JDB and emails

[UEF]

I'm staring to get a clicky thumb from having to hold my iPhone 6+ so much.

Lipstick: Whatsapp is basically sending text messages but over your data plan, so sending pictures and videos are free. And you can track if the messages have been delivered/read. Also you can do group conversations on it. That's about it.

[Bryter Layter]

Yeah, I don't see what's so admirable about him not having email (bit old hat, but still a usefull communication tool) or a smart phone. I mean, if he has chosen to avoid that kind of thing, that's his decision and it seems to have worked out for him so far, but I'm not personally all that impressed by those who don't evolve with the times. Besides, in his industry, he probably doesn't have any cause to access the web or social media, but some of us mere mortals don't have that luxury. Beyond just the everyday computer work we do in our professions, people like me who work in the communications industry, really have no choice but to maintain some form of a social media presence.

The Manics were never really that tech savvy anyway (excluding Sean, but he never speaks anyway so his love of technology is pretty much a quiet one. ). Back in the 90s, it was bands like Radiohead who championed the Internet and computers (I think they had one of the first official band websites) while the Manics were never really into that or at least they weren't as vocal about it. Some things never change I guess.

[Takk]

Originally Posted by darkanddivine

I won't make the argument myself, but it is interesting non the less. Some say that instead of using things like Google maps (which lets face it is bloody useful) increases brain function, which is a good thing, and that certain digital dependencies reduces attention spans and the ability to think. I'm not saying it's true, but from a personal level I always feel a hell of a lot more "clear" when my internet use is minimal rather than moment filling, and I have done both. As I say, no right or wrong, but quite interesting.

I certainly didn't make a big deal about leaving a certain social site, I quite enjoyed the abrupt ending actually

Well, of course you can over-use technology, and there are certain skills that go out of the window (map reading, compasses etc) if you rely on say google maps, but doesn't that just leave time for other things and other skills? I mean, sitting inside all day on the computer is not a healthy lifestyle compared to being active all day, but that's a unhealthy choice to make, it seems to me you can do both. I bet he has a tv!

I just find some of the people who make out they are anti-technology as if it is a virtue somewhat tiresome, not necessarily james. It seems to me being able to find a balance between making use of technology as much as you need and not letting anything unhealthy take over your life is a better thing to aspire to, ha.

[Dac X Lee]

Originally Posted by Borderliner

Sometimes more technology = less freedom. NSA tracking people left and right, taking away their privacy. Targeted advertising, censorship, SEO and all that crap.

Cloud didn't make us free either. Apple, Google or Microsoft can delete your account anytime they want and all your data goes to hell.

Didn't you read what I had written above the part you quoted?

[Littlesue]

My Mom likes to point out that when she comes round my house I'm sitting at my computer and the bloke is on the XBox. She seems to forget when I'm round her house she and me Dad are sitting watching the telly.

Has you get older though it is harder to take anything in straight away, I get showed many things but never remember the next day how to do it. I still have'nt remembered how to use the DVD player.

[Suicide Aldi]

Originally Posted by Takk

Well, of course you can over-use technology, and there are certain skills that go out of the window (map reading, compasses etc) if you rely on say google maps, but doesn't that just leave time for other things and other skills? I mean, sitting inside all day on the computer is not a healthy lifestyle compared to being active all day, but that's a unhealthy choice to make, it seems to me you can do both. I bet he has a tv!

I just find some of the people who make out they are anti-technology as if it is a virtue somewhat tiresome, not necessarily james. It seems to me being able to find a balance between making use of technology as much as you need and not letting anything unhealthy take over your life is a better thing to aspire to, ha.

+1
Its all about being balanced. I use technology that is usefull for my life, but i can do without technology that i dont neccisarily need. For instance, i use emails, smartphone and an ipod all because they are usefull to me, but i have no facebook, twitter or smartwatch as i dont see that they are going to be usefull for me at the moment. Who knows, somday they might be, and thats fine. It dosnt make me a better person for not using certain things than somone who does.

[Geranium Terrorists]

Built-in obsolescence also has a factor- people I know often ask me why I don't have certain apps or whatever, and my answer is always that it's not that I don't want them, but rather that my ipod touch is so old that I can't get any of those apps, and I can't afford a new ipod.

[hummingbird]

I don't think James has ever said he's anti-technology ... he's just not interested in email or whatever. It's not unusual for someone his age. He's not been forced to learn through work like the rest of us, and being James Dean Fucking Bradfield i'm sure people will make the effort to contact him through traditional means

[sculptureofabloke]

I love the lad's attitude. I love and hate the internet... I love that it does give a platform for discussion (sometimes that's not a great thing), I mean you can come on here and talk to hundreds of Manics fans (sometimes that's not a great thing either ) but there was a time when, back home, before internet forums and shit, meeting Manics fans was a novelty to me.

I got rid of my Facebook last year and I don't miss it at all, it's just bollocks. I suppose online people can go one of many ways really. On Facebook etc, people will only show you what they want you to see, they'll try to give off this impression of what their life is about and as unrepresentative as a series of snapshots can be, I can understand how it could also lead to people's insecurities over their own lives. We spend too much time worrying about meeting the standards of abnormal ideals, too much time fearing we're missing out somehow etc. I suppose in that sense, the internet is a stage and here I using it to slag it off... Do wonder if half the people you talk to online are the same in person, do wonder if I come across any differently in person. I'm probably more articulate online which doesn't bode well... But yeah, there have always been fake people but the internet gives more opportunity for that than ever before, it can be incredibly artificial and I can see why Bradders wants it at an arm's length.

It is getting harder to get by without an email address though. If I could afford to I'd do my online shopping, on the high street, I think every one of us who shifts to shopping online is helping to cost people jobs on the high street. I wish I had the inclination to pay my bills at post office or bank rather than through direct debits and standing orders but sometimes customer service is just as bad as self service anyway.

[Takk]

Originally Posted by sculptureofabloke

It is getting harder to get by without an email address though. If I could afford to I'd do my online shopping, on the high street, I think every one of us who shifts to shopping online is helping to cost people jobs on the high street. I wish I had the inclination to pay my bills at post office or bank rather than through direct debits and standing orders but sometimes customer service is just as bad as self service anyway.

or anyone who shops at supermarkets or buys gig tickets from big companies etc etc...all these things create new jobs. You can't just preserve the high street when technology advances, I don't think. The way things were is just a snapshot in time after all, things don't always have to be that way.

[sculptureofabloke]

Originally Posted by Takk

or anyone who shops at supermarkets or buys gig tickets from big companies etc etc...all these things create new jobs. You can't just preserve the high street when technology advances, I don't think. The way things were is just a snapshot in time after all, things don't always have to be that way.

Do they create enough to make up for the shortfall they're creating? Last week HSBC announced they're cutting 8000 jobs in the UK, technology makes people more dispensable, sooner or later we'll have less customers than jobs.

[Takk]

Perhaps not, but people shop at supermarkets and online because it's easy and perhaps cheaper - i just don't think it's feasible to necessarily artificially try and preserve things. Supermarkets probably employ as many people as the high street?

It's like we don't still all work in the fields, things advance, perhaps it does mean less jobs in certain industrieess, but then we should be working to create new types of jobs.

[sculptureofabloke]

Originally Posted by Takk

Perhaps not, but people shop at supermarkets and online because it's easy and perhaps cheaper - i just don't think it's feasible to necessarily artificially try and preserve things. Supermarkets probably employ as many people as the high street?

It's like we don't still all work in the fields, things advance, perhaps it does mean less jobs in certain industrieess, but then we should be working to create new types of jobs.

Unfortunately we've got an increasing population and people are more interested in working on ways to cut the employee out of the equation.

Maybe it isn't feasible to artificially try to preserve things, but for me it's no sillier than pushing self service in every direction and wondering where your customers are.

[Porco]

This is turning into that unions thread again. lol.

I think almosts anyone is entitled to not use e-mail etc if they don't want to, and I think there are reasonable concerns that modern communications can sometimes be a burden as much as being liberating. There is/was a certain freedom in not being contactable 24/7 wherever you are, just as there is another kind of freedom in not being tied to sending letters or having to be by a land-line to make or receive a phonecall.

Technology is usually a neutral tool that can be used for good or ill. I love what it brings us, but I also hate what some people and companies have done with it. Reflecting its creators, it's a complex jumble of good and bad.

I think the important thing for me is for people to be in control of technology, rather than being controlled by it. That's probably at the heart of my mistrust towards the likes of Google and Facebook - those two in particular strike me as being the most obvious examples of massive companies who are, perhaps understandably to some degree, quite disingenuous about the precise nature of the deal being struck (or imposed!) to enjoy their 'free' services.

Technology should allow us to have different, better jobs that improve our working conditions and lifestyles compared with what went before. That is not always what happens of course, but if technology erased jobs altogether, there would be no jobs for anyone already.

[UEF]

You've a right not to use communications methods, but then you can't reasonably complain if you're not communicated with.

I wonder how many collaborations or other opportunities MSP passed up because "they don't do email" - these things matter.