time stuff, I remind her that as a kid, this was my daily routine:

    weekdays: get home from school, watch 1-2 hours of tv. have dinner. do whatever chores/homework. Winter: watch at least 2 more hours of tv. Summer: go outside
    weekends: wake up saturday morning at 6 and watch FIVE HOURS OF TV AND EAT A BOX OF CHOCOLATE CEREAL. then hang out with friends or play with my WWF wrestling doll collection. 

    as a teen:
    weekdays: get home from school, lock myself in my room and listen to heavy metal. have dinner. go out and smoke drugs for 3 hours and come home to bed
    weekends: get high and drunk as much as humanly possible. if me and my friends didn't have money for that. we'd wander the neighbourhood smoking cigarettes looking for someone who was willing to share their drugs. 

    not saying my daily routines as a kid were ideal and a good benchmark, I just mean I didn't turn out to be a zombie as an adult after spending a good portion of my childhood watching tv. 

    I just sit on the net all day, while I'm supposed to be working, on a message board talking to strangers. 
    Hugh Freaking Dillon is currently out of the office, returning sometime in the fall




  • oftenreading
    oftenreading Victoria, BC Posts: 12,856
    HughFreakingDillon said:
    Smellyman said:
    HughFreakingDillon said:

    Back then the only way to get news of the world and sports etc. was reading the paper on the way to work.
    yeah, and now people are just using a different medium for the same thing. 

    obviously there's a difference, I just think people get a little too hung up on the "ills" of the newest generation and how they are all being poisoned by product X. For our parents, it was the tv ruining family/dinner time. for us it was cable tv and video games. now it's phones. I don't let my kids watch a lot of tv or have a lot of screen time (we don't have cable, just netflix). But whenever my wife starts to flip out over the screen time stuff, I remind her that as a kid, this was my daily routine:

    weekdays: get home from school, watch 1-2 hours of tv. have dinner. do whatever chores/homework. Winter: watch at least 2 more hours of tv. Summer: go outside
    weekends: wake up saturday morning at 6 and watch FIVE HOURS OF TV AND EAT A BOX OF CHOCOLATE CEREAL. then hang out with friends or play with my WWF wrestling doll collection. 

    as a teen:
    weekdays: get home from school, lock myself in my room and listen to heavy metal. have dinner. go out and smoke drugs for 3 hours and come home to bed
    weekends: get high and drunk as much as humanly possible. if me and my friends didn't have money for that. we'd wander the neighbourhood smoking cigarettes looking for someone who was willing to share their drugs. 

    not saying my daily routines as a kid were ideal and a good benchmark, I just mean I didn't turn out to be a zombie as an adult after spending a good portion of my childhood watching tv. 

    I just sit on the net all day, while I'm supposed to be working, on a message board talking to strangers. 

    How the hell did you watch 5 hours of tv a day when you were a kid in Manitoba?? 

    I grew up in Northern BC; I know the crap that was on our two channels then. 
    my small self... like a book amongst the many on a shelf
  • HughFreakingDillon
    HughFreakingDillon Winnipeg Posts: 39,458
    oftenreading said:
    HughFreakingDillon said:
    Smellyman said:
    HughFreakingDillon said:

    Back then the only way to get news of the world and sports etc. was reading the paper on the way to work.
    yeah, and now people are just using a different medium for the same thing. 

    obviously there's a difference, I just think people get a little too hung up on the "ills" of the newest generation and how they are all being poisoned by product X. For our parents, it was the tv ruining family/dinner time. for us it was cable tv and video games. now it's phones. I don't let my kids watch a lot of tv or have a lot of screen time (we don't have cable, just netflix). But whenever my wife starts to flip out over the screen time stuff, I remind her that as a kid, this was my daily routine:

    weekdays: get home from school, watch 1-2 hours of tv. have dinner. do whatever chores/homework. Winter: watch at least 2 more hours of tv. Summer: go outside
    weekends: wake up saturday morning at 6 and watch FIVE HOURS OF TV AND EAT A BOX OF CHOCOLATE CEREAL. then hang out with friends or play with my WWF wrestling doll collection. 

    as a teen:
    weekdays: get home from school, lock myself in my room and listen to heavy metal. have dinner. go out and smoke drugs for 3 hours and come home to bed
    weekends: get high and drunk as much as humanly possible. if me and my friends didn't have money for that. we'd wander the neighbourhood smoking cigarettes looking for someone who was willing to share their drugs. 

    not saying my daily routines as a kid were ideal and a good benchmark, I just mean I didn't turn out to be a zombie as an adult after spending a good portion of my childhood watching tv. 

    I just sit on the net all day, while I'm supposed to be working, on a message board talking to strangers. 

    How the hell did you watch 5 hours of tv a day when you were a kid in Manitoba?? 

    I grew up in Northern BC; I know the crap that was on our two channels then. 
    saturday morning cartoons. 
    but during the week, you are right, I'm talking when I finally got cable at age 9 or so. before that I didn't really watch any tv to my recollection. just played. 
    Hugh Freaking Dillon is currently out of the office, returning sometime in the fall




  • tempo_n_groove
    tempo_n_groove Posts: 41,359
    HughFreakingDillon said:
    Smellyman said:
    HughFreakingDillon said:

    Back then the only way to get news of the world and sports etc. was reading the paper on the way to work.
    yeah, and now people are just using a different medium for the same thing. 

    obviously there's a difference, I just think people get a little too hung up on the "ills" of the newest generation and how they are all being poisoned by product X. For our parents, it was the tv ruining family/dinner time. for us it was cable tv and video games. now it's phones. I don't let my kids watch a lot of tv or have a lot of screen time (we don't have cable, just netflix). But whenever my wife starts to flip out over the screen time stuff, I remind her that as a kid, this was my daily routine:

    weekdays: get home from school, watch 1-2 hours of tv. have dinner. do whatever chores/homework. Winter: watch at least 2 more hours of tv. Summer: go outside
    weekends: wake up saturday morning at 6 and watch FIVE HOURS OF TV AND EAT A BOX OF CHOCOLATE CEREAL. then hang out with friends or play with my WWF wrestling doll collection. 

    as a teen:
    weekdays: get home from school, lock myself in my room and listen to heavy metal. have dinner. go out and smoke drugs for 3 hours and come home to bed
    weekends: get high and drunk as much as humanly possible. if me and my friends didn't have money for that. we'd wander the neighbourhood smoking cigarettes looking for someone who was willing to share their drugs. 

    not saying my daily routines as a kid were ideal and a good benchmark, I just mean I didn't turn out to be a zombie as an adult after spending a good portion of my childhood watching tv. 

    I just sit on the net all day, while I'm supposed to be working, on a message board talking to strangers. 
    HA!  This is a great recollection!!!

    Watched Transformers and half of Gobots then off to school.  That was 5-7th.
    Weekends was cartoons, Beakmans world, Steampipe Alley and WWF.  Cartoons were a distant 2nd though to the last 3.  As soon as it was 10 am though I was out of the house until lunch if I was hungry or until dinner.  

    weekdays 630-9 was Maury Povich, Wheel of Fortune, jeopardy then primetime sitcoms.

    9-10 was searching the radio for some metal to listen to but it always usually ended up being the local college station that was hit and miss with me.
  • PJ_Soul
    PJ_Soul Vancouver, BC Posts: 50,664
    brianlux said:
    I've was thinking about the original question, "Is technology taking over out lives?" and got into this OCD existential thought process of wonder, is it "over our lives" as in society in general, or as in "our individual lives". 

    "Over our lives" is debatable (I think it is) and difficult to measure. 

    Over an individual's life is a lot easier to assess and is somewhat measurable.  The way to do that would be to imagine you had to carry on with life in such a way that you would still have any or all the necessities and pleasure of life that were available when you were a kid- say 8 or 9-,  but had to live without the technology you utilize and rely on that came about since you were a kid.  How would you do?

    For me, if I went back to living like when I was a kid at 8 or 9,  I would have to live without some of the things that I do have now, or have access to now.  Those things I would have to live without would include:

    -Cell phone
    -Computer
    -Automatic dishwasher or clothes dryer (they existed but we didn't have them)
    -Photocopier or scanner (although our schools did have mimeograph machines)
    -Telephone answering machine
    -Handheld calculator
    -Digital camera
    -Any kind of remote control devise
    -CD player
    -Portable CD or tape player

    That's all I can think of at the moment. 

    I would miss these things but I could adjust to living without them.  I could still have books, a stereo, records, reel-to-reel tapes, a telephone, postage stamps.  I would no longer have an on-line business,  but I could still sell books.  People would have to call back if I didn't answer.  I already (mostly) hang my clothes to dry and hand wash the dishes.  I can do math.  Having no remote controls would suck, but I'd get by.

    I believe I could live without those things again so I would have to say, no, technology has not taken over my life but, yes, I am currently dependent on technology in my current life situation.

    I could adjust to living without just about everything I own besides some warm clothes, something to sleep on, food, and hopefully shelter. But I don't want to, lol. ;) I LOVE all of my technology. I'm not a slave to it at all. I simply enjoy it, and use it to my own benefit, for entertainment, convenience, as well as for very very useful things, and wow, the amount of information and knowledge I now have access to is insane. I don't really remember how much I used to NOT know, but I love to be able to just wonder about some random thing, and then look it up to actually learn about it. I guess before the internet I must have... what?? Asked around and trusted whatever crap people told me? Made my own uninformed assumptions? I know I wasn't running off to the library every day, lol.
    And of course, the access to music that technology affords is one of the greatest highlights of my life.
    With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy. ~ Desiderata
  • PJ_Soul
    PJ_Soul Vancouver, BC Posts: 50,664
    HughFreakingDillon said:
    Smellyman said:
    HughFreakingDillon said:

    Back then the only way to get news of the world and sports etc. was reading the paper on the way to work.
    yeah, and now people are just using a different medium for the same thing. 

    obviously there's a difference, I just think people get a little too hung up on the "ills" of the newest generation and how they are all being poisoned by product X. For our parents, it was the tv ruining family/dinner time. for us it was cable tv and video games. now it's phones. I don't let my kids watch a lot of tv or have a lot of screen time (we don't have cable, just netflix). But whenever my wife starts to flip out over the screen time stuff, I remind her that as a kid, this was my daily routine:

    weekdays: get home from school, watch 1-2 hours of tv. have dinner. do whatever chores/homework. Winter: watch at least 2 more hours of tv. Summer: go outside
    weekends: wake up saturday morning at 6 and watch FIVE HOURS OF TV AND EAT A BOX OF CHOCOLATE CEREAL. then hang out with friends or play with my WWF wrestling doll collection. 

    as a teen:
    weekdays: get home from school, lock myself in my room and listen to heavy metal. have dinner. go out and smoke drugs for 3 hours and come home to bed
    weekends: get high and drunk as much as humanly possible. if me and my friends didn't have money for that. we'd wander the neighbourhood smoking cigarettes looking for someone who was willing to share their drugs. 

    not saying my daily routines as a kid were ideal and a good benchmark, I just mean I didn't turn out to be a zombie as an adult after spending a good portion of my childhood watching tv. 

    I just sit on the net all day, while I'm supposed to be working, on a message board talking to strangers. 
    All very good points, lol. That was my high school life too, pretty much (although I did manage to do some wholesome school and extracurricular stuff too - I was a drama nerd and a good student as well as a stoner party girl, hahaha) ... and I loved every minute of it. :lol:
    With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy. ~ Desiderata
  • tempo_n_groove
    tempo_n_groove Posts: 41,359
    PJ_Soul said:
    brianlux said:
    I've was thinking about the original question, "Is technology taking over out lives?" and got into this OCD existential thought process of wonder, is it "over our lives" as in society in general, or as in "our individual lives". 

    "Over our lives" is debatable (I think it is) and difficult to measure. 

    Over an individual's life is a lot easier to assess and is somewhat measurable.  The way to do that would be to imagine you had to carry on with life in such a way that you would still have any or all the necessities and pleasure of life that were available when you were a kid- say 8 or 9-,  but had to live without the technology you utilize and rely on that came about since you were a kid.  How would you do?

    For me, if I went back to living like when I was a kid at 8 or 9,  I would have to live without some of the things that I do have now, or have access to now.  Those things I would have to live without would include:

    -Cell phone
    -Computer
    -Automatic dishwasher or clothes dryer (they existed but we didn't have them)
    -Photocopier or scanner (although our schools did have mimeograph machines)
    -Telephone answering machine
    -Handheld calculator
    -Digital camera
    -Any kind of remote control devise
    -CD player
    -Portable CD or tape player

    That's all I can think of at the moment. 

    I would miss these things but I could adjust to living without them.  I could still have books, a stereo, records, reel-to-reel tapes, a telephone, postage stamps.  I would no longer have an on-line business,  but I could still sell books.  People would have to call back if I didn't answer.  I already (mostly) hang my clothes to dry and hand wash the dishes.  I can do math.  Having no remote controls would suck, but I'd get by.

    I believe I could live without those things again so I would have to say, no, technology has not taken over my life but, yes, I am currently dependent on technology in my current life situation.

    I could adjust to living without just about everything I own besides some warm clothes, something to sleep on, food, and hopefully shelter. But I don't want to, lol. ;) I LOVE all of my technology. I'm not a slave to it at all. I simply enjoy it, and use it to my own benefit, for entertainment, convenience, as well as for very very useful things, and wow, the amount of information and knowledge I now have access to is insane. I don't really remember how much I used to NOT know, but I love to be able to just wonder about some random thing, and then look it up to actually learn about it. I guess before the internet I must have... what?? Asked around and trusted whatever crap people told me? Made my own uninformed assumptions? I know I wasn't running off to the library every day, lol.
    And of course, the access to music that technology affords is one of the greatest highlights of my life.
    I started doing this early on and learned so much.  One of the first things I remember looking up was "is driving barefoot illegal?" I'm not telling any of you, lol!  LOOK IT UP!

    Something I found with having all that music at your fingertips now makes me get bored of something rather quickly when before I was forced to listen through.  It's to easy to skip or move on to something else and not give something a chance.

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