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I'm a Luddite and proud of it

Discussion in 'General Discussions' started by Lucky Lady, Apr 24, 2017.

  1. Lucky Lady New Member

    Location:
    montreal
    I've noticed something profound and that's regardless of how intelligent prior, whenever someone buys their 1st smart phone they quickly become idiots. For example I've had the bad experience of being with a gentleman and spending an afternoon of driving hell because of his problems with GPS. It wasn't that his GPS wasn't working or that he didn't know how to use it. It was simply because his GPS kept routing us through heavy traffic and into construction zones. The bitch of it was that he teaches orienteering and there were several paper maps in the back seat and he just didn't think it would have been better to consult one of them.
     
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  2. Borla

    Borla Moderator Staff Member

    Dude ruined his date by not having Waze! :p


    You are correct though, smart phones have made us stupid in regards to certain things. For instance, I used to know dozens of my friends/family's phone numbers by heart. Now I probably couldn't give you five by heart. I just tap their name on my screen.
     
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  3. martian

    martian Server Monkey Staff Member

    Location:
    Mars
    I don't really want to know phone numbers for my family or friends. Why would I? Machines are good at storing arbitrary numbers, humans are bad at it. Let the machine do it.

    The example in OP isn't great either. For one, routing around traffic and/or construction is largely a solved problem; and apart from that, it's not as though the paper maps are going to be able to provide live updates on those things either. Dude could have easily used his GPS to reroute out of that crap but chose not to, the technology has nothing to do with it.

    Smart phones are an example of a disruptive technology. Having one changes our lives in so many ways that it's difficult to see before you do it for yourself. It's not just the navigation; messaging, live updates on things you care about (sports scores, weather, politics, the price of tea in China), even stuff like having an effectively infinite library of books and music in the palm of your hand. This stuff is huge and it changes habits in big ways. It's natural that there's some adjustment people while most people learn to live with the technology and adapt it into their lives (or adapt their lives around it, however you prefer to look at it).

    Being proud of being a luddite is disastrously misguided, in my opinion. Bragging about it on an internet forum is kind of weird. It seems in effect to me that you're saying "people who use technology that I don't like are dumb." Which, uh, okay, I guess?
     
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  4. Chris Noyb

    Chris Noyb Get in, buckle up, hang on, & be quiet.

    Location:
    Large City, TX
    Smart phones are very useful.

    They also control some people.

    As to traffic, I like having TransStar a few taps away.
     
  5. genuinemommy

    genuinemommy Moderator Staff Member

    I love physical books.

    Unfortunately due to my dust allergies, I can't enjoy them as much as I used to. Aged paper products make me go for my inhaler. My books are in boxes and I only consult them when there is not an electronic equivalent.

    I used to want to downgrade to my old flip phone and use a tablet around the house. But then we changed our phone plan to a service where you only pay for what you use (Google Fi) and my bill dropped below the flip phone rates.

    The world is changing because of this technology. I am glad that I get to participate in the shift. You can choose to be smarter using your smart phone. All it takes is a knowledge of what apps are available, and some self control so you don't end up ignore the world around you.
     
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  6. Stan

    Stan Resident Dumbass

    Location:
    Colorado
    I'm hardly a luddite; but I pick and choose the technology that I use.

    I'd like think that I was an intelligent idiot long before I got a smart phone.

    A smartphone is a tool. Carrying one is a requirement of my job; but I other than voice, text, occasional pictures, and a work specific app, I don't much care for the thing. Seems like a leash to me. I don't do Facebook, either. After 8+ hours a day of coding and analyzing routers and switches, the last thing I want to do is screw with more technology.
     
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  7. Lucky Lady New Member

    Location:
    montreal
    My example was just something I found annoying yet funny and I'm sure if I applied myself I could have come up with a better one. As for being a Luddite I think more people should research exactly what they were and what they weren't. Ned Ludd probably didn't exist but the Luddite mouvement certainly did and what they were were labour activists. However today it's become a pejorative used to define anyone that questions digital technologies and their disruption of society's natural evolution. Now personally I claim the title to mean that I'm PRO-PEOPLE and believe that technology should be held to similar standards of impact research as experimental drugs before they're released on the public.

    Concerning the brain,

    Since a very very long time ago I've noticed that the brain is in many ways like a muscle. Therefore just like someone's body becomes fat and sickly when they become lazy and refuse to exercise so does the brain in its own way. All of these mundane and arbitrary things we used to memorize were a form of exercise and it's not surprising that because of the technology so many people have become just plain stupid. What's worse is that waves of people are also losing basic human empathy and we're now witnessing the rise of psychopaths. In fact entire process in which technology is imposed on society is a dictatorship run by a handful of CEO psychopaths.


    No it's not...not even close to being one.... regardless of any kind of utility that you get from it.
     
  8. Stan

    Stan Resident Dumbass

    Location:
    Colorado
    We're going to disagree on this one; but here's what the dictionary says:

    Smartphones are no more good or evil than a hammer.
     
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  9. POPEYE

    POPEYE Very Tilted

    Location:
    Tulsa
    I enjoy my smart phone and it's useful. I don't carry a wallet anymore, no alarm clock, print excellent photos, instant communication, apps that make my life better and enjoyable, email without a pc. The list goes on. Furthermore I have no idea what a Luddite is....bet My smartphone could tell me!
     
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  10. redux

    redux Very Tilted

    Location:
    Foggy Bottom
    The most annoying side effect of smart phones is how they are apparently essential at meetings.

    I probably have 4-5 group meetings a week and at any given time at any meeting, one can look around the conference table and half the people are checking email on their smart phones oblivious for the moment to the discussions around them. The more recent development is the replacement of smart phones with tablets at meetings. Equally annoying.

    As an aside, I saw an ad today for The Light Phone - a credit card size phone only with the same phone number as your smart phone. I can see where it might be handy for families on occasion.
     
  11. Lucky Lady New Member

    Location:
    montreal
    There are two characteristics needed in order for an object to constitute being a tool

    1. Loyalty - A tool gives 100% loyalty to whomever wields it. Today's smart phones and their apps don't do that and instead are in constant communication with their creator(s) providing data about the wielder and often even control of the phone itself.

    2. Must have a primary function that is defined by purpose and any secondary functions are defined by the individual that wields it. - Using your example of a hammer its primary function is to hit things while a secondary function might be to use the handle as a lever to move something. In the later scenario the hammer was never specifically designed to perform the function of a lever but the imagination of the wielder conveyed this use upon it.

    Regardless of any utility conferred to the user any object that can't satisfy the above requirements isn't a tool
     
  12. Chris Noyb

    Chris Noyb Get in, buckle up, hang on, & be quiet.

    Location:
    Large City, TX
    1. Loyalty--Most tools are inanimate objects. I don't see how "loyalty" applies here. Smarts phones (and tablets) are interactive tools, but still tools.


    2. What? I do not understand this ^. Smart phones are multi-purpose tools.

    Some people use their smart phones as tools, while others let them control their lives. The area between the two groups is large.
     
  13. Stan

    Stan Resident Dumbass

    Location:
    Colorado
    That's really the only point I was trying to make.

    We've all seen people obsess over their phones. They walk into traffic or ignore their hot date for whatever they see in the phone. Hell, occasionally I have to tell my wife that we made a point to spend some time together, put away your damn phone.

    It's just a tool to me. I use it when it suits my needs, then put it away.
     
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  14. Lucky Lady New Member

    Location:
    montreal
    If you can't understand what I wrote then I can't explain it to you any better. I suggest spending a little less time on your smart phone and a little more time with your nose in a book.
     
  15. cynthetiq

    cynthetiq Administrator Staff Member Donor

    Location:
    New York City
    I think it's a simple question. "How does an inanimate object have loyalty?"

    and how come a book doesn't have the same "issue" that you're assigning/projecting onto smartphones?
     
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  16. Chris Noyb

    Chris Noyb Get in, buckle up, hang on, & be quiet.

    Location:
    Large City, TX
    This ^ is funny--setting aside the insult--and you have no idea why.

    1. I use maybe 20%, at the most, of my smart phone's features & capabilities. It is not a professional tool to me, and I'm not one of those people who has to be constantly connected. I could get by just fine with a simple flip phone. I much prefer to do the majority of my work & research, and my forum posting for that matter, using a computer.

    2. I spend way, way more time reading paper books than I do using my smart phone. With that said, having my smart phone handy for quick research is nice.

    3. The second part of your earlier post, which I quoted separately from the first part (see post 12), does not make sense.
     
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  17. Baraka_Guru

    Baraka_Guru Möderätor Staff Member

    Location:
    Toronto
    Right? I've seen some hammers passed around like you wouldn't believe. They don't care who uses them.

    Also, tools break, especially cheap ones.
     
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  18. Fremen

    Fremen Allright, who stole my mustache?

    Location:
    E. Texas
    Yup, and one guy even got Thor about it. Especially when his daddy took his away.
     
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  19. Chris Noyb

    Chris Noyb Get in, buckle up, hang on, & be quiet.

    Location:
    Large City, TX
    Mentioning paper books and smart phones...

    Because I'm something of a book collector as well as being an avid reader, I use my phone to research books that I find when hitting thrift stores, resale shops, etc. While I usually buy books to read, I will buy old books, autographed books, limited editions, oddball subject books, 1st editions, etc. that I don't necessarily plan to read based on their value which I research using my phone.

    It's nice to be able to do that research "on the spot" with my phone rather going home to research them, and returning to the store. And that applies to many other items of interest to me. In that sense my phone is used as a tool.

    Much of the eyewitness accounts we receive, for example in a country when the government controls the news media, are delivered via smart phones.

    OTOH I also find it annoying when a group of say 10 people sit down to dinner at a restaurant, and converse very little because everyone has their nose stuck into some kind of phone or tablet. I have great nephews & nieces who "live" almost exclusively electronically. They are socially awkward, even ill-mannered & rude at times, but they sure know how to use their phones :rolleyes:.
     
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  20. MeltedMetalGlob

    MeltedMetalGlob Resident Loser Donor

    Location:
    Who cares, really?

    Theme music for this thread:

    (Remember, try not to start a mosh pit with this song if it can be helped.)
     
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