I am totally convinced now...Cellphones have made kids socially retarded

[LuckysRevenge]

Out of all of the catalysts for misplaced hysteria, the topic of texting is the most infuriating. Especially when people start with this melodramatic 'weeping for society' garbage. It's just like people who don't think twice when they see somebody reading a book or a newspaper at the park or on the train, but will scoff and complain if they see somebody there with a tablet despite the fact that they're also devices used for reading books or visiting news aggregation websites.

I wonder though why it's automatically assumed that mobile phones have caused social anxiety, but not that they're affording more opportunities to those who suffer from it. If this girl was so terrified of knocking on a stranger's door, I imagine that she wouldn't have taken such a job without her phone there to act as a bit of a safety blanket. It would have probably gone to somebody who had the confidence to knock instead, and you wouldn't even be aware that she (the timid girl who lacked confidence) exists. Both social awkwardness and anxiety are nothing new, it's just that people who suffered from them didn't have any less confronting forms of communication available in the past. Workplace incompetence is nothing new either, it's just manifesting itself in new and different ways.

Honestly though, you'd have to be pretty disconnected to believe that it's customary for friends to sit around a table and text each other instead of talking. Nobody does that. Texting isn't replacing actual conversation, and society is not screwed because people use their mobile phones. If somebody decides to check Facebook during dinner or a date, it's not the phone's fault; it's the fault of the person for disregarding their present company to satisfy their own obsession. The phone isn't making them do anything, it's simply allowing for them to exhibit rude behaviour if they so choose.

Absolutely every generation ever has viewed change among youth as some sort of impending doom. How can some of you lack the awareness to recognise you're doing the exact same thing?

I was waiting for someone to point this out. Until this post it's just a lot of misplaced whining.

Just like how television destroyed society and computers and the Internet etc etc

 

[PreTTy PeTe]

It is true. Smart phones breed dumb people.

I have a smart phone activated and have a new spare one just in case I lose this one ready to use.

maybe you're right

 

[Kulindahr]

Soon we will have implants so we can think at our smart phones. Not long after that, they'll start thinking back. Within a few years, the newest update will look like this:

​

 

[xbuzzerx]

*Snicker*

Kul, do you mean to imply that smartphones lead one to Republicanism?

 

[Kulindahr]

*Snicker*

Kul, do you mean to imply that smartphones lead one to Republicanism?

Let the GOP just try that assimilation.

 

[SLOPPYSECONDS]

Does anyone else find it a bit odd, perhaps amusing, that this conversation is taking place on a recreational web forum - - between members with rather large [daily?] post counts?

internet 1 ans 2 a thang

thankyou

 

[xbuzzerx]

What ain't no country that I ever heard of, they speak English in what?

 

[Kyanimal]

I do own a (flip) cellphone, and I THINK it's in my car's console, maybe!

But, cellphones aside, and considering that my job is creating Digital Editions of printed publications, putting them "out there" on The Web, and mobile apps., I'm not exactly "Tech Stupid", as much as, perhaps, Personally "resistant".

Smart Phones aside, it does "bug" me that people in "next door" cubicles will only use Email to communicate with each other!

However, there is that Traceable factor when it comes to business.

Still ... REALLY?

I do have young nephews, and nieces, that are "glued" to their apps, and will "talk" to each other, through their devices, when sitting side-by-side. Makes NO sense to Me, but it's how they've been raised, and makes perfect sense to them!

To ME, they seem to be completely unaware of The World around them!

However, given the "New Age" that they're living in, I'm sure it makes perfect sense to Them!

NEW "Tools", different perspectives, and I really don't like thinking that I'm reacting to it all like my Parents, and the Generations before them!

I guess it's all a matter of Perspective ... and, all the more reasons to ... no matter what ...

Keep smilin'!!
Chaz

 

[RaKroma]

Smart Phones aside, it does "bug" me that people in "next door" cubicles will only use Email to communicate with each other!

Many corporate work environments require email communication only because a trail of who said what, when becomes useful at figuring out and tracking down a SNAFU. At one job I worked at, I refused to deal with anyone that gave me instructions over the phone or came up to announce it verbally. If you tell me to change data on our excel management system or tell me that FDA cleared a imports container worth of $30,000 goods but they never did, I will have my ass chewed by the boss before he'd hang me as it costs thousands of dollars in losses per day. So I turned people around and told them to write me an email or memo with your signature to save my own ass.

 

[borg69unimatrix]

Soon we will have implants so we can think at our smart phones. Not long after that, they'll start thinking back. Within a few years, the newest update will look like this:

​

~Resistance is Futile~ You will become one, with the Borg.

 

[Kyanimal]

^^ I can TOTALLY Agree with that!

I was recently "encouraged" to additionally bill a customer for complete corrections, doing a total republishing, when it was all still in the parameter of "normal" corrections.

Needless to say, the customer Hit the Roof for his double billing!

"Sales" agreed to issue a credit, and I was happy that they did so, even though it made me look like a total idiot (scapegoat).

However, since I had the emails to back me up, my "rep" may have taken a shot with the customer, but my Job was not threatened.

There are times that a "trail", and not the furry kind, can definitely be a Plus.

Though, sometimes I wonder, given all it takes to assure those "trails", when MOST don't arise to Anything ... are they really Worth all the Time, and Frustration, to establish?

SO ... The ONE worked out! But, does that substantiate all of the Hours that it took to establish the possible, multiple, others?

I suppose ... that just goes to prove ... that no matter what ...

Keep smilin'!!
Chaz

 

[Kulindahr]

Many corporate work environments require email communication only because a trail of who said what, when becomes useful at figuring out and tracking down a SNAFU. At one job I worked at, I refused to deal with anyone that gave me instructions over the phone or came up to announce it verbally. If you tell me to change data on our excel management system or tell me that FDA cleared a imports container worth of $30,000 goods but they never did, I will have my ass chewed by the boss before he'd hang me as it costs thousands of dollars in losses per day. So I turned people around and told them to write me an email or memo with your signature to save my own ass.

Another option is one adopted where my sister the engineer worked before: all intra-office communications went through the computer system, and all were recorded, and software transcribed the voice communications.

 

[Kulindahr]

Though, sometimes I wonder, given all it takes to assure those "trails", when MOST don't arise to Anything ... are they really Worth all the Time, and Frustration, to establish?

SO ... The ONE worked out! But, does that substantiate all of the Hours that it took to establish the possible, multiple, others?

Oh, yes. If it weren't for those trails, when my sister still worked in quality control for computer boards, they wouldn't have been able to find out what had led to an error that shut down the entire chemical bath section overnight -- it would have taken days, and cost millions of dollars. Once they found how the error had been triggered, it took just a few hours to track down the issue/cause and set things straight.

 

[Pcp3t3]

Cell phones are convieniet.

 

[Kahaih]

So were daggers, but it matters how they were used.

I wonder if the elderstabbers felt left out and neglected whenever the kinderslashers got together to show each other their shiny new poky things.

 

[Willie Boy]

Soon we will have implants so we can think at our smart phones.

You have no idea how close you really are. We already have devices that attach to our bodies to interact with our phones. Bluetooth, anyone. It ain't but one more step to go subcutaneously.

Not long after that, they'll start thinking back.

Technically they do that now through the aforementioned Bluetooth devices, when those are available as implants they'll do even more.

Within a few years, the newest update will look like this:

​

That's with all the upgrades and all their associated bells and whistles. With the full package you wont need to access your computer because you will BE your computer. No need to call a taxi, just think it and the vehicle will pull up at the curb. You get in, but there's no driver, the vehicle just takes you where you want to go. Doors open automatically at a thought. Oven preheats to just the right temp, you even know precisely when its done without the use of a timer. And what's more, you never have to worry about not being able to describe something to another person, they'll automatically know exactly what you're thinking.

No wonder the Borg went crazy.

 

[peeonme]

Cell phones are convieniet.

Many things that were first seen as a convenience became part of our everyday lives. Indoor plumbing, air conditioning, refrigerators
p.c.'s, cars to name a few.

 

[Kyanimal]

I "yoinked" this from Poozy's " Post Something Funny" thread, because I thought it appropriate to be "here", too.

Keep smilin'!!
Chaz

 

[gsdx]

I "yoinked" this

Did you just make that up?

 

[xboxfan34]

Out of all of the catalysts for misplaced hysteria, the topic of texting is the most infuriating. Especially when people start with this melodramatic 'weeping for society' garbage. It's just like people who don't think twice when they see somebody reading a book or a newspaper at the park or on the train, but will scoff and complain if they see somebody there with a tablet despite the fact that they're also devices used for reading books or visiting news aggregation websites.

I wonder though why it's automatically assumed that mobile phones have caused social anxiety, but not that they're affording more opportunities to those who suffer from it. If this girl was so terrified of knocking on a stranger's door, I imagine that she wouldn't have taken such a job without her phone there to act as a bit of a safety blanket. It would have probably gone to somebody who had the confidence to knock instead, and you wouldn't even be aware that she (the timid girl who lacked confidence) exists. Both social awkwardness and anxiety are nothing new, it's just that people who suffered from them didn't have any less confronting forms of communication available in the past. Workplace incompetence is nothing new either, it's just manifesting itself in new and different ways.

Honestly though, you'd have to be pretty disconnected to believe that it's customary for friends to sit around a table and text each other instead of talking. Nobody does that. Texting isn't replacing actual conversation, and society is not screwed because people use their mobile phones. If somebody decides to check Facebook during dinner or a date, it's not the phone's fault; it's the fault of the person for disregarding their present company to satisfy their own obsession. The phone isn't making them do anything, it's simply allowing for them to exhibit rude behaviour if they so choose.

Absolutely every generation ever has viewed change among youth as some sort of impending doom. How can some of you lack the awareness to recognise you're doing the exact same thing?

Honestly, I do believe kids are texting too much these days but some people just make a huge to-do about how society is fucked forever and how it'll never get better and will always get worse. I'm 18, I do listen to a lot of music on my iPod and I do text a lot but nothing beats a face to face conversation, especially when you make the other person laugh