by KaiserJeep » Tue 02 Jan 2018, 11:12:53
Ibon, you simply need to assert control over your interface with the network.
Outcast Searcher is not the only one with no smart phone. I don't have one either. This is Silicon Valley, and I am surrounded by silicon drones, the cells of the hive minds that comprise the Silicon Valley corporations. The biggest, the most pernicious, and the most destructive being Apple. My former employer HP is another, and there are countless more. One such being my Russian next door neighbor, owner of a small software firm, dying of cancer, interfaced to those he cares about in his workplace and home country with high definition video links, balanced with three times a week wood-fired saunas in his backyard, his face-to-face time with extended family. He shops online and cooks for them, and in between, he works and grooms his corporate replacement, and his networking enriches his life.
As it does mine. Video calls and recorded images from the grandkids, facebook postings from my extended family, and always, the trickle of information into my mind, the font of knowledge that replaced twice weekly vists to the Library years back. I sit in a nearby French bakery and I read books and magazines and this forum on my e-Reader, recently upgraded to a medium-sized high definition and high performance Android tablet.
The secret, I believe, is controlling and limiting your access to the network. I realize that you have bandwidth and access limitations where you live, and oddly enough, eliminating these may - almost certainly will - reduce your electronic networking time. Ever thought of sprinkling cameras around the property, effectively making the wildlife members of your own extended family? I regularly play back the videos from the county park above, connect to the live feeds from Nantucket, and always, record video messages for the grandkids.
You control the network, it does not control you. It can enrich your life or isolate you from your environment. My neighbor on the other side hides from the world. He formerly made a point of riding his Harley once a day, even for a few minutes. He lost a foot to diabetes, and I didn't know for two years, because he now hides in his house, probably abuses one or more substances, and thinks bitter thoughts. I never liked him and I can't reach him and really don't want to.
For me, restoring balance involved not having a cell phone. I have not had one since the late 1990's, the days of the analog Motorola flip phone. If having a smart phone is a problem for you, get a dumb voice-only phone, or voice with texts. I have the e-Reader, and it only connects by default to my home wifi, unless I decide to check my e-mail or check in here. I am as networked as I care to be, all the time. But when my rheumatoid arthritis causes me a flaming set of joints, networking a bit is as effective as my bottle of hydrocodone at relieving my pain.
KaiserJeep 2.0, Neural Subnode 0010 0000 0001 0110 - 1001 0011 0011, Tertiary Adjunct to Unimatrix 0000 0000 0001
Resistance is Futile, YOU will be Assimilated.
Warning: Messages timestamped before April 1, 2016, 06:00 PST were posted by the unmodified human KaiserJeep 1.0
), but because whether we agree with the peak oil premise or not, we all have things we can point to that indicate the world is changing fairly quickly now, not for the better, and we are individually unable to stop the destruction, and protect those we love. And no one enjoys feeling powerless. So we redirect our passion to a target we can easily identify. I don't know, I might be wrong, but I do know the conversations I read these days contain a lot of anger looking for an outlet.
