what is your current relationship with technology ?

movingtables

movingtables

movingtables

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I am 47 and i acknowledge this is going to sound a bit negative.

I am self taught in I.T and computers.
I've never taken to mobile phones, i find them intrusive, annoying and if i need to do something important I use my computer with a screen as i am now.

If i wish to switch a light on i don't need to ask a digital assistant to switch it on for me i use my finger
on the switch, although if i was disabled I'd probably find that useful.

Soon we will have self driving cars, isn't that called a Taxi and available now?

Well it's not all bad, i do enjoy my wireless mouse and keyboard and my super fast broadband.
Also i like ordering my repeat medical prescriptions online, now that is useful.
online banking is brilliant. i remember the days of having to go all the way to the bank to cancel a direct
debit but now its a click away, as is ordering anything you wish to your door.

So its obvious my current relationship with technology is mostly but not all, negative.

what say you? .....
 
Mobiles are only intrusive if you allow them to be.
I have a couple of smart light bulbs I got for free but I just use them as normal bulbs. So I'm kind of on the same page as you with that one.
Taxis are too expensive for regular use.

I don't think it is "obvious" that your relationship is mostly negative, given you have stated "if i need to do something important I use my computer".

If you truly believe your relationship with tech is mostly negative, try to live without it for a month and reflect on whether that month was more positive than usual.
TBH, I think it is extremely difficult to live without tech now, although I suppose it depends on how you define "tech", I mean main electricity is tech for example.
 
I prefered going to the shops to buy, but as time went on sales weren't sales, staff members unknowledgeable, and stock just better online. Pros and cons there i feel, and there are still some good shops about, and plenty of online bad shops and garbage products.

Tech wise i'm always a bit out of date, but often find issues in all things. Phones for example, overly big screens which is no good to me, a phone is a simple tool for simple tasks for my use. I do like having a torch, calculator, and stop watch on mine, camera is handy for basic use as i have dedicated video and photo devices which suit me better for their uses.

I'm soon to buy a new hifi, just being able to press play or radio on trumps getting phone or PC boot up. I also like having dvds and disks, if i didn't i would have to find other bits to fill the house up :D

If smart homes were cheap, worked flawlessly and phones didn't mind being dropped on tile floors, i'd probably invest in the light switch-less environment.
 
Technology is great if it works seamlessly in the background. That's why you don't like a smart assistant changing your light bulbs.

Sorry I don't understand.....I can't reach your lights at the moment, ok Google, ok Google, ok Google, ok Google, turn bedroom light on, turning living room light on....ugh

The night lights on the nest smoke alarms are good though as they work automatically and are useful.

If it makes your life easier, it's good.
 
I think what you are comfortable with depends on your age.

I am 48, and love PC's, but they 'started' when I was leaving school so are familiar to me, built my first in 1992. I also like tablets, great for content.

I don't have a laptop, never really found them as flexible as a PC (for my needs), and I hate mobile phones, I would happily just have a dumb phone if I could get away with it.

I think for me it is about being constantly connected and the speed and pressure of information thrown at an individual nowadays, I hate it. I prefer things a bit slower. I have all my notifications turned off, all, except phone calls themselves and have no social media as such, no FB, no twitter, no Instagram etc.

I do have a lot of smart bulbs (on remotes) very convenient to turn them all off with one switch, but no hive, nest etc. nothing like that connected to the internet, and I never will. If I do a smart home, it will be home assistant and independent of the big brands.

Maybe I am a hermit.
 
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Edit: should have said what my age is for context - I'm 43.

My first PC was in 1999, so I was late to the party but find tech mostly positive. Got online also in 1999, got my first mobile in 2000 (so again a bit late). Got broadband in 2002. Started video calling with Skype in 2007, so long before the "Zoomers". Got several Raspberry Pi's, know my way around command line Linux a little, and know a little assembly language too. I also have smart heating and lighting, a backup system (Synology NAS) and a UPS.

So I consider myself fairly IT-literate and I find everything I've written above is positive.

However, any negatively that I get from technology comes entirely from social media. I just can't get my head around how their algorithms work. I can't figure out the stories are chosen, whose posts take precedent, how to find your old posts again, and the inability to sort through your favourite posts and photographs. At least with sites like Flickr and deviantART, you can favourite posts/photographs and organise them into folders (albums). Anything that you fave on Facebook etc gets lost in the wilderness. Then there is the social aspect of Facebook etc in the way that people behave on there. The narcissism, vaguebooking, identity politics, politics in general, the woke agenda, witch-hunts, and "memes" that are so watered down that they lose all meaning.

There are algorithms on Spotify as well and I haven't quite got my head around those either, but I do have some control in the sense that I can teach it to curate music that I like. I still get the odd blip though where if I make an 80s playlist for a party (I don't normally listen to 80s), then it will start curating 80s music for me. I find that they only way to stop that from happening again is to delete the 80s playlist.

YouTube apparently counts as social media too, but I've used and enjoyed that years before the term was coined, so personally, I don't count YT as being SM.
 
I grew up setting up VCRs for relatives and taking apart my grandparents appliances as a kid. Technology is part of my red blood cells at this point :p
 
I always seem to be behind with tech and forget how fast things are moving on like current PC specifications I've always been retro in what I like. I don't use a smart phone... well I do have some which are old by other peoples standards I mainly use them as music players with bluetooth audio devices. I have a Nokia 3310 which is still going strong. So many people are glued to there smart phones today its unreal. Everybody is controlled by there phones today. I don't need any of that google smart assistant nonsense to turn my lights on or off and just simply get up and flip the switch "I have new old style toggle switches" on my lights. How would google change a lightbulb? I do like the idea of Alexa but I couldn't use it as an everyday thing.

I've always been good with electronics repairing or building things either from scratch or from other electrical appliances and its just a natural hobby for me. I love old transistor radios and I've got my HAM ticket I spent a lot of time building antennas and converting old PMR transceivers to Ham bands programming eeproms etc and that then ties in with old computers because some of the old programming software relies on old computers with slow processors.
 
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without it i'm unemployed. but even i'll join with a couple of my larger customers on how toxic public cloud is to enterprise business.

but yes, alexa/siri/google assistant. that a lot of data leaked for the sake of convenience, ironically on the back of a lot of ML style SW you could train yourself. We give up a lot for the sake of convenience.
 
Retro6 said:
I always seem to be behind with tech and forget how fast things are moving on like current PC specifications I've always been retro in what I like. I don't use a smart phone... well I do have some which are old by other peoples standards I mainly use them as music players with bluetooth audio devices. I have a Nokia 3310 which is still going strong. So many people are glued to there smart phones today its unreal. Everybody is controlled by there phones today. I don't need any of that google smart assistant nonsense to turn my lights on or off and just simply get up and flip the switch "I have new old style toggle switches" on my lights. How would google change a lightbulb? I do like the idea of Alexa but I couldn't use it as an everyday thing.
Click to expand...

I don't own a smart phone either I'm not anti I have played around with other peoples and I think they're amazing for what they are but its simply a cost based thing for me they're simply expensive things to own and what use would I get out of it that I don't already on my PC? Nothing really. At least nothing important. What does bug me is that everyone expects you to own one scan this symbol thing on your phone... what do you mean you don't have a phone?! The real thing though that I'm totally uninterested in is social media I've never had an FB account don't have twitter and everyone these days says you need to be on Instagram. Why? Seems to one of those you should be on it because... everyone is on it. Why? No real reason just because.

I'm not convinced its purely an age thing though as my uncle is on all those things and he loves his smart phone and he's 80! But he was a businessman first for banks then for oil companies then his own business and always been very interested in interconnectedness. And I'm not.

.:MBK:. said:
without it i'm unemployed. but even i'll join with a couple of my larger customers on how toxic public cloud is to enterprise business.

but yes, alexa/siri/google assistant. that a lot of data leaked for the sake of convenience, ironically on the back of a lot of ML style SW you could train yourself. We give up a lot for the sake of convenience.
Click to expand...

My mother has Alexa unit (my sister uses it to chat with her) but I don't like the thing. As for google even the darn TV set has google play or whatever its called and every so often likes to interupt whatever catchup TV I'm trying to watch and insert itself into my viewing (no you aren't having my personal details. Get lost.)
 
A few years back I used to love the idea of all this new tech coming out. Now all I care about is my privacy, and unfortunately it's impossible these days to embrace technological change without your privacy being invaded.

I guess I'm like Will Smith's character in 'I, Robot'...
 
Mobiles can be intrusive/bad for your health if like for young adults/teenagers theye are unknowlingly addicted to the social media psychological impacts atrributed to some,
I don't see the productivity (versus laptop) to be achieved from a smart phone, you can see posts where, a bigger screened laptop, you can multi-task, much more rapidly answer question, perform reasearch, avoiding the proliferate show me a link retort -
also, with their current bulky format they are just an encomberence to have to carry if, on foot/running, versus car/work-bag - a credit card and door keys, are all I want to carry.,
Apps like mobile banking or ordering fast food, if you need them regularly also more efficient on a laptop.
.... without wifi-calling mobile reception is flakey in some region of Cambridgeshire outback.

At the moment with utility costs, does seem it might be cheaper to get an unlimited mobile datacontract and use that as hot-spot for laptop if you don't have householders who are netflix users.

Smart home functionality largely seems like a surrogate male activity for DIY home improvement skills ancestors had,
I'd like an accurate system to track home appliance energy use though (hob and heavy hitters)
 
The_Arbiter said:
I was reminded (again) last night that my TV has an update available. No, why, go away. I knew plugging it in was a bad idea.
Click to expand...

This is my biggest gripe, there's so much dependency now on maintaining the latest versions and we're at the mercy of how good the developers are. Being signed out of apps due to an upgrade is really frustrating, especially on a TV!
 
I was with technology until I was about 25 (so 7 years ago or so). All through the 2000s I was into MP3 players and phones and was wowed by the PSP and PS Vita. They all seemed to offer significant improvements over the previous tech - CD Walkman, Smartphone Vs old phones, PSP Vs Gameboy...

But now I am pretty out of touch and the tech I do see emerging doesn't seem that interesting. A smart phone that folds? Truly a quantum leap in tech for the benefit of society. A PS5 that launched with like 3 Next Gen games and the rest work fine on PS4? I'll pass.

There are of course good tech developments. Things like NVME storage is good. Spotify and Netflix is good. Contactless payment is good.

My biggest concern with future tech is the need for an app and login / account for everything. When I eventually get an EV how many apps will I need to charge the thing when I'm out and about?
 
I'm nearly 70 and built my first PC in 1993, a 486DX33 prior to that I bought a 286 machine in 1990. I dislike mobiles and have an unsmart phone, I listen to music on vinyl, occasionally stream. I can switch lights on and off by myself.
 
I still use minidisc its so practical with good quality audio. I can record music from youtube and use the same disk over and over.
 
movingtables said:
if i need to do something important I use my computer with a screen as i am now.

what say you? .....
Click to expand...

Its all brilliant.

Something important. Moan about not liking phones :P

Yes they are a complete curse and a blessing. The evolution of the "phone" (are they really phones anymore, is that not a tertiary feature?) to its next level is probably one of the more interesting technology developments.
 
Basically agree with the OP...

I'm 35, so got mobile phone and internet around age 15. I threw myself into the internet and gaming and web design/development as a kid, and ended up making a career of it, but man it's changed. Instead of discovering new things to be enthusiastic about, time is spent dodging ads, trolls, abuse, crime, and violence. To say it's gone downhill is the understatement of the century.

It's a pretty big dilemma for me because it's also my job, but now I wish it didn't exist.

I would:
- ban smartphones, dumb phones provided the benefits without the cons
- ban advertising, online or otherwise - it manipulates your brain on purpose to create demand, immoral. yes this means sites which depend on advertising will go away, this is a good thing.
- ban collection of personal data, regardless of consent. which destroys [anti]social media and search engines. good.
- ban calling things smart which are actually the dumb choice. smart bulbs, thermostats, doorbells, meters. spending 10x the price for something unnecessary that breaks easier is absolutely dumb, you are dumb if you buy them.

In life, your happiness depends on where you deploy your limited attention. Put your attention in the right place and your life is better. Technology designed to consume your attention also consumes your happiness. </deep>
 
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