Why I don't Use Facebook

[AndrewC]

 

Even electric cars don't really offer much aside from a warm fuzzy glow that you're only destroying the planet through the rampant consumption of natural resources via battery production. If anything the day-to-day impact on your life is detrimental, as you'll need to charge it more often than you fill a car (presently at least).

There is a certain reticence towards certain types of technology which amuses me (as I tried to explain above), it's a bit like some attitudes toward driving - anyone faster than you is a maniac, anyone slower is a moron. Technology you see a use for? Why yes, essential. Technology you don't? Ridiculous, a total waste of time.

There is one thing electric cars do offer as an improvement. Far fewer moving parts to wear out and no need for belts, coolant, starter motors, etc. 

 

A sad reflection of the way a lot of young people are these days!

A few months ago there was a picture of students in a museum all sitting and staring into their devices and ignoring the painting on the wall. The amount of vitriol the picture received was frightening. What  was worse is the picture was totally out of context. The museum has hot spots where people can get far more information about the piece, artist, etc than would have been previously possible. What was actually happening was the students were studying the notes for the painting after having spent a good 20 minutes examining the real thing closely. Despite this fact being added to the picture, people still had to have a go, ignoring the truth of what was happening in the picture in favour of blindly spewing their bile. It is true that people spend far too much time glued to their iGizmo, but sometimes things aren't always what they appear to be. 

[njee20]

A sad reflection of the way a lot of young people are these days!

 

 

 

Or wonderful that we have so many budding photographers, experimenting with photo editing, and being more connected then people have ever been in the past?

If you believe some on here they'd be holed up in their rooms talking to an inanimate box rather than socialising. 

Edited November 1, 2017 by njee20

[runs as required]

I've only just clicked into this thread (but confess I'm not really interested enough to plough back through all 226 posts).

It's sad to see RMwebbers being rude to one another and leaving the thread in dudgeon. I thought it something that teenagers were prone to in their enforced 'social media' world.

I personally enjoy comparisons that go back to cave dweller basics - it helps one  to perceive what might be a new 'must have' or a mere frippery.  I've always been a tech. junky - ever since sending my pocket money to help 'crowd fund' the hopeless original V16 BRM!

But we found a classy looking John Lewis 'Technology' brochure on our doormat last week - none of it proved to have any appeal to this octogenarian.

 

I did get enticed into Face Book a few months ago by an even older fart who convinced me with "you've got far less to hide than me, and I really enjoy it for keeping in touch with other old roues around the world".

 

My main complaint is that most of the potentially useful new stuff has a complete disregard for a growing  over 75 year-old cohort  who inevitably face failing eyesight, 'fatfinger' and diminishing 'learning skills'. We are lucky - with some very supportive grandchildren closeby.

 

dh

[njee20]

 I thought it something that teenagers were prone to in their enforced 'social media' world.

 

It's there again! Why the animosity? It's a world you are, by admission, a part of. It's a very odd psychology. "I consume tech as I want, but I'll still be disparaging to others consuming identically".

[runs as required]

Our eldest grandson (living down south) has just finished his first half term in the sixth form.

He won the school 'Theology prize' - for which he opted for "Life 3.0 Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence".

I can recommend it - I found it a really thought provoking read about the future.

 

dh

[PhilH]

The thing I really don't get is why people have to advertise what they don't like...how is that of interest to anybody but themselves? Fine, don't like it but why bang on about it?

 

Or am I missing something?

[Reorte]

There is a certain reticence towards certain types of technology which amuses me (as I tried to explain above), it's a bit like some attitudes toward driving - anyone faster than you is a maniac, anyone slower is a moron. Technology you see a use for? Why yes, essential. Technology you don't? Ridiculous, a total waste of time.

What amuses me are people who seem to think very minor things are earth-shattering improvements.

[Reorte]

The thing I really don't get is why people have to advertise what they don't like...how is that of interest to anybody but themselves? Fine, don't like it but why bang on about it?

 

Or am I missing something?

Why ever express an opinin on anything then, positive or negative? We all live in a world with these things and they affect the whole look and feel of it, whether you make use of them yourself or not. Do you say the same to people who go on about how great something is?

 

Why bang on about people banging on about things?

[Reorte]

It's there again! Why the animosity? It's a world you are, by admission, a part of. It's a very odd psychology. "I consume tech as I want, but I'll still be disparaging to others consuming identically".

It's there again! The over-simplified black and white view of it. There's a lot of animosity in your posts towards people who don't like what you like.

Edited November 1, 2017 by Reorte

[njee20]

Oops, double post

Edited November 1, 2017 by njee20

[njee20]

What amuses me are people who seem to think very minor things are earth-shattering improvements.

 

But what if things that seem trivial to you are significant to others? What makes something "earth-shattering", or even anything beyond trivial?

 

If you have no interest in product design then the development of CAD isn't overly exciting to you. If you work in product design then it's pretty massive. If you live in the middle of the rain forest then the internet and mobile phones are insignificant, whilst they've totally changed my life. There is virtually no element of my life that would be the same were I living 50 years ago, or even 20 years ago actually. Others will eschew all technology and just shout about how rude it's made young people and how they don't need it.

 

 

It's there again! The over-simplified black and white view of it. There's a lot of animosity in your posts towards people who don't like what you like.

 

There really isn't any animosity, I'm just bemused by people's stance, surely you can see the hypocrisy in a dismissive statement about social media whilst lauding social media...?

But what if things that seem trivial to you are significant to others? What makes something "earth-shattering", or even anything beyond trivial?

Edited November 1, 2017 by njee20

[Free At Last]

PhilH, on 01 Nov 2017 - 12:45, said:PhilH, on 01 Nov 2017 - 12:45, said:

The thing I really don't get is why people have to advertise what they don't like...how is that of interest to anybody but themselves? Fine, don't like it but why bang on about it?

 

Or am I missing something?

They are showing they have a higher level of intelligence.

(Well that's what they believe.)

Edited November 1, 2017 by Free At Last

[njee20]

That often seems to be the connotation; "I don't concern myself with such banale trivialities..."

[jjb1970]

Facebook and other communication tools such as WhatsApp can be very useful if you travel a lot or have widely dispersed friends and family. I don't use Facebook but my wife finds it very useful for keeping in touch with her friends and family around Asia. I do find WhatsApp very useful for calling home and making video calls to my family when I travel around the world or to talk to friends overseas. When I travel I have a company mobile and there is no issue using it to call home but I feel uncomfortable using it for much more than checking in to say I've arrived safely and to ask if everybody is OK, with WhatsApp I can log onto wifi in a hotel or café or whatever and make a video call to the wife and kiddies and not bother about how long we spend talking.

[Reorte]

But what if things that seem trivial to you are significant to others? What makes something "earth-shattering", or even anything beyond trivial?

That's fair enough, but all too often just questioning it gets abuse from the people who use these things. How often have you asked yourself those questions? Asm myself them and I'm more likely to think that I'm over-emphasising things that are significant for me. For example, driving in to work. No walking needed, but a couple of miles of walking when I get the train. But overall would I actually be in a better position if I used the train more - is the walking really a disadvantage, especially considering that I'd definitely benefit from the exercise? Which has the superficial appeal and which would really make my life better? And would I be a hypocrite if I usually used the train but drove when the weather's really bad?

 

There really isn't any animosity, I'm just bemused by people's stance, surely you can see the hypocrisy in a dismissive statement about social media whilst lauding social media...?

Only if you believe it's all really the same thing, along with the way it's used. I pointed out earlier that there's only hypocrisy if the only two plausible choices are to embrace every little aspect of it or to reject it all, hence the music comparison. If I say one piece of music is painful rubbish and another one wonderful there's no hypocrisy there. Maybe accusations about being too definitive about taste, but not hypocrisy. Whilst I don't see the appeal of mobile phones I don't accuse anyone who grumbles about people walking blindly out in to the street whilst starting at a phone of hypocrisy because they've got a phone.

Edited November 1, 2017 by Reorte

[njee20]

That's fair enough, but all too often just questioning it gets abuse from the people who use these things. How often have you asked yourself those questions? Asm myself them and I'm more likely to think that I'm over-emphasising things that are significant for me. For example, driving in to work. No walking needed, but a couple of miles of walking when I get the train. But overall would I actually be in a better position if I used the train more - is the walking really a disadvantage, especially considering that I'd definitely benefit from the exercise? Which has the superficial appeal and which would really make my life better? And would I be a hypocrite if I usually used the train but drove when the weather's really bad?

 

Only if you believe it's all really the same thing, along with the way it's used. I pointed out earlier that there's only hypocrisy if the only two plausible choices are to embrace every little aspect of it or to reject it all, hence the music comparison. If I say one piece of music is painful rubbish and another one wonderful there's no hypocrisy there. Maybe accusations about being too definitive about taste, but not hypocrisy. Whilst I don't see the appeal of mobile phones I don't accuse anyone who grumbles about people walking blindly out in to the street whilst starting at a phone of hypocrisy because they've got a phone.

I've never really asked myself those questions, because I don't really need to rank or in any way prioritise the things in my life based on their added value, nor convince others of them. I've not bought any wifi sockets or smart light bulbs because for me, the current financial cost exceeds their added value, although it's something I am watching very closely. Friends have them, and rave about them, but it's obviously only a small improvement in the grand scheme of things.

 

I was an early adopter of iPods, because I thought they offered a real benefit over a portable CD player, whilst others no doubt don't see the point.

 

I've tried not to say "people should use X" here, I don't think I've recommended anything, rather I wish people were more open-minded. If they said "I've tried x, it was dreadful", then sobeit, but all too often what actually happens is a real sneering or derision about "the youth of today being caught up bullying others on social media" or "people slavishly talking to their Echo rather than socialising" - indeed we've had both of those comments today on this thread. There's no real basis for it. Those same 'youths' are consuming more data than ever before, they're more technologically aware, and will facilitate all sorts of new things in the decades to come, which we can't even imagine yet. Smart homes, whilst hardly revolutionary, have the potential to make life easier, and that's all it is. No one's really suggesting an Echo is a good alternative to friends (they're not called "Alexas", in the same way an iPad isn't called a "Siri"), but it's a common criticism levelled at them. Indeed as I believe I said, I won mine, and saw little point in it (it wasn't a competition I actively entered), yet I like it, and have bought two "Echo Dots" for other rooms of the house.

 

The music analogy is quite a good one, I like that, and I agree entirely. I'm not sure it stacks up in this debate though, unless you dismiss entire genres without having ever heard them. For me that's the nub - people see no value in something, so they dismiss it out of hand. Imagine where we'd be if people didn't design products we didn't know we needed? After all, toilets worked fine for hundreds of years without flushing

Edited November 1, 2017 by njee20

[Jol Wilkinson]

I've never really asked myself those questions, because I don't really need to rank or in any way prioritise the things in my life based on their added value, nor convince others of them. I've not bought any wifi sockets or smart light bulbs because for me, the current financial cost exceeds their added value, although it's something I am watching very closely. Friends have them, and rave about them, but it's obviously only a small improvement in the grand scheme of things.

 

I was an early adopter of iPods, because I thought they offered a real benefit over a portable CD player, whilst others no doubt don't see the point.

 

I've tried not to say "people should use X" here, I don't think I've recommended anything, rather I wish people were more open-minded. If they said "I've tried x, it was dreadful", then sobeit, but all too often what actually happens is a real sneering or derision about "the youth of today being caught up bullying others on social media" or "people slavishly talking to their Echo rather than socialising" - indeed we've had both of those comments today on this thread. There's no real basis for it. Those same 'youths' are consuming more data than ever before, they're more technologically aware, and will facilitate all sorts of new things in the decades to come, which we can't even imagine yet. Smart homes, whilst hardly revolutionary, have the potential to make life easier, and that's all it is. No one's really suggesting an Echo is a good alternative to friends (they're not called "Alexas", in the same way an iPad isn't called a "Siri"), but it's a common criticism levelled at them. Indeed as I believe I said, I won mine, and saw little point in it (it wasn't a competition I actively entered), yet I like it, and have bought two "Echo Dots" for other rooms of the house.

 

The music analogy is quite a good one, I like that, and I agree entirely. I'm not sure it stacks up in this debate though, unless you dismiss entire genres without having ever heard them. For me that's the nub - people see no value in something, so they dismiss it out of hand. Imagine where we'd be if people didn't design products we didn't know we needed? After all, toilets worked fine for hundreds of years without flushing

Why shouldn't someone make a value judgement on something without actually trying it. People can make sound decisions based upon information - however it is presented - but it doesn't mean that they are narrow minded, unwilling to adopt new ideas, etc..

 

Your reference to iPods is interesting. I bought one for my wife (I use a Samsung tablet in much the same way) and later matched it with two pieces of kit with docking stations. She recently damaged the iPod so I bought her a replacement. Guess what, it has a different connection and won't fit the docking stations. Otherwise it appears identical and doesn't appear to have any other benefits. Presumably the new connector is a technological advance - although I haven't asked Apple - but is a disadvantage to me.

 

It is ironic that despite all the advantages technology has brought us - and some such as those in the medical field have been very important - that people are apparently more stressed and less happy.

Edited November 1, 2017 by Jol Wilkinson

[Reorte]

I've never really asked myself those questions, because I don't really need to rank or in any way prioritise the things in my life based on their added value, nor convince others of them. I've not bought any wifi sockets or smart light bulbs because for me, the current financial cost exceeds their added value, although it's something I am watching very closely. Friends have them, and rave about them, but it's obviously only a small improvement in the grand scheme of things.

Then I'd say you have asked the questions, subconciously. We could then go on and argue about the details and depth and other such things but that'll just drag the thread back when we're just starting to be polite to each other

The music analogy is quite a good one, I like that, and I agree entirely. I'm not sure it stacks up in this debate though, unless you dismiss entire genres without having ever heard them. For me that's the nub - people see no value in something, so they dismiss it out of hand. Imagine where we'd be if people didn't design products we didn't know we needed? After all, toilets worked fine for hundreds of years without flushing

Genre is a good extension to the analogy.

[njee20]

Why shouldn't someone make a value judgement on something without actually trying it. People can make sound decisions based upon information - however it is presented - but it doesn't mean that they are narrow minded, unwilling to adopt new ideas, etc..

 

Your reference to iPods is interesting. I bought one for my wife (I use a Samsung tablet in much the same way) and later matched it with two pieces of kit with docking stations. She recently damaged the iPod so I bought her a replacement. Guess what, it has a different connection and won't fit the docking stations. Otherwise it appears identical and doesn't appear to have any other benefits. Presumably the new connector is a technological advance - although I haven't asked Apple - but is a disadvantage to me.

 

It is ironic that despite all the advantages technology has brought us - and some such as those in the medical field have been very important - that people are apparently more stressed and less happy.

Apple changed to the Lightning connector about 5 years ago, to much wailing and gnashing of teeth. I'm inclined to agree with you, although you can get Lightning to 30-pin connectors if you have lots of legacy devices. It's not really much different to the prolieration of mini-USB to micro-USB to USB-C among Android devices, although I accept they've been more stable. We're on a tangent of a tangent now!

 

Re: dismissing something without trying it, you're right, people can make such value judgments, where I take issue is then taking those potentially poorly informed opinions and either using them to influence others or to pass them off as fact. How can you be fully informed about something without having tried it? I've no desire to visit New Zealand. That's a decision I have made based on a set of criteria relevant only to me. I will never dissuade anyone from visiting New Zealand however, because I simply don't have the experience. I'm not going to wade into a "should I visit New Zealand?" thread and say "no way, it's full of sheep and they all talk strangely", but that's what's happening here; "smart home devices are pointless you just end up talking to that instead of real people". Maybe one day I'll visit New Zealand, and it'll be lovely, and I'll tell people about it then.

[Colin_McLeod]

......and have everything in my house controlled by wifi...

 

Everything here is already controlled by ....... Oops I read that as "wife"

[PaulCheffus]

 I love paying for parking with my phone. I go weeks without using cash, and never have change, so it's far easier. Particularly at stations when you can just hop on the train and sort it there. I do always have my phone with me. I think you misunderstand, I fully welcome a 'smart' society. I'd happily do away with cash, and have everything in my house controlled by wifi and my phone.

Hi

 

The twice I have tried paying for parking it couldn't manage to recognise my number plate no matter how many times I tried to say it. In the end my son had to do it. It also helpfully told me that the next time it would have remembered my vehicle and things would be easier. Well it didn't and I gave up in the end.

 

I'd much rather pay using cash.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

[AndrewC]

Hi

 

The twice I have tried paying for parking it couldn't manage to recognise my number plate no matter how many times I tried to say it. In the end my son had to do it. It also helpfully told me that the next time it would have remembered my vehicle and things would be easier. Well it didn't and I gave up in the end.

 

I'd much rather pay using cash.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

I find the apps quite good. The downside is every fecking council seems to use a different one. Most are owned by the same company too. Fortunately Ringo seems to be consolidating their 'companies' into the single app. At one point I had 8 different ones for 8 different London boroughs. Now down to 2. The best thing about them is you get a receipt. Very handy if you have dodgy meter maids trying to plump up their quota. They can't use the old "ticket not visible" scam anymore. Twice Bromley council had to rescind tickets after I emailed them the receipt that shows registration, location, date, and time. The transaction number on the receipt also lets them verify with Ringo that its legit.