ever feel like we use too much tech?

first i have to say that i am into techie #. i like gadgets and such but damn. it is getting to be too much.
my wife and i were at wal mart yesterday and i saw a crock pot that had wifi enabled and some app you could use on your phone to control that crock pot. when i think about it yes it is cool to a point. i remember leaving work on my lunch break to turn my crock pot on or off so being able to do it by the phone seems nice. nice but at the same time it unsettles me.

i just saw an advert for the amazon dash buttons.
if you dont know what that is it is a product specific button. so you have one for your folgers coffee and one for your paper towels. it is piped in to your amazon account. so when you are about out of paper towels you press the dash button and it orders it automatically.
that seems convenient as well but again unsettling.

just curious as to how you all feel about all the tech people use/rely on

a reply to: TinySickTears

I Love/Hate it!! As a small business owner that sells cell phones and other gadgets I am constantly hearing about how people can get items cheaper on the internet. The tech of today is putting small businesses out of business. Fortunately for me unlike paper towels buying phones on amazon or Ebay can be risky.

Yes,and I wonder if we ever had a disaster,with no electricity,most people wouldn't know what to do,no cell service,then kids would have to learn to communicate by mouth for once,I could survive if need be,I have general knowledge of survival skills,but the sheeple majority will hang out in big citys waiting for hand outs,can't forage for food,and it was done this way purposely,beats having to use a leash

How much resources are being used to ship all of that crap one thing at a time?

a reply to: TinySickTears


I see that problem almost constantly on ATS. Somebody is so wedded to their cell phone that they use it as an all-purpose tool. No longer do people sit quietly at a desk and compose thoughtful threads and posts. No! Today, they are running down the street or taking a quick break at work to hurried type out, usually with poor wording, misspell, shorthand, etc., the most exciting thought that they have had all day.

The worst aspect of that is that they don't have the time at that instant to fully watch the video, read the link, or the post but feel the need to tell us why they are so caught up in really living that this side aspect that they are engaged in at the time is not their chief reason for existence. Cell phones (I have one) are the highest form of "Me-ism" imaginable. But then, it is not really the technology, it is the masturbation of the ego so easily available.

a reply to: kosmicjack

maybe not much these days.
gonna have amazon drones flying all over the place dropping off k cups.

i just read about amazon tap. there is another one. it is just like the echo but it is portable. so now people are going to be carrying this 6" speaker with them all the time so they can tap and say 'play bull# from itunes' instead of just using the 6" brick of a phone they already carry to play music from itunes.

the world is getting crazy.
wifi enabled crock pots

a reply to: TinySickTears

*(Hi TST-how are you?)

Of course. Thats the plan all along. When some rogue or major country hits us with an EMP pulse and all the electronics go out...no lights, phones, computers, gas, food, no calling mom, no radio...we are all just gonna kill each other...in the dark...and begin walking away down our streets fighting off each other for what we have left....

And we wont even hear what happened, when it happened and who did it. The worse affected will be the kids who cant call "Megan" to see whats happened...

Scary huh?

a reply to: TinySickTears

All the time. We are extremely dependent on it and that is scary. Everything in our infrastructure is now hackable and is only a matter of not if but when it all comes crashing down. Then we will see these walking dead we are so fascinated by multiply by the millions and become savages trying to survive and I hope before it happens I am on a 1000 acre parcel of land deep in the Kentucky backwoods.

a reply to: TinySickTears

I'll just say that sometimes it's best to just walk away from it for a spell.

My suggestion.... go fly a kite. A few weekends ago I was in the supermarket and saw a kite for $5.00. My son had never flown one before. It was about as low tech an afternoon as one could imagine but also incredibly fun. It was like having a tug-of-war with Mother Nature. No cell phones. No TV or computer screens. Great for mental health.

a reply to: TinySickTears and everyone, when I was in graduate school in California, my public health professor told us of several "laws" he had coined to summarize how the world works. Rule #2 was, "The Machine Always Wins." (I have now forgotten the other two rules, which pretty much proves his point.) I have worked with technology professionally for over 20 years, and am now a writer, so I'm not anti-technology. However, if there is not a compelling reason for another machine in my life, I pass it by, for the following reasons:

1) Life is short. Any machine I buy now has to be able to do things I could not otherwise do, and it has to be a single-purpose machine. Multi=purpose machines have the shortest MTBF (engineering lingo -- Mean Time Between Failures). Any machine not meeting these criteria will just be something else to dust that is not worth dealing with. Of course, broken heavy machines could always serve a new purpose as a boat anchor, but I digress.

2) The internet of things is an amazingly stupid concept. See security expert Richard A. Clarke's book Cyberwar for examples of internet-enabled machines that have been successfully hacked remotely, such as copy machines, really. In particular, however, I will never buy any internet-enabled machine that creates large amounts of heat, such as programmable cookware, etc. ... too easy for a bored hacker to get to remotely and create a severe fire hazard.

I work in technologies (program / project management), and see first hand increasingly more people making things more complicated, not simpler, through the use of technology. Because I work on the physical side of things I am not involved in the logic behind software development or the reasons why. Common tasks which used to be much simpler if done manually have become overly complex and burdened by what I call "collateral damage" as a result of tech and the integration thereof. In some cases technology is an illusion, seemingly making things more accessible when in fact just the opposite is true.

I often see products and services developed without a clear need. It is akin to finding the answer to a question which hasn't been asked. The "cloud" is a good example of this.

As the masses become increasingly more addicted to technology, security becomes more and more a necessary 'evil' adding layers of complexity to things which otherwise might be far easier. Some might posit these additional layers of complexity create jobs where they wouldn't otherwise exist, and this is true to an extent, but to what end? I could cite numerous examples, but rather than go down that rabbit-hole suffice to say advances in "technology" is not always a good thing IMO.

I see people carry all manner of electronic devices with them to address all manner of tasks they may face in a given day. For my part, sometimes a simple wooden pencil (the kind you actually have to sharpen) and a notebook will accomplish the exact same thing with far less overhead. Professionally, I try to make things easier, not harder. If this means using less technology, not more, to solve a given problem then I will be the first to recommend it.

I see tasks performed every day where people are "working for the technology" as opposed to the "technology working for them". This is fundamentally flawed in my book. One of my highest professional tenets is to turn this notion around. Technology should not exist for the sake of existing; it shouldn't be developed for the sake of development. Technology should be developed to solve problems which would otherwise be much more difficult to solve. When technology fails to provide a value add to any process we should get rid of it.

Sometimes, just a little old fashioned 'elbow grease' is a better, longer lasting, solution in the long haul.

P.S. In my personal life, despite my high-tech professional life, I raise cattle. From the most complex high-tech world by day, to the most low-tech world by night. I marvel sometimes at the dichotomy of that transition on a daily basis. I believe it builds character though, something sorely missing in today's society. In fact, very few technologies have ever been developed which will replace a man, a horse and rounding up cattle on the open range. No cell phone or fancy tablet will do it. No "app" has ever been devised which will do it. Just a little bit of effort, and some good old fashioned fresh air and sunshine will do it though.

Food for thought.

Guess this must have been a..."post & run"!

Oh well.

NVM.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

good post man.
i like your part about carrying a pencil.
i go low tech at work as well.
i work in a metal lab in a foundry. most of my job seems to be meeting with different department heads to discuss this or that. i go into these meetings and i am the only person with paper and a pen. everyone switches back and forth between their phones and tablets while in these meetings. it is pretty funny to watch. i just use my book of paper. i have a memo pad with me in my lab coat any time i leave the lab.
these people need to write something down so they get their phone or tablet out. then they have to type their security pin in to unlock the screen. then they have to swipe around to bring up whatever app/program they are going to use to jot the notes down.
i just write my # down and then kick back.

funniest part is people look at me like i am weird.
the other funny thing is while i am not young(38) i am the youngest one in this circle by at least 10 years. as the youngest person you would think i would be the one with the tablets and phone and not paper

Oh Im a gadget lover and always have been, but Im also anti tech... figure that one out! LOL!

My biggest problem with it is human lack of interaction and art. My kids have brought over friends that CAN NOT read or write in cursive. I was blown away! I write like its an art form.. because it is. These kids dont even care how their written communications are. Then again, they dont have written communications anymore. I guess its a silly thing to complain about, but it really gets my goat!