rwheelz

A cell phone doesn't have to be a burden or a negative. Not having an iPhone would waste a lot of time and greatly inconvenience my life.

vader1

My last cell phone ownership was 1989, it was about 20 pounds, came in a carry bag with an antenna and looked like the radio in Radar's office on MASH. It was also $1 a minute back then.

The main reason, I am cheap, but also when I am not near the office or my house, I don't want to be reached. I have an answering machine.

QUIKAG

I like it and am envious. Unfortunately, I need my phone for work and family. But, I do admit to doom scrolling more than I should on various social media apps. I hate FB, Insta, don't have Tiktock, and semi-enjoy X nowadays.

I do agree no phone is ideal. I miss the days of high school and college where I was only available when I wanted to be as I had no cell phone.

Wife quit teaching public school after two years recently and her #1 issue was battling the cell phone usage in class. It's a full blown pandemic or whatever. Very destructive in many ways for kids in school and not so less destructive for many adults.

engifineer

Yeah I figure our Taco has easily another 100,000 on it (at 200,000 now). So being 48, I should just get a couple of more fairly low mileage Tacos and park them in the shop. That should get me most of the rest of my driving life for daily drivers !

TommyDeVito

I agree with you but it’s an epidemic. It’s a crack pipe for most people and they are heavily addicted. When I go to the gym, 80-90% on smartphones, staring down and making finger gestures across a 6” piece of glass. They camp on stations, whether it be a bench or a machine. Just the other day, a mother/daughter combo was on the leg press (we only have 1) for 45 minutes straight. What were they doing the whole time? Surfing the crack pipe. Then there are fools playing their music or phone call on speakerphone, loud AF, locker room, on the gym floor, name it. The phones can add 30 minutes to my workouts, dealing with them. The camping is rampant. Hey I’m going to go the gym, sit on a piece of equipment, and surf on my phone. Maybe their fat asses think they’ll lose weight or gain muscle osmosis style.

When I go any establishment, like getting groceries at Costco, everyone is on the phone. Just like the gym, camping, blocking aisles, general asshattery. I mean I’m just trying to buy my food and be efficient with my time. Phones brick that completely. They even finger F the thing in line, holding up a line. Their speakerphone call is more important than the 10 people in line behind them. The way I grew up, if there is a line, have your shit ready, and be efficient as other people are waiting. That’s all out the window today.

Movie theaters? I quit going in 2019 due to smartphone interruptions. I used to go a lot, mostly independent films, the well done, intelligent stuff. And occasionally see the big budget stuff like say Interstellar, Blade Runner 2049, etc. As a movie buff, it’s been part of my life since I could walk, my only escape from a brutal childhood. From 2017-2019, 2 straight years, every single film I watched at the cineplex or indie house, smartphone interruptions. Some were so blatant with it I’d bring a rain jacket, a very thin and light jacket, with me, even in our 100+ degree summers. I could bunch/ball it up, put it on my shoulder and create horse blinders. 2 years straight of this I snapped. The previous 2 years I’d whisper “please put your phone away” and when I got more annoyed I’d say it louder, with quips like “Did you see the three advertisements before the film to put your phone on silent and put it away?” It became so frequent the manager of the place would see me coming and know to go get a replacement pass before I reached him. He always offered to go back in and bust them, or kick them out. But to get up, go find him, etc, it’s 10 minutes of the film I missed, and pointless, ruined it, so I’d leave. Just no point, missing key scenes and I paid my money. I’m quiet, etc. I understand too if the wifey had to take a comfort break and hubby whispers to her what she missed, quickly. That’s fine and decorum but that’s not what exists today. In 2019, I severely upgraded my HT to a Dolby Cinema (Dolby Vision + Dolby Atmos), with 7.2.4 and a lot of power, bi-radial horns and will never go back, ever. I don’t care what the film is I’ll wait for it to hit 4k blu ray and rent it for $3. Then there is the food. They serve wings, pizzas, and I’ve gone in there with 2 fat f’s sitting next to me with so much food you couldn’t see their pants or shoes. Wings, pizzas, I mean if I wanted to smell a kitchen I’d go get a 2nd job at one. But I can somewhat deal with that as it didn’t happen every film. Most people is just the popcorn and drinks, candy, cool. The phones were a deal breaker and they don’t enforce their own rules for fear of Gen Z Twatter bish, going ape on some review or something online. The cineplexes days are numbered.

Then there is driving. Rural, I’m sure you are good, in a less populated area. Here in the Dallas area, half or more people are on the phone when they drive. They drive slow AF (way under the speed limit), or too fast, swerving all over the road. You regularly have to sit through 2 lights, because people aren’t paying attention, and as a motorcyclist, to me it’s extremely dangerous. I dodge a wreck just about every time I drive. Having to swerve, panic brake, or nail the throttle to get around an idiot. IMO, penalties should be worse for this than DWI/DUI. Because according to the LE I know, some I train working k9’s with, others I shoot guns with, the distracted driving wrecks are way worse than drunk wrecks. LEO’s tell me at least the drunks are trying to drive. The phone f’ers, don’t even try. They say the carnage is worse on the phones. It’s every time I drive, anywhere, from a short 2 mile drive to across our metroplex. It’s an epidemic. In a previous vehicle I got rear ended due to this. It was stop and go and homey was surfing, bam, slammed into my rear bumper.

We are now at a point with Gen Z and Millenials, that their internet life is more important than their real life. They can’t put the phone down. The Ritalin generations. Some had ADHD inherently, DNA, many others didn’t have it but have it now due to phones + social media applications. It’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen during my half a century on this planet. Everyone just getting dumber and dumber and dumber by the minute. It even makes people our ages, dumb. You and your got damn phone I want to tell them. I don’t want to hear your speakerphone conversation, and don’t want to deal with your crack addiction. Nobody has any respect or honor in society any longer. It’s a got damn free for all. Full on narcissist takeover. Courtesy is long gone. I had thought with Carplay and AA, this would migrate away, nah, it’s gotten worse. I cannot count how many drivers I see, driving extremely poorly, in a modern vehicle, that certainly has Carplay or AA, and they don’t even use it. They have to hold my precious, constantly be touching on it or holding it in their hand while they talk on speaker instead of being focused on driving.

This is at the top of the list why I bought 6 acres in the mountains, in a very rural area. If I had the $ to build my Morton and everything else I want to do on my property (solar, wind, generator, well, etc) I’d be gone already. Hopefully in 2 more years. Can’t come fast enough.

QUIKAG

Tell us how you really feel, Tommy!

Seriously though, you are right. It is insane what I witness every day. My previous comment about the cell phones, well Keller ISD did a full blown phone ban for this upcoming school year. The second they hit campus, phone in their backpack turned off. Cannot turn it on again until the school bell dings at the end of the day. If there is an emergency, teacher can authorize phone on temporarily. If parents needs to get messages to kids, they call the front office.

You CANNOT imagine the blowback on social media from all these crackpot parents who are freaking that their precious kids can't have a phone. "What if I need to get a hold of him/her?" "What is their is a school shooting?" "They need it sometimes to check a schedule app" Blah, blah, blah. It's insane. These parents are acting like their kids are being thrown in prison by not being able to have their phone on during the school day. These parents are the same people driving around trying to make love to their phone on the road. It is insane.

I was a happy, perfectly content child all through my school years without a phone. Now, people can't live without it. It is a major issue for many people.

TheDonEffect

I remember someone once said the hottest girl they ever saw was a girl who got out of a perfectly maintained 20 year old stick shift Honda and proceeded to make a call on a flip phone, in 2023.

Before I go on a rant, I'll just say I don't blame phones/social media, I blame bad parenting and indulgent individuals. There are billions of dollars being invested into creating things that consumers will get addicted to.

engifineer

I am a firm believer that overuse of the internet, not enough time spent interacting in person, not learning how to resolve conflict in person and the amplification of bullying online mixed with parents who are really not present and let these things babysit their kids are one of the major contributors of youth violence. Kids did not do these things years ago (And it was easier back then than now to get ahold of a weapon if they wanted to). People have let their kids exist in a fake world and let them disconnect from society and wonder what is wrong with the kids. And then when they have issues dealing with real life, we stick them on meds to fix them... meds we do not always fully understand the effects of on a young developing mind. Blows my mind people do not see the correlation between kids being more and more disconnected from real life interaction and what is going on with the kids. Not to mention all the things they are now more easily exposed to.

And yep, I was a skater growing up and we did not have cellphones. I did not wear a watch (just got destroyed somehow skating if I did ) and hated stuff in my pockets. No earbuds, no phone, just some change or a couple of bucks. Would stay gone all day long, was home on time, etc. Just had to be more responsible And when we got into a beef with each other, it was in person and we figured out how to resolve it and at worse, MAYBE someone got punched lol. No sitting at home, letting it all well up while your "1000 friends" saw you being bullied in front of the world, hiding behind a keyboard stoking the flames until someone snapped.

Man things have changed a lot in a relatively short amount of time. And I think we have fully proven the human race is not mature enough for the tech that we have.

TommyDeVito

Someone has to say it, might as well be me.

Those parents are basically reacting like its them in that situation and they couldn’t deal with it. The parents are the addicts and have spread the addiction to their children. Basic psychology. F’in idiots, squares. Notice how when you and I grew up, people were skateboarding (I did), BMX, big into sports, watching and playing baseball, basketball, football, etc? You couldn’t get me to come into the house until dark. And video games were cool, but that shit was for at night, not in the day. Now these kids refuse to go outside, refuse to play sports/workout, and want to sit inside in the aircon all day playing games and doing social media. And people wonder why this country is in the state it’s in.

I knew, we were in a problematic situation when I started noticing car after car, that they all have Carplay/AA and the adults weren’t even using it. Have to hold and play with my precious. I see people go ADHD at lights (just now too running an errand), pick it up and start finger f’ing it. Back to the OP, do you blame some greedy ass corporation for paywalling modcons? Look at society. They eat up subscription based services like it’s crack cocaine in NYC, in the late 80’s, Nino Brown style. Their dumb, beyond stupid, Joneses lifestyle, clowns. Critical thinking is just 86’d.

darcyw

correct. I'd rather buy more tires

I have people who look after stuff- staff at work who take calls for me and family at home who take my messages- I call the people back who I want to talk to. I don't date as I'm married and the inane opinions of others constantly trying to sell me shit is annoying. My music is sirius/xm. I don't stream, but I do cross them from time to time. If I could completely get rid of my home phone (still have to call dad and my best friend), I would. If I'm on the road, you can't contact me- the more difficult it is to contact me the better..
Admittedly, I do use my wife's old cell phone- that has no SIM card- to connect to the internet at home.

livin' free, baby! I have no clue how an auto manufacturer would be able to update over the air, or monitor my car's parameters without a cell, if I bought a new car.
darcy