Blocking people who dont agree with you is not the answer to any problem.
Yes it is, dammit. This is the modern world. You have to move with the times and embrace the social withdrawal brought to you by crappy overpriced technology!
But an awful lot of things are. You know this of course.
A lot of the basic stuff is, yeah indeed. Half the time I can still find what I'm looking for quicker than Google can, though... and people far more tech-savvy than me seem utterly incapable of locating the obvious.
or rather than changing you would find other ways to waste time, like most smokers, tea drinkers and general chatters who are late for everything at work
correlation does not equal causation and this is where your thinking is wrong.
They do this already, though and half the time it is work related, or at least along those semi-productive lines. I've been known to hang out chatting in the work kitchen for over an hour, but it's still work chat, networking, sorting out plans and schedules, finding solutions with people who can deliver them... A couple of times I've even landed new jobs as a result.
Can't say the same about posting pics of my dinner or the contents of my toilet on Farcebook...
you think one change would solve an issue, it isn't because you haven't done anything to solve the underlying issue. you have just removed one of many possible distractions.
I'll have removed the one source that facilitates numerous different distractions. It's a gateway distraction, If you like - One device, so many apps, each a distraction - "Whatever you want to do, there's an app for that"... yet none of them help you check for traffic before stepping out into the road!!
and people used to manage fine with out money,
Because they weren't being flogged the latest overpriced Apple guff...
times change, technology moves on and it is extremely handwork to shun modern technology, as you find it is required for so much of life.
I don't shun technology just because it's modern. I shun it because it's not always better.
I adored my Psion Revo, for example and while I find modern technology far more capable specs-wise, it's often an absolute pain in the bum to actually *use*. Kinda like giving me an 8-Pack custom top end PC, but telling me I have to use my tongue to type on it!!
The number of people I know whose smartphones and tablets have cracked glass, for example, never mind that we have entire websites dedicated to embarrassing touchscreen typos and autocorrect screw ups. How is this better?
Heck, they're even bringing *back* clamshell keyboarded devices, now!
Smartphones look so boring, as well. People are doing flips over leaked photos of the latest iPhone and Samsung... which look exactly the same as ALL their previous junk. OK, the headphone socket (if it even has one, now) might be 3mm higher up the side of the case or something, but that's it. Not exactly the groundbreaking revolution everyone's making it out to be...
I agree with the OP that I think there is more depression and unhappiness in life these days with the more modern technology.
Seems to be a lot more of this social anxiety stuff these days, as well... probably from spending all your time interacting online instead of with real people!
Before mobiles, things felt more exciting when you were out with mates in a way, because there was more planning and I guess you felt further from the safety net of "home".
I'd say less planning, more adventure.
These days every bit of information around the schedule is downloaded and beamed to your synced calendar, so woe betide anyone who deviates from The Plan.... Never used to be like that. We'd just rock up whenever, do it live, play it by ear and have a whale of a time. Adventure, I think it was called... Probably why all those I choose as friends are older than me.
Now if you get stranded trying to find a rave in the sticks, you turn your phone on and GPS escorts you to wherever.
I do have a SatNav for on the bike, but there have been numerous places I'd never have found if I wasn't lost. Now you only find out about somewhere new if there are more than 200 good reviews on Trip Advisor...
The social media aspect that kids grow up with now is quite worrying and damaging I think at times.
Yeah, I agree with this part.
I think it cheapens the whole experience of life. Nothing is fun any more, as there's always some ****** there to tell you how much of a stupid **** you are and how your life is so worthless you ought to kill yourself... for no reason than they find it funny, probably because their own lives revolve around the internet and nothing more... and pre-teen kids are exposed to this!!
Never used to get that before the anonymity of the internet and never had to "grow a thicker skin", probably because anyone wanting to say that had to do it to my face and risk getting theirs kicked in.
People feel the need to check their phones constantly, often out of nervousness in place of where they would socially interact with another person. People are coming into offices for work less, and want to do everything remotely avoiding physical interaction.
Yup.
A lot of it I think is jealousy over other people's intersting and more vibrant/rich lives. We aim to "justify" that we are indeed having fun and doing cool, luxurious things, like taking a picture of our cat and nandos chicken wings. Take me back to the early 90s and yes...life was "easier" in a way.
This sounds pretty accurate, actually.
I grew up without TV, for the most part. When, at 13 years old, I told people about this they often asked, "OMG, what do you DO with your free time??!!"... There then usually followed a long list of all the things I did, mainly outdoor things like camping, hunting, but also reading, flying, drawing, modelling... there seemed so much to do in life.
)
