Remember what it was like before cell phones?

a reply to: worldstarcountry

Well for example you know those automated thingies where you can pick up stuff that you have ordered, the code that opens the box never comes to my OG phone,

Same with banks, they have my phone number, but never see verifying codes and things like that. And they already told me that pretty soon i will not be able to access my bank online without a smartphone or a device that the bank will give me.

a reply to: solve
Oh I see you are specifically referring to the Amazon boxes. Why not use the post office? They have a service where you walk up to a human, and they hand you your package. I just did that as well for my pop two weeks ago.

I ditched personal banking nearly three years ago. I just cash my checks, or pull all the money from money cards from an atm. The world can still be simple as long as you choose it to be. My job pays me with a money card. I pull all the cash out and do not use the card.

Funny how often idiots with their phones brag about how easy it is to pay with a tap, and then hold up the checkout line trying to figure out how to use their own money. Half the time I see fools pull out a card anyway when they cannot figure it out. And occasionally even the card fails to correctly have its chip read!

I always love telling the cashier when I follow a customer like that with "good thing cash does not fail to work" . Nowadays, its cards and phones holding up the checkout lanes, not cash.

a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

I have a cheap flip top phone, but I don't use it much at all. People today don't seem to think it's rude to be using their phones while they are with other people. I see groups of people fiddling with their phones more than paying attention to the people they are with.

a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

I've had my LG for a few years now and got the newer OS so you can transfer to the SD card. That unable to copy to SD card "experiement" was the stupidest thing I have ever seen. What a PITA. I wound up taking the SD card out, connecting the phone to the computer, copied the files off of it, copied the files to the sd card and then put it back in the phone. I was never so happy to see a phone die a cold lonely death as that stupid thing.

I'm not a glued to my phone kind of person since I'm a child of the 60s but my 4G tablet, now that's a different story. 8 inches of high def glory at my fingertips. If it was a girl, I'd marry it!

Yup I remember fondly.

A friend of mine son that sell phones up accurately when they first came out .

“ it’s like having your wife in your pocket “

a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

I am only 36 so not that old but I remember those days well.

I have a smart phone but it literally just sits on my desk at work doing nothing except when I am on break I will play chess sometimes, but more often than not I just use it like a Walkman and take walks on breaks.

I would get rid of it but it is our only source of internet at home (tethering) which saves us money and our only communication to the outside world. As long as you are not always on it I don't think it's terrible.

To speak to the prevalence of what JAGstorm mentioned of people not understanding your not being available 24/7, even though I do have a smart phone I don't answer it all the time. My time is more important, especially if I am working or focussing on reading.

I saw it ringing at work today and ignored it, like usual. Then within 3 minutes I got a call on my work phone, it had been a clinic and the worker asked me 'Is your cell number not correct? Did you not get our call just now, you didn't answer?' and I stated simply 'I saw it, I just didn't answer' There was a few seconds of dead air confusion on her part... then she just said oh...okay....anyway would you like to schedule?' lol totally not understanding such a concept.

People at work here are mind boggling bc they aren't supposed to be, but it seems every 5 mins they are checking their personal phones. And you know it's nothing important.

a reply to: solve

I actually have an older smart phone, and it doesn't want to download this gym's app. I only want to join this gym because they have an informal martial arts class I have taken for free on my friend's account a few times.

I am looking forward to seeing what the person at the front desk says, asking me to check in (using my phone), when I tell her 'the app doesn't work on my phone, can I just check in normally?' with her in person lol.

'I am sorry sir, you can't be a member here then. We have no other system' lol lets see.

My career choice is based around Collaboration so while I am glad you found a reason to not want your smartphone I enjoy the 4 I currently have /sarc off

That being said sorry it doesn't work for you , the reality of it is having the ability to do , look up, investigate and in general improve knowledge base in our palm is something that is easy to take for granted when the tinfoil is on. The idea that losing phone service for 90 days is somehow a good thing is neither realistic or not incredibly damaging in many fields. Sure if everyone was on vacation then yah...CME away...

I think there is a time and place where phones shouldn't be used. For example, something less serious, but it would be great to have BT or NFC or something else trigger it so that anytime you sat in a movie seat and when the film starts your phone switched into movie mode..because it's awesome when someone has the latest Cardi B ringtone going off right in the middle of a movie. Extend that out to any of the more or less serious events where phones become a problem and I get it. It's terribly distracting going to a concert when you are 10 rows back and rather than seeing the performance all you see is the glow of phones.

As for the claims that you can't do certain things without a cell phone..in what world ? As long as you have a checking account you have multiple other options that do not require a phone.

So I get the OP rant against phones but like many things in life, their are no one size fits all solutions.

I've started just walking right through people who are too busy staring at their phones to step to their side of the sidewalk. Anybody doesn't like it can kiss my black ass.

I had a computer and the internet with dial up modem before I had a cellphone. Had to get offline to talk on the phone with the people you'd make friends with on America Online 3.0. There were forums too. Lots of active forums because that's all there was about anything of interest really.

The really old guys will say proudly that they were on bulletin board systems talking about stuff before the internet. I remember Blackberry being the first popular psuedo smartphone in the mid to late 90's.

I'm only in my mid 30's though, I started young.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

Remember what it was like before cell phones? Back in the day, people used answering machines. Today, traffic doesn't even move because 99.9% of my city's population are glued to their phones. We are becoming post-human machines. I hope a solar flare knocks out all cellular communication for a good 90 day. People need to reconnect with reality.

Yes vividly. I'm one of those people that is not glued to my cell phone and it drives my friends crazy. Some people get irate when you don't answer a message in three minutes. There are times my phone is dead for a week.

You and me alike, sister. I drive my husband nuts quite often with the dead phone, "Why the hell did I buy the damn thing if you don't charge it!" Um, because you wanted a house phone for us when you're at work... Other than the occasional texting back and forth while he's at work, I flat don't use it. To the point where there's literally over 52 hours of rolled over talk time accrued. And that's just stacked up from the basic $10 a month talk/text/data plan, soooo...

My friends are all "Check out my new phone, I finally upgraded to a modern one after X number of years!" and I'm all "Ok. Want a cookie?"

originally posted by: FlyingSquirrel
I had a computer and the internet with dial up modem before I had a cellphone. Had to get offline to talk on the phone with the people you'd make friends with on America Online 3.0. There were forums too. Lots of active forums because that's all there was about anything of interest really.

The really old guys will say proudly that they were on bulletin board systems talking about stuff before the internet. I remember Blackberry being the first popular psuedo smartphone in the mid to late 90's.

I'm only in my mid 30's though, I started young.

Ah, AOL's goodies, and the age of Bolt forums. The more hip folk used to use Usenet.

Those were the days, kiddies, those were the days!

Edit: As to the Crackberry, yep, my older brother had one. And a Palm Pilot. He was ahead of the curve back then.

I didn't even own a cellphone until about 3 years ago and I just turned 51 this past July. I never wanted one, but needed one for work because we didn't have a landline at the house any longer. All we ever got were sales calls, so it got shut off.

I rarely answer my cell unless it's family though. Unknown numbers get ignored.

I use my cellphone for playing Pokemon Go, which is something I love, and for reading. I do admit, I spend a lot of time on my phone, but I have no friends outside of work and other than my 2 daughters, no family either. So it's not like I'm sitting around people and ignoring them in favor of my phone. I'm sitting at home using it.

Unfortunately, there are some things I have to have an app for. My health benefits for example. The insurance provider wants us to use the app for claims, etc. To call in sick at work, we have to do that online. No phoning the place. Pretty much everything to do with work requires online access.

a reply to: solve
As a millennial that refuses to ever have a smart phone, the number of people that look at me like I have 3 heads is hilarious.

Though it has caused me some problems, had to stop doing business with a bank because they insisted on using their application for everything, and I simply could not use their application due to lack of smart phone. Then they tried to charge me for a monthly paper record of my transactions.

The most interesting part is social situations, where I am the only one not glued to a screen. It wakes you up to how addicted people in general are to their devices, and it is frankly disgusting that they would rather stare at a screen rather than look another person in the eyes and converse.

It is an addiction to instant gratification, an addiction to instant validation, and an addiction to the seconds long dopamine hit it constantly give them. All the while sucking the life out of them and isolating them, but claiming it does the opposite. It is to the point that simply making eye contact with someone is novel, and that is absolutely wretched.

a reply to: dubiousatworst

The most interesting part is social situations, where I am the only one not glued to a screen. It wakes you up to how addicted people in general are to their devices, and it is frankly disgusting that they would rather stare at a screen rather than look another person in the eyes and converse.

The worst is when people are driving and they are looking down. You know they are looking at their phone. It is so scary.

a reply to: Nyiah

'Member IRC? I was also into MUDding/MUCKing/MUSHing (text games) on telnet.



I also had dialup modem. Images were a hot commodity back then, lol, waiting for the one image on the page to load.

I really miss the old internet from like late 80s to 2000, before it was corporatized. Only people who knew how to code or at least work a little hard, had a homepage. And people were more curious and civil.

Thanks to social media and corporations the net is pretty much a plastic newspaper cesspool now instead of a comfy clubhouse.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Horrible! No different than drinking and driving. If someone isn't paying attention like they should be, they could kill people, including themselves. Everyone thinks it won't happen to them. Scary is right!

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: dubiousatworst

The most interesting part is social situations, where I am the only one not glued to a screen. It wakes you up to how addicted people in general are to their devices, and it is frankly disgusting that they would rather stare at a screen rather than look another person in the eyes and converse.

The worst is when people are driving and they are looking down. You know they are looking at their phone. It is so scary.

Distracted driving is bad no matter the distraction.

I have seen women doing makeup, a guy shaving, plenty of people looking at phones all while diving.

None of it is good.

a reply to: FlyingSquirrel

America Online 3.0.

Oh, the ol' AOL chat rooms. I remember those well, and the cliques who used to occupy them.

They were fun for what they were then. Brings back memories.

Just like any tech, it's all in how you use it.

I turn off my ringer overnight. I don't carry my phone around inside, nor outside, the house. No voicemail. I don't answer callers idk; if someone knows me, they will text. If it's important enough, a friend will ring my phone instead of text. If I am driving and get a text,. I just read it at a red light....no big deal.

I can't imagine going about my other business without the phone. Meetings, appointments, spouse, directions and maps....pretty foolish to toss all of that out just because someone doesn't have self control. We call that "throwing out the baby with the bathwater".