Last week, I wrote a post about the card catalog, and we had some fun talking about giving up all digital devices. But if you really had to give up one digital device, which one would it be? And why?
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Bloody phone, I hate the thing and intend to switch to a flip one if I can or to a landline like most are doing in Japan right now (recently found out that many outside of Tokyo are doing the switch back to that and fax machines). So I want to chuck it into the sea once I'm out there.
As to how I'll survive without it, I'll manage as I survived almost thirty years without it and miss the days of landlines.
I don't have a video game counsel, and I in general loath the idea of adults playing video games which I consider infantile, so I guess that's the real answer. However, since I don't need to give that up I said phone, as now I only use it for work, to check in with my elderly mother, and to check the weather. I would certainly love to get rid of thing. Still legit attached to my laptop I write and make art on, and my ipad tablet I make music on.
Other: all of the above. Everything but the PC workstation. It is for making things. All those other things are for consooming product. They're just a medium. The fact they all have computer chips in them is as trivial as the fact that a straw and the machine that made it both contain plastic.
I could do without the PC too, but presently I make a living with it, and I find it useful for other tasks. If a massive solar flare triggered a geomagnetic storm and wiped it all out though, I'd be fine. I mean, assuming I survived until the dust settled and we got back to behaving like civilized people. I wouldn't miss it is what I'm saying.
Phone, 55 years farming, traveling, working, breakdowns, flat tires, accidents - guess what - I'm still here. I'm not stranded in a field or on the road. Its damn handy now that I have it - but - life was simpler, I never got a where are - when you going to be home etcetera when I did not have one. Its like a ball and chain. I carry one now because of a medical event that could have happened in a wilderness trip that I would have never been found in time. Some how my wife thinks if it happens out in the middle of nowhere I'll be able to call and chat. Why she wants to find me is still a mystery to me
I've been a computer geek since before I learned to read... first books I got from the library in 1975 were about computers. aside from during the speed reading course I took at my parents' college that year, I still didn't get my grubby little fingers on any computerized tech until 1984 or 1985.
I'll not be easily giving up any of my devices. I rarely use tablet computers so I suppose that would be my survey preference.
I also appear to have a higher tolerance for EMF and mechanical/tech related chemical exposure than the average Joe, though my aging eyes do not like led and fluorescent light as much as sunlight or even the thermal glow of incandescent lamps.
in a post apocalypse situation I'd reduce my tech usage, but if I managed to avoid other humans well enough to be able set up my own space with salvaged items, odds are I'd still have some computer equipment in use.
the Network is pretty useful for information gathering, but I'd rather do without it than computerized hardware.
if I had to rely on computer equipment as a black box technology like the masses seem to, I'd absolutely hate it. they can't program it, they can't repair it, they can't modify it. were I stuck exclusively using other people's software and had to rely on others to repair things as they broke (including lower tech machines) I would likely be some variant of Luddite. it's only my abilities of reprogramming, repairing, and modifying technology that keep me copacetic with using it.
I’d give them all up in a heartbeat if I could go back to homesteading. Here locked in the city, they are my sanity. Phone to read substack during coffee and smoke. Laptop to watch movies or documentaries cuz I won’t have a tv, and to look things up cuz there’s no more card catalogs 😉. Tablet to read books on cuz I don’t have the room for real ones.
But give me a yard, garden, some critters…and watch how fast these all get tossed.
Mobile phone. Mine is pretty old and I got an email from my network provider late last year, which said that by last January it would no longer do anything but make a call and send a text because 3G was being switched off all over the country. That suits me just fine, as I only do calls and texts and stream Radio Caroline when walking the dog. If I lose that then so be it. Still working fine ! For me the mobile phone (especially 3G onward) has been the most insidious technology in destroying people's ability to function socially and maintain a cohesive society with established norms of bahaviour. If we are talking about young people and kids, even more so.
Assuming that "phone" means smartphone, as opposed to a dumbphone or landline: it's the smartphone. I work from home and my only commute is for my children, shopping, library, occasional outings and so on. I don't need internet access outside that. I'd still have a dumbphone.
I need internet access overall, but I don't need it 24 hours a day and fitting in my pocket. So the laptop at my home is sufficient for that. When I worked outside home, internet access at work was enough - I didn't need it in the journey from home to work.
My old smartphone was dying due to absurdly short battery life and I'd been planning to replace it with a dumbphone, but my wife bought me a new one for my birthday and I didn't have the heart to refuse it. But when this one dies...
What I really hate about the phone is how they've tied 2FA to everything. That should be optional, and I should be able to use an email instead of a number.
Bloody phone, I hate the thing and intend to switch to a flip one if I can or to a landline like most are doing in Japan right now (recently found out that many outside of Tokyo are doing the switch back to that and fax machines). So I want to chuck it into the sea once I'm out there.
As to how I'll survive without it, I'll manage as I survived almost thirty years without it and miss the days of landlines.
I don't have a video game counsel, and I in general loath the idea of adults playing video games which I consider infantile, so I guess that's the real answer. However, since I don't need to give that up I said phone, as now I only use it for work, to check in with my elderly mother, and to check the weather. I would certainly love to get rid of thing. Still legit attached to my laptop I write and make art on, and my ipad tablet I make music on.
Other: all of the above. Everything but the PC workstation. It is for making things. All those other things are for consooming product. They're just a medium. The fact they all have computer chips in them is as trivial as the fact that a straw and the machine that made it both contain plastic.
I could do without the PC too, but presently I make a living with it, and I find it useful for other tasks. If a massive solar flare triggered a geomagnetic storm and wiped it all out though, I'd be fine. I mean, assuming I survived until the dust settled and we got back to behaving like civilized people. I wouldn't miss it is what I'm saying.
Phone, 55 years farming, traveling, working, breakdowns, flat tires, accidents - guess what - I'm still here. I'm not stranded in a field or on the road. Its damn handy now that I have it - but - life was simpler, I never got a where are - when you going to be home etcetera when I did not have one. Its like a ball and chain. I carry one now because of a medical event that could have happened in a wilderness trip that I would have never been found in time. Some how my wife thinks if it happens out in the middle of nowhere I'll be able to call and chat. Why she wants to find me is still a mystery to me
I've been a computer geek since before I learned to read... first books I got from the library in 1975 were about computers. aside from during the speed reading course I took at my parents' college that year, I still didn't get my grubby little fingers on any computerized tech until 1984 or 1985.
I'll not be easily giving up any of my devices. I rarely use tablet computers so I suppose that would be my survey preference.
I also appear to have a higher tolerance for EMF and mechanical/tech related chemical exposure than the average Joe, though my aging eyes do not like led and fluorescent light as much as sunlight or even the thermal glow of incandescent lamps.
in a post apocalypse situation I'd reduce my tech usage, but if I managed to avoid other humans well enough to be able set up my own space with salvaged items, odds are I'd still have some computer equipment in use.
the Network is pretty useful for information gathering, but I'd rather do without it than computerized hardware.
if I had to rely on computer equipment as a black box technology like the masses seem to, I'd absolutely hate it. they can't program it, they can't repair it, they can't modify it. were I stuck exclusively using other people's software and had to rely on others to repair things as they broke (including lower tech machines) I would likely be some variant of Luddite. it's only my abilities of reprogramming, repairing, and modifying technology that keep me copacetic with using it.
CD player - bring back cassettes and vinyl. I hate the bloody phone too but I wouldn't be able to check into Substack x2-3/day without it
I don't have a videogame console. I want to keep the other options. Can I get rid of a digital watch or a digital thermometer instead?
I'd happily go back to landlines and payphones. Happily.
Phones are evil as is the 5g crime. I’m switching to a flip phone. It’s only needed for emergencies
I’d give them all up in a heartbeat if I could go back to homesteading. Here locked in the city, they are my sanity. Phone to read substack during coffee and smoke. Laptop to watch movies or documentaries cuz I won’t have a tv, and to look things up cuz there’s no more card catalogs 😉. Tablet to read books on cuz I don’t have the room for real ones.
But give me a yard, garden, some critters…and watch how fast these all get tossed.
Mobile phone. Mine is pretty old and I got an email from my network provider late last year, which said that by last January it would no longer do anything but make a call and send a text because 3G was being switched off all over the country. That suits me just fine, as I only do calls and texts and stream Radio Caroline when walking the dog. If I lose that then so be it. Still working fine ! For me the mobile phone (especially 3G onward) has been the most insidious technology in destroying people's ability to function socially and maintain a cohesive society with established norms of bahaviour. If we are talking about young people and kids, even more so.
"Smart phones." Hate them.
Flip phones were useful, but the price for geezer compatible flip phones was excessive last I checked.
The only device I have is my phone, so...
Assuming that "phone" means smartphone, as opposed to a dumbphone or landline: it's the smartphone. I work from home and my only commute is for my children, shopping, library, occasional outings and so on. I don't need internet access outside that. I'd still have a dumbphone.
I need internet access overall, but I don't need it 24 hours a day and fitting in my pocket. So the laptop at my home is sufficient for that. When I worked outside home, internet access at work was enough - I didn't need it in the journey from home to work.
My old smartphone was dying due to absurdly short battery life and I'd been planning to replace it with a dumbphone, but my wife bought me a new one for my birthday and I didn't have the heart to refuse it. But when this one dies...
What I really hate about the phone is how they've tied 2FA to everything. That should be optional, and I should be able to use an email instead of a number.
I like my phone. Keep your hands off my phone. Lol 😂