{"id":227,"date":"2007-09-21T18:26:38","date_gmt":"2007-09-21T23:26:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/weeklyrob.dreamhosters.com\/?p=227"},"modified":"2007-09-21T18:26:38","modified_gmt":"2007-09-21T23:26:38","slug":"using-the-phone-talking-to-someone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/?p=227","title":{"rendered":""Using the Phone" = "Talking to Someone""},"content":{"rendered":"

Eight months ago, I ranted<\/a> about people who think that cell phones are picking at the threads holding society together.<\/p>\n

Today, Wired magazine<\/a> sort of says the same thing I did, but with less cussing and more logic.<\/p>\n

What set Wired off (aside from belatedly reading my post, which of course all technology magazines do) was a New Yorker article<\/a> about a seminar held at NYU. In short, the leader of the seminar is worried that:<\/p>\n

“The peril in getting to know classmates on the computer is that incoming undergraduates may forget how to do so in real life.”<\/p>\n

Apparently, a lot of people who never use technology in a social way are worried about the dangers of using technology in a social way. The leader of the seminar, for example, hasn’t used online social networks.<\/p>\n

Since I already sort of covered this ground in January, I’ll leave it alone this time around. But the Wired writer did say something that I want to call out as true.<\/p>\n

In short, she said that it may look as though she’s using her phone, but really she’s chatting with a friend. That is, the technology is a tool to do the same things humans have always done, but better.<\/p>\n

I run across this all the time. For example, members of an older generation have noted that I’m on the computer a lot. That I love being on the computer.<\/p>\n

But to me, that’s like saying that someone loves being in the car, because they use it to go to lunch, to the movies, or to a friend’s house.<\/p>\n

I’m not on the computer as an end in itself. I’m sorting pictures of my family. I’m editing digital video and creating DVDs. I’m keeping in touch with friends. I’m writing a ton, and reading a ton. Keeping up with current events, and current thinking about<\/em> those events.<\/p>\n

Don’t get me wrong. I do love the latest toys even when I can’t find a way to use them. I spend a lot of brain power rationalizing why I should buy cool gear. But the vast majority of what I’m doing has nothing to do with circuitry or microchips. It’s not about technology, but about cool stuff I can do that I couldn’t do before.<\/p>\n

Like publish rants to the world. Right now I’m “on the computer.” Ain’t technology grand?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eight months ago, I ranted about people who think that cell phones are picking at the threads holding society together. Today, Wired magazine sort of says the same thing I did, but with less cussing and more logic. What set Wired off (aside from belatedly reading my post, which of course all technology magazines do) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-net-and-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227","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=227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}