{"id":154,"date":"2007-01-14T10:27:49","date_gmt":"2007-01-14T15:27:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/weeklyrob.dreamhosters.com\/?p=154"},"modified":"2012-10-23T23:19:18","modified_gmt":"2012-10-24T03:19:18","slug":"ipods-are-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/?p=154","title":{"rendered":"iPods Are Good"},"content":{"rendered":"

The BBC delivers a more or less idiotic article on the new Apple iPhone and technology in general. (<\/span>Link<\/a>)<\/span><\/p>\n

The basic gist of the article is that certain people, especially 77 year old Luddites, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to want a new iPhone. In fact, the Luddite in question doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want an iPod either.<\/p>\n

What a fucking surprise. This guy, who says that he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what the iPhone does, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153rather like(s) not wanting one.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want an iPod because he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to walk around listening to music. He \u00e2\u20ac\u0153likes silence.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

So, is the BBC interviewing 77 year-olds to get a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153man on the street\u00e2\u20ac\u009d idea of what people think of new technology? Or music, for that matter? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ridiculous.<\/p>\n

And of course, the guy has no idea. First of all, most people don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153silence\u00e2\u20ac\u009d option. My options during my daily commute are usually something along the lines of:<\/p>\n

* Schizophrenic Rant from most likely non-dangerous person on my left<\/p>\n

* Angry rap lyrics from the most likely non-non-dangerous guy on my right<\/p>\n

* Ear-splitting, but incomprehensible, loudspeaker announcements every three minutes<\/p>\n

* iPod<\/p>\n

Walking on the street itself, of course, I have different choices, including Rumbling Garbage Truck, Beeping Back-up Noise, and Muffler-less Motorcycle.<\/p>\n

But you know what, most of that is beside the point. I love music, but the last three things I listened to were:<\/p>\n

1. Part 10 of \u00e2\u20ac\u015312 Byzantine Rulers,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a series of lectures given by Lars Brownworth.<\/p>\n

2. A panel discussion between an Israeli politician and European diplomats, downloaded from the University Channel (link on the left of the main page).<\/p>\n

3. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Looter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Follies\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by Destroyer. (Ok, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s music, but you get the point.)<\/p>\n

And I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t listen to it while walking around nearly as much as I do while driving in the car, or doing the dishes. Luddite-man likes the swish-swish-clang of soapy dishes.<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ok with me if people don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to listen to music or podcasts. But they shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t kid themselves that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re above it. They just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like music, or knowledge, or are scared and ignorant.<\/p>\n

On to the iPhone. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not amazing because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an iPod. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s amazing because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s touch controlled, and doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to lose space to have a keyboard. Making it an iPod is great for people who want a phone and also want an iPod, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a different story.<\/p>\n

Anyway, this is a ramble, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel like fixing the logical flow. So I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m heading right back to the article.<\/p>\n

It says that Luddite-man isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t alone. A survey shows that 50% of British adults feel overwhelmed by new technology and have trouble with all the new jargon.<\/p>\n

The problem is that feeling overwhelmed isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the same as not wanting, or appreciating, the new things you can do with these devices. Of course people feel overwhelmed. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot going on. Hell, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m overwhelmed half the time. What does that have to do with it?<\/p>\n

And then come the comments. I suddenly am out of time, so I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bother too much. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll just bother a little.<\/p>\n

These people say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153oh, what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wrong with the world that we need mobile phones to talk to each other? Why, if someone needs to talk to me, they can call on my regular phone.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Why is that better? Isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153regular\u00e2\u20ac\u009d phone just like a mobile phone, except that you have to be home to use it? How is it more natural or personal? I bet these same people would\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve said the same things when the phone was invented. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Why, just write me a letter!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

And here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a beauty:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I disagree with those who say that technology improves communication. Many people now use mobile phones and MP3s so much that they have lost the skill of communicating on a personal, face to face level, and I believe this is having an adverse effect on society.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Many people have lost the skill of communicating on a personal level? Really? Who? Who are these many people? What, they come up to you and are unable to speak?<\/p>\n

And by the way: MP3s? Do you even know what MP3s are? How are MP3s affecting the ability to communicate? This is a perfect indication of this person’s qualifications to talk about this issue.<\/p>\n

The Luddite-man said that he was worried, too. Can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you just say that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not interested in mobile phones without saying that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re WORRIED about people who are?<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m in a bad mood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The BBC delivers a more or less idiotic article on the new Apple iPhone and technology in general. (Link) The basic gist of the article is that certain people, especially 77 year old Luddites, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to want a new iPhone. In fact, the Luddite in question doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want an iPod either. What a fucking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","category-humanity","category-net-and-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}