Our modern world

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Found this on my fortune data base while browsing today:

 

Fortune

 

It isn't easy being the parent of a six-year-old.  However, it's a pretty small
price to pay for having somebody around the house who understands computers.
 

 

Isn't this the truth!?

[TheCjm1999 11]

Yes it is and to be honest, it is actually quite scary to think that many six year olds have such a broad knowledge of computers and technology at such a young age. What ever happened to kids being kids? Instead of playing in playgrounds, kids spend their time on their mobiles and tablets. Still, I suppose it is a sign of the times I guess... 

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

The worst of this is that kids don't go out an play with each other any more.  Every kid should get at least an hour of fresh air daily and not be jammed up staring into a little box.  The future of athletics is at stake here.

[Alejandro24 575]

Now I understand what my father could think about my early skills on computers. I use computers since I was 6 or 8 years old, and Internet since I was 11.

But the actual kids just makes me afraid. Isn't about skills on technology, seems to be that there are no more innocence or something like that.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Home computers are a novelty at the moment.  It has been quite a moment starting in about 1990 as prices started falling and machines became more accessible.  The moment continues, driven by market churning outfits like Microsoft and Apple, ably abetted by service giants such as Google.  Soon, however, this will be simply a part of the environment.

 

Meanwhile, parents have to put their foot down and insist that kids go out to play in the traffic at least one hour a day.  Being shut up staring at a screen all day is surely unhealthy.

[MandelSoft 2,775]

Smartphones are everywhere these days! I'm still that one guy that still have no smartphone (flip mobile phones FTW!) and I like it to keep it that way; I only use my mobile phone for practical stuff: ask people for help when I need to, the fact that people can reach me when they need to and when I need to give a notification to someone; I'm not the guy that talks a lot on the phone.

 

For every moment that I think that a smartphone could be helpful in some situation, I can call at least five moments where I'm happy that I don't have to bother with such a device. I do enjoy that I can go out for a walk and think without my phone bothering me with social media stuff. It gives rest to your mind.

 

To put things into perspective: I'm a 23-year old geek who sees that everyone around him of the same age or younger has a smart phone and quite some people older than me do have one too. It can make me feel out of place; it seems strange that I don't have one whilst I'm perfectly fitting in the target demograpics. But then again, I don't need to follow what the masses do if it is of no use for me.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

^ You are not alone.  When I was working and travelling around the area, I had a cell phone (smart phones didn't exist then).  When I retired one of the first things we did was cancel the cell phone.

 

I do not have an electronic leash.  I don't believe that I need one.  I do have a life-line system which will detect if I fall or can be activated by a push button.  This is a form of insurance, but it activates a device on my regular land line, not a wireless transmitter.  It has only a short range covering my apartment.  If I am disabled when not at home, I have medic-alert and the only bling I have is the gold bracelet that goes with this.  (Gold because my skin chemistry destroys most metals including stainless steel.)

[EyeofMobius 27]

I have been working with children for a number of years now in the outdoor education field and I can say that all hope is not lost but the kids should have a good sense of adventure instilled in them.

 

Once after a week in the mountains with a group of school kids we were talking about how the week went for them. One of them admitted to the group that they were really nervous about not being able to play on their Xbox for a whole week but they were really glad they didn't have it because they would have missed out on discovering all the cool stuff they were doing outside that week.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Only a week!?  These kids usually have the whole summer off when the weather is nice.  I wonder how many of them do outdoors stuff any more like trail riding (on horseback, not on an ATV), or hiking, camping, fishing, etc.  In Canada that's all very easily available just outside the major centres.  When they were still in school, my kids looked forward each summer to their annual music camp which was held at a lake in Muskoka.  In their last year, both were in large musical aggregations, but the camp activities were more important to them.  Their musical abilities were simply the price of admission to this rather exclusive camping experience.  You had to play an instrument to go to this camp.

 

I am a strong believer in going out and playing in the woods, with some guidance.  Learning woodland survival skills is not a bad thing.

[Duke87 1,070]

For every moment that I think that a smartphone could be helpful in some situation, I can call at least five moments where I'm happy that I don't have to bother with such a device. I do enjoy that I can go out for a walk and think without my phone bothering me with social media stuff. It gives rest to your mind.

This is why I have alerts on my phone turned off for everything except calls and texts. It constantly making noises for email, Facebook etc. would drive me batty and be way too distracting. Occasionally this has resulted in missed communication attempts because someone will incorrectly assume that if they Facebook message me I will see it instantly. But I tell people they need to text me in that circumstance rather than changing my habits to comply.

The thing about having a smartphone that is why I will never go back is that you have internet on the go. If I'm waiting for someone for a few minutes I can play with my phone rather than twiddling my thumbs. If I'm having a conversation and there is uncertainty about some fact, I can look it up to settle the debate. If I'm on the road, I can use the maps app to find things.

And then there's also the image aspect. Part of why I got rid of my crappy old flip phone was concern that it looked unprofessional and I needed something a little nicer to go with my dress clothes. That, and I was afraid of it hurting my dating prospects because girls would turn their nose up at a guy with a flip phone.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

I've always thought of radio-telephones in any format to be electronic leashes.  I have a strong aversion to being tied down by having a means whereby anyone can contact me at any time.  It is the ultimate invasion of privacy, and I most strongly object to the very idea.  It has become even worse now that these devices actually have a GPS locator chip.  Global village?  Stop the world, I want off.

[EyeofMobius 27]

And then there's also the image aspect. Part of why I got rid of my crappy old flip phone was concern that it looked unprofessional and I needed something a little nicer to go with my dress clothes. That, and I was afraid of it hurting my dating prospects because girls would turn their nose up at a guy with a flip phone.

 

I understand the image side of phonership even though I don't ascribe to it; in many professions today it is an indispensable business tool.

 

As far as dating goes, that's rough. I don't understand it as I feel like I would maniacally cackle at a prospective partner trying to assert some form of higher class incompatibility through that; In my head I see them being mortified, embarassed and hopefully unhorsed.

 

@ A Nonny Moose: The kids in these programs were coming out with their schools for a week of outdoor school. I have so far had students for programs lasting as long as 8 weeks and that is a really long period of time in outdoor programming.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

"All a man needs is stupidity and confidence.  Success is then assured." -- Mark Twain.

 

Every parent worthy of the title should make his kids go out and play for at least an hour every day without any electronic gadgets.

[hamsterTK 93]

I think the assumption that kids are good with technology will eventually prove false.

 

I think its true for the generations represented on this site- anyone born from the mid-1970s to about 2000. We used PC's as our primary computing devices that allow for exploring.

 

However those born today and from now on will experience nothing but highly user friendly gadgets that offer a seamless experience but can be very opaque in their function. There's less absolute need and even less informal opportunities to tinker or explore technology.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

^ Completely correct.  Smart phones and such are just gadgets that people learn to use without knowledge of the underlying technology as with any home appliance.  How much does any homebody know about the refrigerator or stove he uses every day?

 

There will always be a few computer geeks outside the professions, just as there are amateur mechanics and automotive technicians.  Generally these people learn empirically by taking things apart and trying to get them back together.  In the case of a stored program computer, this is at least as complex as working on a 10 storey building.  You can disassemble a computer, but it doesn't tell you much if you can't access the content of the microchips, nor understand the programs.

[RipRap 4,400]

I think today's modern society lacked something very seriously: skills to develop interpersonal relationships. As a person that hasn't owned a cellular phone ever, a real eye-to-eye connection with my friends is very important. I did remember the days when I would have to shout for my friend to come out and play tag from around 4:00 in the afternoon until the sun is down at 6:00. Nowadays, I haven't seen my brother actually go outside and play games/sports with his friends. He will be shuttered at the basement and play video games; and I could see the results. It resulted in a cold, inactive and unknowledgeable person and developed communication skills that would shutter him inside further. I could see it on my friends too, where cellular phone use extends even in front of the teacher.

At the same time, however, it does feel strange being one of the people not having an electronic leash. I only have an iPod but the majority of its use is messaging through LINE and listening to music. I tried using social media but I immediately lost interest on it. It felt weird when someone asks me for a telephone number and I would have to say I don't have one. However, I don't have to worry about paying bills or looking at the latest buzz at social media and enjoy having real communication with friends.

[blade2k5 1,523]

I think today's modern society lacked something very seriously: skills to...

 

...fend for themselves.  Nowadays, most want the Gov't to do it for them.  I say let nature take it's course.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

 

I think today's modern society lacked something very seriously: skills to...

 

...fend for themselves.  Nowadays, most want the Gov't to do it for them.  I say let nature take it's course.

 

:kitty: You mean we should stop bubble-wrapping the little darlings and let them be exposed to horrors like failure? :kitty:

[EyeofMobius 27]

Can we expose them to horror like making their own fun, playing in traffic, earning a pittance sized allowance through chores that they have to save up for the things they want. I remember getting $1 per week if I did all my chores; it took me roughly 3 months to save up to buy the LEGO set I wanted. My mom also punished me for foolishness like leaving my toys out in the backyard; she told me someone must have stolen them; I found them in a box in the basement 10 years later.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Chuckle.  Real parenting, eh? 

 

I seem to remember that as well except all the men were away fighting WW II.  We played a lot of cops and robbers or allies vs. NAZIs in those days.  I didn't have any toys except what we could make ourselves.  We made pistols out of clothes pins.  No TV, barely any radio, an occasional movie, but not when the war was on.  Air raid practices and all that.  My mother drove a delivery van for a dry cleaner for a while then got a job as executive assistant to a contractor building war-time houses.

[MandelSoft 2,775]

The thing about having a smartphone that is why I will never go back is that you have internet on the go. If I'm waiting for someone for a few minutes I can play with my phone rather than twiddling my thumbs. If I'm having a conversation and there is uncertainty about some fact, I can look it up to settle the debate. If I'm on the road, I can use the maps app to find things.

Those are times that I may find a smart phone handy. But then again, that costs me like €20-30 a month, whereas with my current phone, I spend that same amount with my pre-paid phone in a year and a half! Smartphones are expensive in use. Besides, they are often very distracting (as I see quite a lot at the people around me), which is also a reason why I don't want to take one; to protect myself from my own "stupidity".

 

I think today's modern society lacked something very seriously: skills to develop interpersonal relationships. As a person that hasn't owned a cellular phone ever, a real eye-to-eye connection with my friends is very important. I did remember the days when I would have to shout for my friend to come out and play tag from around 4:00 in the afternoon until the sun is down at 6:00. Nowadays, I haven't seen my brother actually go outside and play games/sports with his friends. He will be shuttered at the basement and play video games; and I could see the results. It resulted in a cold, inactive and unknowledgeable person and developed communication skills that would shutter him inside further. I could see it on my friends too, where cellular phone use extends even in front of the teacher.

At the same time, however, it does feel strange being one of the people not having an electronic leash. I only have an iPod but the majority of its use is messaging through LINE and listening to music. I tried using social media but I immediately lost interest on it. It felt weird when someone asks me for a telephone number and I would have to say I don't have one. However, I don't have to worry about paying bills or looking at the latest buzz at social media and enjoy having real communication with friends.

As an autistic person, the internet is a blessing! I inherently lack some social skills, but with the internet, the threshold for social interaction is lower. I've learned quite a lot about communication (and English) on the internet.

However, even in these times of social media and live chats, the value of meeting someone in person has not decreased; on the contrary, I still really like to meet people I'm chatting with on several sites. The fun thing is that I get to meet interesting persons that I would never have met if it wasn't for the internet.

The internet is a tool, just like cell phones, computers and smartphones, and one needs to know how to use it well

[philforhockey51 4,220]

On the phones; I wish I could go back to a flip phone. It did what it needed to do and that was call and text, simple. I did have a girl laugh at my phone as I was taking her number, which was never even saved after that. But I've also had a girl laugh at what was a new Blackberry, seems even that is considered outdated in the eyes of the vain.  The damn thing also wrecked my contacts, and merged half of them. Exgirlfriends with business, boss with funny friend that may get a joke the boss would not like....  It's lucky I didn't try to merge it with the wall.  Its going in two days but no clue what will come to replace it, since it's a company phone, no choice but also no bill.  

 

Tech and Kids; I believe my cousin is handling it well with her two boys. The father is and was into videogames, as I was but we both also made it outside a lot. My parents limited the amount of actual games I was allowed to have (as Nintendo was it for me growing up) as a subtle way of forcing it. He as the father allows them full access (within age restrictions) to the tech whenever they have free time. He also makes them go out to play for however long. They don't complain about being away from the tech because they know it’s not going anywhere they will be able to use it later, kind of like letting a kid have a cookie if they ask, keeps them from mentally turning it into some major reward to lust after.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

According to the grape vine, and the advertising, a blackberry is not the toy other smart phones are made out to be.  Their first priority is security, so having one must be a mandate from your company or group.  I don't have any portable devices, and probably never will.  I think blackberry should have stayed out of the consumer market.

[hym 358]

According to the grape vine, and the advertising, a blackberry is not the toy other smart phones are made out to be. Their first priority is security, so having one must be a mandate from your company or group. I don't have any portable devices, and probably never will. I think blackberry should have stayed out of the consumer market.

Blackberry didn't have much of a choice. People use their personal devices for work and expect that they shouldn't have to carry around multiple phones. IT departments often don't have the luxury of not supporting this, hence Blackberry didn't have the luxury of not caring about the consumer market.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

 

According to the grape vine, and the advertising, a blackberry is not the toy other smart phones are made out to be. Their first priority is security, so having one must be a mandate from your company or group. I don't have any portable devices, and probably never will. I think blackberry should have stayed out of the consumer market.

Blackberry didn't have much of a choice. People use their personal devices for work and expect that they shouldn't have to carry around multiple phones. IT departments often don't have the luxury of not supporting this, hence Blackberry didn't have the luxury of not caring about the consumer market.

 

Actually they did.  Their market share would not have grown much, but there is a steady market for super-secure equipment among the various agencies.  The problem was that they couldn't expect much if any growth after that market became saturated, but they made a rather poor entrance to the general market.

[hym 358]

Actually they did.  Their market share would not have grown much, but there is a steady market for super-secure equipment among the various agencies.  The problem was that they couldn't expect much if any growth after that market became saturated, but they made a rather poor entrance to the general market.

 

If there was ever an organization that needed secure cellular services, it would be an organization like the NSA, CIA, or Department of Defense.  However, both the NSA and the DoD have publicly admitted that they do not consider themselves immune to the Bring Your Own Device movement.  An NSA representative summed up the situation by saying "We are actively attempting to recruit the top students and professionals in various IT disciplines.  These are individuals who see no reason why they cannot perform classified work from a personal laptop while enjoying their favorite coffee in their local park.  Naturally this creates security challenges that we traditionally haven't faced, but if we expect remain at the forefront of technology, we need to have the best people.  If we expect to have the best people, we need to accommodate their hiring preferences."  (That's not an exact quote.)  The DoD summed it up even more bluntly: "We do not expect to remain immune to the BYOD movement.  We must adapt to it or it will kill us."  (The CIA for its part has admitted it is looking into the issue.)

 

If the nation's military and major intelligence agencies do not see the traditional models of system security surviving, the only thing you might have left is the business community.  Towards that end, the business community is finding the same problem the US government is having: employees are generally okay with using personal equipment to conduct work activities, and are increasingly hostile to being forced to give up the technology they know and enjoy for the sake of the sensitivities of the IT department.  Many US companies issue iPhones for company phones simply because the majority of employees have iPhones, they want their company phone to be an iPhone, and the IT department has simply accepted that it's not winning that battle so it's better to stop fighting it.  This is where Blackberry came in.  Blackberry's theory was very simple and made a tremendous amount of sense.  Businesses are adopting BYOD policies because they don't feel they have a choice anymore, IT departments simply want the headaches of securing personal devices to go away, and consumers want a nice phone that they enjoy using.  The Blackberry 10 OS was supposed to address this, and in many respects, it does all these things well.  However, the BYOD snowball effect of iOS and Android has already started and unless Blackberry figures out how to sell the business world on risking valuable talent over draconian personal device usage policies, then it has to figure out how to sell a consumer phone.  A growing number of companies aren't basing their IT device purchases on what the IT department wants, but rather, what the regular employees want.  If the regular employees aren't willing to do Blackberry, that places Blackberry's future on very shaky ground.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

I've done some security work, and if you have a secure device vs. some piece of gear from Wal-Mart, I think, after hiring, you can supply the device and insist it be used for work-related efforts.  A bulk purchase for this purpose should get a considerable discount.

 

This whole business smells of a certain Secretary of State who broke protocols.  Not using the device should be a firing offense at the very least.  Too many outside devices are not hack-proof and all it would take is a key-logger for security to be completely compromised.  I don't think security agencies should allow themselves to be compromised in any way.

 

If Joe New Employee wants to use his own laptop, for example, then he must run a secure operating system such as SELINUX, and prove that this machine doesn't radiate (has, for example, a Faraday shield).  There is no excuse for compromising security to get so-called 'top people' who are not secure and trustworthy.

[TheCjm1999 11]

In regards to this topic, I heard of something quite interesting on a local radio station this afternoon. According to new research, 1/3 American children use a tablet or smartphone before their 1st birthday! That is simply astonishing... 

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

In regards to this topic, I heard of something quite interesting on a local radio station this afternoon. According to new research, 1/3 American children use a tablet or smartphone before their 1st birthday! That is simply astonishing... 

and disconcerting.  They learn early not to go out and play.

[SpookyZalost 39]

but they do pick up language and problem solving skills early on...