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Talking mobiles
How many of you can use your mobile effectively? Give up, well not to worry because I bet most of us can't use today's expanded functions and features on their cell phones.
I am unashamedly one of those people, using my mobile solely for ringing someone up and receiving phone calls. If I stretch it, I can actually send messages here and there.
Never mind about the rest of the functions and the features. I can hardly download, don't really know how to use Bluetooth, nor in a position to create links or sub-links online or even go online, unless I am told, but whoever wants to use the google search engine or read news through the tiny screen.
All these functions I have to get to know seem foreign to me, and actually I don't wish to learn them. To be truthful however, I sometimes take photos with the mobile which really works by itself through zooming automatically.
Other than that, zilch. If my daughter isn't there to help me, I wouldn't know what to do apart from the simple stuff. Most of the photos I take remain stored in the mobile with me having to delete some to make way for other clicks. I really can't download them and have to seek help.
The other day I thought of treating myself by eventually buying the iPhone which has been now on the market for some time and gone into different and expanded editions and functions.
But I thought later why would I need what is essentially a mini-computer? Would I really be able to use it effectively. In all honestly, I thought I wouldn't, so I quickly backed off the idea. Today I am thinking of buying something simple where I receive and make phone calls, and not to go through the rigmarole of technological gadgetry and functions.
Please don't get me wrong. I've long been accustomed to the computer, of downloading, going online and having email accounts, several in fact . But I don't think I want to transfer these to the mobile.
The smallness of the cellular may have a lot in putting me off. Being at mid-age, my eyesight is slowly going, and I may have slightly larger finger tips to hammer on the letters on the keyboard.
Initially, researchers recognized this problem as letters on too closely stuck together. They in turn started to design keyboards that are more functional and wide so the writing can be easier without thumping several letters at the same time.
No doubt they are now working on the cellular phones but there is an obstacle to that before even the design takes place because by nature, mobiles are small. No doubt however and with more research, companies will come with up solutions.
While I am aware of that now, I am still sticking to the phone function of the mobile as an effective means of communications and rarely use it for any other. I will pass a rain check on using cell phones as computers and leave it for the more innovative to explore like my daughter, her friends and busy working executives.
Comments
Sigh. As a techno-junkie for many years (23 on computers, 14 online and into self-taught "from scratch" web design and all that for all those online years after the first 6 months or so). I adore my computers and am fearless in using them.
But I confess that I have not mastered, or even much cared to master all that my iPhone claims can be done with it. I'm immune to temptation to upgrade it from its measly 3G status. I do text a bit with it, but frankly, I've never loved telephoning the way many females seem to, in the first place. It's a little like shopping. I don't "go shopping with the girls' Talking and shopping are necessary evils and, when required, it's best to do what one came to do and move on to more interesting pursuits. Maybe I'm gossip-deprived! :-)
Oh, I enjoy chatting on the phone a bit more than I have in the past, but I never -- repeat NEVER - talk on my cell phone or use any other of its functions while driving. I like to keep my eye and attention on the road and give undivided attention to what other drivers and their vehicles are doing while they have their phones and/or earplugs in their ears and one or two hands off their steering wheels! I didn't get to this age by being stupid! haha!
Now, I do confess to having an iPod and enjoying nice music in various settings and while performing various TDLs (Tiresome Details of Living). But, to me, it would be beyond rude to have any electronic gadget in operation while sharing social time with others, which is all too often observed being done everywhere one circulates!
OK. I must admit to being tempted by the iPad or maybe a MacAir laptop, though this MacBook Pro is only a year old and I've not yet investigated all it can do! :]) hehe
Great subject and well presented!
- Author
Hi techno lady, your commentary is absolutely perfect. We are bound to the computer, but the little cell phone screen is just a bit too much. I think we gotten used to the PC, laptop, mini-computers, and have become more comfortable with it, that we can't go down to the small, smaller, smallest technological slippery-slope. Its indeed a sad commentary on life when every one can't get enough of "talking" over the cell that for a lot of people, the social is today transported on the telecommunication wires rather than face-to-face.
Ah, yes. So true. I love your phrase, "technological slippery-slope"! That is an accurate metaphor!
I got my iPhone, though, because at least I could see the screen, though it is still too small for any major composition! One can enlarge the print, but then it is so limited in scope as to be impossible to get any kind of a 'big picture'. Being a more 'global thinker', I need to see at least a sentence at a time, rather than just a few words! It's simply too choppy!
As far as carrying on much real social life on it, well, I have "chatted" online since I started, so I can appreciate and feel it is virtually 'face to face' the way we're doing now, but wouldn't be, as it seems to be done by many using electronic devices, in which it seems to have become almost reduced to primitive grunts and, at best, a sort of shorthand. Sadly, though, that may be the same as they conduct their 'face to face' conversations, so lost an art it seems to be becoming!
- Author
I like the grunts bits and people using a sort of shorthand which actually turns out to be gibberish unless your are trying to act "cool". The standard in language is detriorating so fast we should pray for the English that is being used.
Actual experience: when I began online all those years ago, socializing was all done on MS Chat. I matriculated among either "ageless" or "senior" chartrooms, as well as setting up one of my own.
But I decided to go to a teenage chartroom just to see what they were doing. They were mostly being extremely rude to each other and, as you say, writing gibberish. I just greeted them and 'spoke' in my normal way. The room became quiet and then one of the kids 'whispered' to me - which was a one-on-one message box provided by that chat form, over on the side of the chat room chat area. There, he asked me, "what are you on?" hahaha.
As it turned out, he was just trying to act 'cool' among his peers, but actually he was a well educated British15 year-old who was quite depressed over being rejected by a girl to whom he'd been especially good. We chatted like normal people for quite awhile in the 'whisper box' and by the time we were finished, he'd realized that he was better off finding out about the true motives of the girl. We remained friends for years thereafter and he's kept me informed about his progress. I fact, I still hear from him occasionally.
So maybe all is not lost, even though it can seem grim at times.
Having teenagers really pulls you into that generation as teens are avoid texters. I have two teens at home. They text exclusively with my wife and I and there friends. I have actually have seen both my kids text someone who was sitting in the same room as them instead of verbally talking to them.
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