Would you trade how social people were for lack of smartphones/other tech today?

[Raxe]

I'm the guy who picks up his phone to check Facebook while sitting at the computer on Facebook. Gotta keep technology within reach 24/7.

[M-technik-3]

I can deal with both. I got rid of cable in the house and we have a strict no electronic's during meals and such. We also do kids baseball which forces them to interact.

[BlackbirdM3]

Is the internet useful? You bet. Yes, I'm on it quite a bit, but I live alone, work alone (for the most part) and all my friends are married and don't do anything interesting anyway. (It seems like the norm is to get married, buy a house and then do nothing but work on the house. Thanks, I'll pass.) They will however check facebook a few times a day. That is why I post all my pictures there, since otherwise no one will see them (what is the point of putting the effort into shooting the pic if no one will ever see it?) That is about all I use the site for.

I don't have a smart phone, and I don't ever want one either. Its nothing more than a toy; and adult pacifier and little more. I don't need GPS, I can read a map, (Don't get me wrong, GPS is nice when you are 1000 miles from shore on a boat to somewhere, not a lot of landmarks to go by. Or for that matter, flying, but even so, flying VFR is easy if you can read a map) For those applications, very useful, for the car, its annoying and distracting. The same for talking on the phone while driving its distracting. (My phone is either turned off or placed somewhere I can't reach it anyway. Sorry I don't care who you are, you aren't important enough for me to answer the phone while I'm driving.) Technology is good in many ways, but at the consumer level, its nothing more than a distraction (I'm talking phones, tablets ect) from the task at hand. Honestly, I wouldn't even think about giving a kid a phone until they are 18 years old. A $300 phone is not something a 6th grader needs (or anyone who hasn't graduated high school) Things like Twitter and that are stupid. Who cares if you just had a burger at In and Out. Don't waste my time telling me, its irrelevant. People complain about privacy this and that, yet they sit there and tell the world every little detail. Its stupid.

I can't stand new cars. The crap is shoved in your face and you are forced to eat it. Thanks, you have nothing to offer me. I like my dials and switches that can be individually replaced or fixed. Heck, I'd rather have manually operated windows and seats anyway (less weight, more simplicity). I have no interest in something I can't fix myself without a computer to tell me what is wrong.

I'd be perfectly happy to go back to the '80s or early '90s. The music was better, the cars were better, society was more social, and the SR-71 could still be seen at an airshow in the air 8-) I wouldn't mind a bit if I had to dial up a friend using a rotary phone to see if they were interested in seeing a movie done with models or real items (like the original Star Wars and Indian Jones) rather than CGI.

In some respects, technology has bettered everyday life, but in many ways its just made us lazy. I don't like lazy.

Will

[cale]

I'd much rather nowadays. Why would I give up all the comforts that are part of my life so I can strike up a more comfortable casual conversation with convenience store clerks? /semiserious

Smartphones do not inhibit my ability to enjoy time with friends, nor am I any less courteous to strangers.

[evandael]

i embrace certain technologies and eschew others. some social media and technology fits my tastes (forums, instagram, checking my email on my iphone, texting) and some don't (twitter, facebook, the like). while i don't condone some i don't necessarily condemn them.

i believe i am a genuine person as a result of consciously moderating the technology in my life. i know when i'm going overboard and my human interaction suffers, so i 'pull the plug' so to speak and try to have personal contact.

sometimes i daydream about life before the incandescent light bulb, or the phone, or cars, or cheap t-shirts and processed food, and then i realize that i can have that if i desire. in the meantime i'm glad i have all of civilization's progress at my disposal.. it's all about balance.

[decay]

I saw my first Glasshole in SF last week.

With the advent of that, I think we're now more than halfway to the future depicted in Wall-E.

[Wh33lhop]

I'd much rather nowadays. Why would I give up all the comforts that are part of my life so I can strike up a more comfortable casual conversation with convenience store clerks? /semiserious

Smartphones do not inhibit my ability to enjoy time with friends, nor am I any less courteous to strangers.

While that could be true, it gives people an easy outing to be antisocial when they are in potentially social situations and shifts their tendency towards laziness and just vegging out on the phone in general. I definitely have a tendency to do this and make a conscious effort to avoid it and keep the phone in my pocket. It is definitely extremely useful but I agree that having the information at our fingertips makes us lazier.

[keefy6]

^yes..
It really is a shame in my opinion. Our first house didn't have running water, had an outhouse; we had a TV with 3 channels, sometimes fox (the ooold fox:) to get cartoons and maybe PBS (reading rainbow anyone?).

We played outside, picked wild blueberries/blackberries in the summer, planted and tended the garden, went to the pool every once in a while; cut wood in the winter etc. Folks visited..we visited folks sometimes on the weekends. If you wanted to talk to someone you took a ride to see them or picked up the phone or saw them in church.

The youth today are disadvantaged in experiencing the surprises of life in general with the advances of technology and its marketed benefits, they can just 'google' "LIFE". So much has changed in the last 20 or so years so the reasoning behind this topic in my opinion is very broad and isn't minimized to just one area.

[Thizzelle]

I like tech because it keeps the kids from waffleswaffleswaffleswafflesing with my cars and shit in my yard. Although I never see the neighbors kids outside which I always think to myself what facking freaks and their grass in the backyard is 3ft tall. Lazy ass parents. They even tried to eye me down while throwing a baseball in backyard because it makes that pop sound in the glove and slammed their back door closed LOL. I just think they are weirdos, although the daughter is hot

[F34R]

Born in the mid 80s and did not get a phone till this year. I also delete my Facebook from time to time. I hold no grasp to tech. I would rather live in the 1,800s

[Farbin Kaiber]

I think getting out of the rat race, look what I have lifestyle and region of the country I lived in really helped balance me out a bit. If I had stayed there, I might have 50,000 posts here by now, and would not have any idea how to comfortably sit and listen to the wind blow without having to check my devices for updates on the color of someone's last bowel movement.

[Cletonius]

I think this is a big problem for the 2-10 year old age bracket nowadays. 90% of kids I see spend all of their time on an iPad/mommy and daddy's cell phone playing games. No outside activity, no social interaction. They are GLUED to these screens. And parents love it cause it keeps the kids attention so easily!

If we think people are becoming unsocial now, imagine 15-20 years fom now when all of these kids are adults.

My 7 year old nephew is this. His parents gave him a big TV with satellite, an iPod touch, kindle fire HD, and then a smartphone. He doesn't do anything without some form of electronic device. He's 160 pounds and wears pants with a 36" waist. At 7 years old. Shit, I'm 32 and wear a 36.

I live in a 850 sq ft home with my wife and 2 kids. We don't have a TV or microwave, and my kids (ages 4&5) are well behaved and social. They are friendly and will speak politely with anyone who chats them up. People cannot believe their ages based on their verbal communication skills. People stop at our table in restaurants to tell us that our kids are little angels, it blows my mind - and then I see someone else's kid.

Edit
We have tablets for our kids, they use them when appropriate and for age appropriate activities. Like any activity, they are limited in time spent being sedentary.
/edit

Anyways, I grew up in the 80's and had a rotary phone too. I am in the tech field for work and can see the value in tech, but I would really like to go back to a simpler life. People don't know where their food (or anything for that matter) comes from and "better" has been replaced by "cheaper" in most cases.

Technology has a place, and all the text based communication has cut us off from each other. The other day I saw a table full of teens all looking at their phones. I wonder if they were texting each other? How hard is it to just talk to someone? This shouldn't be a lost art.

[Dermeister3]

When Hurricane Sandy rolled along and cut off power and cellular phone usage, I actually had a blast. You had to show up at your friend's house and get them out of what they were doing without ever texting them that you were going to show up, it was pretty sweet and fun.

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The 2 weeks without power were some of the most social ever. Between volunteering at shelters with 10+ of my friends most days, to hanging out with everyone at night, chillin playing games, drinking, having beers, Ive never spent so much time with other people in a social setting.

Granted, it got to be a bit too much, but it was still a great time to be social. Though, i appreciated time alone a bit more after :P

[Wschnitz]

I dont know, I still call people instead of texting, will just show up at peoples houses, and try and plan on doing things with people. Maybe some of you are alot less social because of the dawn of technology but I use it as a benefit to get to meet more people, if I did'nt have the internet I wouldnt have met so many E30 friends and probably wouldnt have found my e30. Honestly we would have alot of problems without navigation, there are people who are easily lost haha.

[Quadrajet]

If I had stayed there, I might have 50,000 posts here by now, and would not have any idea how to comfortably sit and listen to the wind blow without having to check my devices for updates on the color of someone's last bowel movement.

YES! Sometimes I read what people put on FB and I'm like, "What possessed you to write that for all the world to see!" There's a lot of stuff that I feel is kinda cool that I do, I don't put it on Facebook, I just wait till I see certain folks and tell them about it. And no, excrement shade or aroma is not a topic of discussion.