Culture Rant

[NutmegCT]

Sad to say, but if doing something gives you pleasure, you probably keep doing it. And the phones are constant companions, reinforcing what you do, and connecting you to thousands of sources of "likes" and other emojis.

 

[mikephillips]

Being a "old guy", while my phone is nearly always with me it's in my pocket or on the table in case I need to make or receive a call. Scrolling videos, photos and such for more than just a couple minutes and checking for something specific just doesn't interest me. But I see folks heads down doing that all the time, even driving despite the fact that in OH it's $150 and 2 points if caught. Personally it would be nice if there was a way to disable the drivers seat phone if the car is moving....

 

[John Turney]

 

[JPSmit]

Being a "old guy", while my phone is nearly always with me it's in my pocket or on the table in case I need to make or receive a call. Scrolling videos, photos and such for more than just a couple minutes and checking for something specific just doesn't interest me. But I see folks heads down doing that all the time, even driving despite the fact that in OH it's $150 and 2 points if caught. Personally it would be nice if there was a way to disable the drivers seat phone if the car is moving....

Funny story, for years now we have tried (TRIED!) to get my mother (94) to take her phone with her when she goes out. A few years ago she fell and broke her wrist and a phone would have been very helpful. While she still needs to carry it more, the single most successful strategy was that she (out of the blue) decided that she wanted an iphone - we had an old one and it was pink!!! who knew it would be that easy.

 

[mikephillips]

Main reason I developed the habit of carrying it was that I spent a career as a mainframe computer tech support and DBA, so I needed to be available during my oncall hours. Grocery store and someone needed to ask a question, had to be able to answer. Same every time I stepped out, and worse during my final years and I was the guy the other tech folks might call to ask about questions they were getting. So dropping it in my pocket was a didn't even have to think about it sort of thing after a while. But it didn't sit in my hands, I have no Iphone print on either palm....

 

[JPSmit]

well and we don't even have land lines any longer - no real point

 

[mikephillips]

My land line is gone too, hadn't used it for years and when they switched from "free" with the fiber connect to gotta pay extra now, had it removed.

 

[YakkoWarner]

well and we don't even have land lines any longer - no real point

I still have one because cell service is questionable at best where I live (if you drive up to the top of the hill and hold the phone in just the right direction you might get enough signal to make a call). I wish I could drop it - thay charge a fortune for it now (almost $90 a month!!) and it is not the level of service it used to be. I worked for the phone company when it was just "the phone company" because there was only 1; nothing short of total, biblical scale destruction would stop that phone from working. Now it goes out whenever the local power fails (no longer independantly powered), randomly just doesn't work at all for a day or 2, sometimes works for outgoing calls but fails to ring on incoming, etc...

 

[AngliaGT]

well and we don't even have land lines any longer - no real point

We still have one.The sound quality is much better
than a cell phone.

 

[NutmegCT]

So ... is the move to digital communications a plus?

Carrier dropouts, poor intelligibility, $50/mo/phone, data limits, etc.

Convenient, maybe. An improvement over land line?

 

[AngliaGT]

And I also have my flip phone as a backup.

 

[JPSmit]

We still have one.The sound quality is much better
than a cell phone.

agreed. he in Prince Edward county Cell service is notoriously bad becue too many people use too few towers.

 

[JPSmit]

So ... is the move to digital communications a plus?

Carrier dropouts, poor intelligibility, $50/mo/phone, data limits, etc.

Convenient, maybe. An improvement over land line?

Well when you put it that way.....

Now that we are receiving our pensions and no longer need a land line for work, it was an easy decision to drop the expense. (Plus I am not sure you can even get a standard land line that isn't VOIP anymore) We need our cell phones, we don't need a land line. We have a reasonable (for Canada) plan which covers Canada/USA/Mexico. In addition to the apps, banking, travel, etc, basically 90% of the communication we have with our kids is on Messenger. A different world but OK

 

[mikephillips]

Yea, used to be for a land line you had local call rates and long distance, which basically meant anything outside of the literal local area. And that cost more. So having a basically continent wide local call rate is a savings plus right there with a cell. And I use Consumer as a cell provider so costs less than $40 a month for unlimited everything as an old guy. My land line before killing it was $50 a month unused when they dropped it as an add on freebie. Who knows if I'd been making long distance.

 

[JPSmit]

Yea, used to be for a land line you had local call rates and long distance, which basically meant anything outside of the literal local area. And that cost more. So having a basically continent wide local call rate is a savings plus right there with a cell. And I use Consumer as a cell provider so costs less than $40 a month for unlimited everything as an old guy. My land line before killing it was $50 a month unused when they dropped it as an add on freebie. Who knows if I'd been making long distance.

here is my one wee rant. We are paying similar ($45) for unlimited talk and text - and 40-50 gigs of data. (we never use more than 5) - BUT I paid extra for a carrier that promised customer service. Of course I needent have bothered - the service is terrible but there you go.

 

[mikephillips]

I have to admit, with my cell service they have a spot in one of the stores about 2 miles from me and so far I've gone over there to talk to a person on the couple times necessary rather than call a center and probably deal with an AI.

 

[AngliaGT]

I was forced to replace my old flip phone,so I got a new flip phone.
No owner's manual,so I went to the store that sells them & talked to this
young guy & asked about getting a manual for it.
He told me that there wasn't one,& couldn't tell me how it works,or
what the buttons,etc. do.
My Wife finally printed out an owner's manual off of the Internet.
I guess I should read it sometime.

 

[JPSmit]

I have to admit, with my cell service they have a spot in one of the stores about 2 miles from me and so far I've gone over there to talk to a person on the couple times necessary rather than call a center and probably deal with an AI.

part of my frustration is that the store says they can't help and the phone says go to the store.

 

[JPSmit]

I was forced to replace my old flip phone,so I got a new flip phone.
No owner's manual,so I went to the store that sells them & talked to this
young guy & asked about getting a manual for it.
He told me that there wasn't one,& couldn't tell me how it works,or
what the buttons,etc. do.
My Wife finally printed out an owner's manual off of the Internet.
I guess I should read it sometime.

You just jogged my meory. Not a flip phone but previous to smart phones the Nokia ones where you could text by pressing the keyboard numbers to the proper letters. Mine was getting repaired and they gave me a loaner, in the time I had it ( a week) I learned to do everything with it except actually make a phone call.

 

[John Turney]

You just jogged my meory. Not a flip phone but previous to smart phones the Nokia ones where you could text by pressing the keyboard numbers to the proper letters. Mine was getting repaired and they gave me a loaner, in the time I had it ( a week) I learned to do everything with it except actually make a phone call.

Nokia phones were indestructible. I had one that I lost. When I went looking for it, I found it on a gravel driveway to a tank farm that I visited. It had been rained on and driven over, but still worked.