Seniors and Technology

Why do we need all this technology? Does it really bring any of us closer as a people or it is just a means of "communicating" while avoiding any real face to face or other meaningful communication? Does it effectively "isolate" us from other human contact?

Need? Well some of it can be handy sometimes, but only sometimes.
We mostly "need" it because of sales and marketing.

Although I wholeheartedly agree with that (and psikeyhackr's analysis), I do have a true story that happened on Monday (the holiday) and forced me to at least buy more minutes for my Tracfone.

My sister got sucked into one of those "specials" that offered a discount for a thousand minutes (although she too still uses her landline 99.99% of the time). So here she's stuck with all these minutes that she needs to use by the end of the month or they disappear. She offered to lend me her cell phone so that I could call my son in Texas and talk as long as I wanted, plus I have a close friend having some problems that would probably be a very long toll-call.

Well my sister decided to get her car washed yesterday, and half-way through the wash & suds cycle, the whole mechanism just came to a complete stop. It's all automated, and NO ONE was around to reset the thing, or whatever it is they would normally do in such situations (it was a holiday, remember). She really thought she was going to have to get out of the car and start yelling as loud as she could to catch the attention of some passerby BECAUSE I HAD HER CELL PHONE and she couldn't call anyone for help, even 911. As it turned out, there must be a failsafe mechanism because as she started to get out of her car (and get sloshed), the big door opened. Whew. There was an emergency phone number posted on the wall, which she did try to call just to let them know the problem but NOBODY ANSWERED! She got, you guessed it, voicemail.
 
"There is no escaping from ourselves. The human dilemma is as it has always been, and we solve nothing fundamental by cloaking ourselves in technological glory." Neil Postman

Why do we need all this technology? Does it really bring any of us closer as a people or it is just a means of "communicating" while avoiding any real face to face or other meaningful communication? Does it effectively "isolate" us from other human contact?

Interesting questions, I am amazed when eating out or in a public space at the number of people who feel it necessary to be texting or talking. I have seen four men in business suits walking down the street in Philly all on cell phones - comical sight. Or have you been around people with the almost invisible phone and think maybe they are talking to you? Having been there from the very beginning I admit a bit of bewilderment, I remember when we had to fix things down to the exact open or break in circuitry to the first floppy disk PCs and lotus 123, to networks to internet, to circuit packs to remote access, to instant messaging - been there done it all. Everyone hated instant messaging when we first deployed it - now they live in it and in email. I am currently teaching seniors Windows etc so feel your pain. I am not sure what to make of this so called social networking, and I sometimes think the technology contributes to the partisan divide.

Interesting reads are Postman and a great history is John Naughton's 'A Brief History of the Future' From radio days to Internet years in a lifetime. Clifford Stoll is great too. Daniel Cohen's 'Our Modern Times' is worth a look.

"Anyone who has studied the history of technology knows that technological change is always a Faustian bargain: Technology giveth and technology taketh away, and not always in equal measure. A new technology sometimes creates more than it destroys. Sometimes, it destroys more than it creates. But it is never one-sided." Neil Postman
 
"There is no escaping from ourselves. The human dilemma is as it has always been, and we solve nothing fundamental by cloaking ourselves in technological glory." Neil Postman

Why do we need all this technology? Does it really bring any of us closer as a people or it is just a means of "communicating" while avoiding any real face to face or other meaningful communication? Does it effectively "isolate" us from other human contact?

Interesting questions, I am amazed when eating out or in a public space at the number of people who feel it necessary to be texting or talking. I have seen four men in business suits walking down the street in Philly all on cell phones - comical sight. Or have you been around people with the almost invisible phone and think maybe they are talking to you? Having been there from the very beginning I admit a bit of bewilderment, I remember when we had to fix things down to the exact open or break in circuitry to the first floppy disk PCs and lotus 123, to networks to internet, to circuit packs to remote access, to instant messaging - been there done it all. Everyone hated instant messaging when we first deployed it - now they live in it and in email. I am currently teaching seniors Windows etc so feel your pain. I am not sure what to make of this so called social networking, and I sometimes think the technology contributes to the partisan divide.

Interesting reads are Postman and a great history is John Naughton's 'A Brief History of the Future' From radio days to Internet years in a lifetime. Clifford Stoll is great too. Daniel Cohen's 'Our Modern Times' is worth a look.

"Anyone who has studied the history of technology knows that technological change is always a Faustian bargain: Technology giveth and technology taketh away, and not always in equal measure. A new technology sometimes creates more than it destroys. Sometimes, it destroys more than it creates. But it is never one-sided." Neil Postman

Maybe it's more a city thing. I never see lots of people talking on cell phones in stores or on the streets, only occasionally. But I did have something think I was using my cell phone the other day when I muttered something about the price of coffee to a lady next to me, and she ignored me at first, then said "OH! Sorry. Were you talking to me? I thought you were on your cell phone." We laughed.
 
No offense granny but that is a matter of you simply not wanting to learn these simple things. Not faulting you, just pointing out that wanting a mile marker is rather pointless as you would likely not even want to learn how to access the information on the unit. Older people tend not to like new tech simply because the old way works and they do not want to learn another way of doing things no matter how easy the newer ways may or may not be. Nothing wrong with that but there it is ;)

You're right. Life was more simple when we didn't have all these gadgets. We communicated face to face ... we waived hello to our neighbor in the morning instead of texting them on the way out the door. Which action really takes less time? A quick waive or pushing a bunch of buttons? Which is more friendly and/or personable?

I guess, in part, I'm sort of jaded - working around people who lived every minute of their day based on what was in their blackberry, people tearing down a highway running their mouth on the cell phone instead of looking where they're going. "Oops ... sorry I slammed into you and tied up traffic for five hours because I just couldn't stay at my desk five more minutes to close my deal ... but you're partly at fault because you should have gotten out of my way." Really?

I'm retired. I don't need the rat race anymore. I tired of the whole "He who has the most toys wins" attitude back in the 80s. Do I like my computer? Yes - absolutely. Do I like to take pictures with my cell phone? Yes - especially when I take morning walks - because I'll never see that EXACT sunrise again. One of these days I really must invest in a real camera ... and have my children show me how to download the pictures to my computer! :D
Of course, the point that I made before was that all this can be said for technology that you were using 30 years ago as well. Fact is, EVERY generation does this with the last and the exact same thing will happen again to us when the newer, flashier thing comes out. Nothing to do with the current trends or the direction of technology. It is a function of an ever changing, evolving world.
Why do we need all this technology?

As someone who built his first computer in 1978 I think there is definitely a degree of Technology for Technologies Sake going on. Some people want stupid stuff just because it is currently regarded as COOL. Before I switched to computers Men, it was mostly men, were buying 200 watts per channel power amplifiers. Like who needed that?

Now some people change their smart phones every 6 months. When they first get it they brag about how cool it is. Then after 2 months they complain about all of the idiotic glitches it has. Then they get another one with new improved idiotic glitches. :cuckoo: :lol:

I have had a DUMB phone since I first got a cell phone.

I am considering getting a myTouch 4g now. The smartphone finally looks good enough to be worth it. But I hear they are putting trojans into the free software for it in China.

Galbraith was talking about the planned obsolescence of cars in 1959. I have a Linux book from 2001 that mentions the planned obsolescence of computer software. Let's get real. Although technology does improve a lot of the changes are just for marketing purposes to make money.

psik
That is why you never adopt early tech. I always lag a few years and pick up the items that lasted through the craze. Of course, this is also not a direct function of tech either. If the tech was gone we would be doing the same thing with cars, cloths, bling or some other useless object that people tell themselves it makes them better than the Johnsons. That is a natural (albeit idiotic) tendency of humans in general.
 

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