Do you own a smartphone?

[Streg]

Twinsan has a point. 13 people have a smartphone, 8 don't

[SpaceGuitarist]

Originally Posted by Twinsan

err no it's not

Ok ok, let me rephrase that: YAAAAAAAAAY I'm not a forever alone in this poll and more than half of the voters are with me!!!

Better?

[Streg]

Eh? My post doesn't make sense, why did I even write that? And why are you quoting me? Oh well. Gotta go! Goodbye!

*counts money*

[SpaceGuitarist]

Don't make it worse for me, Streg.

[Streg]

Do you think I'm that stupid? Do I look like I am wearing a dunce cap?

[SpaceGuitarist]

Streg, STAHP !


EDIT: Here's to you all smartphone owners! HMPF.

My old Nokia lasts a week and a half of battery. And this is because I've owned it for 4 years already, using the same battery that came with it.

[Neko]

You just can't afford a smartphone, admit it

Ayone who is bashing smartphones is like the people bashing the pc back in the days.

[Lupin]

Originally Posted by Jesse

Ayone who is bashing smartphones is like the people bashing the pc back in the days.

This.

[Darkflame]

Its perfectly fine to bash smartphones as phones. As phones they suck. :P

But as portable do-everything devices they are a modern wonder. They are a "jack-of-all-trades-and-master-of-none" - but its still frecking amazing how much they do.
You don't always need the best device for the job.
Its like having a swiss army knife instead of caring a toolbox.

[marcosmapf]

Originally Posted by Darkflame

Its like having a swiss army knife instead of caring a toolbox.

Perfect example

[Jasiek]

Got mine from work, bought a new one today, should arrive in a few days.

Apart from battery time I don't see how they suck as phones...

Also the flashlight app! THAT.

[Darkflame]

The "take your pulse app by reflecting the light from your figure back into the camera" was more mind blowing for me

Oh, and everything we mentioned here, of course :P

[Polaris]

Gravity detected

[Darkflame]

Yes, its always wise to have a gravity detection app! You don't want to suddenly be left wondering if theres gravity or not do you?

[SpaceGuitarist]

Originally Posted by Jesse

You just can't afford a smartphone, admit it

Nope, I don't feel like affording yet another technological wonder to keep myself attached (and alienated) with, I already feel I suffer enough from this and it's out of control already as is, why would I want to make the problem worse?

A phone is a phone (ie: to make and receive calls/msgs).
The moment I want and, above all, need a mobile computer I'll either go for a tablet, netbook or another laptop.

[SpaceGuitarist]

Also, and this is entirely my opinion perhaps, but, I find people using smartphones an extremely ugly attitude, because most of them lack manners and use it as a substitute for having any personality whatsoever. It's like an automatic "idle mode". Got nothing to do? Oh well, let's fiddle with the smartphone and procrastinate doing futilities on social networks or surfing.

More than often when I'm at friends houses, on the streets, on waiting rooms, on lines, subways, trains, anywhere, people have to keep looking at a damn screen. It's like if nothing else existed. I think the mankind have not well-thought how is the best use to use such devices. Surely, the technological feat, the capability of holding so much power in such small device is jaw-dropping, fantastic! Marvelous! Wonderful! But are we ready, intellectually and spiritually, have we evolved in these two aspects, as much as technology did, to make proper use of all this power? My opinion, is, no.

So my view is that it only makes us a more impersonal, and sickening to look at society. I find it terribly unelegant. Instead of carrying a conversation, everyone in a table simply put out their smartphones. It's a cheap excuse for anything. For any moment potentially embarassing whereas someone would have to engage in a conversation or look at the other people faces and smile, you can just pretend you're doing something looking at a dumb screen.

Oh well, I could go on this for days, but I don't feel like anyone will agree anyway and people willl go bashing on me as soon as I finish this post anyway, so, yeah, whatever.

[marcosmapf]

Originally Posted by SpaceGuitarist

Also, and this is entirely my opinion perhaps, but, I find people using smartphones an extremely ugly attitude, because most of them lack manners and use it as a substitute for having any personality whatsoever. It's like an automatic "idle mode". Got nothing to do? Oh well, let's fiddle with the smartphone and procrastinate doing futilities on social networks or surfing.

More than often when I'm at friends houses, on the streets, on waiting rooms, on lines, subways, trains, anywhere, people have to keep looking at a damn screen. It's like if nothing else existed. I think the mankind have not well-thought how is the best use to use such devices. Surely, the technological feat, the capability of holding so much power in such small device is jaw-dropping, fantastic! Marvelous! Wonderful! But are we ready, intellectually and spiritually, have we evolved in these two aspects, as much as technology did, to make proper use of all this power? My opinion, is, no.

So my view is that it only makes us a more impersonal, and sickening to look at society. I find it terribly unelegant. Instead of carrying a conversation, everyone in a table simply put out their smartphones. It's a cheap excuse for anything. For any moment potentially embarassing whereas someone would have to engage in a conversation or look at the other people faces and smile, you can just pretend you're doing something looking at a dumb screen.

Oh well, I could go on this for days, but I don't feel like anyone will agree anyway and people willl go bashing on me as soon as I finish this post anyway, so, yeah, whatever.

I don't feel like bashing on your post, but I can't entirely agree with it aswell. I have already heard from my mother that she wen't to her friend's daughter's birthday party and EVERYONE in EVERY table had a smarthphone. That's right, the party would lend smartphones and tablets to everyone in the table so they could use it for the entire night. And they did.

Yes, smartphones may distance us from one another, but that is only when they are used incorrectly. You shouldn't be always using your smartphones, only when you are in a hurry and you need something it can provide you (such as a restaurant nearby you when you are traveling) and things like that. I'm sorry if I'm not being clear enough but I'm trying to.

The thing is, I think they can help us too much to be ignored, but they should be used with much more caution than how they are at the moment. People are abusing too much of the technology, and they will regret it in the future.



"Oh well, let's fiddle with the smartphone and procrastinate doing futilities on social networks or surfing."

Isn't posting on any forums procrastinating aswell? ;p (on any device)

Btw, its 1 freaking am already, go to sleep!

[SpaceGuitarist]

Originally Posted by marcosmapf

(...) when you are in a hurry and you need something it can provide you (such as a restaurant nearby you when you are traveling) and things like that.

Marcos, yes, those are the obvious advantages of such a powerful device. I do not question it is powerful and that it can offer advantages. I question it's role and need in society and the way it is used.

At the same time, there's this unnecessary rush in the air, as everybody knows, our world is going faster and faster, our societies more and more demanding. Instead of these "advantages" being real advantages and making our daily lifes easier, they actually only raise the bar for how much is demanded of us. We do not get a feeling that life became happier, healthier and easier now that we have such powerful tools. Quite the opposite, it is more chaotic.

This comic (of the marvelous Calvin&Hobbes, no less) sums it up perfectly:



Also. I'd like to add: "What's the nearest restaurant? Can I book an hotel online? What's the nearest route to place X?" maybe, just maybe, I wouldn't like to know. Maybe, just maybe, you shouldn't be planning things on the go and do like any other normal, mature, disciplined person did things in the last century and plan your day early in the morning, or days before. If something is important for you, you should have thought about it. All this commodity, to have answers in a second, actually makes us lazier and less useful as people in a society.

Oh and also this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QouPm-i8pIs (If you're lazy just skip to the middle, it's okay). Although my phone also does emmit the same harmful electromagnetic waves, I do keep it distant from my body as possible and turn off at most times when possible.

Originally Posted by marcosmapf

Isn't posting on any forums procrastinating aswell?

Yes, exactly why I don't want a damn smartphone to be tempted to come here during random moments in the day, every day, every hour.

I separate a special time for browsing the internet in my computer.

[Neko]

I can't say that people with smartphones use it as a substituta for having a personality and also they don't tend to lack manners.

If you are at parties its true sometimes it can look weird but you can always talk to them and engage them in a conversation.
If you are on the bus, its kind of creepy to begin with and that was no different before the smartphone.

[Neko]

Originally Posted by SpaceGuitarist

Streg, STAHP !


EDIT: Here's to you all smartphone owners! HMPF.

My old Nokia lasts a week and a half of battery. And this is because I've owned it for 4 years already, using the same battery that came with it.

Actually this post kind of lacks manners

Ps: I didn't know you already had problems with pc's, in that case definitely don't buy a smartphone

[Lawrence]

I don't own a smartphone and I frankly don't feel the need to.
Just to clarify, it's not the price or what they can do that puts me off, it's mostly the fact that analog keypads have apparently gone out of fashion in favour of touch screens.
I hate that with a passion, I just can't get used to it. My fingers need some tactile response!

[Jasiek]

The argument of technology/items alienating people or being addicted is really old and can be and was applied to books, the cinema, theatre, magazines or any sort of hobby or past-time...

It's just that we become aware of it when a new thing becomes available and blame our own shortcomings on the novelty item.

When the internet came around people thought we'd end up as mindless husks staring at the screen all day, never going out of the house. While in fact, and this is not just my opinion but a studied fact, the web and social media brought the planet closer as a whole. The anonimity has helped many a introvert person to conquer their fears and get out into the world! The interconnectivity has helped whole nations in realizing they could do better and rise to the streets in protest - and we'll be seeing more of that in the future I'm sure!

The smartphone is just an extension of that, thanks to it everyone can be a journalist, a reporter, we don't need war correspondents to skew the picture for us because we get first hand accounts of what's happening in the world.

Only second to the internet the smartphone has got to be the biggest thing that happened to democracy since it's invention...


On the other hand the arguments "you just can't afford one" or "don't be a scrudge" are just downright rude. Not everyone lives in a country where shelving the money for a gadget is easy - most of the time people don't have that amount of cash on them and need it for rent, or food or other necessities.

[Neko]

Originally Posted by Jasiek

On the other hand the arguments "you just can't afford one" or "don't be a scrudge" are just downright rude. Not everyone lives in a country where shelving the money for a gadget is easy - most of the time people don't have that amount of cash on them and need it for rent, or food or other necessities.

Not as rude as calling people with smartphones more or less anti social, rude etc.

[Kobold]

[Reek]

Originally Posted by SpaceGuitarist

Also, and this is entirely my opinion perhaps, but, I find people using smartphones an extremely ugly attitude, because most of them lack manners and use it as a substitute for having any personality whatsoever.

What if I told you the people you're thinking of lacked manners BEFORE they got smartphones?

I know people who always have their face in their smart phones. And guess what, before they got smart phones they always had their face stuck in their cell phones. Texting, or playing "snake". The idea that a phone can change someone's personality is ridiculous.


I'd reply to the rest of your post but jasiek and kobold did it for me.
People like you have existed forever, every time something new comes out they go "pffft, you and your smartphones/facebook/internet/computers/cell phones!!! Look at me i'm such a nonconformist for not using them!! once everything used to be better!!"

And as for the alienation thing, that's bullshit. I've had loads of fun joking around with people on whatsapp groups. (people that live far from me and whom i can't meet most of the time)