# So this is what it's come to



## paratrooper (Feb 1, 2012)

https://www.yahoo.com/health/6-things-you-should-be-able-to-do-without-your-107903805202.html

I was running my wife around today doing some errands. After 2 or 3 stops, I resort to waiting in the car for her. I'm a people watcher. Makes for good situational awareness.

Anyways, more people than not were carrying smart phones with them. You know the typical position. Head down, starring at your palm. The activity doesn't seem to matter. Walking, standing or driving.

Seems like they can't function w/o having their little smart phones with them at all times. Age doesn't seem to play any part in it either. Both sexes are as bad as the other.

Either I'm doing something right......or I'm horribly wrong. I don't have one. I don't have any plans to either. I do not want to become one of the masses or one of the tools.


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## SouthernBoy (Jun 27, 2007)

I don't have one either, paratrooper. I'm not that fond of phones. I view them as a, sometimes, necessary thing and nothing more. My oldest daughter tries to get me to buy one of the new phones but that ain't gonna happen. My cell phone is very basic... a flip design that makes calls (I think it will also take pictures but I've never tried). Both of my cars and my truck have Bluetooth so that is a good thing.

I saw a video over a year ago record, I think, in China. A young nicely dressed woman was walking along a sidewalk, intent on her smart phone, when she suddenly disappeared. Seems she fell into an open manhole. Guess she learned a lesson or two. I've seen videos of people getting hit by cars, buses, and bikes while on those damned things, too.

So no thanks. Like you I'm content not to have one. Gee, how did we ever manage when we were young without them???


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## DirtyDog (Oct 16, 2014)

You're using a computer right now. A smartphone is just a smaller computer. 
Some people are stupid. They fell in holes and got hit by buses long before smartphones were invented.


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## Scorpion8 (Jan 29, 2011)

I have a smart-phone, but am not wedded to it. This fall we were at Disney World Orlando. Lines and lines of people all thumbing phones, entire families not talking to each other but whole family all doing something on phones while in line. I was almost appalled, but then I realized what I always new already: When the aliens do come, it won't be to talk to mankind, it'll be to talk to the dolphins and cockroaches.


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## Cait43 (Apr 4, 2013)




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## paratrooper (Feb 1, 2012)

SouthernBoy said:


> I don't have one either, paratrooper. I'm not that fond of phones. I view them as a, sometimes, necessary thing and nothing more. My oldest daughter tries to get me to buy one of the new phones but that ain't gonna happen. My cell phone is very basic... a flip design that makes calls (I think it will also take pictures but I've never tried). Both of my cars and my truck have Bluetooth so that is a good thing.
> 
> I saw a video over a year ago record, I think, in China. A young nicely dressed woman was walking along a sidewalk, intent on her smart phone, when she suddenly disappeared. Seems she fell into an open manhole. Guess she learned a lesson or two. I've seen videos of people getting hit by cars, buses, and bikes while on those damned things, too.
> 
> So no thanks. Like you I'm content not to have one. Gee, how did we ever manage when we were young without them???


I hear ya! :smt023


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

Jean carries a cell phone, but a very primitive one: No screen, no texting, no photographs.
It's pretty much only for emergencies.
Once in a while, she calls me from the market, asking about something I've written on the shopping list.
That's about it.

Our daughter, who works for Google, and our son-in-law, who is a computer programmer by profession, sit side-by-side on their own couch, texting one-another.
It makes no sense to Jean and me at all.

Our son and daughter-in-law have a four-year-old daughter who learned to read by computer, on her own. She's beginning to be able to text, too.
She can entertain herself for hours, browsing for stuff on her computer. I wonder when she'll start on pornography.

I believe that our computers are gonna cause the cows to give sour milk and stunt the corn.
Of course, many years ago, I said the same thing about movies...


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## SouthernBoy (Jun 27, 2007)

DirtyDog said:


> You're using a computer right now. A smartphone is just a smaller computer.
> Some people are stupid. They fell in holes and got hit by buses long before smartphones were invented.


I was a software developer for most of my working life, starting as an entry level programmer and before long, making it to software engineer. I wrote software in a number of languages over the years and did some very interesting things during my career (also some rather mundane things, too).

I have no use for a smart phone. Hell, most of the time I don't even carry the cell phone I have (having worked on one contract where I had to carry a cell phone 24/7 to be on call, that got old real quick). I have never used an ATM machine nor do I carry a debit card and don't see myself doing either of these any time soon. Some "technological advancements" don't interest me, some do. Smart phones are one of those things of which I have no use... at least that I can see.


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## BackyardCowboy (Aug 27, 2014)

Steve M1911A1 said:


> I believe that our computers are gonna cause the cows to give sour milk and stunt the corn. .


How long have cows been texting and using the internet ?:smt119


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## SailDesign (Jul 17, 2014)

I don't have a smart phone - don't want one. My kids have them, and you can't even have a quiet supper without one of them needing to look at theirs and either chuckle, or rush into the next room to phone someone back "quickly."

Yes, I spend a lot of time on the computer, but I don't do that while I am interacting with people in the flesh. Or while walking, or driving, or shooting.


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## Bisley (Aug 24, 2008)

I was furnished one where I worked, because my last boss was a texter, and have continued using it in retirement. But I still don't know how to use the extra features, and likely never will. I can call from the address book, and can sometimes answer it before it stops ringing, but that's about it. I know how to text, but won't.


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## RK3369 (Aug 12, 2013)

I used to love the end of the day so that I could get in the car and get away from the damn phone. That was in the stone ages before cell phones were highly portable. At that time, if you wanted a portable phone, you had to carry a bag with you over your shoulder that was about the size of a lunch pail which had the basic structure of the phone and receiver in it. Never wanted one, resisted the "need" to get one until the wife declared it was a good idea in case of emergencies. Now I have a personal cell (dumb phone, call and text only, nothing else, flip open and closed) and a smart phone given to me for work. Never use the smart phone if I can at all avoid it. Only thing I use if for occasionally is to check my mail late at night to see what kind of shit is waiting for me in the office the next morning. I can't believe people have become so linked to their phones that they cant' seem to exist without them. Warning folks, it's just one more way the government is going to monitor and control you. 

???What will happen if some terrorist knocks out the Verizon or AT+T national network? Is the planet going to blow up? Nobody will be able to figure out how to do anything.


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## Vintage Racer (May 27, 2011)

I have an old flip phone for emergencies.


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## SailDesign (Jul 17, 2014)

Bisley said:


> <snip>
> I know how to text, but won't.


They do say that the mark of a true gentleman is that he knows how to play the bagpipes, but chooses not to.

I think this is the modern version.


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## desertman (Aug 29, 2013)

I have a Tracfone only for when I'm in the middle of nowhere. Then again sometimes it can be useless even there. You have to wonder how all these people ever survived all these years before cell phones. I guess for school age children it was something that was always there, nowadays just about every kid has one. When my sister came out here she was constantly on the damn phone with my nieces and nephews. Christ, they couldn't even wipe their damn asses without calling!


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