jim wrote:You use a computer for navigation? Good lord. People are missing the world they live in with their noses buried in their electronic gizmos.
Yeah, my nose is in my phone. That's how I hear the next turn. I use my nose.
Also, try driving in Boston. Streets intersect themselves, stop and start in different parts of the city going in completely different directions, and switch which one-way is allowed as you go from block to block.
I think that technology has dummified us, to some extent. How did people navigate the streets of Boston 10 years ago? They managed.
I'm not saying that technology is bad, but I think it could potentially prevent people from living up to their potential, simply because they don't bother testing their capabilities without the technology before grabbing the first gadget that they can find to use as a crutch.
I still don't have a smartphone, and I won't own one until I have no other choice.
jim wrote:You use a computer for navigation? Good lord. People are missing the world they live in with their noses buried in their electronic gizmos.
Yeah, my nose is in my phone. That's how I hear the next turn. I use my nose.
Also, try driving in Boston. Streets intersect themselves, stop and start in different parts of the city going in completely different directions, and switch which one-way is allowed as you go from block to block.
I think that technology has dummified us, to some extent. How did people navigate the streets of Boston 10 years ago? They managed.
I'm not saying that technology is bad, but I think it could potentially prevent people from living up to their potential, simply because they don't bother testing their capabilities without the technology before grabbing the first gadget that they can find to use as a crutch.
I still don't have a smartphone, and I won't own one until I have no other choice.
People use the word crutch like crutches aren't necessary.
I'd say there's no difference between using a phone and a map, and that's how people managed before. Pre-smartphone I used to have to find obscure roads in Indy and unfold a big ass map and use a grid to locate the road. Or look it up beforehand and print a map.
jim wrote:You use a computer for navigation? Good lord. People are missing the world they live in with their noses buried in their electronic gizmos.
Yeah, my nose is in my phone. That's how I hear the next turn. I use my nose.
Also, try driving in Boston. Streets intersect themselves, stop and start in different parts of the city going in completely different directions, and switch which one-way is allowed as you go from block to block.
I think that technology has dummified us, to some extent. How did people navigate the streets of Boston 10 years ago? They managed.
I'm not saying that technology is bad, but I think it could potentially prevent people from living up to their potential, simply because they don't bother testing their capabilities without the technology before grabbing the first gadget that they can find to use as a crutch.
I still don't have a smartphone, and I won't own one until I have no other choice.
People use the word crutch like crutches aren't necessary.
I'd say there's no difference between using a phone and a map, and that's how people managed before. Pre-smartphone I used to have to find obscure roads in Indy and unfold a big ass map and use a grid to locate the road. Or look it up beforehand and print a map.
A map doesn't tell you exactly when to turn left and when to turn right.
Using maps is a skill, in my opinion. One that I used to be somewhat proud of, actually. Listening to and watching a GPS is not a skill. Heck, even women can do that .
Sometimes crutches aren't necessary. That's the point.
I do not use a GPS system for directions, I've just found them to be ... well wrong too many times. I have been sent on more wild goose chases by those things than I care to remember. I like the independence of not relying on things like GPS's and cell phones. I really feel bogged down by a cell phone, I just hate that feeling that someone can contact me. Now I can choose to not answer, but the thing is ringing or buzzing I can't help but see who it is, and sometimes it just riles me when I see who it is. It was after 6 last week when I was on my way to a little pond after work and the phone rang, and it was the boss. Of course I didn't answer, but it pissed me off. Not having it anywhere near me is the way to go, and for the most part of the day it sits in the glove compartment of my car.
I also have stopped wearing a watch, I've decided that the artificial schedules we have perfected for people in the past 150 years or so has really put an incredible amount of stress on us. Of course at work I have to be here at precisely 9:30 and there at precisely 10:15 and over yonder at exactly 11:00 and so on and I have to do things to deal with that, but on weekends and the evenings forget it.
Don't confuse my post count with my love of technology. Most of my posts are at work, bored out of my freaking mind staring at a computer with GRB one click away to take my mind somewhere else.
I can vouch for the craziness of driving in Boston (it's even more fun in a cargo van). After a few visits there, I understand why the kid doesn't need (or want) a car, but she would be completely lost without her phone.
She always calls when walking somewhere -
Phone rings - caller id says "mini-rad". I answer "hey where you headed to?" She laughs and starts talking, usually about the latest Cards game. We talk about baseball for a few minutes. She asks me to hold on while she pays for her coffee. We chat for a few more minutes. She says "ok, I gotta go - my train's here. Bye."
When I was there in May we decided to do Indian carry out for dinner. It was a beautiful evening so I thought I would walk (Porter Sq to Harvard Sq in case you were wondering, Jack) instead of taking the T. I ask for directions. She rolls her eyes and says "Really Dad? You have an iPhone..."
I saw a cool news piece/documentary on New York's automats of the early to mid 1900s. They were the proto-fastfood restaurants, and as automated as technology allowed back then. Imagine a wall with 50 newspaper machines on it; each one had a picture of a different meal. You'd insert your nickel in the slot, open the window, and take your ready-made meal to go.
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