Amazing cluelessness

[BIGDAN]

Not everyone is as lucky as you, some of us are a sandwhich short of a picnic,

The Bells, The Bells?

[Texas Melanie]

http://youtu.be/wAcZLXTsKXM Edited May 25, 2011 by MissMelanie

[Strider]

Like Steve, I too, have had a lifelong aversion to mobile phones, pagers, blackberries, cellphones...even ipods.

Which, given that I live in LA, gadget capitol of the US, often resulted in people looking at me as if I was a social pariah. Or it could have been the B.O.

But I digress.

The fact is, not having an electronic device attached to me at all times didn't prevent me from having an active social life at all. All thru the years, as one person after another would implore "dude, you gotta get a pager" or "dude you gotta get on myspace" or "dude, you gotta get a blackberry" to the now popular "dude, you gotta get on facebook", I would just carry on, happy with my landline and message machine.

Well, sad to say(and I'm sure Steve would say it's a result of me being a lily-livered liberal ), I've sold out my principles and recently bought a cellphone. Not just a cellphone, but a smartphone, at that. 3G, not 4G...and not an iPhone.

Still, most of my friends and family were aghast and shocked. But two things lead me to finally get a cellphone.

1) Due to the fact that I am often out on the town at night, and frequently would go straight to whatever event from work, I often would not get my messages until I got home later that night. This meant I would miss out on some important things due to last-minute changes, when they had no way to reach me. I started thinking it might be a good idea for friends and family to have a way to reach me when plans change or things go wrong.

2) I discovered that it would be cheaper to have a cellphone than a landline. I noticed this as my monthly phone bill kept creeping up and there would be these hidden fees.

So I took the plunge, bought a phone that also lets me surf the internet, watch youtube, check my e-mails and all that.

But I refuse to let it suck me in. And since I've spent a lot of time railing at people who don't silence their beepers or cellphones while at the movies or the theatre, I always make sure to turn my phone off when I'm at a public event.

It's ironic that people say we're more connected than ever, when it seems it's more the opposite. When I see people scurrying around, head down buried in their phone or ipad, they may be connected to their gadget but they're not connected to the real world around them.

And you can see the damage that being engrossed in the virtual world at the expense of the real world has had on families and workplaces. All those yearning housewives alone in bed while the husband is jerking off to internet porn. Families eating dinner at a restaurant with everyone's attention focused on their gadget.

What happened to families gathered around the table talking with each other, sharing their day.

Now, I enjoy the time I spend here on the Zeppelin board. I wouldn't come here if I didn't. And I've even been fortunate to have a few of you friend me and exchange pms and talk about our lives and troubles. And I know some of you are going thru tough times and I feel for you...and there some of you that I should maybe pm more often.

But as much as I enjoy our exchanges, and am happy to be your "friend", it would be unconscionable for me to put my virtual friendships ahead of my real friends and family.

The real world will always take precedence over the internet.

So, even though I have one of those gadgets, it's rarely out of my pocket. I will always prefer looking at a printed page or a person's eyes to looking at a small glowing screen anyday.

[redrum]

I hate humanity

More like the ones who create all this crap.

[Jahfin]

It's ironic that people say we're more connected than ever, when it seems it's more the opposite. When I see people scurrying around, head down buried in their phone or ipad, they may be connected to their gadget but they're not connected to the real world around them.

I heard a very good piece on NPR several months ago about Sherry Turkle's book Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other that speaks to pretty much everything that's been mentioned in this thread. If you care to read more about it, you can do so here.

I also put off getting a cellphone for as long as I could but after my home on the NC coast was damaged by Hurricane Ophelia in 2005 I didn't really have any choice. Thing is, I only use it as a phone. I don't use it to play games, as a GPS or to connect to the internet. Last summer I was out enjoying the evening by having some beers with friends. As soon as there was a lull in the conversation I looked around and every single one of them had their phones out checking for messages, updating their Facebook status or whatever is people do that stayed glue to their phones like that. Like you, I often turn mine off when going out to hear live music or going to the theatre. If nothing else, I at least set it to vibrate. When I'm out on the town like that, I'm there to converse, listen to some music and hang out with friends, not check my phone every five minutes.

On the same topic, I've posted this before but it's well worth reading because it's just as relevant now (if not even more so) than when I first saw it on CBS's Sunday Morning a couple of years ago:

Jeff Greenfield on Distractions

On Sunday, May 10, 2009, I watched a segment by Jeff Greenfield on CBS’s “Sunday Morning” news show with Charles Osgood and have transcribed it here. It is entitled, “Blackberry Mania”

Charles Osgood

An underground trolley collision in Boston Friday night injured 49 people, including a train operator who reportedly was text-messaging his girlfriend when he hit a stopped trolley ahead of him. That’s an extreme example of a phenomenon that has been bothering our Jeff Greenfield:

Jeff Greenfield

Can a writer from a long-ago age really see into the future? Well, Jules Vern was able to imagine submarines and rocket ships. Arthur C. Clark had a bead on communications satellites. But for my money, nobody nailed one of our era’s most defining and least attractive features better than did Jonathan Swift.

His best-known work, “Gulliver’s Travels” was first published in 1726; that is 283 years ago. It is best known for Gulliver’s dealings with the Lilliputians; a race of tiny men and women, consumed by tiny insignificant political battles. Cable talk-shows anyone?

But the real eye-opener is his account of Laputa; a floating island who’s citizens are so distracted by their deep thoughts, that they are completely disconnected from the real world. It seems, wrote Swift, these people are so taken up with intense speculations that they neither can speak, nor attend to the discourses of others. In fact, Gulliver reported, these folks are so utterly and completely disconnected from the world around them that the wealthier among them employ “flappers”. A flapper’s job was to give his employer a soft flap on his eyes because he is always so wrapped up in cogitation that he is in manifest danger of falling down every precipice, and bouncing his head against every post, and in the streets of jostling others.

So, just how prescient was Jonathan Swift? Well, have you taken a walk down a street in any town or city lately? Now, it’s not so much intense speculation that distracts our modern Laputans, but the astonishing array of gadgets that connects them with everything, except the world that is right around them. They’re plugged into music, they’re exchanging emails, they’re texting, they’re tweating, they’re manipulating portfolios, they’re managing their fantasy baseball teams, they’re befriending and un-befriending facebook pals. If I were a personal injury lawyer, I would consider a whole new specialty: “high-tech negligence lawsuits”.

Now, in the interest of complete accuracy, I should note one more aspect of Laputan life. It seems that the husbands of Laputa were always so wrapped in speculation that their wives found adultery almost too easy. The mistress and her lover, said Swift, “may proceed to the greatest familiarities right in front of her husband’s face.” Now, we didn’t manage to capture that sort of behavior with our cameras; not yet.

[betteremily]

I am always amazed why young men would want to be so "connected" to their girlfriends by phone? If you are talking/texting every few mintues in the day, where is there any ability for "freshness" in a relationship? I prefer the "honey I'm home" and then time to talk about your day scenario much better. I could never imagine being on so short a leash as to be in constant contact with anyone.

Life needs to be fresh to be intriguing.

People these days need instant-gratification. They seem to be much more concerned with pleasing themselves than others.

[PerpetualMotion]

I think the people who engage in all this ridiculous new posture are staying away from the thread. There's no defense for the behavior.

[Strider]

Rather than clutter up the board with a redundant new thread, I'm bumping this old thread up...beacuse THIS is hilarious!

There's a cool theatre in Austin, TX called the Alamo Drafthouse, which is similar in programming to LA's Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theatre. They show classic films, as well as wacky and obscure films for people who are serious movie-geeks. And we DON'T put up with any texting or cell-phone/blackberry use of any kind during the movie. Anyone caught WILL BE THROWN OUT! This is mentioned several times before the screenings and posted on signs.

Well, a couple of weeks ago, this woman was caught texting at the Alamo Drafthouse and was promptly thrown out. Whereupon she called the theatre and left a hilarious, vulgar rant on the voice-mail in some kind of Texan Valley-girl accent. The Alamo Drafthouse took her message and now uses it as a PSA before the screenings. Here it is...

My question to all of you is when you see someone texting or using phones/blackberries during a movie, do you do something about it? Or do you sit and suffer in silence, and hope someone else does something about it?

I always tell them to shut it down or take it outside. I also confront talkers...I didn't pay $12 or $16 to have my movie experience ruined by rudeness, and I will not suffer in silence.

Oh, and next time you are in Austin, make sure you visit the Alamo Drafhouse for a movie.

[TypeO]

Rather than clutter up the board with a redundant new thread, I'm bumping this old thread up...beacuse THIS is hilarious!

There's a cool theatre in Austin, TX called the Alamo Drafthouse, which is similar in programming to LA's Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theatre. They show classic films, as well as wacky and obscure films for people who are serious movie-geeks. And we DON'T put up with any texting or cell-phone/blackberry use of any kind during the movie. Anyone caught WILL BE THROWN OUT! This is mentioned several times before the screenings and posted on signs.

Well, a couple of weeks ago, this woman was caught texting at the Alamo Drafthouse and was promptly thrown out. Whereupon she called the theatre and left a hilarious, vulgar rant on the voice-mail in some kind of Texan Valley-girl accent. The Alamo Drafthouse took her message and now uses it as a PSA before the screenings. Here it is...

My question to all of you is when you see someone texting or using phones/blackberries during a movie, do you do something about it? Or do you sit and suffer in silence, and hope someone else does something about it?

I always tell them to shut it down or take it outside. I also confront talkers...I didn't pay $12 or $16 to have my movie experience ruined by rudeness, and I will not suffer in silence.

Oh, and next time you are in Austin, make sure you visit the Alamo Drafhouse for a movie.

BUUUURRRRRRNNNNNNN!

lulz

[BonzoLikeDrumer]

I hate everything!!! LOL!!

Edited June 23, 2011 by BonzoLikeDrumer

[Kiwi_Zep_Fan87]

I have a cell phone but I am one of the few people in my class of 30 students, who doesn't carry her cell phone with her everyday to classes. In fact, I have never ever carried my phone to class! It will, for me, be more of a nuisance and a distraction! Instead of listening to the lecture and actually taking down notes, I will always be distracted if I have my phone by my side, to see if I have received any texts lately! Now that is not at all a good thing! It's pretty much for me, a case of "not giving into temptation" and not being a dumbass by bringing my cell phone to class and suddenly watch it go off with the entire class getting distracted and practically being forced to check out my ringtone!

But there is a flip side to this too. Some of my friends argue that they bring cell phones to class to record the lectures because sometimes, it is pretty impossible to keep up with the pace at which some professors choose to proceed. I prefer the old fashioned way though, of taking down notes in a book! That way suits me just fine! Now, my point is, if you have to bring your cell phone to class to record lectures, remember that every cell phone does have a SILENT mode! Afterall, as the old saying goes, "Silence Is Golden"