Was life better without smartphones?

The phones aren't the issue. Social media is the issue.

I got my first smartphone about six months ago. Not something I wanted, but work required it for a project that I'm on call for. I'll probably ditch it next year when the project is done.

It's moderately useful for some things, but I rarely look at it unless it beeps at me to tell me someone needs me. Took it to Europe and it was handy for storing covid test info and for uber. So as a tool it does have some value.

We've talked about this before, but circa 2006 feels like the best time for tech. Could do most things online but social media and smartphones weren't running/ruining people's lives.

When I started in sales I'd leave the apartment every day with a roll of quarters. I knew where every payphone was and which ones would be quiet (and clean!) enough for calls to customers. Checked in with office three times a day. Did paperwork at night.

No one knew where I was or when I'd be home. I'd find a nice trail and go for my PM run where ever I ended the day.

Got all my news from NPR while driving around.

Talked to all sorts of great people.

Even though I was a teenager in 1982 and lived during this time, today the thought of never being accessible to others seems like bizarro world and entirely different way to live. If people could not get a hold of you they just dealt with it. No problem and neither party cared much.

Uncle P wrote:

Talked to all sorts of great people.

Yeah, I travel a lot, and always met really interesting people in airport waiting lounges, on the plane, whatever.

Nowadays everyone has their face stuck in a phone and I'm loathe to interrupt.

I do miss chatting up strangers.

I recall when I got an answering machine for our landline, which let me call in and get messages from any other phone.

This was a few years after I signed up for classes at CU by calling a phone number, and typing in values.

The peak of our civilization was 1997.

Vineyard Vines wrote:

Uncle P wrote:

Talked to all sorts of great people.

Yeah, I travel a lot, and always met really interesting people in airport waiting lounges, on the plane, whatever.

Nowadays everyone has their face stuck in a phone and I'm loathe to interrupt.

I do miss chatting up strangers.

I think that has more to do with people being less trusting these days; they tend to assume you want something with them that will cost them financially or greatly inconvenience them

It is interesting to me that some are nostalgic for the ability to have good ole conversations with others. While I miss being not available at all to others if they wanted anything from me.

I got my first cell phone in 2000. It was a blue nokia that anyone from that time period would instantly remember. At that time, most of our social media was through AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) which was a precursor to FB messenger.

I joined FB in 2004 when it was available to only 13 universities and required a .edu address. At that point, FB wasnt the first social media app. I think MySpace was and there is an argument that classmates.com was as well (and probably the first).

I personally thought myspace was stupid but jumped on the bandwagon to FB because it had scraped the course catalog and when you chose your classes from a drop down you could be networked with people in your classes.

Fast forward from the 1997 static web, to the 2002-03 dynamic web, to the public social media web in 2008 (when FB opened to everyone and overtook AIM) and finally to the mobile web in 2008-10 when iphones and android made significant strides over WindowsOS/Blackberry smartphones.

I think what happened from 2009 forward was a total takeover of social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat. And for the worse. There are obviously more names to add to that list now but, having been exposed to both worlds, I tend to believe social media ruined life's purity.

To ask a girl to the dance, you had to work up the courage to go and ask her. To catch sport scores, you had to fetch the newspaper and forcefully be exposed to other news aspects. To become smarter and research, you read books. If you read the newspaper at a young age and understood it you were considered to be very intelligent. When you wanted to hang out with friends you would call on a landline first, commubicate, coordinate and then get going to meet these people. Those "Hey, you made it" exclamations -- as if they were surprised -- became real time updates with flashing blue dots moving across a screen and some update texts while stuck at the stoplights.

The above are only a few examples of many that I could come up with at the time of posting. There are plenty having to do with college processes as well.

Basically, what I am saying is that there is an app for everything now and it isnt a perfect substitute for encouraging the development of actual human values. There is no element of real surprise anymore, everything is instantaneous. This includes the availability of photos of your girlfriend or wife looking their best which are open to interpretation 24/7 through social media and basically anyone can [cat] call her with a click or press of a button. Social media just ruins some natural processes and excites others in a bad way.

I think we will look back in 100 years and realize the social interweb benefit females more than males and not always in the best ways. I think female narcissism and validation dependencies has skyrocketed. I think the rebound is no longer a question but a necessity in the world that social media drives. I think we'll look back and understand that handheld devices were damaging to the Gen Y, Gen Z and Gen AA generations as a whole. Part of that exposure is happening now because the preteens dont have the right coping mechanisms and intellect in place to handle and differentiate what the screen says from reality. Sadly, the latter isnt isolated to preteens but rather cast out to 93% of America.

So was it better? Yes. Life was actually real and authentic. Conversations were stimulating. The way to get news stimulated your local economy. And now we just bypass all those things.

F no. One example is running late for a meeting and having to decide whether to be even later by stopping at a payphone to notify them. If I did decide to stop, about half the time the phone was broken.

As a parent, being able to call my children anytime is wonderful.

Take it from a Neo-Luddite, the answer is yes.

I think on balance, smart phones have made life better. They're a great tool. You can now carry in your pocket, what used to require a phone, calculator, camera, encyclopedia, library, mailing system, CD player, thermometer, dictionary, phone book, flashlight, ruler, photo album, bank, running log, GPS system (this used to only be available in ballistic missiles!), shopping mall, mailman, typewriter, word processor, watch, calendar, taxi service, grocery service, camcorder, video games, magnifying glass, tape recorder, movie theatre, compass, wallet/credit card, weatherman and many, many more things. It's mind boggling, that all of that is in your phone now, if you use it right.

But like any other useful tool, they can be used for harm or self destructive purposes. And I do appreciate disconnecting from time to time, as oversaturation can wear out their welcome. I'm also glad I didn't have to spend my irresponsible, alcohol-soaked college years documented in world with cell phones.

But on balance, I think cell phones have made life better. I'd prefer to keep my phone, rather than to see all smart phones go away.

I don't have any social media accounts. I post on LRC a couple of times a day to take a break from work. My coworkers are boring and I hate making small talk with them. So I will close my door and post on LRC instead of hanging around the water cooler.

For me, I do think life is better with a smart phone. I used to watch a lot of really crappy TV shows and surf channels when I was board. Now, I will read articles on my phone or check out some quality twitter accounts. I also listen to a couple different podcasts on my phone. That beats the snot out of watching cable news or watching the Matrix for the nth time on basic cable. I also only text with my wife and only when necessary.

I use my phone to video my golf swing, take pictures of plants to identify with iNaturalist and identify birds. When I travel, I like being able to find good coffee shops and restaurants and running trails.

I can't imagine woodsporn is still a thing.

Uncle P wrote:

When I started in sales I'd leave the apartment every day with a roll of quarters. I knew where every payphone was and which ones would be quiet (and clean!) enough for calls to customers. Checked in with office three times a day. Did paperwork at night.

No one knew where I was or when I'd be home. I'd find a nice trail and go for my PM run where ever I ended the day.

Got all my news from NPR while driving around.

Talked to all sorts of great people.

I traveled a lot for work in the 1980s before not just smartphones, but before the internet. I remember what a pain it was trying to find the hotel at night in a different city using a map. And not a map printed out from a printer, but the folding kind you got from AAA or a gas station. For years I carried a small alarm clock that doubled as a flashlight whenever I traveled. The handiest device I owned.

I'll keep my smart phone. I seldom use social media anyway.

yea I'm 36, got a Nokia in 2003, was on Facebook in College in 2004/2005 ( I still have the account) and have an iPhone. The other poster is right. It's not the smartphone, it's the social media, which I find obnoxious. I wanted to delete Facebook but I have years of memories and history there and It's also the way my running club stays in contact.

To get away from it all, I like to go running and leave the damn phone at home.

They're a mixed blessing for sure.

I miss leaving work for the day and, you know, leaving work for the day. I didn't think about work again until I got back to the office the next morning. Now I'm on call 24/7. Immediate responses are expected.

I miss actually talking to people because their faces weren't buried in their phones. It just kills me to see four people sitting around a table at a restaurant, ignoring each other as they play with their phones. We are simultaneously more connected and less connected than ever.

I miss not worrying about getting run over by distracted drivers.

It is nice being able to contact people remotely when needed or being able to look up a location when out on the go (but not while driving - I never touch my phone while driving).

It's just a stupid game wrote:

The phones aren't the issue. Social media is the issue.

I agree with this. Mobile banking, GPS navigation, and the ability to google things all from my phone is a great quality of life boost.

Smart phones without social media is ideal. I personally don't have any social media apps downloaded on my phone.

It's just a stupid game wrote:

The phones aren't the issue. Social media is the issue.

It's a crisis, maybe the first time the population of the globe shares the shame destructive addiction simultaneously.

" Look at me" I have an audience as long as I am online hedonism will be like the fall of Rome only for the planet.

That's why the Chinese are setting limits already.