It is the same epidemic I began to see when I noticed how we pay for the convenience of seedless grapes because we just hate picking out those seeds ourselves. We would rather have our pomegranates the same way. It is almost to the point that fruit doesn't have the seeds in themselves anymore.

Fast forward to a famine or severe economic situation. We go to the store to buy a fruit supposing we can grow our own fruit trees from the seeds inside. Oops! Sorry! No seeds!.

Most of the fruits that do have seeds in them, the seeds have been irradiated to kill them, specifically so people don't grow their own (well, it also kills any insects hitching a ride). Roses too - those longstem roses had their bottoms dipped in weed killer because otherwise it's quite possible to plant a cut rose and have it develop roots and turn into a full rosebush. But on the other hand, your average suburban neighborhood can provide apple, pear, peach, grape, and rose seeds/cuttings if you can get your neighbors permission to take them. Even if your neighbor has a seedless grape vine, human have been growing grapes and other plants from cuttings for like 2,000 years, it doesn't take much technology. Not that I can't sympathize with the survivalism urge, in the cultural context of all these apocalypse stories we have now, and the colonization/marooning ones that used to be more popular.

I don't use any of these new gadgets (SmartPhone, iThings etc) for several reasons.

...

Ditto for me on all the points, but I'd rather think that social networkers are the real OCD sufferers, and I'm the normal one. :)

OCD is probably exactly what the social networking companies are looking for when recruiting users.

Whilst travelling home from work last night I realized another reson why I use smart phone apps. I like to read books, watch videos, play games and browse the internet on my 45 minute commute.

"Wait" I hear you say "You could do all that on a laptop".

Well yes and no. I do have a macbook Air in my bag but, unfortunatly on the trains that I catch there is no room to open a laptop and place it on my knee. Ye that right thee isn't room on the packed train that I get to open a 13" laptop. So the only way of doing these things is to use a smart phone or tablet.

As for how apps have benifited society. I have a collegue whose 3 year old daughter has type 1 diabetes and is terrified of the needle on the blood sugar testing machine. He found an app that allows the measuring of bloodsugar using the camera flash on his Android phone. Don't ask me how this works because I don't have a clue.

I made this thread because researching apps failed, if you look on the internet about how apps have changed the world etc, majority of the articles happily start with positive comments like "It allows us to access information", "a new way to communicate" and "made our life easier", but then starts talking about games and social networking instead of explaining itself, seriously do a search and you will see what I am talking about, it describes the internet and somehow allows mobile apps to take the credit :S

For me it has changed the world, but in a subtle and transformative way.

Most of my waking life I already have access to a computer. I work in front of a computer all day, and in the evenings I spend a few hours on the computer for entertainment and communications. So simply adding another computer to my life does not really do much and has the potential to take much away.


The key features are that the benefits are subtle. I don't usually need navigation to drive to the places I normally travel, but it is nice to know about traffic problems without waiting for the radio to list them. I don't usually look things up online but it is nice when I am at the store that I can scan the barcode and instantly comparison shop; I can check if the product has a one-star rating and another has a five-star rating, or I can check to see that the price is reasonably close to other stores. (I still buy when the price is reasonably competitive.) When I go to a craft store I can visit their web site and get the 50% coupon while I wait in line to pay. On the rare occasions that I make a big purchase I can transfer funds immediately so I don't forget at home. I always have my music library with me through the cloud, or can turn on Pandora even when driving home.

The tablet (with a keyboard) is nice because it serves as a nearly full-featured laptop. I can remote desktop when I need something more. It is smaller and more portable than a laptop, and when needed I can pull off the tablet and still take notes in meetings without it being the same distraction as a laptop. Sure I'm usually using SuperNote or a similar notebook app rather than a faster keyboard, but it is less hassle than a notepad and pens, and I can email my notes to myself or to colleagues, or take pictures of the whiteboard, or whatever.

When it comes to entertainment I can turn on NetFlix in any room of the house rather than needing to sit before a computer or the console-connected TV. When I am waiting for a doctor appointment I can open to a game if I want, or I can check my email, or be productive for those few minutes if I choose. Much better than thumbing through a year-old copy of Fitness magazine that hundreds of sick people have also touched.

There was a time years ago when I hauled a planner around with me. Now I have all that information on my phone. If someone hands me a paper (which I would sometimes lose) I just scan it and hand the paper back. This works extra-well when getting business cards since it can scan the card to create or update contacts...the same contacts I use on my desktop. If it was some other important paper Google can scan it and convert it to a document to use, or I can leave it as an image and discard it later. Nearly everything I needed from a planner is handled easily by the phone.

Then there is the ease of looking things up while out doing things. I can type in a search to find movie times or look up facts and figures, then put it back in my pocket.

There is no grand feature for me. Most of the time it sits quietly in my pocket, i am not one of those constantly looking at the screen. Instead it is a smaller transformation of having the computer instantly when I want it rather than me going to the computer.

This quote sums it up.

This quote sums it up.

The 3rd frame in that comic does a nice job of depicting how face to face communication is slowly becoming a dead art. But I digress, if talking poorly or being misunderstood means you're potentially decapitated by a stranger on the bus, introversion is much safer.

This quote sums it up.

The 3rd frame in that comic does a nice job of depicting how face to face communication is slowly becoming a dead art. But I digress, if talking poorly or being misunderstood means you're potentially decapitated by a stranger on the bus, introversion is much safer.

Personally I don't buy into the whole 'social networking' is for introverts or even extroverts for that matter, isn't the whole idea of introversion being reserved and quiet, always deep thinking and also being drained from socialising regardless of method? Oh and in big cities typical jobs for introverts are flooded with people who speak well and are not misunderstood, they just arent talking all the time but then neither are extroverts. They also attend many parties, but are more into listening than talking and more into tasks / jobs that require more thinking rather than public speaking, I think the whole introvert / extrovert psychology needs a massive review and needs to heavily look into city life AND take in all psychological problems in account, it has become so tiring hearing people who have issues branding them as introvert / extrovert, I bet that guy in the comic strip would refer to himself as a introvert just as a narcissist would brand himself as an extrovert.

Here's the shocking part, I find introverts MUCH better to talk to as it is more abstract, whereas extroverts, it is more casual conversations and open, in fact almost all political conversations I have had have been with introverts, extroverts "don't want to think deep on the issue". Sorry for going all anal on your comment, it wasn't a dig at you, I just find it offensive putting introverts / extroverts in the same category as attention seeking, reputation drooling 'social' networkers.

Lets be honest here, Jung wasn't exactly around in times when people could express their thoughts freely, not only that his theory on introversion / extroversion has supposedly changed enormously over the years.

This quote sums it up.

The 3rd frame in that comic does a nice job of depicting how face to face communication is slowly becoming a dead art. But I digress, if talking poorly or being misunderstood means you're potentially decapitated by a stranger on the bus, introversion is much safer.

Bullshit.

Sorry, but I'm sick of this crap about how we don't communicate with people anymore.

It's bollocks. We communicate just as much as we ever did if not more. That has nothing to do with technology and everything to do with community.

The difference is that in the past our communities were based on geography. We lived in small towns and we knew everyone because that was pretty much all the people we met.

Now we live in cities, and of course, we don't talk to strangers on the train. Why would we? Most of us already have a community of friends and family. It just happens to be geographically divergent. This is not even that new. People have just replaced books or newspapers with kindles and smartphones.

That's not to say that some people aren't overly self-absorbed, but again that's not a new thing. FB and twitter have simply given them a new outlet for their self-absorption.

Here's a touching video on the subject of social media.

That scene with the people bowling happened to me.

Facebook practically does nothing but breed negativity, unnecessary drama, and people becoming tougher than 9 gods via internet.

I'd blame your peer-group for that, rather than the medium