4 ms·

> To be honest I think cellphones have made the world an overall worse place. Only cellphones? What about the internet? It has made the world a worse place by

> To be honest I think cellphones have made the world an overall worse place. Only cellphones? What about the internet? It has made the world a worse place by shortening distances, not requiring you to get out of bed in order to buy something, or even to go to work. I only get out of the house once a week now. And don't get me started about social media. In fact, you could argue that the whole industrial society has made the world a lot worse. And that's what the Unabomber manifesto [1] argued. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Society_and_Its_Future https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Society_and_Its_Fut...

jchw 3y ago
Well, I don't know about that, but cellphones have certainly made the Internet a worse place.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- treyd 3y ago
  Cell phones are just a tool that can be used in any way. The companies that designed the software and platforms that runs on them and they connect to made the internet a worse place.
  - jchw 3y ago
    I mean if you frame things hard enough anything can be value-neutral to some degree, but I'm gradually turning on the idea of a smartphone in general. I simply do not think that every human should carry around an always-on internet-connected device everywhere they go. It's neat in theory, but it hasn't worked out very well. Doesn't mean I don't want non-smartphone mobile computers to exist though. Believe me, I'd love to strap a 4G modem to my GPD MicroPC. Hell, in theory it could make a decent phone if the market for modems wasn't so awful. But even then, I don't carry around any device the way I used to compulsively carry around a smartphone. Maybe I'm just being dramatic, but it really feels like there's something insidious about the way smartphones are, and I don't think it's all just that the software on them is manipulative. I honestly think that it might literally be a little too convenient.
    - heavenlyblue 3y ago
      > It's neat in theory, but it hasn't worked out very well. That's not a fact and it really is your opinion. The fact that I can now go any buy tickets for an event while sitting in a boring taxi for the last 30 minutes is anlofe saver.
      - jchw 3y ago
        > That's not a fact and it really is your opinion. The fact that I can now go any buy tickets for an event while sitting in a boring taxi for the last 30 minutes is anlofe saver. Yeah, convenience is basically the common theme of the smartphone. It's a phone, it's a camera, it's an internet communicator, it's a personal music player. I'm not downplaying how useful smartphones things CAN be, yet in practice, I'm often surprised at how utterly unimportant and banal they usually are. It can do so much, and yet somehow it usually boils down to killing time and buying things. Maybe this bothers me so much simply because it feels like it never had to be this way. There was a diverse world of PDAs, smartphones and UMPCs, but Steve Jobs made a killer demo for the iPhone and the world never recovered. Every mobile device ever since has dreamed of being the iPhone. Useless? Definitely not. But why can't we graft all of these useful features onto something with more utility? Of course, we can, it's just that nobody is asking for it. The closest approximation I have is sticking a USB LTE modem into my GPD MicroPC. It's fantastic and serves many of the "utility" functions that the internet can provide, and the battery life is pretty good too. It's less tempting to pull out just for the sake of killing time, and it's honestly comfortable enough to thumb-type on that I can use it for some real, if inefficient, productivity tasks. And it's got a real desktop operating system on it. (Well, insofar as much as Linux counts.) But a lot of the time, I just wind up leaving the house with, well, no devices. It's fine. In some cases it can be a little boring. But you know, it doesn't hurt that bad being a little bored here or there. It reminds me of childhood. it really feels alright to just plain be a little bored once in a while. So sometimes I take a walk, and just don't grab anything, and clear my head for a bit. And if other people don't like/want that, that's fine by me. But... still, even if people love their smartphones, it doesn't necessarily mean that it has been a good relationship for them.

jchw 3y ago

Well, I don't know about that, but cellphones have certainly made the Internet a worse place.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
treyd 3y ago
Cell phones are just a tool that can be used in any way. The companies that designed the software and platforms that runs on them and they connect to made the internet a worse place.
- jchw 3y ago
  I mean if you frame things hard enough anything can be value-neutral to some degree, but I'm gradually turning on the idea of a smartphone in general. I simply do not think that every human should carry around an always-on internet-connected device everywhere they go. It's neat in theory, but it hasn't worked out very well. Doesn't mean I don't want non-smartphone mobile computers to exist though. Believe me, I'd love to strap a 4G modem to my GPD MicroPC. Hell, in theory it could make a decent phone if the market for modems wasn't so awful. But even then, I don't carry around any device the way I used to compulsively carry around a smartphone. Maybe I'm just being dramatic, but it really feels like there's something insidious about the way smartphones are, and I don't think it's all just that the software on them is manipulative. I honestly think that it might literally be a little too convenient.
  - heavenlyblue 3y ago
    > It's neat in theory, but it hasn't worked out very well. That's not a fact and it really is your opinion. The fact that I can now go any buy tickets for an event while sitting in a boring taxi for the last 30 minutes is anlofe saver.
    - jchw 3y ago
      > That's not a fact and it really is your opinion. The fact that I can now go any buy tickets for an event while sitting in a boring taxi for the last 30 minutes is anlofe saver. Yeah, convenience is basically the common theme of the smartphone. It's a phone, it's a camera, it's an internet communicator, it's a personal music player. I'm not downplaying how useful smartphones things CAN be, yet in practice, I'm often surprised at how utterly unimportant and banal they usually are. It can do so much, and yet somehow it usually boils down to killing time and buying things. Maybe this bothers me so much simply because it feels like it never had to be this way. There was a diverse world of PDAs, smartphones and UMPCs, but Steve Jobs made a killer demo for the iPhone and the world never recovered. Every mobile device ever since has dreamed of being the iPhone. Useless? Definitely not. But why can't we graft all of these useful features onto something with more utility? Of course, we can, it's just that nobody is asking for it. The closest approximation I have is sticking a USB LTE modem into my GPD MicroPC. It's fantastic and serves many of the "utility" functions that the internet can provide, and the battery life is pretty good too. It's less tempting to pull out just for the sake of killing time, and it's honestly comfortable enough to thumb-type on that I can use it for some real, if inefficient, productivity tasks. And it's got a real desktop operating system on it. (Well, insofar as much as Linux counts.) But a lot of the time, I just wind up leaving the house with, well, no devices. It's fine. In some cases it can be a little boring. But you know, it doesn't hurt that bad being a little bored here or there. It reminds me of childhood. it really feels alright to just plain be a little bored once in a while. So sometimes I take a walk, and just don't grab anything, and clear my head for a bit. And if other people don't like/want that, that's fine by me. But... still, even if people love their smartphones, it doesn't necessarily mean that it has been a good relationship for them.