Techno World

[Vyn]

This topic was inspired by Zzz's This or That offering - no phone or no internet for a day.

I bought my first cell phone in 1999. One for me, one for my wife. I'd carried a pager for a long time, but that was only for work. I'd been on the internet since the mid 80's.

But both the internet, and the cell phone, were both services that were at -my- disposal. Neither of them were necessities, and unless I initiated their use, they didn't get used. The cell phone was more about convenience and safety for myself and my wife, not just to be easily accessible to everyone. The internet was just for research, not an outlet to express my opinion about everything, or buy some Cheetos, or handle my banking and pay bills.

Prior to those technologies entering my life, and for a good while after, if I wanted to be incommunicado, it was no big deal. I mean, we'd go on vacation to the lake for two weeks, and for those two weeks the only people who heard from us were people AT THE LAKE. No one freaked out thinking we were lost or dead simply because they hadn't heard from us.

Fast forward to 2022, and the cell phone is now a smartphone that is 100x more powerful and capable than any computer I used to connect to the internet in 1985. And the internet is now the World Wide Web, and all that entails. Both of these technologies are no longer about self-initialization, they are about reactionary use. They have become the standard by which things get done. Obviously there are a lot of edge cases, but for the most part they are now necessities.

And in general, it is all super positive. With regards to convenient functionality, that is. I went from getting a paycheck, trying to get to the bank before they closed for the day to cash it, figuring out how much money to keep out because banks weren't open on the weekends and if I ran out of cash, too bad. ATMs weren't a thing. Now, I can get money anytime, basically anywhere, handle all of my finances from the comfort of my home, whenever I want. I love not having to write out 20 checks a month by hand.

And research? Holy smokes, it is more about sorting the wheat from the chaff than worrying about finding information about something. Want to read The Gilgamesh Epic in its original cuneiform? No problem. Want to...know anything...no problem.

Listen to any kind of music, find stuff you've never heard just to expand your horizons? No problem. Buy whatever you want? No problem. It is simply incredible to me, even at this point, how connected and convenient everything is now. Hell, find a job, work remotely, get paid automatically...some folks sent me money recently to support this website. The same tech that provides this social platform for us allowed money to be sent from all over the world, in an instant. No problem.

Of course, there's a lot of nonsense on the internet, which is all accessible from a person's smart phone...really they are one and the same. You no longer have to have a computer with a phone line and pay by the minute to see ASCII art portraying cats doing humorous things, you can pull out your phone, and for one flat monthly fee use it as a phone, calculator, camera, notepad, calendar, send email, and use the internet to see actual videos of cats doing humorous things.

The nonsense part of this tech isn't really on my mind with this post. What is on my mind is the urgent sense of togetherness that these technologies have created in us. Urgent in the sense that if we don't hear from someone in a shorter and shorter amount of time, depending on the level of the relationship we have with them, we start to freak out. if I'm at work, and my wife sends me a text, and I don't respond in two minutes, it's like the world has caught fire.

It's that level of "expected accessibility" that for me is a negative. I wonder if folks who have grown up not knowing a time before the iPhone see it that way, at all. I wonder if we, as in the society of human beings, have lost something and replaced it with something that is, or will become, worse. Just because I think it is a negative to have an always-on level of connectivity with the rest of the world, does that mean it is actually a negative in some larger sense?

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy being tied in with the world. On my terms, of course lol. It seems that it is no longer about my terms or how I want to use the tech, but society's terms of engagement and what society has come to expect from me.

Just some lightweight philosophizing on a rainy Monday evening.

[Zzzptm]

My question came out of landing at the airport and switching my phone out of airplane mode and the SIM card deciding it was not going to work. I normally text my wife after I land, so that part got delayed... but more urgent was that my way out of the airport to the hotel was going to be via Uber, and if I didn't have mobile service, I wasn't getting out of the airport that way. True, I could get wifi somewhere, but then I don't think I'd get from the wifi to the Uber stand in time for the Uber to meet me there. The phone has also become an extension of my work, so that needed addressing, as well.

I was still able to get addresses with my phone offline, as several were already stored in my apps. After I got wifi at the airport, I could at least email my wife to let her know what was up.

So instead of Ubering to the hotel and settling in for a nice afternoon, I rented a car, drove to a shop for my mobile carrier, and spent 3 hours in total getting my SIM card situation sorted out.

If I knew I wasn't going to have phone service ahead of time, I'd be fine letting it go. But on the spur of the moment, I'd like to keep my phone with me and let the Internet slide.

[Charger]

I bought my first cell phone in 1996 I think... Nokia 101 NMT. Since then I think I've had more than 100 phones. I used to change them quite often and buy a lot of different models...that was back in the day when phones were still individual and different looking and not the rectangle blocks which all look the same as they are now.
Couple of times I even bought several phones at once. Usually some rare models from Germany.

Here's a picture of the ones I've kept over the years:



I was also very active in a cell phone forum that we had here in Finland...that was the time when phones meant something bit more and weren't quite so everyday things they are now.


Now ofcourse things have changed and there's nothing fun about cell phones anymore...no individuality...they are all just the same...hell by just looking at a modern smart phone you can't say what it is....that is just beyond stupid in my mind.

Also I'm still pretty old school when it comes to using the phone...I don't have whatsapp (because of the serious security risks it posesses...and ofcourse also because I don't need it as I don't have anyone to talk with anyways) and I very rarely use my phone for web browsing as I hate squinting that small screen...I have a computer with a 24" screen to do the browsing with. Also the tiny keyboard pisses me off.
I don't have a lot of apps either. Just one for the watch, ps4 app, a starmap and Iss tracker and that's about it.


I got my first computer back in the early 90s...can't remember the exact year but it was before I turned 10. A 386 with Windows 3.1. Didn't have a modem but we did get one quite soon...because my mom wanted a bank connection. So we were actually pretty early into the whole internet banking thing...that was before 1995.
I don't have a lot of memories about using the early internet though...But I do recall trying to play Doom with a school buddy of mine with the modem...everytime I tried to dial up my friend his mom picked up the phone and I heard a muffled "hello" from inside my computer and she heard the ear wrenching screech of the modem! That always cracked me up.

The whole modem thing lasted quite a while with me...as we never got the ISDN connection which was the big deal in the late 90s...mainly cause I didn't play online much. Then I used my GPRS connection through my phone for a while (as it was crazy cheap back in the early 00s) and only then went for the ADSL...I actually played a lot of starcraft using just the GPRS connection as it didn't need a whole lot of data...but FPS's were out of the question...but when I got the ADSL then the gaming really started espcially with Delta Force and Black Hawk Down. I played that a lot...and was even a member of the worlds top sniper clan till the end of BHD cycle...then I had my hand surgery and that took me away from gaming for a good 6 months or so and by that time Modern Warfare had taken over BHD and the clan disbanded as well...

I do remember being a part of different forums since the late 90s...As I've never had any friends or anyone to really "hang out with" I guess I looked for atleast some form of connection online...That part really hasn't changed over the years...although I don't really go and look for any connections anymore...that kind of stuff if bit beyond my reach anyways...always has been.

Times have changed a lot since I started the online journey that's for sure. I think our generation has seen more development in the digital realm than anyone ever will. As we've come from the full analog world to the full digital world. A change that big will not happen again I am sure....
The next big leap will be virtual reality but it won't be that huge of a leap as going from analog rotary phones to smart phones...which is something we've gone through.


Honestly to answer the original question I could easily go without my phone for days and days (as it's possible no one calls or texts me in weeks on end) but being even one day without the access to the internet is a tough one.