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Am I the only one who finds the new Apps-based world boring?
doctorfrog:
I currently work at a pretty decent tech company staffed with intelligent, nice, hardworking people, and most of them are absolutely glued to their iPhones. If there's a spare second on an elevator ride or five seconds wait in a line, they're staring at that little screen.
I bet they're much more productive for it, I really do, because of the connectivity of the thing, and all the miracles you can accomplish with it. But me, when I step away from my desk, I'm done looking at screens, and I'm done working for the five minutes it takes for a bathroom break or a wait in line for coffee. Email can wait, text messages can wait, the whole business can wait until I get back to my chair. I don't need constant updates of everything.
And I have absolutely no interest in cute little apps made for those 30-second stretches of time. Good god man, I don't have many thoughts in my head, but the ones I have there, I'm pretty grateful for. Video games, video streaming, and constant internet activity have driven me to crave distraction, I don't need anymore stuff calling for my attention!
And I'm kind of sad about this, because I feel like I'm lacking compared to these people.
superboyac:
I currently work at a pretty decent tech company staffed with intelligent, nice, hardworking people, and most of them are absolutely glued to their iPhones. If there's a spare second on an elevator ride or five seconds wait in a line, they're staring at that little screen.
I bet they're much more productive for it, I really do, because of the connectivity of the thing, and all the miracles you can accomplish with it. But me, when I step away from my desk, I'm done looking at screens, and I'm done working for the five minutes it takes for a bathroom break or a wait in line for coffee. Email can wait, text messages can wait, the whole business can wait until I get back to my chair. I don't need constant updates of everything.
And I have absolutely no interest in cute little apps made for those 30-second stretches of time. Good god man, I don't have many thoughts in my head, but the ones I have there, I'm pretty grateful for. Video games, video streaming, and constant internet activity have driven me to crave distraction, I don't need anymore stuff calling for my attention!
And I'm kind of sad about this, because I feel like I'm lacking compared to these people.
-doctorfrog (October 04, 2010, 04:20 PM)
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I wouldn't say you are sad. You are not missing on any true experiences because you are not completely mobile with your computing. In fact, I would argue exactly the opposite. THEY are missing out on real experiences by needing to be glued to their phones. I saw this quote in a forum related to this:
"Facebook is to socializing, what masturbation is to sex."
You see, most people think that more efficiency always means better. But that is not true. I even remember seeing a Droid commercial this weekend where they had some guys arms turn into robotic arms as soon as he touched the Droid phone, and they touted that the Droid will turn you into an "efficiency machine" or something along those lines. I thought the whole idea was very sad.
There's something that is truly human about being able to enjoy the "absurd" pleasures of life (as my friend likes to say). We are not robots. There's nothing efficient about sitting in a canyon and staring at the view in front of you. But it's beautiful. That's because efficiency is not beautiful. There's nothing efficient about watching a 3+ hour opera called the Marriage of Figaro. But it's beautiful.
There's nothing beautiful about constantly texting forgettable phrases back and forth for the rest of your life. but it sure is efficient...I suppose.
superboyac:
FYI, I went to my annual John Pizzarelli concert a few weeks ago with some friends. He comes once a year here, and I go every year. One of my friends, throughout the whole concert, was secretly texting back and forth on his phone. During songs, in between breaks...the whole time. He didn't go more than 2 minutes without looking at his phone, which means he didn't listen to any song all the way through. So between he and I:
Who was more efficient?
Who was more human?
Who experienced true human pleasure?
Who noticed something beautiful?
Eóin:
There's nothing beautiful about constantly texting forgettable phrases back and forth for the rest of your life. but it sure is efficient...I suppose.
-superboyac (October 04, 2010, 05:09 PM)
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If you're talking inane status updates or comments on Facebook or Twitter, well I completely agree. But people who are constantly glued to their phones texting friends and family are doing as good a job of socializing as everyone else, assuming you also see those friends and family an odd time.
Sure you don't want to miss the real world, but for most humans, after survival, socializing is the biggest part of real world. Who's to say that's wrong.
Dormouse:
To do anything truly productive I want desktop apps - for me the way to go, out and about, is a netbook with a proper OS and applications and VPN to my desktop (just got a Samsung NS210 and it is really nice to use - esp. as i added extra memory, Win 7 Professional and Office 2010 Pro Plus).
IMHO smartphone apps are only really suitable for picking up mail and making a quick response if you have to - and other apps are useful for opening the odd document but who would really want to use a Blackberry or iPhone as a wordprocessor?
-Carol Haynes (October 03, 2010, 09:57 AM)
--- End quote ---
Indeed.
But this is very much from a work related POV, and I don't think that is the point of apps, iPhone or Android. Not that they're necessarily worse at it than WM, Blackberry et al.
And I've never found any computer (laptop or netbook) that useful for being out of the office - startup/close times are just too slow; not a problem for those who want to use them for less frequent and longer periods. And smartphones are perfectly OK for email.
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