Is technology your friend or foe?

kshapero

kshapero

South Florida Man
Local time
7:12 PM
Joined
Mar 27, 2006
Messages
10,052
I use email, the Web, texting and What's App. No longer can sleep at night. Mind is always working. iPhones, Ipad and laptop. Constant distractions and by touch screen on my car. It would probably kill me to start up with all these other anti sanity social media sites.:eek::eek::eek:Am I a Luddite? Confess up. Is this stuff killing us?
 
For me it's not technology it's the focus on profitability above all else.

My vote is Not a Luddite. I think you are more wise like a Rabbi, eye of an eagle, and heart of a good person.

B2 (;->
 
kshapero said:
I use email, the Web, texting and What's App. No longer can sleep at night. Mind is always working. iPhones, Ipad and laptop. Constant distractions and by touch screen on my car. It would probably kill me to start up with all these other anti sanity social media sites.:eek::eek::eek:Am I a Luddite? Confess up. Is this stuff killing us?
Click to expand...


Greetings from a little ways north of you in Sarasota! I don't think you are a Ludditte but a realist. All of the "anti sanity social media sites" (apt description) are designed to be addictive. They want your attention and data. Their customers are advertisers and, as the saying goes, if you're not the customer, you're the product. I think everyone should keep that in perspective. It's great to connect with friends and family and "find your tribe" but remember whenever your eyes are on social media, you are feeding the advertising/consumerism machine.
 
Just take control of the distractions.

  • Turn off the ringers and notifications, put down your cell phone.
  • Set up the "VIP" callers list on the phone so that it only dings you when someone whose messages you know you always need to be aware of contacts you.
  • Cordon off a time during the day when you address your email and other messages, and stick to it.
  • When you're reading a web page or email and there are embedded links in the stream of what you're reading, avoid the impulse to click through to their content every time you encounter one.
  • Don't carry the devices all the time: Go about your life without thinking of them.

A bit of the dis-ease is the adoption of a psychological need to stay on top of this stuff constantly. You never needed to do that before, you don't need to do it now: Most things can wait a while and don't need your instant awareness or attention.

I almost always have my smartphone with me now, I use it quite a lot for many things. But I generally don't answer calls or txts immediately unless I see they are important (from a VIP) and/or need immediate response. I do my email cleanup in the morning and reserve time to give deliberate responses to the two or three messages that need a decent response later.

And then I go on my bicycle ride and either just ride or listen to music or a book with my headphones while I ride, only stuff that I don't find distracting and that helps me keep the pace of my cycling consistent. Same with doing my photography: I concentrate on seeing what's around me and leave the devices inert.

There were other annoying burdens in other times. This is just the current one, and it's just as much a PITA to manage as the others were. On the other hand, the devices and the infrastructure of communications and information available now have many benefits and advantages. Just don't let all that stuff be in control...

G
 
The anxiety issues are well documented, but since it is an addiction, those addicted exhibit the classic behavior of denial. As they are sure to in this thread.
Technology, in this area, may not be necessarily a foe, but it’s like alcohol and the difference between an occasional single drink, and 4 drinks every day. Might be friendly, might not.
But, for most people, the result is that they spend their lives now being constantly distracted from their distractions, and meaningful things are all crowded out.
Good luck cutting the cord.
 
IPhones and emails made my job easy. I don't have fax anymore.
My job which I do since early nineties is always involved computers, software and network. And now bosses want us to do scripting, instead of hiring programmers.
It is not technology. It is greed of management.
 
Godfrey said:
Just take control of the distractions.

  • Turn off the ringers and notifications, put down your cell phone.
  • Set up the "VIP" callers list on the phone so that it only dings you when someone whose messages you know you always need to be aware of contacts you.
  • Cordon off a time during the day when you address your email and other messages, and stick to it.
  • When you're reading a web page or email and there are embedded links in the stream of what you're reading, avoid the impulse to click through to their content every time you encounter one.
  • Don't carry the devices all the time: Go about your life without thinking of them.

A bit of the dis-ease is the adoption of a psychological need to stay on top of this stuff constantly. You never needed to do that before, you don't need to do it now: Most things can wait a while and don't need your instant awareness or attention.

I almost always have my smartphone with me now, I use it quite a lot for many things. But I generally don't answer calls or txts immediately unless I see they are important (from a VIP) and/or need immediate response. I do my email cleanup in the morning and reserve time to give deliberate responses to the two or three messages that need a decent response later.

And then I go on my bicycle ride and either just ride or listen to music or a book with my headphones while I ride, only stuff that I don't find distracting and that helps me keep the pace of my cycling consistent. Same with doing my photography: I concentrate on seeing what's around me and leave the devices inert.

There were other annoying burdens in other times. This is just the current one, and it's just as much a PITA to manage as the others were. On the other hand, the devices and the infrastructure of communications and information available now have many benefits and advantages. Just don't let all that stuff be in control...

G
Click to expand...
:eek:Gulp:eek:I'll try. I'll try.or we could just use explosives.:D
 
The problem is not the technology but people's behaviors, which are largely within their control. If you think that your actions are killing you, change them. Assume some responsibility instead of blaming the technology.
 
ptpdprinter said:
The problem is not the technology but people's behaviors, which are largely within their control. If you think that your actions are killing you, change them. Assume some responsibility instead of blaming the technology.
Click to expand...




Much psychological research and the entire advertising industry may disagree.:eek:
 
I don't think you're a Luddite (which is a good thing anyway), you just have common sense. That's in short supply these days. Must be back ordered or something. All these so called labor saving devices cause us to be constantly married to the stuff, which is hardly labor saving when we spend all of our time on it!

I do not do any social media at all, mainly because it's a lie. It's isolating, not social. Social means in person, or at least having a real connection to another living being, not a machine. I think all this constant electronic time dumbs us down considerably, and ruins our ability to focus and concentrate on what is actually important in our lives. It's inherently addictive, and purposefully designed that way on the front end. Personally, I don't like being manipulated or conned, especially by untrustworthy companies like google, youtube, facebook, etc..
 
Godfrey said:
Just take control of the distractions.

  • Turn off the ringers and notifications, put down your cell phone.
  • Set up the "VIP" callers list on the phone so that it only dings you when someone whose messages you know you always need to be aware of contacts you.
  • Cordon off a time during the day when you address your email and other messages, and stick to it.
  • When you're reading a web page or email and there are embedded links in the stream of what you're reading, avoid the impulse to click through to their content every time you encounter one.
  • Don't carry the devices all the time: Go about your life without thinking of them.

...I almost always have my smartphone with me now, I use it quite a lot for many things. But I generally don't answer calls or txts immediately unless I see they are important (from a VIP) and/or need immediate response. I do my email cleanup in the morning and reserve time to give deliberate responses to the two or three messages that need a decent response later.
...
G
Click to expand...

Perfectly stated. I am in this very same mode most of the time. I do turn my notifications back on from time to time when in the middle of a project that I should stay on top of, but more often I simply add a few relevant people to my list of VIPs for the duration of the project.

I have one email address that goes to my phone (an address only a very select few have), the rest of my email is solely on my desktop computer, so when I deal with email first thing every morning I am able to know I'm done with that till the next day. 'Urgent' has a very different meaning these days than it did twenty years ago. I prefer the traditional definition.
 
Timmyjoe said:
Agree 150%

Best,
-Tim
Click to expand...


I never owned, owning personal mobile phone.
My employers were, are providing it.
With my current work, not only I have to respond to calls, but it is advised to check emails and Skype message boards. I'm not paid for it. If I pick up the case , then I paid overtime. But then I have no choice to take off time, only be paid for overtime if I pick up the case after working hours.

Any other public company in same industry I know is using rotating shifts to cover 24/7. But if it is non regular hours shift, company has to pay more.
I only learned it about recently. Before I was wondering, why here in GTA everything has to be 8.30 to 5....

Working in Moscow I would take public transportation and visit two, three customers sites per day. Here it is still possible, but...
Then I came to Canada in 2003, I was getting on customer site regularly.
Now it is all on VPN. Honestly, it sucks. You have to handle more cases under same wage. And you have to seat more in cubical instead of travelling.
I used to go on site earlier and take street pictures...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom