6 ms·

I know it is inevitable, but I'm dreading the day when 100% of devices have fast broadband-level connectivity everywhere on the planet and there's truly nowhere

• laweijfmvo 3y ago
  Nothing worse than someone on a Facetime call on their way up Half Dome, I agree...
  • JumpCrisscross 3y ago
    > Nothing worse than someone on a Facetime call on their way up Half Dome Is it so different from two hikers conversing?
    • firstime111 3y ago
      Yes
    • joe5150 3y ago
      In the most material terms, they're probably more distracted than two people who are both present and chatting which isn't great for anybody's experience. People also tend to be shouting into the phone, worse if they're not using headphones so you get to hear the other person shouting back. At a psychic level it also kind of sucks in ways that are harder to describe.
    • puchatek 3y ago
      Yes. People focused on their phones are even more oblivious to their surroundings than two people having a conversation.
      • the_third_wave 3y ago
        Not only that, the fact that the person on the other side of the conversation does not have any clues as to what is happening and as such is wont to keep on blathering while her conversation partner really needs to focus his attention on that slippery slope/crumbling ledge/onrushing traffic/deer jumping in front of the car/rushing river/person in distress/...(fill in the blanks)... makes telephone conversations much worse than those between two or more people in the same location.
• khaki54 3y ago
  Time to take up spelunking!
  • paxys 3y ago
    Haha zero chance of that. Watching videos of people trying to fit into those dark, tight spaces triggers way too many phobias for me.
    • Scoundreller 3y ago
      keep watching the videos to continue your desensitization journey
  • hammock 3y ago
    For anyone who wants to try it out, my favorite place ever is Craters of the Moon National Monument. So many lava tubes to explore. And protip the people that actually do it as a hobby tend to call it caving not spelunking :) Would love to hear HNer recs on caving spots
    • khaki54 3y ago
      Ha, yep but spelunking is a way better word!
• JumpCrisscross 3y ago
  > you see people in remote RV camps or backcountry hikes or on boats in the middle of the ocean texting and video calling away, streaming the latest news and catching up on work emails They want to text and call and stream and email. You don't. They can. You don't have to. I get what you're saying. But lamenting advances on account of some folks' poor impulse control is neither here nor there.
  • panarky 3y ago
    I live in the middle of a modern and densely populated city. I'm perfectly capable of disconnecting without leaving my sofa.
  • hutzlibu 3y ago
    "You don't have to" If something becomes the norm, it creates social pressure to do the same. Sometimes you can opt out, but not always and usually with a cost.
    • Dalewyn 3y ago
      Wise people tell social pressure to sincerely fuck off. One of the biggest lessons in life is learning that you don't have to care what the fuck others think about you. Your life is short, and less than 1% of 1% of all the people you would ever meet will be of any consequence to you, let alone the rest of humanity whom you will never even know existed. So if you want to disconnect: Go for it. Pedal to the metal. Afterburners blazing. Who the fuck cares? It's your life, not their's. They can leave a voicemail and wait for you to get back at your leisure.
      • hutzlibu 3y ago
        "you don't have to care what the fuck others think about you." No, but there are still consequences. "and catching up on work emails" If everyone is doing this, there will be a expectation of you to do it. And if you don't - you will have to really shine somewhere else, to not get serious disadvantages. Also I already had various big drama in my life for not being reachable (I still have a phone where I can put out the battery) - so yes, I know how to disconnect and I do. But there is an increasing pressure to be always reachable and when you don't live totally on your own - it is a real struggle to get away from it.
• deleted 3y ago
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• kilolima 3y ago
  The worst outcome will be that urban Californians will be able to buy houses anywhere and work remotely, driving up local prices and making every where look like orange county.
• janice1999 3y ago
  I think the bigger problem will be omnipresent HD audio and video real time surveillance by governments both directly and also indirectly via commercial devices like smart glasses.
• Waterluvian 3y ago
  It’s an odd social issue. You can obviously regulate your own access. So the issue distils to it being regrettable that other people aren’t behaving in a way that’s necessary to satisfy one’s desired ambience. Ie. enforcing behaviour of others for our benefit. I imagine there may eventually be sufficient demand for private locations that ban devices? Is there something about this that makes it distinct from a “kids these days” kind of lament?
• carabiner 3y ago
  Such a tryhard take. Look at me, I want everyone to know I'm not like other girls. Get over it. I probably spend 10x as much time outdoors as you but I can disconnect anywhere. Even here.
• 0xbadcafebee 3y ago
  At Burning Man, I saw a woman getting accosted by a man for having her phone out, "ruining" the experience of the guy who came there to disconnect. She was trying to talk to her relatives, because her house had caught on fire, while her kids and babysitter were home. She was freaking out and trying to find out if everyone was ok. You don't like that other people are connected, when you want to disconnect. That's really a you problem, not a them problem.
• owenversteeg 3y ago
  Reposting a comment I made some time ago here: When I was much younger I also felt a profound sense of loss when I found that the Iridium constellation covered the globe. Thankfully our shared thought that you can't be away from everything is not true: caves, anything underwater or dense forests around the world are totally inaccessible for any satellite devices. Also, not sure if you've used any satellite devices but even in most conditions you're still pretty away from things. You have to set up the device with a view of the open sky and wait several minutes for a text-only message of a handful of bytes. Using it in a Costa Rican rainforest was almost impossible. For better or for worse, there are pretty large parts of the Earth where we will have no Internet for most likely our entire lifetimes.
• deleted 3y ago
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• onlyhumans 3y ago
  I’m not looking forward to cellular connected IoT devices. Like my tv watching me and I can’t just turn off its lte connection
• jtriangle 3y ago
  Your problem isn't that you can get broadband everywhere, it's that you want to regulate the lives of the people around you for some reason. You, yourself, are free to live more or less however you please. You are not free, in any way, to regulate the lives of people around you. If your happiness depends on the people around you behaving according to your rules/values/etc, then you'll be profoundly unhappy regardless of them checking their instagram. Which is funny, because you can't manage to regulate yourself, but, you desire to regulate other people, as though you are at all qualified to do so. The reality is, you're only qualified to make people as miserable as you are. And while I don't disagree that, people being overly connected is a huge problem, and a general cancer that's eating humanity itself, I understand that it's not my job to save the world, only myself, and once that's sorted out, I might be able to save a few people around me that I hold dear. Anything broader than that has one outcome, and that's failure, not just for myself, but also the people I care about the most. What you need to do is disconnect-in-place, you don't need a forest or a mountain or an ocean to do that, you can do it right now, spin yourself down, feel yourself breathe, clear your head. You'll suck at it at first, as you have sucked at many things you're now good at, embrace the suck, and get to it, stop basing your wellbeing on things rightfully outside of your control.
• briffle 3y ago
  Oh man, those crazy people on boats in the middle of the ocean. I mean why would you want to be connected to things like PredictWind [0] and other tools to make your trip safer, or be able to communicate with the manufacturer of your water maker, engine, or other systems if there is a problem, etc. PredictWind have had Irridium Go [1] support for years, but now that starlink is available, most are switching to get more than 2 times a day updates. [0] https://www.predictwind.com/?lang=en https://www.predictwind.com/?lang=en [1] https://www.predictwind.com/iridium-go https://www.predictwind.com/iridium-go
• x-complexity 3y ago
  ...I deeply abhor your take. The fact that you see other people getting on with their lives as something that needs to be wrenched away from them lest they ruin your naturalist fantasy, deeply irks me to no end.
  • codersfocus 3y ago
    There are places that have rules like No Smoking Allowed, No Photography Allowed, No Idling Allowed, No Phones Allowed, etc. It’s perfectly reasonable for nature parks to have a no devices policy.
    • lijok 3y ago
      How will you contact for help if devices are banned?
      • crtasm 3y ago
        Radio? How else was it done before mobile phones?
        • lijok 3y ago
          I was under impression radio fell into the “devices” category
          • crtasm 3y ago
            I think we both know what GP means.
            • lijok 3y ago
              So what are we saying here? Nature parks should reject people who can't afford a radio, even if they have a phone which can be used for calling for help?
• deepfriedchokes 3y ago
  Nothing is worse than portable bluetooth speakers on hikes. If anyone has any connections with the REI Board of Directors please ask them to stop selling that crap.
  • lxgr 3y ago
    I'm afraid not only REI sells these... But you raise a good point: A hike being quiet or noisy depends much more on the social norms of your fellow hikers than their and your ubiquitous reachability. I've been annoyed by large groups on narrow trails talking at the top of their lungs in order to be able to lead one big conversation, and at the same time I would not even notice somebody texting a few meters away from me as long as they have their phone on silent.
• lijok 3y ago
  You are describing one of the most impactful achievements that humanity is making strides towards. 100% of devices having fast connectivity anywhere on the planet is a literal superpower. We need to fix our browsing habits. Saying you dread the day when anyone anywhere can call for help because your poor impulse control might interrupt your disconnect is just ridiculous.
• wmoser 3y ago
  As someone that works on a boat in the middle of the ocean, I welcome more accessibility. Being able to talk to my wife and kids while at work is so much better than being cut off. Also the better availability of weather information or technical information if there is a problem can literally be life saving. I also sometimes miss the days when I would go to work and literally have email every few weeks. Things were simpler then but I was young, single without any real responsibilities. Unfortunately time has moved on and even checking my bank account has become impossible without being able to receive 2FA messages. [There was a period of time where I could get enough service to load the app/web site but they insisted on a text l or email which was loading so slowly it would take more than half an hour that the 2FA was good for.] During COVID I had a coworker from Mississippi whose wife had to drive to the school to get photo copies of school work because they didn’t even have internet at their house with cell phones. Modern government and society has made internet connection mandatory to participate. Some people don’t have a choice of being somewhere remote.