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I Hate Technology!!!!
Posted by
JHS
,
07 July 2011
·
322 views
Hi all (for the few that seem to be around these parts lately....anyone there?!),
I haven't done a blog entry in ages, but felt like doing this one to see if anyone else agrees or it's just me being the old fart on young shoulders I am. It may be long and rambly, full of (deleted) expletives, but please, stick with me.
So, I hate technology. It's not that I can't use it, it's just that I don't want to. And it frustrates me so much seeing how frequently technology is being abused as I see it.
I'm talking about the iPod, the iPhone and all those other marvellously clever gadgets that you can now get hold of these days.
I have a particular grievance about iPods to start with. It frustrates me no end that conversation seems to be dying a death, because as is often the case with people my age (late teens), everyone has an iPod plugged in every hour of the day listening to some random crap. Many the time I've tried to engage someone in conversation, only to get a blank look and a mouthed "what?" in response because they've got their music on too loud, they are completely oblivious to everything and everyone around them. It's like they've gone to a parallel world which only they inhabit.
I was brought up to not totally blank somebody if they ask you a question or are just trying to be friendly. It's rude, and it comes across as really arrogant in my view, like they can't take the little time and effort it will take from their highly important schedule to listen to what you're saying.
I get the idea that recently, music will have helped some of my fellow students to focus on revision before important exams. It's not as if I have any intention to disturb them, but you can easily ask each other questions and I believe, prepare better. But really, if you're listening to music, don't appear so rude. Manners don't cost anything.
What is so wrong with the sound of the world we live in? Why have we got to this point where people feel the need to have noise surrounding them every hour of every day?
Before I recently left school, I walked there and back every day just immersed (happy now?! :P) in the sound of the traffic, my own footsteps and my current thoughts. Sure, traffic noise might not be the most exciting thing in the world to listen to, but it's natural. It's the way we were SUPPOSED to hear the world. And anyway, it's safer for you. When you're not listening to music, you can hear if there are people approaching you from behind, or you can hear traffic approaching even if you can't see it when crossing the road.
Another thing that bugs me is that people feel the need to listen to whatever song they are listening too at full goddamn blast. I've recently had to travel on buses and trains in preparation for starting Uni in September, and it amazes me that amount of people that do just that, even when there's polite notices helpingly placed around reminding passengers not to have music on that loud. But the current 21st century screw-you-i'll-do-what-i-like-i-don't-care-about-anyone-else attitude prevails, so even if they don't want to, the entire bus or train gets to listen to some diabolical warblings of some random reality TV show reject. Great.
If you're trying to sleep, read or just concentrate on something, this obviously isn't ideal. I think that soon, like we are educated at a young age not to look directly at the sun, people should be educated not to listen to their music full blast when on public transport because:
I just believe that the human race has become dangerously reliant on technology. I've currently been having a debate with my parents about getting a mobile phone. You see, unlike many of my peers, I've managed to get to this point in my life (17, almost 18 years old) without the need of a phone. Yet my parents want me to have one for when I start uni. I know it's inevitable I'll lose this argument and be handed a nice radiation emitting device, but why? Before mobile phones were invented, people quite happily survived, doing this really unusual activity called talking, apparently. Strange, I know.
The argument for me having one is "the world's got more dangerous since then." Has it? Has it really? Or is this just some excuse we make ourselves believe in order to hide the fact that we're now excessively reliant on technology.
Elton John doesn't have a mobile. He manages alright.
This leads me on to my next point. Smart phones. Like iPods, I really hate these. Walk into a study area in a school, and you'll be hard pressed to find a kid who's not plugged into an iPod or smart phone, or both. Once again, these really kill off conversation before it has even had chance to get going. Everyone's on updating their Facebook or Twitter, or checking to see what other people have just updated their Facebook or Twitter too. I couldn't give a flying f*ck! Why is that more important than what I'm saying to you face to face?! Why do I need a phone that can do that, take pictures and enable me to play it as a keyboard when all I'm really going to do is make phone calls and maybe send some texts? It's information overload.
And do we even know the cost to ourselves that mobiles have? I sat a general studies exam earlier this year which was saying about how there is a high chance that people who have a mobile for more than 10 years could get a brain tumour. Nice.
I generally believe in a few years people will watch the Pixar film Wall-E and think it is a documentary about how people at the time saw what future life would be like. People talking to each other virtually, despite them being directly next to you. It's already starting.
I'm always told I'm supposed to be a part of this "digital generation" but I don't get it. Sure, technology has its benefits, but it is now totally out of control and we're just obliged to use the latest gadgets that are place in front of our face and powerless to make a stance and say no.
As I said at the start, am I the only one who feels like this? I'm angry.
I haven't done a blog entry in ages, but felt like doing this one to see if anyone else agrees or it's just me being the old fart on young shoulders I am. It may be long and rambly, full of (deleted) expletives, but please, stick with me.
So, I hate technology. It's not that I can't use it, it's just that I don't want to. And it frustrates me so much seeing how frequently technology is being abused as I see it.
I'm talking about the iPod, the iPhone and all those other marvellously clever gadgets that you can now get hold of these days.
I have a particular grievance about iPods to start with. It frustrates me no end that conversation seems to be dying a death, because as is often the case with people my age (late teens), everyone has an iPod plugged in every hour of the day listening to some random crap. Many the time I've tried to engage someone in conversation, only to get a blank look and a mouthed "what?" in response because they've got their music on too loud, they are completely oblivious to everything and everyone around them. It's like they've gone to a parallel world which only they inhabit.
I was brought up to not totally blank somebody if they ask you a question or are just trying to be friendly. It's rude, and it comes across as really arrogant in my view, like they can't take the little time and effort it will take from their highly important schedule to listen to what you're saying.
I get the idea that recently, music will have helped some of my fellow students to focus on revision before important exams. It's not as if I have any intention to disturb them, but you can easily ask each other questions and I believe, prepare better. But really, if you're listening to music, don't appear so rude. Manners don't cost anything.
What is so wrong with the sound of the world we live in? Why have we got to this point where people feel the need to have noise surrounding them every hour of every day?
Before I recently left school, I walked there and back every day just immersed (happy now?! :P) in the sound of the traffic, my own footsteps and my current thoughts. Sure, traffic noise might not be the most exciting thing in the world to listen to, but it's natural. It's the way we were SUPPOSED to hear the world. And anyway, it's safer for you. When you're not listening to music, you can hear if there are people approaching you from behind, or you can hear traffic approaching even if you can't see it when crossing the road.
Another thing that bugs me is that people feel the need to listen to whatever song they are listening too at full goddamn blast. I've recently had to travel on buses and trains in preparation for starting Uni in September, and it amazes me that amount of people that do just that, even when there's polite notices helpingly placed around reminding passengers not to have music on that loud. But the current 21st century screw-you-i'll-do-what-i-like-i-don't-care-about-anyone-else attitude prevails, so even if they don't want to, the entire bus or train gets to listen to some diabolical warblings of some random reality TV show reject. Great.
If you're trying to sleep, read or just concentrate on something, this obviously isn't ideal. I think that soon, like we are educated at a young age not to look directly at the sun, people should be educated not to listen to their music full blast when on public transport because:
- It'll damage your hearing
- It's selfish
- It's ****ing annoying.
I just believe that the human race has become dangerously reliant on technology. I've currently been having a debate with my parents about getting a mobile phone. You see, unlike many of my peers, I've managed to get to this point in my life (17, almost 18 years old) without the need of a phone. Yet my parents want me to have one for when I start uni. I know it's inevitable I'll lose this argument and be handed a nice radiation emitting device, but why? Before mobile phones were invented, people quite happily survived, doing this really unusual activity called talking, apparently. Strange, I know.
The argument for me having one is "the world's got more dangerous since then." Has it? Has it really? Or is this just some excuse we make ourselves believe in order to hide the fact that we're now excessively reliant on technology.
Elton John doesn't have a mobile. He manages alright.
This leads me on to my next point. Smart phones. Like iPods, I really hate these. Walk into a study area in a school, and you'll be hard pressed to find a kid who's not plugged into an iPod or smart phone, or both. Once again, these really kill off conversation before it has even had chance to get going. Everyone's on updating their Facebook or Twitter, or checking to see what other people have just updated their Facebook or Twitter too. I couldn't give a flying f*ck! Why is that more important than what I'm saying to you face to face?! Why do I need a phone that can do that, take pictures and enable me to play it as a keyboard when all I'm really going to do is make phone calls and maybe send some texts? It's information overload.
And do we even know the cost to ourselves that mobiles have? I sat a general studies exam earlier this year which was saying about how there is a high chance that people who have a mobile for more than 10 years could get a brain tumour. Nice.
I generally believe in a few years people will watch the Pixar film Wall-E and think it is a documentary about how people at the time saw what future life would be like. People talking to each other virtually, despite them being directly next to you. It's already starting.
I'm always told I'm supposed to be a part of this "digital generation" but I don't get it. Sure, technology has its benefits, but it is now totally out of control and we're just obliged to use the latest gadgets that are place in front of our face and powerless to make a stance and say no.
As I said at the start, am I the only one who feels like this? I'm angry.
Here's some thoughts etc:
1... It's immersed, not emerged....you don't emerge yourself in noise...
2... I agree...who needs a million aps on a phone? It's a phone...good for two things...ringing someone, and texting someone. Oh and perhaps as a paper weight. NZ has scarey high call rates so most of our conversations are by text...2500 for free a month...what else ya gonna do? My nephew and niece, my nephew especially, spends forever on his i-Pod, and if not that, his phone...I think his vocabulary starts and ends with "wha?", and not much in between. Even exams at school allow text speak here (except in English exams)...it's a joke.
3... I never had a cell until I was 24...so hold out...join the resistance now!!
4... No...the world is no more dangerous, and no more cancer causing either. Things are just reported more, even inane bullcrap like what some celebrities babies name is...who the feck gives a ****...do some proper journalism and dig up another Watergate...I guess this though is a result of all these thousands of people getting University Journalism degrees and needing a job at the end of it. Why don't those sorts of journalists go work for News of the World FFS? (and yes, this is written in full knowledge of that paper being shut down...so think about what I am saying here!)
5... You are one angry little man. FFS. OMG. PWN. TTFN.