Ignorance Towards Big Technological Trends

Sorry for the capitalization but I wasn't sure how to make the title look less dull

I was wondering... with all the technological trends that we have to cope with every day, do you refuse to accept at least one of them entirely? And I'm not talking about "I'm on facebook, linkedin, 20 forums, have 2 blogs and a youtube channel BUT I HATE TWITTER", but actually declining to implement an entire piece of common technology into your life.

Until I came to university, I barely used my cell phone. I had friends, but I only communicated via mail or actual phone and never texted. I do not exaggerate if I say that I may have sent about 5 text messages in a year. There was just no need for it, I just had it to phone if I'm late or something like that, every couple of days once, maximum.
Now I got an iPhone and text/surf/use gadgets all the time.

So I finally use a cell phone in 2012.


However, I still can't find myself listening to MP3-music much. I never had an MP3-player in my whole life, I had a discman back when there was no MP3 on flash memory, but almost never used it. When I got my iPhone, I put a lot of music on it. I even got decent earbuds as part of my contract, but do I use it? No... it just irritates me to listen to music in public. I can't stand to not know what other people around me are talking about. I also find myself unable to enjoy music in a distracting environment such as when I'm walking outside or even when I'm doing sports.

Anyone else here who completely refuses to adapt at least one thing that everyone does? I.e. complete denial of social networking, using navigation systems etc?

 

One thing I have learned in the last 5 days

Moore's Law is bullshit

 

I'm not in any of the big Social Networks, I don't have a Twitter or a Facebook, the only site in which I'm registered is Linkedin, and even there I almost never log in. Some friends have asked me why I don't have a Facebook account, I just dislike the idea behind social networks in general, it feels like a waste of time and a way to artificially keep a friendship with people I haven't seen in a long time, and will most likely never see again.

 

Friendships are what you make them. I don't consider them artificial just because you don't see them in person as of late.

 

People consider now you're friends on Facebook you're friends.. If they delete you they don't even talk to you in real life. So I reckon people look at Facebook like some kind of contract, it's stupid.

I used to use MSN Messenger all the time back in 2009, I haven't used it for 2.5 years now and I hardly have any friends on it any more anyway, they're all on Steam or Skype.

Twitter is good to communicate with people you never would be able to contact, I've gotten quite a few replies from StarSlay3r, Raychul Moore and many other interesting gamers. Just recently ScrewAttack.com has followed me.. wow, that's going on there?!

Back to Facebook, I check it every now and then but really I speak to 3-5 people on there and the rest are people I've either met once, studied with or people overseas I've met in games. I don't really like Facebook anyway, having to hide 90% of people's statuses cause it's all about how much they love their partner..Like we all care -_- But majority of those people I delete.

 

Some years ago I used to ignore a lot all new tech-related trends (mostly social networks and stuff like that), but after some time I found out that you can like them or not, but you can't just ignore techological trends.

In my personal case, there are few tech trends that I truly like, but I try them anyway in order to see what are they about, and what does people see in them.

In my personal case, the only technological trend that I found really useful is the smartphone. The capability to listen to music, surf the internet, play some games and get in touch with people, all on a single, small device, feels really comfortable. With it I also can forget about everyday tasks as checking email regularly, this used to take lots of my time, specially when I was waiting for a reply or something like that.

 

From my experience, it's hard to keep in touch with girls or have a girlfriend if you don't text. They do love texting.

 

I'm in my late teens, and according to the trend I should be at the height of my texting speed. It still takes me 5 minutes to write a short text, and my phone is still a 7 year old hand me down. Hell, I find it hard to use $20 of credit a year XD. What's wrong with me >.<

 

I have a cell phone. But its about 5 years old and I only use it for texting, I dont use it for facebook or anything. I also don't own anything Apple related.

 

Whilt not a law (which technically makes it bullshit). Its still pretty accurate:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Transistor_Count_and_Moore%27s_Law_-_2011.svg

 

How is it not a law?

I'm pretty good at using most technological things, but Twitter is useless crap. Who cares if Kanye West ate a sandwich? I also never use the Google bar on browsers and go to google.com instead, although this is because earlier versions of the bar had a search history that you couldn't turn off.

 

The real reason why I got myself a facebook account was because a few female friends of mine had accounts (later on I found out my sister and my mother too has accounts there). But I now use it, cause I am a part of the occupy movement, and I have met those people (whom I "friended") on facebook, no I did not add them all. But the people I discuss things with they are people I talk to regularly in real life. And I film stuff, that I post . So I use FB as something useful in my daily life, but still to this day. I actually see FB as a bad mixture of the ancient BBS, the modern forum (like this one) but with shittier games, than back in the BBS days, just with fancier graphics. Why personally I have an MP3 player, is because if I am on the go. Then I can sometimes find my own "comfort zone" within myself even though the world is stressing by like ants on fire. But before that, I used portable CD players. And before that, well I did use a portable tape player too. So yeah I am probably one of the youngest , who has had the pleasure of listening to tapes on the go and so forth. Unless some kid comes in , and says "well even though I was not born back in the early 80´s then I still listened to tapes on the go". Because the kids family were poor, then I totally get it. Or perhaps I am getting old when I am thinking that .

 

Same here. It takes me about 10 minutes to write two medium-length phrases. Whoever came up with this crap ought to be shot immediately. That's why I refused to use it and thought that at some point in my life, I would inevitably have to learn it anyway.

I was wrong. Smartphones were invented and texting suddenly works like a charm.

This is shit:


This is great:

 

I'll have to disagree with you. Physical buttons is the shit, I drive a car very often and with my old phone I knew exactly where the buttons were and could write and send a long message without even looking at the phone.

 

I find texting on smartphones is better and worse at the same time. I can text way faster with a full QWERTY keyboard but the lack of physical buttons forces you to look at the screen all the time.

I used to have a Motorola BACKFLIP (a low-end version of the Droid), and I must say texting on it was simply great, suddenly texting was not a pain in the ass anymore. I had to change it a couple of months ago because I had a really good offer from a cellphone store I made a website for, and even if the screen of the SE Xperia Neo is a lot bigger and the phone is better in every way I cannot get used to on-screen keyboards, there's nothing like texting on a real keyboard.

 

Now if I could attach a full-sized keyboard to my phone...

 

If there is something I adopted and never let go, it's MP3. I had a Discman, and a lot of MP3 on my first laptop back in '99.

I take my players everywhere, though, and I expect them to be tough, because my everyday life is very, very mobile. And I cannot be outside without some music shielding my thoughts from the horrendous noises of public transportation in Mexico.

The moment the first MP3 enabled CD players came out, I lusted for one. I eventually got a Panasonic unit that went EVERYWHERE with me. I fixed it twice because I fell on it once, and still, it worked for years. I listened to so much music on that bad boy!

When it eventually became obsolete and also, not quite reliable, and after a shitty chinese 512 MB mp3 player/usb drive, I got myself a 6GB Creative Zen. What a thing of beauty it was! And it even came with an extra removable battery! It eventually had to be fixed, because they all had faulty connections and stopped working - but the navigation, the features, the STORAGE... What a fantastic little device. Sadly, it died too, but not after serving me, and its next owner (I gave it to my now ex) well.

Then, I had a Samsung YPK3. What immensely awesome little work of art. It survived a storm, even. One of the best players I've ever had. I almost mourned it when it finally died - someone dropped it from a desk where I left it, and I found it on the floor. It stopped recognising songs and eventually, it stopped working completely.

But then, a friend sold me his 30 GB Zune. What a fantastic player. Best I have owned. The sound, the "heart" bookmark option, the screen quality, the earbuds... pure class. It was destroyed in an unfortunate accident too - my cat pushed it off a shelf.

I have the money to get a new player, even if I'm happy with my little pink 8GB Sony NWZ - and it's sturdy as hell. They don't make Zune anymore, and the Samsung YP and similars are no longer distributed in Mexico. I'd rather operate my own liver with fishing wire and a salad fork than get ANY Apple products.

For now, my little pink player goes everywhere with me. It's cheap as fuck, and I can treat it as if I hated it, and if I get pickpocketed, it's easy to replace. No big loss.

But I really wish I could get something with good quality and more than 30 GB storage that's not Apple.

This being said, I refused to get a cell phone until 2003, and until 2004 I had it but kept it in the glove compartment.

I started getting interested in cellphones until they could play MP3, but I still suck at using them. I don't believe in having everything in my phone. I like having a phone AND a player, as separate devices.

This is an old-person attitude, it seems.

 

Yeah, this is something I agree with, don't like music on my phone. Although that's more because my phone runs out of battery fast enough without listening to music, and I'll probably just give in and put my music on it anyway.

 

I try out everything at least once, see what sticks.

Social networking is kinda good for separating the wheat from the chaff. Remove someone as a friend or say something which someone finds offensive and you soon learn wether or not to keep certain people around depending on their reaction.

As for hardware, I couldn't give a shit about system specs anymore as long as it's reliable and it works. I run a Core 2 Duo Mac and I don't see the point of upgrading to a newer system, gaming aside there's nothing this thing can't handle as long as I'm prepared to be patient. When I was younger it was all about over clocking, cooling and how many pipes I could unlock on my Nvidia card. So much time and money wasted. Go out outside and get some exercise!!!

As for music, I was happy with CD's until Minidiscs rocked my world. I'd still be using them today if I didn't find my iPhone and iTunes just too damn convenient. iTunes Match has just recently blown my mind all over again too.

 

Minidiscs, and all the devices that played them, looked like something from a better version of the future - much cooler and more stylish than the shitty future we got to experience.

You saw the little device, and its potential - the lights and numbers on the player, and you just new you were about to experience something special.

I wish DVDs and Blu-rays looked like that today.