It's truly scary to me. A good recap of why/how is here: The Day Albert Einstein Feared by kasache - Meme Center

wth? I guess I'm just a dinosaur but I use my cell phone to call family/close friends and that's about it. I don't have a data plan or get much into "apps." I have this thing called a life which I prefer to put time to instead. It isn't amazing, but I'd rather pay attention to where I'm actually at and who I'm actually with vs some cyber-connected people on social media/etc blah. Yeah, weird I guess in this day and age...

And throughout the ages we have had the doommongering of the prior generation - Print, Radio, TV, Walkmans, Computers etc have all been heralded as the downfall of society as we know it.

...I think society will be ok

Here's a link to something to more fully explain my point (hopefully before I get jumped on by 20 GS experts telling me I'm wrong, at any rate).

Slate’s Use of Your Data

RIGHT HERE BUDDY!

But I took it a step further, and hail mary'ed my last cell into the Pacific,

I CAN'T STAND THEM!

It's unbelievable....just unbelievable, its no secret what they do to you, or that addicting people to them is part of a plan by people who don't care about you.....yet every street I walk down.....everyone has their heads buried...whatever, I now use my GF's cell number for things (She HATES it "I'm not your secretary!!"....."Yes, my dear..you ARE my secretary!)

And in general, if people want to get a hold of me, they have to put the work in, I REALLY like not being so easy to get a hold of, it has done wonders for my piece of mind.

You missed my point, but I expected that in general It isn't simply about technology. (PS long-time I.T. guy here) Also I don't recall walkmans or computers ever being "heralded as the downfall of society as we know it." Not old enough to say for radio and TV, although with TV I think there's a valid point there as well. As Dennis Miller once said: "face it, the TV beast has swallowed us whole." On the whole, I agree. But again I realize I'm spitting into the wind.

You are ignorant to readily available facts that would change your opinion in a hurry,

Perhaps you should refrain from pontificating on subjects you are too lazy to investigate

Replies as expected...

tee hee, giggle

Keep digging.

plays on fear and impulse like everything else.

i think for kids it will be a problem, but working in factories or fields was much worse. they'll probably be blind and deaf by 40 but hey, technology will clear all that up

I don't have a "smart" phone.
I just phone with my phone and use it's calendar and alarm for reminders.

Slaves need a distraction. It's not weird.

Ha! Yet here you are 'talking' to people you don't know, in a virtual world. You're no different, bill5!

And the fact that you're generally ornery in your on-line interactions is classic.

Look a troll, how cute - and surprise, with weak reading comprehension skills to boot. How novel. Party on Garth

My android has a good solitaire and acey-deucy game in it when all else fails.

Just calling you out, Bill. You're so against engaging with cyber-connected people, but you're talking about it with cyber-connected people on an Internet forum!

Take some responsibility for it- you're just like everyone else! Party on......or logoff!

I'd love to know who here is a hard-working, touring musician without a smart phone! For those of us in the trenches, who actually leave the house and are on the road playing music, it is truly indispensable.

I'm not sure if society will be OK. This is not like previous generations. Print, TV, etc, etc............

It's already having a profound effect on society. Look around you. Look at the way people communicate, or the lack of it. Look at the listlessness, and desensitization going on all around us. It's pretty obvious, that phone zombies are everywhere, and indulging themselves in attention deficit media almost constantly.

Phones are useful, but skills are being lost. We are losing the ability to do simple brain tasks because our phones are doing it for us. It's a little like de-evolution.

Awareness of the negative sides to the phone, and indeed, internet/technological phenomena surrounding us needs to be seriously looked at as we are changing our very nature by an over reliance on emergent tech.

Real life is where it's at. Use the tools, but don't become addicted, and don't let them take over. Society will continue to change in an adverse way if theses things are left unchecked. The potential for negative outcomes is tangible and scarily present, but sensible and informed awareness of societal impact could avoid the seriousness of these effects.

I, for one, limit the use of the phone. It's great for travelling when one needs to find out travel arrangements, hotels, general information etc, but over reliance on these things is a trap, and the fact that so much infrastructure in developed nations now relies on the premise that everyone has a smart phone (tickets/public transport/banking/etc) is scary.

Perhaps we need to remember to balance the technology with the more human and mundane needs.

Ah, humans are still crow like enough to be distracted by shiny new things. Old brain stuff, never going to change.

It seems to me that people are afraid of their own thoughts, and prefer to live in an artificial world.

Afraid to have eye contact in an elevator or on the train.

But the worse is when people are crossing the street, walking up stairs, and the worse I've seen was someone walking in the rain, no umbrella, looking down at the phone.

As an artist, my greatest skill is observation. I need to be alert and see what's going on around me. I don't even like headphones, I like to hear the world.

Anyways, have fun with your limited brain, and good luck passing that down to your churn.

everyone needs a distraction

don't want/need a smartphone either, hate the things.

everyone needs one, its just how much do you need it

Not sure why it's so indispensable for a touring musician. The label provides the bus, the label takes care of my plane tickets and my hotels. The tour manager takes care of my per diem and all arrangements and keeps me on top of the itinerary. Food is provided at the venue for dinner. I just need to make sure I'm there when the tour starts and then I don't need to think about anything until the tour's over.

I say this as a professional touring / session musician that I use my phone the least when I'm on tour with acts. I use my calendar to double check or book session work and gigs for when I'm back, and use the camera to text pictures to my fiancee and check my email. That's about it. Maybe once in a while if I'm curious how far we are until the next venue or hotel, I might open the GPS and just do a quick check.

In fact, come to think of it, from 2004-2011 alone I was, on average every year, touring for 8 months with acts and I didn't even get my first smart phone until like 2013 - up until then I was still using a small handheld...I used to use Sony Ericsson phones with keypads. So even the stuff I mentioned above is stuff that I only fairly recently started doing when I'm on tours.

I get that some people are addicted to facebook and instagram and all that and so maybe they need to be on them the whole time they're on tour, but I have a lot more fun f**king around on the bus, and reading - I bring a lot of paperbacks on tour.

my phone:

I have an android phone now. It has a drum machine and tuner I use to try to learn to fiddle with and a db meter and facebook so.... cool

In the US the pressure to be available to work at the drop of a hat 24/7 coerced so many of us into carrying a phone at all times, not to mention those employers who required it created a paradigm where now if you don't have one you are considered the odd duck. I've seen stuff on pbs where you have people in places that don't have running water but do have cell service. The world is just a weird place. I still have a land line for various reasons, and one of my greatest pleasures these days is not answering it.

I actually still have a landline in my house as well and I'll tell you what, people who strictly use cell phones will never know how good it feels when you're having an argument and you just slam the receiver down to hang up!

I hear you Bill, if someone wants to talk to me they can call me and actually talk to me. I despise texts on a phone. If you have to write that much then send me an email and I'll read it on a nice big screen when I get home.

American Medical Association claims a spike in hearing loss is near crisis levels for ages 12- 27 years old.

it's worth reading the glass cage by nicholas carr, it's very eye opening.